1

‘Life... it’s just like one hell of a roller coaster isn’t it? Except you know, it’s kind of reversed; the ups are the best part of it, while the downs are just the worst. And the worst part of it is, despite the fact that you know it is always gonna be like that, you never seem to be able to adapt to it: the downs always hurt just as much as they did the last time, no matter what you do...sometimes you just wish you could feel numb completely, just so you wouldn’t have to deal with the downs but that would mean not having the ups and what’s the point of living if there’s no ups? Or worse, what’s the point of living if you have no ups and you actually haven’t managed to become completely numb? When you know all that you’ll ever get are downs; you think it can’t get any worse but somehow it manages to...’
Zach hesitated for a moment, his shaggy brown hair was in a complete mess due to the high winds; his clothes were his typical torn jeans and t-shirt, despite the weather he still refused to wear a jacket - the last thing he ever worried about was the cold. He spent several seconds looking out over the river Dodder’s mucky waters, before finally letting out a sigh ‘You know I really don’t know why I come here, why I pick here to vent...I hardly come here for the beauty of nature, I mean the river’s polluted as hell but it’s just...the familiarity, it’s sorta comforting you know?’

Zach turned around to look at his friend Derek whom he had dragged out here in the middle of the night to listen to him vent. He wondered for a moment how many times he had subjected him to this, he could come up with at least a dozen times off the top of his head and his reasons for each one of them seemed to be getting less worthy of giving someone this kind of treatment. He didn’t even have a reason this time; it was just life in general that was getting to him. He wondered for a second if he ever had a good enough reason at all for doing this to him; why did Derek put up with this all the time. Surely there must have been lots of more stable people who needed friends and Zach knew he was just a train-wreck, but for some reason Derek jumped on board for the ride and refused to leave even though it was already going off the tracks.

Derek looked at Zach for a second, his usually styled hair in a complete mess looking like he had just gotten out of bed (which he probably had with the time Zach called him), and his school uniform was also in equal disarray with his shirt un-tucked and his tie hanging a foot below his neck. He sat there looking blankly out at the river for what felt like forever (at least to Zach); Zach wondered if it was because he was just searching for a way to say something that didn’t include a statement of how Zach was completely insane and belonged in some kind of institution. Zach had already been told that several times in his life most recently by his mother, who although was obviously trying her hardest to make it sound like she did it because she cared, came off sounding like she just wanted to get Zach out of the house and out of her life for good. Finally Derek took a breath and replied ‘Zach...did you ever think that the reason you’re so depressed has nothing to do with anything that’s actually happening in your life, but more to do with you just refusing to act any other way?’
‘You’ve said that same thing to me five times now, and how many times has it worked?’ Zach replied with a grin.
‘Zero, but how many times have you ever actually listened to me?’
‘Derek, when have I ever listened to you?’
‘Haven’t we had this conversation before?’
‘Only five times...god we need new material at this rate I’m going to be depressed forever and spend the rest of my life having this conversation with you.’
‘Well thank god, there’s no afterlife otherwise we’d really be screwed’ Derek said laughing to himself.
‘Sometimes I wish I actually had a faith you know? Then maybe I’d know what the meaning of life really is’
‘That’s easy - it’s 42. Everyone and their grandmother knows that...well everyone and their grandmother who’s read the book or seen the movie...hey Zach, I’ve got to get going, You know some of us actually bother to show up for school sometimes. Wish I could help more...maybe you should give Sally a call, you two are pretty much one in the same’
‘Yeah...maybe I will...’ Zach smiled but Derek knew it was completely superficial, the second he was gone Zach would probably completely break down, that seemed to be the way this situation always ended. Derek also knew that Zach had no intention of calling Sally; despite being one in the same the two never really seemed to get along, then again that wasn’t surprising seeing as Sally really wasn’t friends with anyone; mainly because it was a very rare occurrence if anyone ever happened to see her.

Sally awoke with a start as the sound of construction workers came through her open window, she pushed her (repeatedly) dyed red hair out of her face as she looked at her phone and let out a sigh ‘Half nine...not a chance’, with that she put the phone down rolled onto her side and went back to sleep. You see Sally wasn’t much of a morning person, or an afternoon person, or an evening person, or a night person, or the type of person who enjoyed one second of the day at all. As you can imagine Sally was quite depressed, except as opposed to someone like Zach who got up and faced his depression, Sally preferred to face it her own way, which was by not facing it at all. She decided to spend her time in the one place where she was actually happy; her dreams.

People often wondered what she dreamt of; even the people who knew her (albeit not well) had no real idea. Depending on who you asked, some would say her dreams resembled that of a romantic comedy, others had darker thoughts about the subject and imagined her dreams involved her brutally murdering everyone who had ever done her wrong, or to save time blowing up the entire universe while she sat in a protective bubble. But no one really knew what she dreamt of; no one had ever even bothered to ask not because they weren’t interested but simply because they thought they had no hope of getting an answer; Sally was well known for her grating personality and temper.

Zach looked out on the horizon. In his mind it was such a comforting sight with the sun beaming down through a clear cloudless blue sky onto the beach, however, in reality the sun was nowhere to be seen and the sky was an overcast grey, but despite this Zach still liked walking on the beach, he found it relaxing and was not pleased when he reached the beach only to find that the tide was in and that walking along it was impossible. Slightly disheartened Zach sat down on a nearby bench and took out his phone, looking through his phonebook he stopped on Sally’s name and hesitated for a moment contemplating on whether not he should call her. Even though the two of them never got along, Derek was right she was going through the same thing that he was and also she was probably the only other person in his phonebook who wasn’t in school right now. Sighing to himself he pressed the call button.

Sally awoke again to the sound of her phone, she grunted loudly before picking it up and answering. ‘Hello’
‘Hey Sally... this is Zach...from school’ Zach’s voice came through the phone sounding slightly nervous.
‘Zach? Why the hell are you calling me? I was sleeping!’ Sally retorted loudly making her anger clear.
‘Woke you? It is twelve forty, god those rumours really are true you are always sleeping’
‘Did you call me just so you could pretend to be shocked about something the whole world knows or did you actually have a reason? Because personally as much as I would love to talk to someone I am not friends with and have no real affection for, I’d much rather be sleeping’
‘Okay...I just wanted to know if you were willing to like maybe meet up and talk...’
‘Why should I bother to go to all the effort to meet someone I don’t particularly like?’
‘Because, believe it or not, we’re going through the same thing, and as much as I love to spend my days being depressed and wallowing in self-pity, I wouldn’t mind talking to someone who just might understand what’s wrong and maybe we could, you know...possibly help each other’
‘You and I are nothing alike’
‘How would you know? You know nothing about me, you know nothing about anyone! But I know one thing about you, you’re as bloody depressed as I am so maybe we could help each other through this...so let’s just meet up’ Zach said with his frustration clearly showing in his tone.
‘Okay...fine...meet me at the Starbucks in Baggot Street in half an hour’
‘Starbucks? Couldn’t you drink coffee before you leave?’
‘Yes but I want something steaming hot to throw in your face when you start to annoy me’ Sally said with a smirk as she hung up her phone.

‘You’re crazy...’Zach said to the dial tone that was coming through his phone from the other end. ‘She hung up on me...’ He said as he realised what had just happened ‘Well Starbucks it is I guess...’ He said as he got up from the bench and started to walk ‘Well scolding coffee can’t hurt much more than actually having to talk to her so no worries’ he said trying to lighten his mood but failing to be even able to force himself to smile.