| 12 | I Used To Obsess Over Living, Now I Only Obsess Over You

***

I had woken up that morning with a vibration in my back pocket. The sun was shining brightly over me—it was burning almost. Brice was still asleep; his arm sprawled over me in a sort of "protective hug." I managed to reach into my back pocket and take out my phone. God, it was already 9:32am so there was no point of going to school today.

new chatroom invite from classic_psy !

classic_psy:
seto
you need to see this
http://yooying.com/p/1485146545190870685

setosorcerer joined the chatroom

setosorcerer:
what is it?

classic_psy:
copy and paste the link

setosorcerer:
no way
that's me and brice

classic_psy:
brice who??

setosorcerer:
i think his last name is purton

classic_psy:
did you even look at the caption?
it says "look at these two fags"!

setosorcerer:
does it look like i give a shit?

classic_psy:
seto think about this
if your parents' clients see this photo
your parents will go out of business

setosorcerer:
how did you find that photo on yooying?

classic_psy:
someone tagged me in the photo
seto this is bad news
i already reported the photo
you should too
but then again it floating around on
people's phones
god seto you shouldn't sleep around!

setosorcerer:
im not sleeping around
i love brice!

classic_psy:
seto if you keep pulling this shit your
parents will go out of business!

setosorcerer:
god
it's a good thing brice and i didn't go
to school today

classic_psy:
what were you doing last night??

setosorcerer:
stargazing
this is the storm he was talking about
oh my god

classic_psy:
the fuck?
what storm?
seto you're not making any sense

setosorcerer:
dammit isaac ill figure this out
i promise you

classic_psy:
the account seems to be newly registered
so there's no telling who posted it
knowing you i think you have a lot of
enemies that could have done this

setosorcerer:
tons
i think it might have been brice's ex

classic_psy:
just figure it out before you get a shit
storm coming your way
ill try to help you sort this out
i have contacts that can handle this
and my dad is a police officer and bullying
is an offense, so he'll tell the police in your area

setosorcerer:
thanks isaac

classic_psy:
no problem
im coming to visit over the break because my
mom is worried about you too and she bought
plane tickets

setosorcerer;
alright
how come you haven't talked to me in a while?

classic_psy:
very busy with homework and shit
when you left they assigned more projects

setosorcerer:
aren't you in class right now?

classic_psy:
yeah
texting in class
i learn from the best after all

setosorcerer:
haha
miss you isaac

classic_psy:
miss you too
ill see you soon and keep you updated on what
my dad says

setosorcerer:
pay attention to your studies

classic_psy:
i should be saying that to you, haha
stop ditching school
and stop smoking

setosorcerer:
ive accomplished one of those things

classic_psy:
you stopped smoking??
im so proud
is this the feeling of a mother?
ahhhhh

setosorcerer:
just pay attention in class dumbass
i don't want your future to be ruined just
because of me

classic_psy:
alright
bye

setosorcerer:
bye isaac
see you later

classic_psy has left the chatroom

setosorcerer has left the chatroom

chatroom has now been deactivated
clearing all text message history
. . .

"Who were you texting?" Brice murmured as his eyes slowly fluttered open.

"Morning Sleeping Beauty," I smiled. "And it was the guy I told you about, the one that I knew in Wisconsin—Isaac."

"Did we miss school again?" Brice groaned as he sat up. The feeling of warmth escaped once he had stopped hugging me—I had missed it.

"Yeah, but we have bigger problems," I frowned, showing him the photo and the caption.

Brice grabbed my phone, looking closely at it, "No way...!"

"Yes way. It's a good thing we didn't go to school today because we would have gotten bashed for that photo. It was already shared more than one hundred times—hell maybe the whole school has seen it already," I shook my head, gulping. Brice hadn't looked as angry as I expected him to be, he looked quite neutral about the photo.

"At least people know your mine, especially Jason," Brice joked, passing my phone back to me. I sat up, quiet and hugging my knees. "Hey, something wrong?"

"Just thinking of what you said last night," I murmured back to him. "This is probably the storm."

"It could have been worse," Brice put his arm around my shoulder, "we'll figure this out. If anyone hurts you, they can respond to my fist."

I chuckled, feeling a bit better, "Thanks, Brice. You're the best."

"Do you wanna visit my moms at the bakery or would you rather drive around and visit different places?" Brice asked, facing towards me.

"Uh—drive around and visit places I guess?" I wasn't sure if he was actually being serious.

"Sweet, let's go," Brice said as he grabbed his sketch pad and watercolors. I grabbed the painting he had made me last night.

"You have a license?" I questioned.

"Yeah. I even have my own car too. It's perfectly legal to drive on my own at age seventeen. I usually drive around every month or so," Brice explained as he headed down the rope ladder. I followed him, then we were back in the treehouse.

"Wait a second..." I murmured out loud, trying to recall something.

That's it!

+

"Hey Seto what's up—"

"Isaac, come pick me up." I muttered, gritting my teeth together, "I got into another argument with my mother, you know the drill."

"What street are you on?" Isaac sighed. It sounded like he was getting out of bed and going to get his car keys. I squinted, trying to find a street sign.

"Er...Maplewood Avenue apparently." I replied.

"I'll be there in a couple minutes." Just like that, the line went silent. I shook my head, sitting down on the edge of the sidewalk and continuing to smoke a cigarette. I fiddled with my gray sleeve—once dressed in pastel colors and now back into the dark color scheme.

I watched a couple cars go by, I counted them too. The street wasn't densely populated, it was just the last road you'd think go on when going somewhere. Some of the cars had their windows rolled down, I heard some of their prissy pop-music and saw some of the drivers' faces. Most of them were black haired, some had red or white colored hair, but there was one blond with the brightest of blue eyes I've ever seen—strange, but I'm not the one to judge. Well, most of the time.

+

"Have you ever been to Wisconsin?" I questioned.

"Yeah, I drove there last Thursday. Why?" Brice replied as he turned towards me.

"I saw you! I was sitting on the curb on Maplewood Avenue! You had your windows rolled down," I snickered, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Fate works in strange ways," Brice gave a small smile. "Let's go get lost."

I gave a small nod and a giddy grin.

***

We were standing on Brice's driveway in front of a White Toyota Prius. He took out his car keys from his back pocket and unlocked the door to the driver's seat. He also unlocked the door to the passenger seat. I sat down, shutting the door and buckling my seatbelt. He started the car and backed down the driveway, then proceeded to buckle his own seatbelt.

"There are a bunch of CDs in the glovebox. You can pick an album and play it—they're all my favorites," Brice said as he started to drive out of the neighborhood street and onto the main road. I nodded and searched through the glovebox.

There were CDs ranging from Led Zeppelin to The Misfits. I shuffled around before I found one of my favorite albums—Infinity on High. I took out the CD and inserted it to the CD player.

"Way to be generic," Brice snickered as he slowed the car to a stop at a red light.

"Infinity on High is one of my favorite albums; besides Folie à Deux, Pretty. Odd., and Selfish Machines," I explained.

"I honestly expected you to like My Chemical Romance," Brice said, beginning to pick up speed once more.

"Yeah, I do, but I like Fall Out Boy better sometimes," I slouched in the chair. I was normally use to sitting in the back of the car, but sitting in the front seemed like a privilege. The cars ahead of us seemed so close, and I cringed whenever Brice pressed on the breaks due to the uneasiness of launching foreword.

"You know what would be so cheesy?" Brice made a sharp left turn and was now on the main highway. "If we got into a car accident."

I snickered, adjusting the seatbelt strap, "That's too cheesy. I doubt that would actually happen. Then again, don't jinx it, I swear to god."

"I'm a good driver, I swear," Brice promised. "Any who, where do you wanna go?"

"We should look for a restaurant or some place to eat, I'm starving," I groaned.

"We could eat at Maccas," Brice suggested.

"Maccas?" I questioned, slightly confused.

"I mean McDonalds. In Australia they call it Maccas," Brice chuckled.

"I guess that's okay," I murmured. I decided to skip ahead in the album to one of my favorite songs, Bang The Doldrums.

"This song?" Brice questioned as he slammed his foot on the breaks.

Traffic.

Of course the highway would be filled with other cars when we decided to get lost. I chose not to say anything, or whine, about it. Being with Brice right now was more pleasurable than being at school, at least.

"Yeah," I nodded, rolling down the window and feeling the cool breeze.

I turned up the volume. The car started moving again; Brice managed to navigate the car to an empty lane. He sped away and down a turn leading who knows where. The wind blew at my face as I peaked out the window. An empty lane, an empty street, and only ear blaring music.

"I wrote a goodbye note
In lipstick on your arm
When you passed out
I couldn't bring myself to call
Except to call it quits...!"

"Best friends
Ex-friends till the end
Better off as lovers
And not the other way around
Racing through the city
Windows down
In the back of
Yellow-checkered cars."

"You're wrong.
Are we all wrong?
You're wrong.
Are we all wrong?"

"The song's pretty good," Brice hummed along.

"This city says..."

"Come hell or high water.
Well I'm feeling hot and wet.
I can't commit to a thing...
Be it heart or hospital...!"

The chorus was about to commence when I had saw something that caught my eye. I stuck my head out the window again, then hollered, "Brice, stop the car!"

Brice had nearly slammed his foot on the breaks. He parked the car towards the side of the street. His eyes shifted my direction, clearly confused as he replied with, "My god Seto, what is it?"

"It's an iHop!" I shouted excitedly, pointing to the restaurant.

"So?" Brice rolled his eyes.

"I haven't eaten there since I was a kid! Can we eat there? Please!" I pleaded, waving my arms around like I had done when I was around four.

"God—" Brice cursed under his breath, lowering the sound from the blaring music. He gave an exasperated sigh, then a light hearted chuckle, "—you're such a damn kid."

"Is that a yes?" I smiled, nuzzling my head into his shoulder. Brice sighed, rolling his eyes again as he went back into the lane. It looked as if his face was tinted a light shade of pink.

"Just don't shout like that. You almost made me piss my pants," Brice muttered, making a right turn at the light. He proceeded to park his car in the parking lot. Surprisingly, a multitude of other cars were parked as well. Brice turned the engine off, then exited the car. I followed.

"So I'm assuming you like pancakes to the point where you—" Brice's sentence trailed off, "—you would jump out a window just to eat them."

"I never really eat this stuff. It's usually some kind of weird rich people food my mom makes. I haven't eaten at a place like this in years!" I exclaimed, dazzled at the sight of the place. "Do you not like pancakes?"

"I mean they're pretty good," Brice nodded.

"Then I don't see a problem with this arrangement," I concluded. Brice's hand touched mine for a brief moment, almost as if he wanted to hold it, but hesitated. He withdrew quickly, then was locked in a distant gaze. We entered the restaurant.

There was a server leaning against the wall, clearly not paying attention and on her phone. Brice awkwardly had cleared his theist, which caught the girl's attention. Her name tag was labeled 'JESSICA' in bold, shiny letters.

"Hi, welcome to iHop, how many people?" She threw a fake smile.

"Two," Brice replied before I could.

"Alright, right this way, I'll lead you to your table," she gestured. She quickly had grabbed two menus and began strolling away. Brice and I had followed behind her. She led us to a booth towards the back of the restaurant—it was oddly packed today. Brice and I had sat down across from each other.

"Your server will be right with you in just a moment," she placed down the two menus and walked away.

"Have you even seen a menu before? Like, that kind of menu?" Brice snickered as he watched me flip through it.

"No," I replied, "not that I remember."

"What else haven't you seen?" Brice continued to question.

"Like—what types of things? Places?"

"Have you been to a video game arcade?"

"No."

"What about—a carnival."

"I don't think I have."

"Music store?"

"I play the ukulele, but my parents bought it for me. I also play the piano, viola, and guitar."

"Of course you'd play the piano—" Brice's voice trailed off, "—what about the Statue of Liberty?"

"I've seen pictures of it," I thought back for a moment. The Statue of Liberty was originally a brown color, given by the french, but then turned green.

"We can go there later, there's a ferry boat ride that could take us," Brice suggested. "I've been there many times, it's nice. We can also visit Ellis Island."

"Cool," I nodded.

"Cool," he concluded as he went to look back down at his menu.

After a couple brief minutes of silence, a server came. He was just about my height and had glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. His name tag was 'JASE', shiny and golden. He had looked like the male version of 'JESSICA'.

"Are you both ready to order?" He asked, tapping his pen on his notepad.

"Yeah, I'll have—" Brice paused for a second, "—the cinnamon roll french toast."

"Alright, any drinks with that?"

"Iced coffee."

"And for you?" Jase looked towards me.

"Can I have the strawberries and cream crepes?" I requested. "And a hot chocolate."

"Alright, I'll be back soon with your orders," Jase replied as he took away our menus and headed towards the front.

"I felt like I've seen him before," Brice muttered in recollection, "and Jessica too."

"Do they go to our school?" I asked, whispering.

"No. They just look really familiar," Brice replied. "Maybe I saw them in another life, I don't know."

I chuckled, "Your conspiracies are weird."

We managed to hold a long conversation, jumping from one topic to another. Eventually Jase had came back with our food, and our drinks as well. We both went silent and began to eat our food. Brice would speak once and a while, usually followed by a snicker from me.

The food was quite delicious, actually. The hot chocolate was a bit too hot for my tongue, and whenever I would sip it, I had tried my best not to spit it out. The crepes had tasted delicious; it was the first time I was trying them.

I noticed that Brice had occasionally looked up towards me, almost as if he was locked in a distant gaze—yet so focused on me. Of course, I chose not to question his behavior—it just added onto his mysterious aura (which I had barely taken seriously, since I've gotten to know him a bit better).

"Here's the bill," Jase came strolling back with the bill. He set it towards Brice, eyeing him almost as if he was signaling for him to pay.

"I'll pay," we both said in unison as we grabbed towards the bill.

"I'll pay, Brice, it's fine," I sighed, "after all, I wanted to eat here."

"Well, I want to pay," Brice insisted.

"But—" I retorted.

"I'll pay," Brice kept on insisting. He grabbed the bill then looked at it for a moment with widened eyes.

"Is the bill too large?" I questioned after monitoring his behavior. I stood up and took a peak. The bill wasn't that much—but there was a little drawing on the side.

A pencil, a broken one to be specific, stood tall. On the side of the pencil were the words, 'AS STRAIGHT AS A PENCIL? YOU KNOW PENCILS CAN BREAK, RIGHT?'

Brice and I had made awkward eye contact before bursting into laughter. Brice ended up paying the bill in cash, and leaving a ten dollar tip. We both smiled as we headed out of iHop and back into the car. Brice had jokingly opened the door for me.

"Where to now?" I asked, buckling my seatbelt.

"New York, New York," Brice stated, starting the car and driving out of the parking lot. I smiled, a giddy feeling in my chest.

Besides the fact that my phone had been vibrating to the point where it wouldn't turn off, spending breakfast with Brice was great. I pulled out my phone to see a plethora of phone calls from my parents—but I didn't care. I put my phone on silent and gazed out the window, excited for the next destination.