Only Fools - Chapter 1: Chapter 1

"I swear to God, Aspen. If you try to jump into that pool from there then you're going to end up missing the target and land on the cement, dead with a cracked open skull," my best friend Ivy tries to reason with me. She's beautiful no matter how far away I look at her? How is that fair?
"But it was a dare," I whine as I slightly slur my speech. I glance down at the blue liquid below me and laugh slightly as it begins to become increasingly blurred.
"I'm gonna do it!" I yell loudly to no one in particular, which results in me earning a few cheers in support of my daring feats.
"Aspen, don't you dare," I hear Ivy say in a rather firm tone from below me. Turning my head, I look down at her. I don't get why people always say that when they're up high the people below them look like ants. I'm standing on the roof of I-don't-remember-who's house, and Ivy honestly looks like the size of a reasonable grasshopper. A really pretty grasshopper. Stop it, Aspen.
"Don't worry, grasshopper. I can do it," I say confidently, trying not to slur my words too much because that would just ruin the effect.
I giggle slightly at the nickname I came up with for my friend. Looking back down at the pool below me, I take a few steps back to prepare for my jump. With that, I take a deep breath and begin running.
For what seems like forever, I'm just suspended in the air. It feels like I'm flying, like nothing is really holding me back and nothing ever will. I live for these moments.
However, moments like this always have to come to an end too fast and I'm soon crashing down into the freezing pool. Kicking off of the bottom, I resurface to come face to face with an Ivy that looks reasonably more ticked off than when I last saw her. Her dark brown eyes narrow in on me, and for a minute, the alcohol loses its effect as I realize how I'm completely and utterly screwed.
"I can't believe you did that," Ivy says loudly as she grabs my hand and pulls me out of the water. I vaguely hear people cheering around me, and I try to flash a smile to them in response.
"I know right!" I say excitedly as I jump up and down slightly. It was pretty cool, and obviously I'm not the only one who thinks so.
"No, like you could have really gotten hurt,"
"But I didn't," I say, rolling my eyes as I chuckle at her over protectiveness. Didn't she see me? I was obviously completely fine. I don't get why she always has to act like this and ruin all of my fun.
"That was so cool!" my friend Tori exclaims as she runs up to me and gives me a high five. I nod along with her as I nearly trip over my own feet. What are those doing there? It's so weird that people trip over their own feet. Like, you would think that you'd remember where you last put them and would try to stay out of the way. Luckily, I don't actually trip as I use Tori's hand to help me regain my balance.
"That was not cool," Ivy says, shooting Tori a glare before turning back to look at me.
"Right now, I don't care how drunk you are. I don't care if that was a dare. I don't care if you had all the confidence in the world that you would be able to land in that pool. Don't try to give me any kind of an excuse on how you're used to it and you fly in cheer every day. Even in your drunken state, I'm sure you can realize that's something completely different. You have people to catch you and make sure that nothing really goes wrong. One misstep and I could've lost my best friend. One miscalculation from your little drunken self and I'd never see you again. You never stop and think. Ever,"
Ivy's face morphs into an expression of what seems to be almost fear and worry, and in my drunken state I can't help but to frown. I don't ever want to make her sad. She's my Ivy.
"But I made it," I say quietly as she pulls me into a hug. I rest my chin on her shoulder and can't help but smile as her presence alone gives me so much comfort.
"And I'm seriously grateful for that, bird, but next time let's try and not tempt fate that much," Ivy says as she pats me softly on the back. Knowing that's the closest to forgiveness that I'll be getting tonight, I grab her wrist as a bright smile makes its way into my face.
With that, I bolt back into the freezing waters of the pool, and Ivy, with her wrist still latched in my iron grip, ends up toppling in after me. She emerges only a second later, coughing and sputtering water, before zeroing in on me.
"Oh, I'll get you for that," she says playfully with eyes filled with malice. Shit.
————
"That was fun," I slur, almost in a daze as Ivy opens my car door and pulls me out of the passenger seat so that she can lead me to my house.
"For you," she says under her breath, perhaps not wanting me to hear that part.
"You had fun too!" I argue with her as I put on my best pouty face.
"Oh. Yeah? Then tell me, at what point out of that entire night did you actually witness me having what you would call 'fun'?" Ivy retorts back at me. I try to think back to the party, but I honestly can't remember much at all.
"That's what I thought," Ivy says confidently when I'm not able to give her an answer.
"No fair! I'm drunk," I whine as Ivy begins to look through her pockets for something. I wonder what.
"That you are," she says underneath her breath.
"Hey!"
"You're the one who said it," she says, raising her hands in surrender. I huff and narrow my eyes at her, but that doesn't seem to affect her in the slightest. Wait. How would me narrowing my eyes at her even affect her? It's not like I have laser eyes. Pew! Pew! Pew!
I giggle slightly at the laser noises in my mind, but Ivy either doesn't notice or doesn't care.
"You're really pretty, Ivy," I say with a smile on my face as I sway back and forth. She simply tucks a stray piece of her red hair behind her ear and shakes her head.
"Thank you, Aspen, but do you have the key to your house?" she asks me. I let out a small giggle as I pull it out of my pocket and hold it out in front of me.
"Ok. Great. Can I have it then so that I can actually unlock the door?"
"Nope,"
Ivy rolls her eyes at me as she then holds out her hand in front of her, palm up, for me to place the key in. But what she doesn't know is that I'm not going to give it to her. She wasn't really being nice to me so why should she get the key? What if I want to unlock the door myself? What if I want to sleep in the backyard instead? She doesn't even care about what I want. Besides, it's always fun to tease her. I mean, she gets all flustered and mad, but then we always laugh afterwards. I always like making her laugh. She's so pretty with a smile on her face. Well, she's always pretty. But that's besides the point.
"You're not getting it," I simply say as I close my palm around it pull my hand behind my back.
"I swear to God, Aspen," Ivy says under her breath before suddenly lunging at me to grab the key. I begin to laugh as I pull it further away from her.
"Aspen. Just giving me the freaking key," Ivy says, obviously annoyed. I just shake my head and dangle it out in front of her, pulling it away every time she reaches out to grab it.
"Oh, Aspen. Look! A dog," Ivy says as she points down the street behind her.
"Where?" I ask excitedly. I wonder what kind it is. Dogs are so amazing. I don't care what kind they are. Big dogs. Small dogs. Fluffy dogs. Oh, I love fluffy dogs. They're so soft.
I squint as I look down the street where Ivy was pointing. I don't see a dog. Did I miss it? Just then, I feel the keys being ripped from my hand. I gasp as I turn to give Ivy the dirtiest, most vicious look I can manage. I don't think I have ever experienced or will ever experience betrayal to such an extent. She told me that there was a dog. And then there wasn't. My hopes were raised, just so that they could get crushed.
"Alright. Get in," Ivy says, motioning inside the house. Wow, she was fast.
I cross my arms in front of my chest and shake my head.
"Fine," Ivy says with a shrug. A grin makes its way on my face as I soak in my victory, but it doesn't last for long as my feet suddenly leave the ground and I'm flung over Ivy's shoulder. God, I forgot how strong this girl is.
"Put me down!" I yell, punching her back and kicking my legs around. It's then that I hear the door slam closed and I'm almost instantly off of Ivy's shoulder and standing back up in front of her, now inside my house.
"That wasn't nice," I say quietly, as I follow Ivy through my house.
"You didn't give me much choice,"
I stick my tongue out at her, but then realize that she's walking in front of me and not even looking at me.
"I just stuck my tongue out at you. Just so you know," I state.
By this point, we've reached the stairs up to my room and Ivy seems to be deep in thought.
"Are we going or what?" I ask her as I begin to ascend the stairway, only to trip slightly and cause for Ivy to practically carry me the rest of the way. Dang it, feet. I really need to stop losing track of them. Yet again, keep doing your thing if it means pretty girls get to hold me in their arms because of it.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, we both collapse backwards side by side onto my bed. As we lie on our backs, I stare up at the ceiling above me. It would've been so cool if I was one of those kids that hung up glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, but instead I was apparently a real traitor to future me. What the hell was I thinking? Plain white ceiling? Who would commit such a crime? Well, a younger version of myself apparently.
"Tonight wasn't that bad," Ivy says quietly.
"What?"
"I mean, I got to spend the night with you, even if it was just keeping track of your drunk butt and making sure that you don't get yourself killed,"
"You can just say ass you know. It sounds better. Drunk ass,"
"I would rather not use that kind of language,"
"Huh?"
"I'll just say butt instead,"
"That's what she said," I say as I let out a loud laugh.
"That is not how that joke works," Ivy says, most likely rolling her eyes at me. It doesn't matter though, because I continue laughing, though I'm not really sure what about after a while which causes me to stop. With a sigh, I roll over onto my side to face Ivy.
"Hi," I say quietly. Shaking her head, she rolls over so that she's facing me, trying to hide the smile on her face. I wish she would just smile. It's a beautiful sight.
"Hey,"
"How long are we going to be best friends for?" I ask her, genuinely curious about what her answer will be. I glance up into her hazel eyes before looking away again.
"Well, I'd think for forever,"
"That's an awful long time, forever,"
"Yeah? Then that sounds about right,"
"You won't leave me?"
"Leaving you would be one of the worst mistakes I could ever make,"
"Shake on it because pinkies are too fragile?"
"Shake on it because pinkies can be real wimps,"
I clasp her hand in mine and give it a squeeze. She really is the best friend that I've got. And it really does suck that I have such a bigass crush on her.