The Ghost of You [A Billy Martin Story] Chapter 2
Aaron and Paul came in Aaron's car down the street thumping hip hop, like they always did. The neighbors complained quite often, but we didn't care. They hated the music the guys played, hated when they came over to practice, and hated when the guys refused to turn down their amps. The neighbors called the cops one time, but we managed to get ourselves out of it. I think the neighborhood is finally immune to it now.
It's a good thing too. They were all pissed off. To put it lightly, today was fucked up. The preps and jocks decided to be certified assholes today, so during PE, they stole Joel's pants and made him run out of the locker room without his pants on. And after that, the football players attacked him and put Bengay on his balls. He walked weird for the rest of the day.
During Benji's math period, the kid sitting behind him put gum on his shirt and he ended up rubbing against a cheerleader and ruined her cheerleading uniform. She hit him on the head with her makeup bag, leaving a nice bump on his forehead.
Aaron was in his art class and he was attacked with paint. When the teacher approached him with a detention slip for cursing, the football player that had flung paint at him sniggered, knowing full well that he would never be punished for his actions.
During lunch, a group of thick armed wrestlers came to our table and dumped many trays of food in front of Paul. The excuse? "We thought he would be a little hungry." Paul's face contorted with anger as he chucked an apple at the back of the captain's head, hitting it with a thud. The only reason the wrestling team didn't tear Paul apart was because a teacher walked in right after Paul had thrown the apple. Paul came out of lunch completely unscathed, thankfully.
And as for me, I was walking to the bus stop when a car sped by me and flipped me off for, apparently, dressing like a Satanist. When I finally got on campus, the jerks in the car were waiting for me. They made many vulgar remarks at me as I walked into school. To make things worse, they fucking followed me to my locker, where I was then slammed forcibly against the lockers. They spilled the contents of my bag all over the floor and left me, a lock poking into my back and with only a minute to get to class.
We've had worse days, but I'm sure this one goes in the top five.
Benji would not let me near his guitar, informing me that I was too angry to be even breathing hard next to his first born. I sat there on the couch in their garage, and waited for them to finish the song they were practicing.
"So, 'Lina, you said you knew someone," Benji reminded me.
"You know Billy Martin?" I asked, picking at a loose thread on my sleeve.
Benji contorted his face in thought. "New kid?"
"Yeah, him. Well, he's in Overflow. They're kinda…floundering though."
"Call him up! We have an opening right here," Benji pointed to the empty spot on his left.
"…Right now?" I asked quietly.
"Yeah. Right now." Benji said. "Problem?"
"Well, I don't exactly have his number…" I answered sheepishly.
"She has a crush on him." Joel commented, his mouth full of pizza.
I felt my cheeks flush a deep red. "No I don't." I muttered, a smile on my face.
Benji sighed. "Can you just figure out some way to contact him?"
"Contact who?" Aaron asked, holding his drumsticks in one hand and a grape soda in the other.
"Billy Martin," Benji answered.
"Why do you need to talk to him?" Aaron asked.
"Potential second guitar." I answered for Benji.
"Oh, well, I have his phone number. We have to do a biology project together, so…"
"This is wonderful!" Benji clapped his hands together. "You go call him, okay?"
Aaron shrugged. "Okay, I can do that."
Aaron left the room, leaving me with Benji, Joel and Paul. "Okay, can you guys shut up now?" Paul asked loudly. "I am trying to tune my bass and your voices are interfering."
We all laughed heartily. I was joined on the couch by Benji and Joel, where we sat in silence to respect Paul's wishes. Until, that is, we heard the distinct jingle of the ice cream man.
"The ice cream man! Oh my god! Someone give me money!" I screamed, jumping up wildly from the couch.
"Where? Give me money, fast!" Benji shouted. We ran full blast after the passing ice cream truck. We ran behind it until we were too far from the house. The guy finally stopped.
"What would you like?" The guy asked politely.
"I just realized I don't have any money," Benji said to the guy and shrugged.
"I don't either," I responded, looking guiltily at the ice cream truck driver. We walked away, feeling like idiots.
"Thanks for bringing me back something, guys." Joel said upon our return to the garage.
"Not like you gave us any money to buy ice cream with," I answered, grabbing a soda from the mini fridge. I unnecessarily slammed the door on it, which resulted in the door falling off. We all stared at the refrigerator door that was residing on the ground.
"Oh, geez, Alina! Just break the damn thing!" Benji said.
"My bad, guys." I attempted to put the door back in its place. It pathetically fell back to the floor. "Sorry."
"It's cool," Joel said. "We'll just…"
"We'll just not have a mini-fridge." Benji said angrily.
The five of us stood awkwardly in the garage. "So…we'll just practice then?" Paul said suddenly, attempting to break the silence.
"Good idea, homes," Aaron said, picking up his drumsticks and sitting behind his drums.
The awkwardness finally diffused once the guys began practicing. I sat back on the couch and blankly stared at a spot over Aaron's head. I kind of zoned out, considering I was tired. I snapped out of it when a black Trans-Am pulled into the driveway.
A tall and slender boy got out of the car. It was Billy. My stomach jumped up into my throat. My body got tense. Joel took notice. He cocked his left eyebrow at me and smirked.
"Oh, shut up," I mumbled as Billy made his way up the driveway carrying a black electric guitar in one hand and an amp in the other.