"Meet me tonight at the pier."
That's what the note said. I wasn't sure what was going to happen or if he would even show up. But I slid the piece of paper into my pocket like a charm and hoped for the best.
Truth be told, I didn't even know what the best was, all I knew was he had something I somehow needed.
I put on my ragged jeans, no surprises there, and a T-shirt my brother had grown out of but I thought was too cool to throw away after it had been dyed a million colours and looked trippy as fuck. Of course, I couldn't leave the house without my beanie on, the tips of my golden hair showing underneath, finally growing to where I wanted it to be, even though nobody else liked it, really.
I stole my mom's keys and jumped into her old car, a pink convertible that matched the sky as the sun stepped out of sight behind the palm trees of the avenue, the occasional stray ray hitting my eyes like a sign of hope.
When I got to the pier, it looked like the whole town had decided to gather there for a night out after a long summer day. Synthpop was blasting through the speakers and the technicolor lights attached to the Ferris wheel, spinning to the rythm, gave the sight a magical touch.
I scanned the entire place, checked every attraction and every stall. By the time I realized he was nowhere to be found, my breath was shallow and my brain foggy. I felt as if I was speeding through a world in slow motion. Everywhere I looked, I saw familiar faces drinking, eating, laughing, living. And I was just standing there with my hand pressed against my pocket, feeling out of place, lost in a sea of people with love, with plans, with a future. What did I have? I stepped aside of the chaos and pulled out the note and read it again. "Meet me tongight at the pier." Rage and hopelessness ran through my chest as I tore the paper into pieces. I walked over to the edge of the wooden platform and was just about to throw my expectations into the ocean when I heard it, a voice calling my name from below.
There he was, where nobody would have thought to look; hidden in plain sight, in the middle of the water, the moonlight revealing his bare and electric body. He had his own plans, unlike anybody else's, just for us.
"What are you waiting for? Come on, we gotta live a little," he shouted. "Jump!"
And so I did.
