≈ Zero marked test papers from the reckless Sophomore year I had hidden expertly

≈ Those ugly pink coloured pencils from my Middle School obsession

≈ My favorite Sheldon Cooper sweater with that huge coffee stain when high school heartthrob Dean Thomas bumped into me.

These were just few of the things I found when I was cleaning up my shelf on the last day of junior year, bringing back tonnes of memories from my high school and middle school years. From tomorrow, vacations will be starting and I'll be leaving the dorm and moving in with my best friend to live in the apartment that my parents gifted me for scoring the highest marks in this year's exams.

Rummaging around, I shifted my books aside and made some space for my sweater. Finally, focusing back at the almost empty shelf, I sighed looking at my magazine collection- I had a very unhealthy obsession with One Direction in my freshman year and had the habit of buying every magazine which printed even a paragraph about them or a picture of them.

Taking a reluctant step forward, I picked up the thick bundle, ready to stash them in the box labelled 'For Recycle' when a piece of paper fell out of the last one. I placed them in the box and went back to pick the paper up, it was blank from that side so I turned it over and read the ink on the other side:

-----

-Climbing a mountain

-Go sailing

-Crashing a party

-Kissing your old crush

P.s. Stay best friends forever

-----

I chuckled, reminiscing the day we wrote this. We were nine and had just watched secretly The Bucket List on one of our weekly sleepovers. Unlike me, Sam's unhealthy obsession didn't wear off with time- the obsession of being a crazy cinephile. We would steal a dvd from the living room to see a different movie every week and then-

"Ready?"

I looked up from the paper, unable to keep my smile off my face.

"Yeah, just finished actually. Look what I found."

He walked up the distance between us and peeked over my shoulder to see it.

"Oh this..." He chuckled.

"Yeah! Remember how we swore to complete every thing on the list one day?!" I handed him over the paper to let him read it while I collected the rest of my stuff one last time.

"Hmm... "

When I stood up, he was staring hard at the paper. "Sam?"

He looked up at me and smirked, "You know what will be crazy?"

I sniggered, "What?"

"If we do all this!"

I stared at him, my jaw wide open, "Wha...?"

Laughing nervously, I waved him off, "You're joking."

He took two strides towards me and put an arm around my neck, caging me in, "No, I am not Cindy! Imagine. You and me, just like old times!"

"But... "

-----

Sighing, I looked up at the mountain before me.

Well, kind of.

I turned my head to glance at Sam beside me, "You know this doesn't count, right?"

He shrugged, "Yeah well, it was the closest I could find."

Looking back, I focussed on the scenery before me. I had just got settled in our apartment when he dragged me here, in the middle of the woods to show me this waterfall. On both sides of it, there was a rocky cliff and this idiot wanted us to climb that.

I huffed looking at him pleadingly, "Please don't make me do this."

He stared at me through his sunglasses and then grinned, "We have to do this, Cindy. We owe it to our younger selves."

I fake cried while he literally dragged me to my death and we started climbing it.

***

"Hmph!" I threw daggers at him while trying hard to not miss any step, "if ....if I somehow...mira- (*huff*)...miraculously get out alive from this.....the first thing I am going to do is....KILL YOU!"

"Oh don't be overdramatic. Imagine what would have happened if we were to climb an actual mountain!"

Grumbling and swearing at him, I grabbed the nearest huge rock to hold it, but it came off. The movement flung the rock over my shoulder and my arm with it. I don't know how I regained my balance but I did, clawing the moss under that rock and scrambling up to the next but at that moment, my foot slipped. As I was dangling on the rope just seconds to fall, I could see my death just before my eyes.

But the moment when I had lost all hope of living, something came and enveloped me, hoisting me up and giving me warmth as well as security. I opened my eyes and met Sam's.

"Hey there!" He gave me a coy smile.

I grinned at him and together we climbed the rest of the cliff.

Finally, when we hoisted up ourselves to safety, I stood up and turned to him, "Well, okay this was your.....dumbest... idea... ever."

I couldn't believe my eyes at what I was seeing behind him. The view from the cliff was like HEAVEN.

I ran to the end to take a better look and Sam joined me. "Correction. Not the dumbest idea." I said out aloud, still taking in the scenery before me.

His fingers crossed the distance and intertwined with mine, "I knew, you'd like it."

-----

"Okay, you win. This bucket list was a great idea."

He scoffed from the lounger next to me, "Took this late for you to realise that, huh!"

I laughed looking at him, taking in his shirtless body. It was hard controlling my eyes to wander when he was lying just beside me basking in the sun, looking so much like an eye-candy. Good thing I have sunglasses on though.

"Yeah well, don't take all the credit yourself. I was the one who arranged the yatch."

He raised his arms in surrender, "Fine. God you win!

I smirked at him smugly and went back to tanning my body.

I was fourteen when I realised I had the worst crush on him. It was harder when literally half of the time he was found snogging one of the other girls- perks of having a hot ass best friend and then falling for him. After sleepless nights and half of them spent bawling my eyes out, I realised that crying wouldn't help at all, and found my one and only strength- painting. It calmed my mind and helped me getting over the hurt faster than anything. It didn't help in overcoming the crush but it did divert my mind from the snogging.

I looked at him and found him already staring at me which never ended good for me. Shrugging myself off, I stood up and walked upto the curb, squinting into the sunlight to have a better look. Nothing in this world is as appeasing as staring at an empty ocean, with wind brushing by your cheeks, blowing your hair back. Not only do you feel a strong connection to the elements and nature, but to the entire world. The fact that anytime a huge wave can drown you or wet you makes the experience terrifying but at the same time exciting.

Completing the bucket list was really the best decision we had made, it not only will bring us closer again as best friends but will also help us reconnect ourselves to our younger selves again.

Time for crashing a party now.

------

"Dude, unlike the sailing and the climbing, I am actually.... excited about doing this!" I grinned at him, completely hyped by the fact that we are going to crash a frat party.

He rubbed his hands in anticipation, "Me too. Now let's go."

I followed him into crowd where people were gathered even outside the house, some talking, some making out, one of them was puking his guts out too. Trash can was filled upto the rim with plastic cups overflowing and laying around it.

Sam expertly maneuvered me through the door into the party, where the vibrations of the bass could be heard as well as felt through the floor. I clung tightly to Sam's upper body, in fear of not getting separated from him.

We took a few turns and found ourselves into a large room which looked like the living room, but the furniture was shifted around to arrange it into a dance floor for today. The DJ was playing Single Ladies by Beyonce and the sound was so loud that nothing else could be audible.

On the left, there was a table on which a bowl had a suspiciously red liquid in it with fruit pieces floating around and smaller bowls of nachos beside it. Sam took out two red plastic cups and filled them with the drink, holding one out for me.

I scoffed looking at it, "Um, no thanks. I am NOT drinking that."

He looked at me, amused, "It's Jungle Juice. You HAVE to drink it. It's the essence of any party."

He got me there. After all, crashing a party does mean to actually enjoy it.

I took the cup from him and gulped it down in one go. It tasted quite nice. In fact I think I'll take one more.

****

In about twenty minutes, I was completely trashed. According to Sam here apparently I had too many of those Jumble Juice cups.

I didn't have TOO MANY!

Okay fine, he maybe a teeny tiny bit right.

But I was handling it right.

Kind of.

Scurrying myself to the stairs with Sam tailing behind me, I began climbing them slowly. Just when I was on the last one, someone bumped into me and since the reason I was going up was because I was sick, I puked all over him.

The guy looked up, baffled, his face red with anger. He opened his mouth to probably swear at me when suddenly his expression changed to a confused one. "I haven't seen you before? Who invited you?"

I frowned at him feeling absolutely offended, "Nobody not did... nobody did...who- "

Before I could ask him who the hell he was to ask me that, someone pulled my hand and dragged me outside.

And from the commotion, I puked again.

------

After throwing up almost five times, I was now completely sober again. Thanks to Sam and his magic water. Now we were walking back to our apartment since it was just a few blocks away and neither of us were sober enough to drive.

"So?"

"Hmm..?" He looked at me questioningly.

"Everything is checked out."

"Not everything. One thing is still left."

I scoffed silently and mumbled, "Yeah right."

We had reached our apartment and I kept walking to unlock the door. Suddenly, he grabbed my elbow and pulled me back.

He put his arms around my waist and pulled me tighter, which meant I had to look up to meet his gaze.

"What are you...?"

"Shh.... I am just doing what I should have done a long time ago."

I rolled my eyes at him, "And that is....?"

The next thing I knew was his lips were on mine, gently caressing them testing the waters. Even after a few seconds, when he didn't deepen it, I moved my hands to cup his cheek and did it. I couldn't believe I was finally kissing him. His lips felt warm and familiar, but exciting at the same time, like I have been kissing him since forever but still couldn't get a hang of it even though this was my first time.

After some seconds, he pulled back and grinned at me. Then giving me a last peck he said, "There, the bucket list is officially checked out.