CHAPTER ONE
"Oh my god guys! There's an oppourtunity to WIN tickets to the GREEN DAY concert this summer!" Screamed Emma as she entered the gazebo. I couldn't help but laugh at Emma's screaming fit of joy as she ran around us all, hugging all our friends and jumping about in a circle. Her blonde hair swayed madly in her outburst of head banging a moment later.
My eyes instantly met David's, who nodded his head, shook his awesome emo black hair and rose to his feet, grabbed Emma and sat her down.
"OK, calm Emma. Calm. You realise we are NEVER going to win those tickets, not in a million years. As excited as I am about it all, don't get too over excited."
Emma's joy filled eyes went from happy to gloomy in the blink of an eye. "But... maybe..."
David sighed. "You can enter, but I'm just saying, there's like... a one in a million chance of us winning. Pretty slim. See?" He said, holding his hand up and with his index finger and thumb, put them close together, and made a small gap. "Look... miniscule. Very small chance."
There were times when David could be a complete dick, or a complete angel, this wasn't one of those times.
"Oh shut it David," I said shoving him and sitting next to my best friend.
He gave me the evils, laughed, sat opposite Johnathan and Shane and started talking.
I turned to face my friend, who looked sad and very crestfallen. There wasn't much I could think of to make her feel better, David was probably right, we wouldn't win the competition, but what was there to stop us from trying?
"Emma," I said trying to get her attention. She looked at me, but slowly. "Emma we can still enter. We might win. You never know."
Emma snorted. "We won't, I know it, we won't win the tickets. It will never happen."
At that moment, I felt all hope was lost with persuading my friend, and so I left here to ponder on it whilst I sat back in my seat.
"Beer anyone?" Shane said, lifting a bottle on beer and shaking it, looking for someone to accept.
Emma rose her hand and her face lit up suddenly, surprising us all. She rose to her feet, took the beer, popped it open an gulped it down. The burst of beer all over her hand didn't bother her, she just drank, and when she'd done, wobbled and fell on her butt.
"Load of shit that is. Makes you feel out of your head. Crazy shit." She giggled, dropping the bottle.
I looked over at Shane, who started to laugh, he picked up another bottle and held it out to me. "I don't like beer. Vodka?"
Shane's blue eyes widened and he began to laugh even more, "sure thing babes, just don't be sick on me. 'Kay?"
I rolled my eyes and took the bottle from him, sat on his lap and let him stroke my hair as I drank myself stupid. Shane was my boyfriend, and most definitely was a very good one, we could have funny times, sad times and the ocassional fight. However, putting all that aside, we loved each other, and it was all that really mattered.
The next morning, I awoke with a massive head ache, I felt as though my head was going to explode from the pressure of drinking so much alcohol. My stomach ached like hell, and so I slept for a while longer, dreading the next time I would awake.
"Wake up!"
Mum pulled my duvet from me and stomped towards my bedroom window, opening the curtains and tutting at me like I was a disgrace.
BANG. BANG.
Still had a headache, ugh...
"You need to wake up! It's half past two in the afternoon, bloody hell!"
I watched my mum storm off through my blurred vision, and readied myself to get up and go down stairs. I had to make sure I entered the competition for Green day tickets, at least if we won I would be able to tell Emma.
"Breakfast is on the table Lisa," Mum said, pointing at the pancakes and syrup ready for me once I was downstairs.
As always, it tasted delicious and smelt like heaven. Mum always made nice pancakes, in fact, she made nice everything! Dinners, lunches, cakes and snacks... everything!
She looked tired though today, her normally neat and tidy hair was shoved into a lazy ponytail, and her clothes were creased and dirty. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but felt best if I just left her alone, after all, she probably would bite my head off if I tried.
"Hurry up Lisa, I need everyone out of the house, I have an interview."
I widened my eyes. Interview? I thought. How's she going to get a job if she can't even make herself look decent?
"So please eat up, I need the house for myself." With that, she turned and ran up the stairs, vanishing out of sight.
I didn't rush my breakfast, I ate in my normal speed, there was no way I was risking heart burn. No way.
Plus, I wasn't going to rush myself getting ready either. I'd planned to enter the Green Day competition before I did anything, and so I would. Even if my computer took forever to turn on, it was just tough luck.
Satisfied with my breakfast, I ran upstairs to turn my computer on, and changed into a pair of jeans and a plain t-shirt. I didn't massively care about looks if I wasn't going anywhere important, I'd already made my mind up about where I'd go after mum kicked me out.
Emma's.
My computer announced itself officially on by sounding a loud "DOOONG".
"Shit," I whispered, glancing over my shoulder, half expecting mum to rush in and start shouting at me. She didn't.
"Right then..." I said as I opened the browser and googled the Green Day competition. "Easy... peasy..."
It didn't take me long to walk from my house to Emma's house, I was there within a couple of minutes of being shooed from home. She lived in a nice part of town where there was a lot of green growing. There were times when I wished I could live in her house since it was so beautiful.
She called me looney for thinking that.
"Is Emma in?" I asked Mrs Williams as the front door opened to Emma's.
"Um, yes, she's just upstairs. Come in." She smiled as I entered and made my way up stairs to my best friend's room.
I wanted to see how she was doing, and if she had decided to enter the Green Day competition. I was about to knock at the door when I heard voices inside.
"C'mon you have to come with me, nobody need know where we went. Just me and you, please?"
Johnathan... It was wrong to eavesdrop, but something about this conversation was off. Inside, I could hear Emma sobbing.
"John!" Her voice sounded shrill. "I can't, I have friends here, you can't just ask me to fucking run away with you holding hands? That's just twisted!"
"Emma, there's nothing for you here, come on please!" Johnathan sounded desperate now, I could picture his needy self.
I should have gone in and helped Emma, but that would be rude, and I had no place in the situation. And the situation was puzzling itself, what did Johnathan mean by 'there's nothing for you here'? There's me, her friends, her family... was she keeping a secret?
"Johnathan I can't! I really can't! Please just... just leave it!"
She was definitely crying, and she wasn't happy.
"Ouch! John stop it! Stop it!"
Definitely out of control, I placed my hand on the door knob ready to kick the door open and stop John doing whatever the hell he was doing, when some slightly cringey noises could be heard, and I instantly retreated away from the door and back out of the house.
Whoops...
I was definitely confused over the whole Johnathan and Emma thing, but I knew I couldn't intervene, not unless Emma wanted to tell me. If she did, I'd listen, but if she didn't, I'd leave it. Unless Johnathan was a fucking creep, then I'd deal with it.
I checked my e-mails that night, looked under today's e-mails and found one from Shane.
It read:
Lisa,
I love you, you know that right? Just thought I'd ask you if you wanted to come over to mine tomorrow?Parents are out, sister's on holiday to somewhere where pineapple trees grow and all that shit, so yeah... also you noticed anything off about Johnathan lately? He's keeping to himself a bit too much, and he's been even more of a dick than he actually is, hope Emma's OK. Are you alright? David's gone off on some fucking babe search or something, freak! Haha, you know I'm just kidding, all good mates.
Ly,
Shane
xxx
What an e-mail. Such a daft boyfriend. I replied:
Shane,
Sure thing Shane, I'll come round about 16:30 ish? Hope your sister has a good time in the pineapple tree place! LOL! Um, no, Johnathan has been fine with me... Emma's... Emma's fine I think. I'm fine too. :) Ouch, good luck to David. ;) And yeah, sure you're kidding.
Ly,
Lisa
xxx
I clicked send and began to search through more of my e-mails, there was a reply about the Green Day competition. Feeling slightly nervous, I opened the e-mail.
Dear Lisa Watson!
Thank you for entering our competition! We will let you know after the next three days of competition time whether you have won! Best of luck in the competition!
I let out a huge sigh and sat back in my chair. Three days, three days until I would find out whether I had won. But it didn't exactly say three days, just after the competition had closed... it could be five days, fifteen, thirty...
I felt crazy thinking about it...
BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP.
I looked over my shoulder to see my alarm blinking. I'd set it off to remind me to go to Shane's at four o'clock since he lived half an hour away. I spun away from my computer and turned the annoying little thing off.
There was probably only one thing Shane wanted to see me for, but I couldn't really care less. I looked nice (that's what I thought) and headed to his house.
"Shane!" I called as I walked up the pathway to his house half an hour later. "I'm here! Get your ass out here!"
I laughed as Shane stumbled out of the house and ran towards me and embraced me in a huge hug. My laughing died away as I found myself immersed in his hug, it was comforting and made me want to snuggle up to him. And then he broke the silence.
He looked away from me, blue eyes filled with tears as he looked into my eyes. I instantly stopped smiling, and I tried to figure out what was wrong.
"Baby what's wrong?" I asked as he dragged me into the house.
The silence made me feel even more depressed as I waited for him to tell me what was happening, even worse... when we sat down in the living room, he started to cry like a baby.
"Shane?" I whimpered, starting to cry myself.
He looked at me with his sad eyes and took my hands in his.
"Lisa," he croaked. "My sister... she was on a plane to her holiday when... when something went wrong... the plane, I don't know, I... it..."
"What are you trying to tell me? Shane?" My throat dried as he uttered a few words, quiet, but not too quiet. I heard it. "Oh my god, Shane!"
I held him against me, rocking him as he cried. I cried as well, and I coudln't stop myself, he'd always been so strong, but for this to happen... this was just wrong.
Ten minutes we held each other, ten minutes we cried... ten minutes I felt sorry for my boyfriend, not kowing what to do. It pained me feeling so helpless. This should never happen, no one should ever lose anyone. And on a plane? Even worse!
It gives you the feeling you should have done something, should have stopped that person from boarding the plane, if it's cancer or something natural, you know you couldn't have done anything. This was something different though...
Shane gradually began to stop crying, and I stroked his blond hair, helping him to stay neutral. He pulled away from me and stared forward for a painfully long time. The silence that cursed us for so long was awful, I wanted to cry again.
I didn't.
Instead I left Shane to himself for a little while, and offered him a cup of tea.
"No thanks," he whispered.
I nodded and sat back down, chest aching from crying and suffering Shane's loss.
His eyes were red, and his hair was scruffy and untidy.
"Might there have been survivors?" I asked, doubting my own question.
"I have no idea, the plane crashed on ground, there might be. There was a massive explosion inside though."
"Oh."
Clearing my throat, I sucked in a breath and said; "do you want me to leave you be?"
Shane instantly looked up and his eyes widened with fear. "Please don't, stay a while longer."
I nodded. "OK."
I worried about Shane all night, I couldn't sleep. There was no way I could possibly sleep, I had so much to worry about! Emma, Johnathan and Shane! Even the possibility that Shane's sister may still be alive. I kept turning on the news channel in hope of finding anything out about the crash, but all it said at the moment was that 'investigators were examining the plane crash,' and that it was a similar fault as 'Flight 180' ten years ago.
I didn't even want to know about flight 180. I knew some distant relative of mine had been on that plane and died, but that was all I knew about it.
The similarities were just so weird... it all seemed so unreal, I just wanted to forget about it all, I wanted Shane to be alright.
I wanted to win those tickets and see Green Day, it would cheer everyone up. They'd be playing at Sheffield arena, and so it would be pretty close to where we all lived... about a twenty to thirty minute drive.
My phone beeped and I quickly flipped it open.
HI ITS SHANE. DONT WORRY ABOUT ME. XX
I sighed as I read the text; of course I was going to worry about him! It wasn't as if I could be blooming happy all the time.
JUST CONCENTRATE ON BEING K! NIGHT XXX
Five days later...
BOOOONG.
My computer welcomed me, and I quickly clicked open my e-mail inbox, fed up of checking after so many times, it seemed impossible for us to win. David was probably right, we probably weren't going to win. But... you have to be in it to win it right?
As soon as I opened my inbox and saw the message from Green day Competition, my mouth dropped open and I almost couldn't breath.
CONGRATULATIONS LISA WATSON!
Your participation in the competition has won you tickets to see Green Day on the sixth of August! Your five tickets are on the way!
See you at the concert!
SHIT! We'd won!