Alice and Joe exited the building, Alice still not focusing on reality as she was being drowned by her thoughts of 'What now? What next? What this? What that?' Louis would be in their for a while, learning techniques on how to stop himself from drinking. Alice didn't mind being home alone. She was usually content with it. But she still couldn't get him off of her mind. Joe grabbed his bike, noticing the thousand-yard stare she had on,
"You know for what it's worth…I'm really proud of you."
She looked at the ground…as if something was written on it,
"Alice?"
Another second and she brought her attention to Joe, "What?"
"I said I'm really proud of you…for going through all this."
Alice smirked, resting her elbows on her bike handles, "I think I've had enough…'adventures' for one year…" she looked over at Joe smiling, showing him she was joking. He snickered.
Then of course the awkward silence came. That silence when a conversation had come to an end and neither person knew what to talk about next, they both gazed at the road watching cars pass by. Joe scratched the back of his head and Alice twirled her hair on her index finger as they listened to the sound of early afternoon traffic…still silent.
"Uh…" Joe uttered, "Should we go home?"
Alice was about to respond when suddenly they heard the blaring sirens from down the road. About 3 police cars followed by an ambulance zipped past them like bullets as their heads rapidly turned towards its direction.
"What the hell was that?" Alice yelled, swearing unlike her usual self.
"I don't know…" he winced, trying to see if he could find them, now far ahead, they turned.
"Shit…I think that's the way to the school." he pedaled off, not completely sure, but didn't want to take any risks. Alice followed behind him.
Preston was at Martin's house. He was currently drawing a birds eye view of the football field of their school,
"He said the north set of bleachers right?"
"Yup,", Martin circled the set and capped up his pen, "They're planning to lure you down in that little…gate area underneath them and hang you there upside down and possibly throw snow cones at you." he added raising a finger, Preston rolled his eyes,
"The joy…"
"But wait…that's not going to happen." he began making marks on the piece of paper, "Because we are going to enter from…here, they won't see us, and we are going to sneak up the bleachers, find a clearing where we're right above them and…" he paused on and, grabbing something from out of his cooler, two cans of soda. He shook them up for emphasis on his plan, Preston laughed out loud. Martin joined in,
"You see? Hanging around with them gave me a little mischief back."
Preston wiped a tear, "Ok…just promise me it's caffeine free." Martin raised a brow, "Come on, I'm joking." he took a can from him, "For now…a toast to our life long friendship." They bumped cans, the sun was beginning to set, it was about 5 P.M. their plan was set at 7:15. They weren't planning to open the cans but they stared at each other wide eyed as they slowly lowered their cans…
At the same time the two pried the latches off, soaking each other and Martin's carpet with diet Pepsi. Martin spit some out,
"I guess I deserved that." he took off his glasses, wiping them with his soda drenched shirt, Preston rubbed his eyes,
"Kinda…" he smiled.
Alice and Joe were at the school, he was right, police taping up the entrance as they were carrying someone out on a stretcher, he didn't know who. He saw Sonia (not knowing who she was) with her parents talking to a cop…then Charles and Cary sitting on the hood of a cop car. He threw his bike down darting towards the two,
"Guys!" Alice followed, they didn't notice the two until he was right next to them,
Cary stood up, "Joe!"
"What happened?" Alice demanded.
Charles stood as well, "This kid had a knife."
Alice put a hand over her mouth, clueless on what to say as Joe's eyes was answer enough for Charles to continue,
"He…committed suicide."
Their eyes widened even more, Cary didn't respond, letting Charles continue with his half-lie,
"We were still in the building when that girl over there found him so they kept us here."
Cary had to act casual, otherwise they'd know, "Police stuff."
Joe believed them…albeit Cary's shaking hands in his folded arms, making him question them a bit. Cary saw Joe staring at him,
"I'm gonna go ask if we can leave now." he walked off towards the man taping the entrance.
Joe looked up at Charles, "Is he ok?"
"Y-yeah…it was just a bad sight is all."
He knew Charles's guilty look anywhere. Knowing him for nearly 10 years made him the expert of Charles Kusack. But they were ok he thought. Nothing else truly mattered. They weren't killers…they were ok. He sighed in relief, the tension drained,
"Ok…I was just making sure." Charles smiled and Alice walked up,
"Who was it?"
"We don't know."
She raised a brow, "No one in your class?"
He started to get paranoid, "No why?" Even in his voice there was high tension, Alice backed up a little,
"Jeez, I was just wondering…you guys have lived here longer than me I just wondered if it might've been someone you knew."
"Well it wasn't." his voice cracked, Cary showed up at the perfect time,
"Guard says we can leave."
Joe started to turn towards the direction of his bike, "Ok, you guys go get your stuff and maybe we'll still meet up for the bonfire?"
They side-smiled and nodded as they went over the bike racks. Alice tapped his shoulder,
"Joe?…Could you take me home first?"
His smile faded, "…Your not coming?"
"No…I've…been though a lot."
The disappointment was more of anger than sadness, Joe nodded trying to keep his cool but let it out, "Ok…but can I just say one thing?" He pointed over at the entrance, "Look at what just happened to Charles and Cary, they're still going to have fun. A-and…after the whole alien thing-"
"Shh!"
"We still went to the film festival and had fun! Didn't you say you went to Sanibel with your dad right after the…thing?"
"Well, yeah." she crossed her arms, giving him a stern face,
"Didn't you forget about it for a while and still have fun?"
"Joe this is different-"
"So maybe it's not completely the same but…you can't revolve your whole life around one bad thing that happened to you."
Alice's jaw dropped a little as if to say something, but instead she bit the corner of her lower lip, Joe walked past her,
"Here, I'll take you home."
She stood there, she seemed to be staring at her shoes while Joe stood his bike up, he noticed her,
"Alice?" she peeked over her shoulder, "You coming?"
She turned away, strangely, yet again, feeling tears, "Yup."
Cary and Charles unhooked their bikes Charles glanced at Cary for about the third time,
"You ok?"
Cary rolled his bike out of it's rack, "Never better." he replied, leaving Charles unable to tell if he was being sarcastic or not. They turned around to find Sonia standing over them. Dark skin under her eyes, showing how tired she was or how hard she had been crying earlier,
Charles let go of the chain on his bike, "You ok?"
She walked over and knelt down, hugging them both in her arms. The two were confused but they each put a hand on her back,
"Thank you." She pulled back, they were shocked to see she was actually smiling for the first time since they met her. She then gave them each a kiss on the cheek. The tall Goth then turned and walked over to her parents' car.
The two were tranced for a minute as smiles formed, they rolled their bikes down the path to their neighborhood,
"Cary?"
"Charles?"
"…This is gonna be a good year."
-X-
It was now twilight as the players at the football field not too far from the school campus itself stood in line listening for their coaches orders. David and the others were waiting expectantly for Martin and his 'friend' under the bleachers. Laughing and smoking cigars as no of the administrators who were there didn't seem to notice (or just didn't care). Martin and Preston slowly walked up the sets of bleachers step by step, full soda cans in each hand, they peeked through the openings in between the seats to see which one would be prefect.
"So do you think the dip wads are gonna show?"
David had a cigar hanging from his lip, he shrugged, "They should…Martin hasn't turned down a thing I say yet."
They were right above them, shaking the cans.
"You really fond of that kid?"
He laughed, "Hell no. Messing with their lives is about the best revenge I've ever had."
The two gave each other a 'ready' expression, they aimed with their fingers on the latches.
"And after tonight, my work will be done."
Preston called, "HEY CYBER DORK!"
He jumped a little, not because he hadn't heard that nickname in three years but he didn't know where to look. After watching them like guinea pigs squirm around, Martin spoke,
"How's this for cool?"
They ripped off the latches, soda spurted out and all over David and his mates. They listened as they swore, struggled to open up the fence and shout threats. Preston waved his can around erratically in every direction below making sure he struck them all. They dropped the cans and ran.
David finally opened up the latch, "YOUR DEAD MEAT!"
Martin and Preston were already near the exit as they looked back, they laughed and knuckle punched just before hopping the fence and escaping.
At Joe's house, his dad had just left right before Cary and Charles showed up with the fire wood and matches, and much to no one's surprise, Cary brought at least twenty sparklers. They walked into the backyard, Joe's dog tried to follow but he didn't want her near the fire, he gently blocked her with his foot,
"Stay inside Lucy." he closed the sliding door.
"Dude where do you even get all this stuff?"
Cary smirked, "My brother knows a guy."
"Ok…where do you store all this stuff?"
Cary lifted his head from the logs, his eyes wandered around the dark yard "…that's classified." Joe laughed as Charles continued to interrogate him. Over the fence, Preston and Martin climbed over with six packs of Pepsi's in their arms.
"The fun has arrived!" Martin called as the two walked over to the fire taking two sodas for themselves. Cary had already lit two sparklers and had them hand in hand as he tempted to grab a can with his remaining pinky. The four stared, Joe walked up,
"Cary?"
He looked at him, "Yeah?"
"It's not possible." the four laughed as Cary gave up on the soda.
Someone was in the house, he heard a knock on the sliding door, no one except for Joe heard it as he turned around, expecting it to be Lucy picking at the latch…Alice. He was too shocked to question how she got inside and walked into his house, shutting the door behind him,
"Alice, why are you he-"
"I wanted to tell you I'm sorry."
He winced in confusion.
"I shouldn't…let my dad being in rehab ruin all my fun should I?"
Joe felt a smile that he couldn't hold back coming on,
"So…bonfire?"
He smiled, "Yup. We literally just started."
"Good!" She dragged over her bag she had brought showing a few things she had inside, an un-opened box of graham crackers, two packs of marshmallows and about eight chocolate bars.
He laughed even more.
"What's a bonfire without s'mores?" she playfully asked.
She picked up her bag ready to go outside until Joe halted her,
"Wait…how'd you get inside?"
She smirked, looking down somewhat embarrassed, "You keep the key under your mat."
Joe gritted his teeth in a sudden 'oh' feeling as she walked outside with the bag. He watched her as he listened to Cary flip out,
"OH MY GOD!"
Preston grabbed Cary's shoulder, "NO NO! ALICE DO NOT GIVE HIM SUGAR!"
Alice threw the bag to Charles, "Hot potato!" she never got to be this playful around anyone else she knew, Cary proceeded to chase Charles around the bonfire for the candy bars as Preston tried to grab Cary,
"C'MON! JUST ONE!"
"HELL NO! REMEMBER THE COFFEE SHOP?"
"IT WASN'T MY FAULT THEY DIDN'T GIVE ME DECAF!"
Alice sat down next to Martin who was reading a comic book he always kept with him, interested in the book, laughing at the three every now and then.
Joe smiled…not even conscious of the fact he was doing so.
This is what it meant to have friends like them…ones who weren't afraid to be stupid every once in a while. Something his dad didn't necessarily care for. Then at the same time, people who cared about each other, and had each other's backs no matter what went on. He was surprised that the three were still running in circles as he ran outside,
"Bad Cary! Bad!" he played, grabbing him by his jacket, but Cary wanted it. He was able to yank his grip off as now four were trying to get the bag, Charles threw it to Joe, who tried to throw it to Preston but Cary grabbed it,
"HA!"
"Damn it…"
Cary looked into the bag, holding a candy bar up, then dropping it back inside and handing it to Preston, "Here Preston." He sat down lighting another sparkler,
"Wait…what was all that about?"
"I wanted it but I didn't know they had almonds in it."
The three stared at Cary…
The End
BeautifulyBlue: Suckish ending, but oh well. I have plenty more! So eh? Ehh? What did you think?
