School had ended and it was time to go home. Luna, Atlas, and I would always go home together after school. Our high school was ginormous, since it was half laboratory, and had been named the most prestigious, and ranked highly, in the whole city. After all, it was located in the rich sector of the city. We had to take an ostentatious test to get in, but in my case, my dad paid for my entrance. Yeah, that's how the world worked still to this day, if you had the money, you got away with almost anything. How did you think Jordan got in, anyway? That dumbfuck.
My apartment was pretty far from the school. Luckily, Atlas had his driver's license so he was able to drive me back and forth occasionally. Unfortunately, he couldn't always be my chauffeur since he had soccer practice after school sometimes. Walking home fucking sucked.
Today was one of those days.
"Sorry guys, my car broke down this morning."
Luna sighed. "It's the 22nd century, you'd think you'd have a good car by now."
Atlas rolled his eyes.
"Give him a break Luna. It's alright Atlas, we can get something to eat while we walk home."
"I'm joking, obviously I'm grateful for all the free rides you give me."
Atlas smiled. "Let's go grab a burger."
Except, it's not actually a burger. It's fake. Just like everything else in this city. You know, since most of the animals went extinct, we had to find ways to make the meat ourselves synthetically. Yup, cows somehow went extinct not too long ago. It sucks 'cause I used to see cows all the time when I was younger. I would never forget the day they announced that it no longer existed, but you would expect them to keep up with these things now. The thing is that we had nowhere to keep cows, or animals in general.
Illumination City was too compact. We were all supposed to fit under this dome but what would happen when there was no more space? All that stuff gave me a headache, so I tried not to think about it.
There was a marketplace a few blocks down from where our school was. It had the best food in the whole city if you asked me. Sometimes, on special occasions, all three of us would go there and eat our hearts out. Today wasn't exactly a special occasion, we were just craving some good food and to maybe have some fun.
Getting to the marketplace, however, wasn't fun. Illumination City was like a maze, you had to climb up a lot of stairs and cross a lot of bridges. This was why I hated walking home.
The city wasn't really much to look at. Honestly, I found it rather boring. I would admit, they do keep this part of the dome very clean, it was the richest sector after all. But it was like everyone here lived in their own bubble. No one wanted to know what went on outside and no one cared.
Ever since the Earth essentially died, people became desensitized to everything around them. It doesn't matter though, all I wanted to do was live my best life for as long as I was able. I couldn't speak on behalf of the whole dome, I had only seen some parts of it. I do know one thing though, this place was called Illumination because of how much light is produced. The sun rarely shines so we always keep the lights on. To me, this place was dull and most importantly, limited. There was one end of the dome and another end of the dome. We were trapped. I didn't like thinking about it 'cause it made me hyperventilate. Sometimes I was scared I might go nuts, so I just kept a nonchalant attitude towards everything. It was the only way you'd survive here.
We had to make our way through quiet neighborhoods and dimly lit streets before we could get there. But in my head, I just kept thinking about what the Earth must have looked like when it was alive. It's amazing to think such things existed here on our planet. It felt sort of like a dream. I mean, it's hard to imagine a world teeming with life when it's been dead for so long.
"Do you guys ever wish you could've seen the Earth when it was green?"
Atlas had broken my train of thought with this question. It's like he had read my mind. Green, I thought.
"The Earth was green?" I asked.
Luna scoffed. "Of course Murphy, plants are green therefore it was green. Not only that but it was also blue because of the oceans. Haven't you ever seen pictures of it?"
To be honest, I hadn't. I had never given it much thought until now. The Earth had been an ugly brown color for such a long time.
"I wonder what it felt like to see rain, feel the rain, hear rain
"I wonder what it felt like to see rain, feel the rain, hear rain..." Atlas sounded almost dreamlike.
Luna started, "Rain...imagine water just falling from the sky like that."
I smiled to myself just thinking about it. At least I knew what rain was, and clouds. We talked about how the Earth was in the past while we walked to the burger place. Finally, we had made it to the food market and had passed by a lot of food vendors. The smell only made me hungrier.
"Are we there yet?" I groaned as I held my stomach.
Atlas chuckled. "Almost. We just gotta cross this bridge."
But as we were about to step onto the bridge we heard a woman scream. A shady man was running towards us and I knew someone had just been robbed.
"Guys move out of the way!" Luna yelled and tried pushing us back.
I held onto Luna and looked to Atlas. He was angrily staring at the man. The man ran right past us and Atlas was about to chase after him but I quickly grabbed his hand. He turned to face me and I shook my head. The last thing I ever wanted was for Atlas to get hurt.
Policemen ran after him but I knew they'd never catch him. As I said, Illumination City was a maze.
"Murph, I could've stopped him."
"No, you couldn't have. Don't try to play hero Atlas, you could get hurt."
Luna clapped her hands together. "Alright guys, it doesn't matter anymore let's just go get some food, I'm starving."
These things happened a lot. People got robbed often and they could never catch the robber. That's why I rarely went out unless it was by car.
We had finally reached the burger place and it was packed. It was lunchtime so I guess everyone had the same idea and decided to come here to eat too.
"Finally we're here, my stomach is beginning to eat itself," Luna said as she launched herself into the tiny diner that was located in one of the corners of an alleyway and sat in one of the few empty booths. The lights were dimmed and some old music was playing in the background.
"Is it just me or is the place kind of sketchy," I said as I sat down next to Luna.
"As long as they serve good food I don't care."
Atlas sat in front of us and handed us each a menu. "Well, it does sound good at least. I think imma get a Caesar salad."
Luna laughed. "Lame! Come on Atlas, get a burger at least! You said so yourself."
"Today can be your cheat day!" I smiled.
"Hmmm I guess... alright fine, just because I'm starving."
It wasn't long before a waiter arrived and asked for our orders. I ordered a cheeseburger, no pickles, Luna ordered a BLT, and Atlas ordered a double patty cheeseburger.
"Dang Atlas, you really go all out on cheat days." Luna chuckled.
While they chatted away, I sat there still wondering about how life must've been back then.
I interrupted my friend's chatter, "Do you guys ever wish you were born in the early 2000s?"
They both quietly stared at me.
"Sometimes I do," Atlas began, "but then I would've never met you...you guys! Then I would have never met you guys! Haha." He looked down and blushed.
Luna scoffed at him. "I just wish that the Earth was still alive and it wasn't being invaded by aliens. But I also wouldn't have met you guys so no, not really."
She laughed to herself. Atlas frowned at her.
I looked down deep in thought. I didn't think I would've wanted to have been born at that time either because my friends are here. I think instead I wished that we could've kept the Earth safe. I wanted to enjoy the world with them, not all by myself. I looked up at them, they were bickering at each other and I couldn't help but smile. This was where my life was. This was where I wanted to be.
The waiter arrived with our orders and we devoured our food. After we had finished we collectively decided to go to a karaoke place down the street. The room was dark all except for the bright pink neon lights that surrounded the interior of the room. There was a big screen right in the middle of one of the walls. Atlas, Luna, and I plopped down onto the sofa and began to skim through the list of songs.
"Who wants to go first?" Atlas said sheepishly.
Luna bounced up from the sofa. "I will!"
She then made her way to the screen, scrolled through the various names of songs, and landed on Space Song by Kiera Please. She would always play this song and at some point, I felt like she was the reincarnation of the singer, they sounded so similar. Luna's voice was so beautiful, you could always catch her either singing to herself or humming some random tune. I could honestly listen to her all day. When the song ended she took a bow and we clapped as she made her back to the sofa.
She handed the mic to Atlas. "Your turn," she sneered.
Atlas hesitated. He slowly reached for it and stood up, almost not wanting to sing at all. If Luna and I knew anything about Atlas, it's that he's a terrible singer.
"Can't I go last?" He asked nervously.
"Nope." Luna smirked. "The quicker you sing the quicker you get it over with."
Poor Atlas, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. It's not his fault he's tone-deaf. Atlas picked a song at random and out popped the words of the song Roar by the once-famous Katy Perry. Luna and I began to laugh uncontrollably from our seats. Atlas couldn't control himself either, he kept laughing while trying to get the words out. He began to move around as if he were in a music video, but his voice was just so awfully hilarious. By the end of the song, I felt like I was gonna pee my pants. I couldn't feel my stomach from how much we laughed. Atlas plopped back onto the sofa and handed the mic off to me.
"I'd like to see you top that." He gave me a cheeky smile.
I laughed, making my stomach ache even more than it already did. I tried to gather myself before actually going up to sing. Finally, I got up and chose a song.
"Well, what song did you pick?" Luna asked.
"It's a surprise!" I twirled around and the music began to play.
I couldn't compare to Luna's voice, and I sure as hell didn't sing like Atlas, but when I did, I sang from my heart.
The song ended and Luna cheered, "Brava!"
Atlas clapped as I sat back down with them. "You guys wanna go get ice cream?" I suggested.
"Yeah let's go!" Atlas said as he shot up from the couch and grabbed his bag from the floor.
"I want Chunky Monkey!" Luna announced.
Atlas groaned. "Ugh, how can you stand that flavor?"
I wondered what flavor I would get.
"Chunky Monkey is the best, I don't care what you say." Luna said while grinning.
We all made our way to the ice cream shop located on the second floor of a plaza a few blocks away from the karaoke place. From there we pretty much did a montage of things.
We sat down somewhere and ate the ice cream, which both of my friends had the pleasure of stealing from me. As we walked around the plaza, we heard music playing from one of the shops and Atlas grabbed me and we began to dance around. He twirled me and I waved to Luna to come dance with us, which was a mistake. She began to make a fool out of herself and began to dance like no one was watching. Atlas and I then promptly backed away not wanting anyone to know we were with her. Then we went down to the park and played on the swings until it got dark. Days like these made me realize that the best things in life were the simple ones. My friends had always been there for me, and I'd always be there for them.
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