Fiction

I am not friends with Chris. I know of him, and he of me, but we do not congregate in the same circles. We pass each other in the halls and occasionally say hello, having been in the same grade for all of our lives. We are juniors now and everything has changed. I wonder if he will notice the difference in my eyes?

With a deep breath and a sigh, I approach him at his locker between classes.

Chris is taller than me. Everyone my age is taller than me. He has brown hair, eyes like deep pools of dark water and is on the soccer team, a sport I despise. He is in theatre and hangs with a completely different crowd than I do.

“Chris?”

“Yeah? Oh… Hi Jay, what’s up.”

“Well, I’m about to become ‘that strange guy everyone talks about’ and I’m not looking forward to it.”

“…okay…”

“I want you to think of all that you know of me since we were in kindergarten. I don’t have the rep of a liar, a cheat, a bully, anything. I’m just a guy. Some would call me a good friend that they trust. I’ve never betrayed anyone, never cheated on a girlfriend, never bullied someone smaller than me.”

He thinks for a minute, slams his locker and faces me. “Yeah. I’ll agree with that. Why?”

“Because I want you to think deeply on what I’m going to tell you next." I take a deep breath and look deep into his eyes. "If you drink alcohol in the next year, you are going to die. I am not kidding; I am not lying; and even though we don’t know each other very well, I hope you will trust me.”

He smiles. “Well, your premonition is right.”

“So, you won’t drink?”

“No, I meant the one about how you’re about to become the strange guy everyone talks about.”

Chuckling, he turns his back on me and walks away.