Life for me was far from awesome. I mean, who would want to be in my position. I'm just like everyone else. Anyone can have what I got. People are always saying, "I envy you" or "I wish I had what you had" or something equally as pathetic. Yeah, and sure that all my life, I've had a hell of a lot of money in my bank account, a few suits in my closet, and a string of one-night stands. OK, and? I know what you're thinking, "Stop bitching about your perfect life, Stark." Well, guess what? From the outside looking in, I have the perfect parents, perfect friends, perfect everything.
In reality, I've been crippling under the pressure of becoming the next CEO of Stark Industries. My dad is a gigantic asshole. Most of my friends are just in it for the money. I've never had anything close to a girlfriend, and the only people who seem to give a damn about me are my mom and my only best friend Andy, who I've known since the fifth grade. They're the only ones that understand me. This is sad when you think about it because out of all my so-called friends and family, only two of them care. That is why when Andy calls me and he's asking if he can come over, I listen and say OK.
Okay, back to the story.
So there I was sitting in my mansion in Upstate New York, playing video games when my phone rang and it was Anakin who called. He was rambling for the most part and whenever he wasn't, he was yelling a long string of cuss words directed at Ferus Olin and Ben Kenobi. Somewhere in his rant, I was able to make out the words "expelled", "transfer", and "school". That's when I finally stopped his rant and told him to calm down and come over to my place.
About five or so hours later, because it is still a solid 300 miles from Coruscant, NY to get upstate, Anakin showed up. Based on the rage in his eyes and the disheveled state of his mind only a few hours earlier, I knew that I needed to break out the ELR (Emergency Liquor Reserves).
So there we were. A couple of teenagers drowning our sorrows in expensive booze. I was on my fourth glass of scotch and he was on his fourteenth- yeah, you heard right and damn him and his high metabolism- when he finally reached the point where he was ready to talk. "So, what happened?" I asked. "Same thing that's been happening since the "accident"," Andy deadpanned. I immediately caught on to what he was talking about and laughed dryly, "Damn it, Ferus Olin. He just doesn't know when to quit, does he?"
Andy hummed and took a swig of his drink. "That's not all. To make matters worse, Ben grounded me for 3 months!" he snapped. "Woah. That's harsh, even by his standards! I mean, wasn't Ferus the one that started the whole thing?" I sympathized. "Obviously, but does he get punished? No!" he refilled his glass with the brown-colored alcohol. "I swear, man. The entire system is rigged."
I huffed in agreement and we clinked our glasses together. "Wait. So if you're grounded, are you even allowed to be here?" I said in realization. "Nope," he added extra emphasis on the "p". I smiled genuinely at my friend's impertinence, "You really don't give a damn anymore, do you?" "Did I ever give a damn before?" Andy scoffed. "Honestly, I'm just surprised that I didn't get the brunt of the punishment again, even if I'm still getting transferred." "Well, did Ben say what school you're gonna be transferred to?" I inquired. "Yeah. He said I'm going Hallowreign High," he responded.
"Wait, my school?"
He nodded.
Seeing as he was no longer in the mood for talking about today's events, I decided to lighten the mood with a different topic of conversation. "Well, it's the weekend before Christmas break." "Yeah, so?" he questioned. I rolled my eyes at him. "So, other than inciting your foster dad's wrath, what do you plan on doing for the break?" I asked.
"I'm just gonna be working at the mechanic shop," Andy shrugged. I nearly choked as I finished off my glass. He gave me a worried look as I coughed raggedly. He patted me on the back making me spit out the rest of my drink. "Dude, what the hell?" he exclaimed. Once I calmed down and caught my breath, I looked at him like he just killed my puppy. "You have two weeks off for the break and you're gonna waste it in the friggin' mechanic shop? Oh, I don't think so." "Well, too bad. You don't get to choose," he remarked.
"Uh, yeah, I do. At least this time I do," I smirked. Andy just narrowed his eyes at me threateningly, which was met by my world-class grin. Already I could see his resolve starting to break. After a few more minutes of this going on, he broke eye contact and sighed in defeat. "What did you have in mind?" he said despondently. "Glad you asked. So, I was thinking this: Day 1, go downtown to this new club on 6th to, you know, scope the place out, and before you ask, I've already got our fake IDs. Then, Day 2-" Andy raised a hand to silence me.
"Okay, just stop talking," Andy said. "But," I started. He cut me off again. "I ask you to plan out Winter vacation and this is what you come up with for the first day?" I shrugged. "No. Absolutely not."
"Oh, come on! Don't do this to me, Walker," I whined.
"Dude, I'm not going to wait around to go to a new club on winter break..." he smirked, "when I can go check it out right now. Grab your keys, Stark, we're going downtown!" "There's the Andy I know and love," I grinned.
We jumped up off the couch and ran straight downstairs, cackling as we made our way to the front door where he and I grabbed our jackets, IDs, and the keys to the Audi convertible. Once we did all that, we were out of the door and driving towards downtown. Then I turned up the radio and ironically my favorite song from AC/DC was playing. And as we were driving down the street, I felt the urge to roll the hatch back and start singing it.
So I did.
"Livin' easy. Livin' free. Season ticket on a one-way ride," I sang. Andy looked at me curiously as I danced and sung along. I eventually got him to sing along, too. And just in time enough for us both to sing the chorus. "C'mon, Andy, here we go." He laughed. "I'm on the highway to hell!" we both shouted into the wind.
"I'M ON THE HIGHWAY TO HELL!"
"I'M ON THE HIGHWAY TO HELL!"
"I'M ON THE HIGHWAY TO HELL!"
"WOOHOO!"
"YEAH. HAHA!"
Hell, here we come!
Little did I know, Hell was closer than we thought and soon our entire world would turn upside down.