CHAPTER1-
I was dating this punk named Matty Quin with these really gorgeous canines when it all just started to happen. See Matty hung out with this group of assholes named Maverick, Brian and Sean. Maverick dated this chick named Nicole off and on, Brian dated Leah who was a real card and no one liked at all and wished he would break up with, and Sean dated Marie and Chelsea and sometimes Velma all at once. And one weekend that I probably should have spent writing an AP paper, Brian threw a party at his house. According to Matty it was the perfect place because his mother was shacking up with some phone installation guy named David and didn't give a damn about Brian and his little sister anyways. As I said, I should have been studying, but I blew it off and Matty brought me along as eyecandy. The kitchen was fogged with marijuana and cigarette smoke, there were beercans littering every inch of the lot and the boys had invited way too many people to fit in such a small area so I sat on the front porch and joked with Marie and some of the other girls that had came and had a pretty good time.
"...And when I have kids," Marie said as she drank languidly from her long-neck bottle, "I'm going to severely limit their television watching because it negatively influences them and handicaps the developement of a healthy mind and..."
She went on and on about the violent behavior of children when exposed to television or whatever. I didn't really give a damn about any of it, so I told her. "You talk too much when you're tipsy." All of the other girls laughed. Even Marie, though afterwards she downed the rest of her beverage and fell into silence.
I said, "So apparently Maverick has some sort of gig with his band next week that people may even go to."
Velma and the chick sitting at her right, who I think was named Kennedy, chuckled. "He can seriously sing," Velma said, "It's just he insists on doing screamo which he sucks ass at."
"He wants to be all badass or something," I replied.
Matty came outside then, releasing a yellow shaft of light onto the porch for a split second and revealing the dozens of bottles and cans placed around us on the floor. I pitied Brian and his sister who would be cleaning up the place in the morning.
"Hey Babe," he said and squeezed my shoulder. "Wanna play beer pong with the boys?"
"I'm our designated driver, remember?"
He pulled his beanie off of his head and ruffled his thick tawny hair before placing it back the way it was. "Oh yeah. Well you should come watch. Sean's so fucking stoned he can't stand up and Will is feeding him pudding."
"Pudding?" I said.
Marie hopped up. "He PROMISED he wouldn't..." she said and disappeared into the house. Velma or Kennedy or maybe someone else said "Uh oh" and laughed.
"I dunno," Matty said to me and chugged his can of beer, sitting the empty can on the wooden railing going around the perimeter of the porch. "It's funny though."
He went back inside and I stood up and stretched my arms over my head as a car with extremely bright head lights pulled into the yard and let out three teenage girls. The roar of the engine died down and another girl peeled out of the driver's seat and the four of them walked up to us. As they got closer to the house and the dim glow through the windows revealed their faces, I recognized the driver as May Lawrence, a Senior in some of my classes. I didn't know her personally, but I'd talked to her once or twice. A girl behind her was another Senior named Cara Stevens, who was, as far as I'm concerned, a skank. I didn't know the other two.
I waved at May when she approached me in her black tank and tiny blue jean shorts and she said, "Hey, who all's here?"
I shrugged. "Um, Brian and all his friends. And their friends. And their friends."
One of the girls behind May said "Fuck," and pushed her ebony bangs out of her eyes with her index and middle fingers. She had Brian's eyes and his well defined chin. Except she had snakebites and streak of pink hair right at the front.
"Go kick his ass," Cara said, tightening her dirty blond pony-tail.
"Yeah Cara," Brian's sister said, and rolled her eyes, "Because that'll keep people from fucking in my bed."
Cara shrugged and she and the remaining unnamed girl, skinny with light brown hair went inside. May turned around and asked Brian's sister if she needed anything. "A new fucking family," was her answer. May bent and kissed her forehead and then straightened her top and went inside as well to join the masses of squirming teens and young adults.
Brian's sister went to stand off the side of the porch and I watched her light up a cigarette with a mini Bic and then blow a long line of smoke out towards the road. Kennedy or Cassidy or whatever her name was got up and went and asked her for a cigarette. She said, "I only have this one now fuck off." So Cassidy turned around and fucked off. Velma followed her because I think they were sleeping together or something, and I was left alone on the porch finishing a can of Pepsi. I shrugged and sat the empty can against the wall.
"Hey," I said. "I don't smoke."
she turned and looked at me where I'd walked down to stand by her. "Yeah?" she said, "Well I do." And she blew smoke in my face to prove it.
I coughed and turned around to leave her to her damn brooding, but she reached out and caught my arm.
"Hey, I'm sorry."
"Don't be a bitch to me," I said, "I'm just making conversation."
"You're just stating the obvious."
"Fuck you," I said.
"Hey, I didn't ask you to come over here."
"I know that."
"So why did you?"
I shrugged. "Because you looked like you wanted someone to talk to. Anyways, you shouldn't smoke."
She shook her head and threw the rest of her cigarette on the ground and crushed it under her converse. "Oh you're one of those kind of people aren't you?"
I raised an eyebrow. "One of what kind of people?"
She shrugged. "Hey, listen do you want to go for a walk?"
"At three in the morning? You don't even know who I am."
She slid her long-fingered hands into the pockets of her skinny jeans. "Sure I do. You're Matty's girlfriend Beatrice."
"Oh," I said. "And you're Brian's little sister."
She said, "Shit, I have a name."
I shrugged. "What is it?"
"Derrek."
I said, "Derrek? Really? That's kinda of kick ass."
"Yeah."
We walked to the road and then down the street, back towards the highway that led into town.
"So," I said, "How did you know that I'm dating Matty?"
She responded casually, "I've seen you around school with him. You're hot."
I looked at her for a moment and tried to size her up mentally alongside all the boys I'd dated and the few girls I'd made out with, drunkenly, at summer parties. "I'm not really into emo girls," I said.
"It's really lame of you to stereotype," she replied.
I didn't get embarassed or fade into silence. "Let me see the cuts on your arms."
She blinked at me and pushed the sleeves of her purple tee up to the elbows and revealed a series of skinny red lines decorating her lower arms. I don't know what made me touch them, but I just reached out and ran the tips of my fingers over the puckered skin.
"Why'd you do it?"
She spun one of her lip piercings with her tongue. "I don't know. A lot of reasons. Mom and Dad and Brian even. And school. And my boyfriend."
"Who's your boyfriend?" I asked.
"We're broken up now. You probably don't know him."
"What's his name?"
"Michael West."
"He made you cut yourself?"
"He didn't make me do fucking anything."
I let go of her arms and kept walking. "Okay." I said.
We continued in silence for a long while and made it all the way out to where the houses of her shitty street tappered off into a field which ran barren for a mile or so and cut off abruptly into the main road.
"You wanna hop the fence and go into the field?" she asked.
"Don't you think we should go back to the party? May's probably looking for you. She acts like she cares. Or maybe Brian's wondering where you are."
Derrek said, "Brian's probably stoned off his ass and I bet May's fucking him.
I frowned. "Shit."
"Shit," she agreed.
I followed her off the road into the weeds of the ditch and then out to where the grass hugged the posts of the wooden fence guarding the field. She backed up to it and then hopped up onto one of the railings. The cynical look glimmering in her eyes under the subdued glittering light of the moon was enough to persuade me to do it. I nodded at her. She swung her legs over and landed in the short, wild grass.
"C'mon."
I made the jump in one even movement, pushing all of my weight down onto the railing and heaving my body up and over. Once on the other side I stood up straight and looked at her fully in the moonglow. She was sort of gorgeous in this dark, troubled way.
"Hey, she said, "I'm not going to fuck you."
I rolled my eyes. "Did I ask you to?"
She shrugged. "Let's run up to the hill in the middle and sit down for a while."
I said, "Whatever," annoyed, but I went after her anyways when she broke into a quick paced jog. She ran really smoothly which I admired. Track was pretty much the only thing physical that I cared about.
I sat down on the packed dirt and laid my fingers on the knees of my jeans. "You should join the track team."
"Why?"
"You run really smoothly."
She didn't respond. Then- "Brian said you're freakishly smart."
"I have the highest grades in my class. I'll probably end up being Valedictorian. And I already won a scholarship to Vassar. Full ride. "
"Damn, seriously?"
"Yeah."
"That place is like ten minutes from here."
"I know."
"Shit. That place looks like a castle."
"Yeah."
She pushed her bangs out of her eyes and I found myself admiring the thick saturated darkness of her eyelashes. "So what are you doing with Matty?"
"He's fun."
"He's a stoner."
"No. Correction. He WAS a stoner. Now he's just a burn-out."
She laughed. "And you're like a genius. That's fucking hilarious."
"How old are you?" I asked.
"I turned sixteen the beginning of this month."
I grinned and moved some of my golden curls behind my shoulders. "Aww."
Derrek narrowed her eyes. "What?"
"You're like, what? A sophomore?"
"I'm a Junior, asshole."
"Uh huh."
She crossed her arms over her chest and didn't say anything.
"I'm eighteen."
"So what?"
"So I'm older than you. Old enough to buy the cigarettes you smoke at least."
"You're still not old enough to buy beer."
I frown. "Do you drink a lot?"
"Sometimes." She looked at me queerly and then tossed her head to get her hair out of her eyes again. "Are you offering to buy me cigarettes?"
"No. I'm just holding that option over your head."
She narrowed her eyes once more. "You're a prick, you know that? I bet you live in one of those three story houses on Langley with the sprinkler systems and and invisible dog fences."
"Yeah I do," I replied. "Except we don't have a dog because my little sister is allergic."
She scoffed. "Your little sister? I bet her name is like Megan or Bethany and she wears American Eagle every fucking day of her life and plays littlest pet shop online."
"So what?"
She stared at me and judged my Hollister shirt. "You look like a fucking prep."
"Yeah?"
"I hate people like you."
I leaned back on my arms. "So why are you here?"
She bit at one of her snakebites and regarded me with odd silence. I remember wondering what it was she was thinking. I remember wondering if she wanted me as badly as I wanted her in that moment. And then she leaned forward and kissed me and we made out on the mound of dirt in the big empty field under the cloudy late night, early morning sky.
I'd never kissed anyone with lip piercings before. Matty had his eyebrow pierced. It wasn't nearly as hot. Plus he wasn't a girl. Which made it even better. Derrek put one of her hands on my thigh and I opened her mouth with my lips and used my tongue. It lasted about five minutes and then she pulled away and stood up.
"Should we go back now?" I asked her.
"I don't make out with girls I don't know."
I stood up too. "So get to know me."
"I have to get back to the party. I have to make sure Brian doesn't do something retarded. And I promised May I'd sleep with her tonight. She gets easy when she's drunk and if I don't sleep with her and keep everyone off of her they'll train her."
"Jeez."
"Yeah," she said and the two of us headed back towards the fence. "Is Matty going to go all psycho on you if he finds out we made out?"
"I don't know," I told her.
She gave me this really small look and then climbed back over the fence. "Just don't tell him then." It seemed a lot simpler coming out of her lips that it did being tossed around in my mind with everything else.
XXX
No comments:
Post a Comment