Hey Monday

p o t a t o e s

-noah-

We were in Nampa, Idaho, it was about 9 AM, and I was tired. All I had done on this road trip was drive, and kiss a pretty girl, and frankly I just wanted to sleep.

Ellen had other ideas though.

"Today we're going to get as many things on my bucket list done as we can," she announced loudly as she tied her hair up into a ponytail.

"Why?" I wondered. "We're only in Idaho, we've still got the rest of the country to make it through."

Ellen shrugged. "We're in Nampa, for one thing. That's one of the biggest cities in this darn state. I'm hoping to get sixteen and three done."

I looked at the fridge, where Ellen had tacked her list up with bird magnets. Number three was jump into a pool fully clothed and sixteen was eat raw potatoes (preferably in Idaho).

I glanced up from the paper. "Why... why would we jump into a pool fully clothed? Why?"

Ellen whipped around so that her back was to the mirror and she was looking me dead in the eye.

"Noah Allen Reynolds. I have explained this to you about fifty fucking times. It's to make memories. Get that through your oddly rectangular head already."

A bit offended, I raised an eyebrow at her. "Wow. Tone down the sass, first of all, and I believe you've explained it to me once. Twice at the most."

Ellen sighed. "Whatever. Fifty, two, it's basically the same. So let's hit a coffee shop and see where it goes from there, okay?"

I rolled my eyes. 'You know, sometimes your spontaneity gets in the way."

She winked at me and went to go change out of her pajamas.

I sat down on the couch and unlocked my phone. To my surprise, I had one new text- from Kate. As in, my ex-girlfriend Kate. I hadn't spoken to her- in person, calls, or texts- in years.

Kate: hey, i heard you went out of town with ellen wilson?? haha

She did that all the time when we were dating- add "haha" to the end of a text. Every. Single. Time. It's like she used it as a form of punctuation or something; it annoyed me to no end.

Noah: you still have my number?

Kate: yeah. but where are you? just wonderin haha

Noah: I'm somewhere in idaho right now. moving to maine.

"How do I look, my good sir?"

I looked up from my phone to see Ellen standing there, looking mighty average as always. She was wearing a shirt that said "the earth without art is just eh" and some skinny jeans and black converse. Her hair was woven into some intricate braid that would take me at least twenty minutes to do, and string bracelets decorated her wrists. Sitting daintily on her middle finger was a gold ring with a bow in the center.

"You look great," I replied, straight faced.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "What's wrong?"

I sighed. There was no use hiding it from her; Ellen could always tell when I was upset.

"Just... Kate texted me. About you."

Ellen's face moved from confusion to realization to disgust.

"What, today? That bitch still has your number? And what did she say about me?"

"Nothing really, she just mentioned you," I shrugged. "But it's still strange."