Lemon Water // Paul Lahote

two

Luke pulled out of the parking lot just as the first bell rang for school to start, meaning that we would be absent in 5 minutes. I was hoping that the school wouldn't call my mom, she would send a tracker out to find me.

I've never missed a day of school, my parents make me come to school when I'm sick. Earlier this year I came to school with a fever of 103.6° running on 2 hours of sleep and no ability to talk because of some identified illness.

I've never been to the doctor before either, all I know is that I got vaccinated when I was a baby and that since my father is a doctor he brings home shots when I need them.

"I feel like I'm crazy, and I know that you're going to call me crazy, but why do I feel bad about leaving?" I asked, looking ahead in the car, liking being able to see the road while we drive.

"There's reasons for that, you're disobeying you're parents rules, sitting in the front seat, ditching school, going to the grocery store, eating junk food, and watching movies. It's gonna be ok though, the only way that they'll find out is if the school calls them" Luke responded, putting the blinker on to turn into a parking lot.

"Wow! This place is huge!"

"Well it is the grocery store, come on, let's go get some junk food" Luke said, turning his car off and getting out of it.

I followed Luke into the store, unsure of what to think at the moment. Luke led me down all of the isles, answering my questions while laughing because he thought that it was funny.

When he was satisfied with what we had picked out as snacks he led us to the register where this lady checked out all the items. She gave me  a quick look over, but looked longer a second time, almost like a double take.

After we checked out Luke led me to the bathrooms, "I gotta pee, wait here and I'll be right out" he said before disappearing into the men's restroom.

I grew bored within a few seconds of standing there with nothing to do so I decided to look around. A bulletin board a few feet away caught my attention so I walked over to it, noticing that it was a missing persons board.

I scanned over all of the reports before one caught my eye, it was of a baby that went missing 15 years ago and had yet to be found. "There you are, you weren't where I left you and I got worried. What are you looking at?" Luke Said, coming up to me

"Just this missing persons board, this baby has been missing for 15 years now, it must suck for the parents" I responded, pointing to the report on the board.

"Yeah, I've heard about it from my parents, the baby went missing like 2 weeks after she was born and hasn't been seen since, the mom still has hope though, she was our cashier. Come on, I want to spend as much time as possible with you and in order to do that we can't be here all day" he said grabbing my arm and leading me to the exit.

"How far away is your house from here?" I asked, getting into the car once we reached it.

"It's about 5 minutes away from here, and don't worry, ice cream doesn't melt that fast" he responded, pulling onto the road next to the store. We drove the 5 minutes in silence, the sight hum of the engine the only noise being heard. "Welcome to my humble abode, it's not much, but it's gone and I'm gonna miss is when I leave"

We walked inside his house to be greeted by his moms, who I have never met before. "Lukas Gideon Kasst why are you home? And who is this young lady?" One of them asked while the other looked me over.

"Mama, mom, this is my friend Serena, Serena this is my mom and mama" Luke said, introducing me to his moms

"So this is the infamous Serena we've heard about? Shame that the first time you come visit our home is one of the last days that we'll be living in it" Luke's mom said, pulling his mama into a side hug.

"We're going to go eat junk food and watch movies all day, at least until 2, then I have to get her back to the school building" Luke said, grabbing my arm and leading me away from his moms

"It was nice meeting you!" I called over my shoulder as we disappeared down a long hallway away from the front door.

"This is my room," Luke said pushing a white door open, "it's empty right now because I was packing all night, but it's still a room. What should we watch first?"

"You pick, Ive never watched a movie before so I don't know what'll be good"

"Alright, Daddy Daycare it is, it's one of my favorites and I'm sure you'll love it" he said, putting a disk into his DVD player.

We are junk food and watched a bunch of movies before it sadly came to an end when his mom walked in, "Luke, hunny, it's 2 o'clock, your have to bring Serena back to school now"

"Oh, ok, we'll leave in a few minutes" Luke responded, pausing the movie that we were watching, which only was playing the credits so it didn't really matter that I didn't see them.

"I had a lot of fun today, Luke, it's just too bad that my demon parents didn't let me come over before. But your moms right, I have to get back before my mom gets there, otherwise I'll be grounded for the rest of my life" I said sadly, starting to tear up again

"It's gonna be ok, Re, I'll mail you every week, and hey, maybe you'll even get a phone and we could text and call each other. Now come on, we can't have you getting grounded for the rest of your life, otherwise I'll never see you again" Luke said wiping my tears for the second time that day.

He led me out of his house and to his car, where he drove me back to school and we said our final goodbyes, which was ultimately the worst experience of my life.