Chapter One

I had a weird conversation with one of my friends while he was very drunk.

            Summer time is a horrible time of year filled with false hopes and broken dreams. I have never enjoyed summer, and probably never will. Because every year I think, 'This year will be different, I'll have friends and stay out late and do stupid things.' The list goes on forever, but I don't do any of it. I turn into more of a recluse that stays up all night writing and making small talk with one or two people.

            And this year was definitely no different. I found myself once again sitting up late at night trying to ignore the fact that I led a very sad life. It had been four days since the last day of school and I hadn't even left the house once. It was eleven at night and I sat on the couch with a laptop typing away, hoping my phone would ring and someone would make plans with me. At this point, I didn't really care who.

            Then my phone did ring. I pressed save on my Word document and read the text. If you can get out we can smoke. Collin, of course. It was way too late for me to get out of the house, and I wouldn't even waste the time trying to come up with a lie to tell my parents. So I told him that and went back to what I was doing. Collin wasn't the kind of person I wanted to talk to right now. He was frustrating and only cared about having sex, smoking pot, and messing with my emotions.

            After that my phone went back to being quiet and I went back to being lonely. Sitting in a bedroom night after night and not sleeping more than four or five hours a night was not how I hoped to spend my sixteenth summer. I imagined it to be day after day staying out with friends, night after night missing curfew and getting home way too late.

            "Rian, do you want macaroni?" Alison asked. "I made too much."

            "Sure." I mumbled. "Hey, where did you put the hair ties? I need one."

            "There's one in the bathroom drawer." She answered as she started to shovel mac and cheese into bowls.

            I got up off the couch and went to the bathroom to find a hair tie. Somehow the mirror got me sidetracked with examining my face. I had ok eyes, an ok nose, splotchy skin I hid with makeup, big cheeks, lips that looks out of place, eyebrows that didn't match either, and my hair stuck out in a frizzy mess. I was generally weird looking. My tshirt was stained, faded, and fitted weird. The jeans I wore were oddly baggy skinny jeans, tearing at the seams, the bottoms were shredding, and paint dotted the legs. I was even really short, at five feet tall I had to stand on my toes to see my shoulders in the mirror. Why was I this not-feminine? Girls don't look like this, do they? Honestly, it bummed me out looking in the mirror, so I quickly tied up my hair and went back to writing.

            Writing, however, only kept me entertained for so long. When ideas were running low and only four words had been typed in the past half hour, the decision was made to lay down in bed and try to fall asleep. It was around one in the morning and I was finally about to fall asleep when my phone buzzed. Collin again, asking if I was awake. I responded and he didn't text me back. It wasn't that strange of an occurrence, really. Collin was probably stoned as hell and fell asleep.

            I didn't know why he was talking to me at all, though. I was pissed at him for his latest stupidity of making me think he cared and then screwing random girls. And this time I was pissed off enough to not want to talk to him again, except he was the only person I knew that would smoke weed and cigarettes with me. So, I ended up kind of forced to be nice to him for awhile.

            Again, close to sleep, my phone went off. Who the hell was it this time? I couldn't think of anyone that would be awake at, what time was it? Three thirty. After squinting at my screen for a few minutes, my vision focused enough to read the notifications. 'One new Facebook message: Ronnie Matthews...' That was surprising. I hadn't talked to Ronnie since Tuesday, two weeks ago. He was a senior and I only talked to him a little in the two art classes we had and band, not enough to talk outside of school. But he was sending me messages.

            Ronnie: 'Hey we havve to hang out sometime this summer!' Ronnie and I barely talked, but he wanted to hang out?

            Rian: 'Uhm, sure?'

            Ronnie: 'We should, because you're cool and I like u'

            Rian: 'Wat?'

            Ronnie: 'Sorry, a bit tipparoo. But I like u, a lot. But I'm not looking for a serious relationship.'

            Rian: 'You're only saying that because you're drunk.' How great is this? I am being texted by a very drunk guy I am only kind of friends with and he thinks he likes me.

            Ronnie: 'No im not, I never say things I don't mean wen im drunk. I only get more honest. And I like you.

            Ur beautiful

            And awesome

            And stuffffffff'

            Rian: 'Uh...Thanks? Ur cool too' I wasn't sure if I should be flattered or freaked out, but I decided to just humor him. Angry drunk people are worse than feely drunk people.

            Ronnie: 'Thanksss u :)'

            Rian: 'Ur welcome.'

            Ronnie: 'No, YOUR welcome!' I am not in possession of this welcome, that's horrible grammar. Well, he is drunk.

            Rian: 'Ok?'

            Ronnie: 'Yeaaaa, i dont kno where this is goin.... hahahahaha'

            Rian: 'Me neither.'

            "Rian, why are you still awake?" Alison asked as she walked into my room, flicking on the lights and bombarding me with stinging brightness.

            "I am stuck talking to Drunky McDrunkars, trying to be nice as he babbles about random things." I sat up and pulled my legs up to make room for her.

            "Why not say you are going to bed?" She sat down.

            "I don't know, I'd feel bad." It was true. I don't want to be rude to him.

            Ronnie: 'Anywhoooo. Wat r u up to?'

            Rian: 'Writing in my mind.' Well, was, sort of. In between messages I was thinking about what would happen next to Gav and Ellie in their story, but I couldn't keep focus.

            Ronnie: 'Like you are thinking of ideas or what?'

            Rian: 'I think of dialogue word for word and remember it until I get the motivation to find my laptop and type it.'

            Ronnie: 'Thats cool! Writ that s**t down!'

            Rian: 'I will haha What are you up to?'

            Ronnie: 'I'm drunk. n My chest hurts. Maybe I'll sprout an alien!'    

            Rian: 'Yes, you are pregnant with an alien baby and you will give birth through your n****e.'

            "Ronnie is a f*****g retard sometimes." I sighed.

            "What do you mean?" Alison looked up from the book she found on my floor.

            "I don't know, he's just really drunk. I'm going to play Zelda." Somehow I was no longer tired, so might as well do something productive.

            Ronnie: 'Oh no! I don't no if i can do that on my own. I hope you hav medical training!

            Yea. doctor jokes.

            hahahahahaha'

            Rian: 'If you want me to touch your n*****s, I am going to kindly decline XD'

            Ronnie: 'Aw man.'

            Rian: 'Oook...'

            Ronnie: 'Actually, what I meant is I wanna touch UR n*****s!'

            Rian: 'Wtf? No?'

            Ronnie: 'Srrry, tipsy. U kno. Honesty.

            Holy s**t! brb. gotta peeeee.'

            Rian: 'Thanks for letting me know.'

            "So, how is talking to Ronnie while he's trashed?" Alison asked.

            I unpaused the game and went back to finding my way out of a fish's stomach. "It's really weird, but funny as hell. In an awkward as s**t way."

            "Sounds like a damn good time." Alison rolled her eyes. It was weir dhearing her swear, being my little sister and all. But I guess with a sister like me it was only normal for her to be vulgar.

            Ronnie: 'Sorry. I'm honest when I'm drunk'

            Rian: 'So I've heard haha'

            Ronnie: 'Yeaaa. Anyways, we totalitarianally need to hang!'

            Rian: 'Sure. we can totalitarianally hang sometime' What the hell does that even mean? How drunk is he?

            Ronnie: 'Ha. Totalitarianally. Totalitarian. Dictatorship. Dick! Get it? Haha!' Oh, he's that drunk.

            Rian: 'Funny. You are a comedic genious.'

            Ronnie: 'Sorry. Anyway, how has ur summer been so far?'

            Rian: 'I've just been a recluse and an insomniac, you?'

            Ronnie: 'I logged 25 hours on battlefield!'

            Rian: 'S**t, when was the last time you slept?'

            Ronnie: 'This morning for an hour or two, before that... uh... Wednesday? haha wen did u sleep last?'

            Rian: 'I'll randomly sleep for an hour or so, that's it. Insomnia is kicking my a*s.'

            Ronnie: 'That sucks. But insomnia is kind of a turn on for me.' How the hell can never sleeping and feeling like death all day be a turn on?

            Rian: 'That's... uhm... ok?'

            Ronnie: 'I dunno. I think I should go to bed.'

            Rian: 'Yeah, you probably should try to sleep, you're still pretty drunk.' It was five in the f*****g morning, at this point he might as well be making himself a cup of coffee and getting ready for the day.

            Ronnie: 'Okay. Nighty Night :)'

            Rian: 'Goodnight weirdo'

            "Jesus Christ. I'm going to make some coffee and go write." I saved the game and turned off the tv.

            "Okay. I'm going to bed then." Alison and I left the room.

            What the hell just happened? Ronnie never talks to me outside of class, then he drunkenly decides to talk to me for two hours. Why? I've never decided to talk to someone I barely know while drunk, let alone tell them I like them. Hopefully he's just very trashed and tomorrow it'll all go back to normal. I don't like people liking me or thinking they do when they're drunk.

Author's Note

I don't know of a better way to do chat dialogue, so this format really sucks.