june days
"You get a shiver in the dark
It's a rainin' in the park but, meantime...
South of the river you stop
And you hold everything"
Derek's car speakers were blaring as loud as they could possibly go. Casey, normally extremely agitated by anything having to do with decibel levels that couldn't be placed under the "indoor voices" category or by anything having to do with Derek, somehow offered no protest. Instead, she and Emily giggled uncontrollably in the backseat of the Prince at Derek and Sam's carefully choreographed car-dance to the Dire Straits classic. After the first four lines, Sam turned down the stereo.
"That's really about all we have. For now," Sam said, spinning around from his shotgun position with an eager grin on his face in anticipation of the girls' reactions. Initially they stared at him, mouths agape, wondering if he was honestly expecting praise. Then Emily and Casey faced one another and exploded in laughter
"Ahh, you laugh now, but soon! Soon... we'll have the whole song down. And it shall be a master piece!" Derek declared, momentarily taking his hands off the wheel to make the appropriate glorious flourishes. This, of course, resulted in a near death encounter with a mailbox. Squeals ensued.
"DER-EK!" Casey screeched as Derek swerved back onto the road. "You think your driving talent might at least fill the gap left by your lack of dance skills!! Are you trying to kill us?!" She roared, gripping tightly to the back of his seat with one hand and backhanding the side of his head with the other.
Derek directed the car to its proper lane and Emily simply laughed, "I thought their dance was... cute! I mean, the transition from the the 'stop' gesture to the cradle motion was very creative. And, um, impressive!" Sam turned around and beamed at Emily, and she returned the favor. Casey rolled her eyes.
"See, Casey, some people know how to give appreciation where appreciationis due. You should try it sometime," Derek wiggled a triumphant eyebrow at her via the rearview mirror.
Casey glared in response. "New song," she huffed with melodramatic dejection. She looked out the window at the oh-so-familiar sights racing by as Derek directed Sam to the appropriate CD from his massive leather CD case. Derek Car Rules: Only Derek or Sam May Handle the Process of Music Selection.
"I said the purple CD from the 'E' section, not the yellow one!" Derek exclaimed.
"Yes sir, commander sir! Sorry, sir!" Sam apologized facetiously, hurrying in mock panic to obey Derek's orders. Emily snorted another chuckle, and even Casey could hardly keep from smiling. Less than a month earlier, a car ride like this would have consisted been pure torture for Casey, torture that inspired thousands of eye-rolls and genuine annoyance. These days, Casey found herself pretending to be angry far more often than actually feeling the hostility. And even then, the smiles and laughter found their way to her lips quicker than she could help it. It was hard to believe how much had changed.
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They dubbed themselves The Square. It was one of those things that no one really remembered starting, and in all truth was pretty lame, but the title became as certain as fact. They were The Square.
After the night following the last day of school, Casey never again doubted the mythical harmony that the four united possessed. They were never serious; that first night consisted of three large thin crust pepperoni pizzas, vast amounts of caffeine, and hours spent on the walking bridge that crossed over the entrance to their neighborhood spitting at cars. Had Casey heard of those shenanigans second hand, she would have rolled her eyes in utter disgust at such immaturity and recklessness. But instead she was with them. She was freedom in action; she was leaning over the railing between Derek and Emily and hawking loogies with enviable timing at the cars speeding below. She was sprinting for the woods faster than any of them when their victims swerved to a stop and bellowed in rage:
"GOD DAMN TEENAGERS!"
Teenagers. That's all they were; just a foursome of foolish, bored teenagers keeping each other company on dull summer nights. They knew that. They may have been foolish, and reckless, and immature, but they weren't dumb. Even Casey with all her delusions of perfection could feel the frown of the world upon them. Casey could sense the annoyance when waiters served them at restaurants; Casey could feel the automatic skepticism when theater workers tore their tickets. To the entire world they were just God Damn Teenagers. And though the four of them were never serious, though they were God Damn Teenagers for certain, together they were something. Casey knew that the very first night, hiding in a bush with Sam and Emily and Derek, ducking furiously together as a car turned its headlights towards the woods, squeezing as close and keeping as quiet as possible. She knew it in that moment as sure as she could feel Emily's elbow jut into her ribs, Sam's ass bump her sideways into a tree, and Derek's muffled laughter radiate heat onto her shoulder. She knew they were something fateful and meaningful and blissful. Something as solid and real as a freakin' quadrangle.
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Thus the June days passed. Riverbrook, the neighborhood where they all lived, never saw the end of The Square's leisurely laps around it. Windows down, music booming, Derek driving, Sam in shotgun, Casey behind Derek, and Emily behind Sam, or some similar event occurring every day. Casey couldn't even remember the last day where they hadn't all been together at some point. Be it brief encounters at the local CVS (a place where Derek and Sam hung out quite frequently; another one of their previously-established, bizarre male rituals), or epic 48 hour sessions of Square time at the Macdonald-Venturi residence, they were quite literally inseparable.
When Casey thought about it, the whole thing was beyond strange. She was spending hours on end with her stepbrother (...who she completely despised), her ex-boyfriend, and her clingy best friend, doing the same boring, immature things everyday. And she was having more fun than she had had in her whole life.
Casey was suddenly dragged from her thoughts to reality by the sound of Derek's voice.
"Earth to Space Case, zoning out much?" he said, finally sliding the purple CD into the slot. Casey prepared to retort but stopped immediately when she recognized the song playing.
"OH MY GOSH turn it up!!! I LOVE this song! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I can't believe we're listening to it!!" Casey, of course, was one of those girls who had her wedding all planned out by the time she was eleven. The second she heard the song on one of her father's old CD's, she knew she would one day be dressed in white, twirling around the dance floor in the arms of the man of her dreams while it played. She knew it would be her wedding song.
For once, Derek obeyed, and soon after the boys and Emily began their interpretation of the song, singing along in a silly serenade. Casey smiled to herself and sang along softly, sighing happily when the main line rolled around. She looked up just in time to catch Derek's eyes in the rearview mirror, and for a moment he lowered his voice from his comedic falsetto and smirked right at her, but sang genuinely:
"Oh, my darling,
You look wonderful tonight"
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Whew. Finally. Thanks for the encouragement and critiques... especially ilovejonas22! You reminded me that I really, really needed to get working on this. Anyways, I guess its been kinda slow so far, but don't give up on me! I promise there is some actual action in the near future, perhaps in June Nights? Now, review!... pretty please.
And btw, I don't own LWD or Dire Straits or Eric Clapton. They own me.
