Page 5 of Calavera Society
“Itwasa person. I know because I turned back, and it wasn’t there anymore.”
Leroy taps my arm and jerks his chin up in question. Leroy is the quiet one out of us, and usually speaks with a look or gestures rather than actual words, but that’s only because he has a stutter and is very self-conscious of it. I’ve fought a few bitches for making fun of him like the cunts they are. He’s a gem, one of the good ones that got fucked over one too many times and now he’d rather fuck ‘em and leave em than risking a moment getting hurt again.
The final straw for him -and all of us to be honest- was when he tried to ask a girl to prom. He stuttered the whole way through until the cunt had the audacity to laugh in his face in front of the whole school.
I got the bitch later, catching her in the locker rooms after gym. I spent the next two minutes introducing her face to my fists and the nasty cement floor that hasn’t been mopped since installation. She missed prom for her mistake, and her wired jaw let everyone know what happens to someone who hurts one of my boys.
Needless to say, she lost the nerve to laugh at Leroy ever again.
“I was waiting outside Noah’s house because his slow ass was taking forever, and I saw a guy standing between the two houses across the street. Noah thinks it was a scarecrow -in the middle of July, no less- but I think Dumar is starting to go senile, like thesundowningkind.”
They’re all quiet for a minute, only the sounds of the tires on the highway fill the silence. Could it have been just old mister Dumar wandering around in a daze or was it some random shit my mind is using to block out the turn I know my life will take in the coming weeks?
“Alright, I think it’s time for a smoke.” Rico says before pulling out a blunt and passing it to Noah. He turns the music up to a mind-numbing level and I let my thoughts and worries drift away with the heavy bass and sweet, sweet taste of Mary Jane.
Noah turns to me from the front seat, his eyes locking on mine through the smoke and I feel my world settle for a moment.
Life can be a real bitch, but when you have good friends and a baggie of some weed, you should be alright. At least, that’s the notion I feel like telling myself right now.
Rico passes the blunt to me over his shoulder, his pretty emerald eyes connecting with mine in the rearview mirror, “Sorry for fucking with you, Val. And listen, Dumar may be an old man with ghosts of the past visiting him in his last days, but I’ll still go and check on him if you want me to, make sure the man isn’t some creep trying to fuck with my main bitch.”
He gives me a wink, making me chuckle and shake my head. That’s what I mean about Rico, he’s a punk but he’sourpunk and in his own way, he’s one of the good ones.
“We all will, right, Leroy?” Noah reaches back and smacks the man in question on the knee.
“A-always, chica.” I lean over and kiss his cheek, loving it when he uses his words with me.
I lay my head on his shoulder as I pull in a drag from the blunt. Someone rolls down the windows, letting the cool air pound through the strands of my hair around my face as I exhale the smoke from my lungs.
As the weed cruises through our systems, we begin belting out the lyrics of Delinquent Habits, all of us living in the moment together, our eyes clashing during the intermittent flashes of the streetlamps, not a fuck or a care in the world. This is what I needed, a night with the boys.
I just don’t know how I’ll tell them I’m leaving.
THREE
* * *
‘CROSSROADS’ BONE THUGS N HARMONY
“No!Fuck no, Val. You can’t just move away!” Noah practically shouts.
“Shh!” I shove him toward the edge of the property where the bonfire is being held. Thankfully, Leroy and Rico seem to be busy talking to some of our old classmates.
I sigh and turn back to Noah who’s staring at me like a wounded puppy.
My best friend is a handsome guy, likedrop-your-burning-pantieskind of gorgeous, with a lean but muscular body that has most girls drooling and the guys envious, too bad for us ladies, he prefers dick to pussy.
“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not like I have a choice here.”
“You’ll be eighteen this fall! Youdohave a choice!”
I sigh and sit down on the log that was once a beautiful tree in its day, now it’s a fallen carcass with hundreds of carved initials from all the graduating classes partying here for the annual bonfire.
My fingers trace the heart encasing two initials as my mind imagines what they’re lives have become. Did they stay together, high school sweethearts becoming the power couple, or did they go to separate colleges and forget all about their whispered promises of undying love? I’m betting on the latter being the case.
“That’s just it, I’m seventeen. I don’t have anyone else I could go live with, so it’s either rebel and cause my mom a world of stress and baby daddy drama, or just suck it up and go until I turn eighteen. Then neither of them will have a say over my life.”
Noah is quiet for a minute, a look on his face that tells me he’s coming up with a plan. It’s the same look he got when we were trying to come up with fresh senior pranks; a crease between his brows, his full lips pulled to one side as he chews on the inside of his cheek. The Giant centipede that wraps around his neck is one of the first things most people notice about Noah, you know, once you get past the beauty that is his face, but what really drew me in was the warmth of his smile. Noah has always been such a light in my world, not that my world was dark when I first met him, but it was as though I knew deep inside it would be, and he would become the sun in my stormy world.