Chapter seven

By Pippie

(Dusti's POV)

I checked the rear view mirror and then began to back out of the driveway. My dad, Bam, already looked like he was going to have a panic attack sitting there in the passenger seat. It's so God damn annoying the way he acts when I'm driving with him. Even when he shuts up and just sits there he drives me crazy because he's always making faces or quietly mouthing curse words or whatever, making me nervous as hell. He's been that way since I got my learner's permit, which is why I hardly practice with him. I much prefer practicing with my dad, Jimmy.

Dad clutched the back of the seat and yelled at me to stop once Jack showed up behind the car out of nowhere.

"What the fuck are you doing!"

"Dad! Don't yell at me! I'm nervous enough as it is without you acting like I'm the worst driver ever!"

"You could have run over your brother! Weren't you paying attention?"

"Maybe I wanted to run him over." I muttered

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. But, jeeze dad, if Jack can't move out of the way when a car is coming toward him then he's a fucking moron who needs to get run over."

"Don't talk like that about your brother."

"Alright. Dad let me drive because Aila's waiting at the airport. Just be quiet and don't do anything while I'm driving."

"I can't help acting like this. It's hard for me knowing my little girl is learning how to drive already."

"Whatever. Just chill out will ya? It could be much worse any way. Dunn could be teaching me how to drive."

"Oh God don't even joke like that."

"Whatever." I smirked and made sure no one or nothing was in the way before backing out again

Part way to the airport I had to stop and let my dad take the wheel. He was just making me way too nervous and annoying the hell out of me so I decided to give in and let him drive. When we got there I went right up to Aila and gave her a hug. She took her sunglasses off and used them to push back her hair before looking at my dad.

"Bam you look like a bundle of nerves." She smirked "Don't tell me Dusti's driving has gotten worse."

"Oh be quiet Ai." I shoved her playfully "I've been driving so much better lately, especially when I'm driving with Jimmy."

"Yeah ok I have to admit, Dusti, your driving has gotten a lot better." Bam said

"Thanks Dad."

Dad put Aila's bag in the car for her and then we started on our way back to our house with her. On the way there I saw Aila take a lighter out of her pocket and then put it back. I could tell that she wanted to smoke but I didn't say anything. When we got to the house she asked me if Cole had said anything to me about a phone message. She seemed really nervous to see Cole for some reason, which is strange for her. Normally she'll be yakking my ear off telling me all about how much she missed her little hempeä Cole. I didn't know if something was going on between them or whatever it could be, but Aila definitely didn't seem all that excited to see that Cole had beat us there. I wasn't sure if I should ask her what was going on.

Cole came up to us all smiles, and very much happy to see Aila. He picked her up and swung her around in his arms, giving her a big hug and kiss. As he sat her down on her feet neither of them noticed her lighter and a cigarette fall out of her pocket and land on the ground. I cleared my throat to get their attention.

"Excuse me, but I'm here too."

They looked at me, smiling a little sheepishly.

"Sorry Dusti." Cole said "But I hardly get to see her."

"I hardly get to see her too!"

Dad walked by, grinning at all of us, and headed inside saying he'll put Aila's bag in my room.

"You expect me to not greet my boyfriend?" Aila asked as she nudged the lighter and cigarette behind her with her shoe

"Well no."

We all went inside and up to my bedroom. Cole quietly mentioned to me that he noticed Aila try to hide the fact that she started smoking again, but he didn't feel like worrying about it. I didn't blame him actually, with him having to worry about Corey. Aila and I sat on my bed while Cole sprawled out on his back on the floor. He looked up at us and began talking about Corey, Josh and Amy and everything that's been going on at his house lately. I couldn't help noticing just how bad Cole looked. He definitely wasn't himself since Corey had gone to rehab. He didn't even spike his hair or put eyeliner on today. His eyes didn't even show their typical sparkle. It was no surprise at all that Cole was hurting so much. I think he really needed this visit with Aila, just to try to get a break away from all the drama. I think we all could use a break. I haven't been able to concentrate in school lately and my grades are all ready beginning to suffer for it. I'm just glad school is almost out. But I know things are much worse for Cole and his siblings right now.

We sat in my room talking for a while. We talked about just about everything we could think of. Jimmy came to the door and told me that I had to go to my voice lessons. I had completely forgotten about lessons. I wanted to forget about going to them today just to hang out with Cole and Aila, but I couldn't because I have a concert to prepare for coming up in a couple days. On my way to voice lessons I sat in the car with Jimmy thinking about everything Cole had said to us. Josh and Amy were having a baby, which is really the last thing Uncle Novak and Aunt Jade need to worry about right now. But I just basically blocked it out of my head; like I do any time those two are brought up together. Like my brothers and my dads, my way of dealing with the problems my cousin's girlfriend has caused is to just stay out of it the best we can. Hey it's worked real well for us so far so why change that? As for Aila, I think that she stays out of the whole thing too and just focuses on Cole. I sighed, thinking about Cole. Because when I started thinking about him, I started thinking about Corey. It hurts so much knowing what he's going through and everything he's putting us all through. I'm trying not to think about it all right now because if I keep focusing about all this, then my singing will suck and my teacher will bitch at me, again.

(Andy's POV)

I pulled my long light brown hair into a pony tail and then picked up the skate deck that was on the counter. I sucked in my lower lip and began to play with my labret stud with my tongue. My labret piercing was only a week old so I was still trying to get used to it. Normally, with as much of a hippie that I am, I wouldn't be into things like piercings. But Dusti talked me into it because she said it would look hot on me. She's the ionly/i reason why I wound up getting it done because I've had a huge crush on her ever since we were in the same classroom in kindergarten. I ask her out all the time and she turns me down all the time saying that she's "flattered" but we're "too good of friends". I never let that hurt me though. It just made me more determine to try to make her my girlfriend.

Instead of taking me home I had one of my co-workers drop me off at Bam and Jimmy's house. I heard through the grapevine that Aila had come from Finland to visit for a little bit so I knew Cole would be there today, making this the best time to give him the new deck. As I got out of the car I pulled the bottoms of my pant legs over the top of my sneakers. My pants were slit in the back, going up to my calves and had hand sewn seams so they wouldn't unravel. I had done that myself to make my own bell bottoms, like I do to all of my pants, except I didn't have any material to add to this pair to make them real bell bottoms. Last year I took a home ec class so I could learn how to sew. I knew that would be a good skill to learn because me and my friends are always ripping our clothes for whatever reason. It's so funny because among all of my friends, all these Goths, skaters and little punks running around I'm the only hippie so I stand out like a sore thumb. Dusti also has a bit of hippie in her, which is kind of rare for the Margera family, but it really comes out the most when she's around me. But none of my friends have ever cared what we were on the outside.

I walked up to the house and saw Cole and Aila sitting on the porch talking. I went up to them but they didn't notice me right away so I stood back and listened to their conversation until I was noticed.

"So did you get my phone message?" Aila asked a little nervously

"Um… actually my mom did."

"Oh…"

"Yeah she thought it was the sweetest thing. She embarrassed me to no end."

"Aww I'm sorry. But just to let you know I really didn't mean to say that last part."

"It's ok I really don't mind. Well except for the part where I got humiliated by my mom in front of my brothers and sister."

"Hey I don't know what phone message you're talking about, but if it embarrassed Cole then that makes my day."

They looked up at me half startled.

"Oh shut up Andrew James."

"Ooh… he said your full first name. You're in for trouble."

"Nah. When he says all of my names I'm in trouble. That was just a small warning." I grinned

"Oh you mean Andrew James Allen Du-"

"Don't finish that. You've already said too much." We all laughed "Hey is Dusti here?"

"No you just missed her. Left for voice lessons a few minutes ago."

"Oh. Well it's not a big deal. I really came here to see Cole."

"Oh yeah? What for?" Cole asked

"Dude I've been saving this aside for you. I was going to wait 'till your birthday to give this to you but I couldn't wait that long."

I gave him the brand new skate deck I brought with me. I secretly had one with a custom design made just for Cole. I knew he was going to love it. Seeing the deck really brightened Cole right up very fast. He told me that if he was gay he would have given me the biggest kiss. But since he's not gay, he gave the kiss to Aila instead. The three of us got to talking and decided to hang out in the tree-top casino. We all liked to hang out up there on days like this. Sometimes we would mess around and "gamble". It was never for money, just for fun, so we couldn't really call it gambling.

As we talked up there we sat down in the corner. Without really thinking about it I casually brought out my pipe and baggy of weed and packed a bowl while Cole and Aila stared at me. Completely out of habit I sat there and hit the bowl while talking to them and I passed the pipe to Cole so he could take a hit. He just glared at me.

"Andy I can't believe you." He shook his head

"What? It's not like you didn't know I smoke. Dusti and I smoke together all the time, sometimes in front of you guys."

"Not only are you sitting there smoking pot in front of me, knowing damn well that my brother went to rehab, but you're actually trying to offer some to me."

"Dude I'm sorry. It was just a habit."

"Maybe if it's such a habit, you should go to rehab." Aila said with kind of a cocky tone

"You can't get addicted to pot." I rolled my eyes

"Says who? Besides you said yourself you smoke it all the time."

"You guys know how I was raised. Alcohol and pot are the only things that my parents aren't bothered by when it comes to drugs. They always let me believe that it was ok as long as I was responsible about it. I've even smoked joints with my dads before! You've known about this for a couple years and never said anything about it before! You're only saying anything about it now because of Corey!"

This started a really bad fight between us. We never fought like this before. I couldn't believe I was there trying to defend how I was raised and my family's beliefs to my very closest friends; especially when they never cared about it before. We were all shouting at each other and saying all kinds of hurtful things. I thought that our friendship was going to be ruined. I had to step back and take a deep breath before I said anything else. I decided to leave before it got any worse but as I was leaving Cole had to try to get the last word.

"Yeah just get the hell out of here you dirtbag hippie! Go get high and talk to some trees or something!"

I turned around and glared at him "Why don't you fall off a ramp and break your neck!"

Everything went silent for a moment before Cole took a swing at me. The next thing I knew, Cole and I were rolling around on the ground fighting, while Aila was shouting at us trying to get us to stop. We had to of been fighting like that for almost five minutes before Bam and Jimmy showed up to pull us apart. They bitched at us for fighting in their yard and I looked at Cole. He looked just as ashamed as I felt. This was so unlike me, so unlike ius/i. The fight just happened so fast that neither of us had time to think. Bam took me home where I had to face my dads. I don't know how to even begin to explain what happened to my dads.