Back Harlow Road

The field off Back Harlow Road was the best place to party on nights there was something big going on in town. Homecoming, prom, state champion basketball games...anything that attracted the majority of the high school population. Bakers Meadow was a first come first serve location - if you roll up and it's empty then you and your friends get to control the crowd for the night. You get here and it's occupied, you move along unless you're invited in. It was one of those Castle Rock codes that had been handed down for years that everyone followed.

Eyeball, Mudgett and I had a fire going in a barrel, a cooler full of suds, a couple of joints I bought off Tommy and Roy Orbison on the radio, life was good. The other guys had been either dragged to homecoming or were waiting around town to pick up girls who did.

"I hope they bring some dames back with them." Eyeball leaned back in his chair.

"Ace, are you jealous that Vince is making a play at Sylvia?" Jack reached into the cooler for another beer.

I shook my head. "That was a one and done. I wonder what shitbird view rat pissed her off that she's making any time for Desjardins."

"So true. If I had a nickel for every uppity view bitch who flirted with me to piss off their poindexter boyfriends, I'd have a fuck load of nickels." Eyeball laughed.

"It's the name. They're mad at their daddies so they tell them they have a new boyfriend named Eyeball. That'll get them sent right to the convent." I smirked.

"Hey man, I'll take what I can get. Who does Sylvia hang out with these days that might come? Amy Thomas I think is single, I'd let her get it. Oh maybe that babe Theresa Gordon...did you hear Tony Raymond's parents bought him a car to break up with her? Thought she was trailer trash so bribed him with a Mustang to lose her. I'd give up my car to get with someone that hot." Eyeball laughed as he lit a cigarette.

"You don't have a car, shit for brains." I shook my head.

"Exactly, so I'd definitely give up nothing to get with her." Eyeball laughed again.

"What time do you think we'll start to see some action? It's gotta be almost nine o'clock, people gotta be jetting from the dance soon, right?" Mudgett looked to see what time it was.

"Shit Ace, do you think that girl got homecoming queen? The one with the crazy fucking mother? Rory Scanlon?" Eyeball leaned forward closer to the fire.

"That girl was bred from birth to win homecoming queen." I nodded.

"Oh shit I remember her. That girl is a babe. Dates that dickhole Nick Wilson, right? I do her father's lawn, their house is easily the nicest one in the rock." Mudgett, like Eyeball, had dropped out of high school the year prior and was now full time at his Uncle Dave's landscaping company.

"Yeah Mudge, you should have seen it. Her mother came to the station a couple of weeks ago and launched a Vote for Rory homecoming campaign. Fucking wild. The woman was out of her mind. I hope that girl wins, her mother might kill herself if she doesn't." Eyeball shook his head.

"Ace, you vote for her?" Mudgett needled me. My re-enrollment in high school was everyone's favorite punchline these days.

"I did. Have you seen the ass on her? She deserves a crown for that alone." I raised my beer.

Headlights appeared over the hill and a few cars made their way down. I recognized Vince's ford and Billy's Chevy pull up a few yards away.

"Look at this chivalrous mother fucker, jumping around to help Palumbo out of the car like she's some kind of lady." Mudgett laughed. The girls were all dressed in their homecoming gowns, which although lovely weren't the most practical for walking through the tall grass in the meadow. Vince offered Sylvia his arm and she giggled and leaned on him as they stepped through the grass. She noticed me sitting there and immediately looked away, as if to hope that no one else among us knew that Vince wasn't the first guy she'd slummed it with in our gang.

I recognized a few other girls, Amy Thomas and Jenna Connors, but no one special. If a layup presented itself I wasn't going to turn it away, but none of these girls were worth putting in any real work. I cracked another beer and lit another cigarette.

The girls were clearly already buzzed and were louder than they needed to be. They gushed over the homecoming dance, who was with who and who wore what. I exchanged looks with Mudgett and we both immediately regretted our wish for female company.

"Oh my god, did you hear Rory Scanlon's dress cost $1000?" Amy and Sylvia yammered back and forth.

"It was nice but not THAT nice. God, we get it, you're rich and beautiful. She needs to get over herself." Sylvia nodded in agreement and curled up next to Vince. Why does this girl continue to be the topic of every conversation? Is there really that little to do in this town that so many people are fixated on the day to day life of some pretty girl? I shook my head and tried to tune it out, but after my run in with Rory and her mother I didn't doubt for one second that Ashley Scanlon would drop $1000 for a homecoming dress.

Sylvia continued. "We should stop talking about you know who with you know who here." She tapped Amy and not so subtly pointed to Jenna.

"Yeah Jenna, what's the story? Did you really hook up with Nick Wilson in the locker room before the homecoming game?"

Eyeball spit out his beer at the directness of Amy's question. Jenna smiled and shrugged. "A lady doesn't kiss and tell."

"You ain't no lady if people are saying you got it on in a gym locker room." Eyeball cackled and was met with dirty looks from the girls.

"Nick and I have been best friends forever. Things with Rory have been complicated lately, we were just talking." Jenna said curtly with a slight smile pulling at her lips that indicated there was much more to that story.

I was distracted as other headlights pulled in, two cars I didn't recognize at first.

Mudgett stood up and squinted to see who had pulled in. "Ahh it's Donahue, he's cool, I told him to stop by. He owes me a bag from the poker game last week." Mudge waved his hand and Donahue came closer with a few people in tow.

"Shit Eyeball it's your lucky day, looks like Theresa Gordon is here after all." Mudgett laughed.

Sylvia and Amy went silent. "Okay everyone shut up about Rory Scanlon, they're best friends that can't get back to her." Sylvia loudly whispered.

Donahue was another good connect for grass and party drugs. He worked for his cousin's ice delivery company down on the coast and used their beach connections to hook up the interior towns with grass, mushrooms, a little of everything. I didn't realize he hung out with Theresa, who looked coldly down at Sylvia, Amy and Jenna upon arrival.

I was less excited to see that Chuck Benedetto was the owner of the other car that arrived with them. Our paths had crossed a few times and it had gotten ugly on more than one occasion. From a garbage call on a pool game to some bullshit over a drag race out in Gorham two summers ago where we both pulled knives...whenever he was around I was usually dragged into some kind of trouble.

Eyeball pulled a chair next to him and offered it to Theresa, who awkwardly accepted it. "I really like your dress…" I cringed as I heard a drunk Eyeball start to compliment this disinterested girl way out of his league. She politely accepted a beer from him. "Donahue, you got a joint?" She patted his arm as he stood next to her talking to Mudgett.

He reached into his pocket and handed her a joint and a lighter. "Have at it kid, send it 'round." She smiled and expertly sparked the joint. Sylvia's face twisted and I heard her lean into Amy and Jenna. "Not surprised one bit to see Theresa smoking pot...that's part of the reason Tony's parents didn't like her." Amy gushed.

Jenna smirked. "Nick thinks she's a bad influence on Rory, he's caught her smoking it a bunch lately and he's not happy about it."

At that moment I thanked god I was born a male. These girls were brutally catty. Theresa could tell they were talking about her, but she puffed the joint and started to relish the compliments Eyeball fired at her. She was a tougher broad than I was, I would have decked Palumbo for some of the shit she was spewing.

Eyeball passed me the joint and I took a long hit. I noticed Chuck standing next and I offered it to him. He stood there stone faced. "You fucking serious, Merrill?"

I sighed. "Do we have beef to squash? What gives?" I gave the joint back to Theresa.

"Last time I saw you, you fucked up my Dodge and fucked my sister the same night. You think I'm going to forget that?"

The second detail had escaped me when I recalled my prior issues with Chuck.

"Listen man, that was a couple years ago." I shook my head. I didn't have a knife on me and Chuck was at least 2 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than me.

"Ace Merrill of two years ago would have stepped to me by now. You're just sitting in that chair nursing a cold one. Heard you went soft after your year in Chamberlain." He smirked.

Soft. No one wants to be called soft. Especially not me. If I stepped to him, best case scenario he's not packing heat and I stand a chance at getting a few hooks in. Worst case scenario he is and this becomes a group brawl and the cops end up here. Castle View girls here, god knows Donahue definitely has a fair amount of grass and other party favors on him...this was a recipe for disaster. Eyeball had turned his attention from Theresa and to Chuck.

"Come on man, don't fuck with him. Ace Merrill ain't never been soft and just cause he doesn't want to deal with your two year old beef don't mean shit." Eyeball stood up and stepped to Chuck.

Chuck towered over him and I saw him reach for his hip. I jumped up at the same time as Donahue. "Come on man, this is fucking stupid. I've been on probation before too, don't fuck with the guy, let it go." Donahue tapped his arm. Eyeball stood chest to chest with Chuck and I stood to the side, ready to jump in. Chuck turned his focus from Eyeball to me. "Stay out of trouble, precious. Would hate to see you go back in the slammer." He spun and stomped away to his car.

I was fuming and it took everything I had to not chase after him and cold clock him from behind. I knew I had dodged a bullet by not fighting, but I did absorb a giant blow to my ego. I've never been called soft and not handled it in my life. I knew eating some shit would come with the territory of staying out of trouble, but to be faced with it felt like absolute garbage.

"I'm sorry Ace, fuck that guy. He's coming back down the coast with me tonight and I told him to tag along...I didn't know he was gonna start trouble." Donahue reached out to skin it and cut some of the tension.

"It's cool, I guess I shouldn't have fucked his sister."

Donahue laughed and the girls started to chatter again and the tension in the air dissipated. I looked at Theresa, who had completely zoned out after bogarting the joint during the tense moments with Chuck. I caught her eye and she passed it to me. "Sorry about that, I guess I was selfish. Rory says I sleep on the j's all the time, guess she's right." She smiled, dazed.

I took a long hit. "I didn't peg you and the prom queen to be such dirty potheads."

She shrugged. "Since middle school. Most of our old crowd wasn't into it." Her eyes narrowed as she looked toward Amy and Sylvia.

I finished another beer and made my way over to the cooler. I held up my empty bottle to Theresa and she nodded to indicate she'd take another and handed me her empty.

I grabbed a cold one for me and one for her and went to sit back by the fire. Theresa took a sip and I noticed that her eyes were fixed on Jenna Connors, an icy glare painted her face. These broads brought a different type of drama than I was used to. Back before Chamberlain, during a normal night out in the meadow Amanda and her crew would be with us. Someone would inevitably be mad at someone else and the girls would end up drunk and in screaming fights. When Amanda was involved it usually escalated to straight up fist fights. As refreshing as it was to not have to spend my night preventing her from clawing someone's eyes out, the cold war between Theresa and Sylvia's crowd was just awkward and uncomfortable.

When it became clear that Theresa was too out of it to be much conversation, I walked over to my car to stretch my legs. As I turned back to the group by the fire, it did look ridiculous to see these girls in fancy dresses shiver in the meadow. Seemed like a lot of fuss for a dance in a high school gym, but I guess I wasn't really supposed to understand stuff like that. Leave that for the Rory Scanlons of the world to figure out.