Waiting, chapter 2
"Got a plan of action and cold blood.
And it smells of defiance.
I'll just wait for mom and dad to die.
And get my inheritance."
*
The leaves were bright green above our heads, filtering the bright sunlight that shone down on us as we walked down Tré's street toward his house. This was what we normally did, and I couldn't be happier; Rodeo was quiet and sunny, which made up for its poverty in my mind.
Tré kicked open the door, which was open, and looked around blindly since all the lights were off.
"Dad doesn't get home till nine, so we're home alone for a while," Tré said, kicking off his shoes and heading into the kitchen. I followed, after taking off my shoes and closing the door, and took a seat on one of the barstools with my elbows on the counter. Tré handed me a beer, already opened, and sat down beside me at the bar. I took a long swig of the cool, icy drink, savoring the relief that I could feel gliding down my throat. We sat there for what seemed like forever, the silence occasionally broken by the sound of kids playing outside. Even though we weren't talking, I always enjoyed just being with Tré. He always found a way to make me laugh, and today was no exception.
"Wanna egg someone's car?" Tré asked randomly, smiling as I nodded and grabbing an egg carton out of the fridge. We ran outside, and saw a car pull to a stop in front of Tré's neighbour's house. Just as it came to a halt, we hurled the eggs at the car, to my surprise hitting the guy as he stepped out of the car.
"HOLY MOTHER FUCKER! FRANK WRIGHT, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" the man yelled furiously, throwing his briefcase on the ground and violently shaking the egg off his work suit.
"Ah shit..." Tré mumbled, before grabbing my arm and pulling us back into his house hurriedly, locking the door tightly behind us.
"HEY!! HAAAAYYYY I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU SICK BASTARDS!!!" we could hear the man's muffled voice yelling from Tré's doorstep, the door rattling as he pounded on it with his fist. Tré gestured for me to follow him, and we went out his back door into his highly undersized back yard. We sat down on the steps, and listened with content grins on our faces as we heard the man cursing loudly and stomping his way back into his house, which was two doors down from Tré's place.
"Aren't you worried he'll tell your folks?" I asked, glancing over at the house worriedly.
"Hell no. Dad won't do anything. He's used to me being a jackass," Tré said, a proud smirk placed subtly on his face. I giggled, and played with the grass in between my fingers gently. As the days slowly grew longer, I could hardly wait for summer vacation. We would go out to Tré's cabin, the place that had made my life seem worthwhile so many times, and spend days on end doing anything we damn well pleased. I was counting down the days until school finally let out, and I could spend every waking moment with my friends; well, they were really more like my family.
But the summer also made me think to the future; what was I going to do with my life? I wouldn't be able to afford college, so my only real education would be high school, and the best job I could get with that would be at a grocery store. The guys had their minds set on making it big with their band, and, really, that's the only hope I ever hung onto in my life; if their lives were successful, I would know that I had lived my life well. It wouldn't matter what happened after that. I wasn't afraid of dying.
"So, you never really told me; are you planning on going to college?" I asked out of the blue, still staring at the grass I held in my fingers. Tré looked up at the sky for a moment before turning to me and saying, "Nah. I'd never do any good there. Hopefully Green Day will get big before then... "
I nodded solemnly, continuing to stroke the grass, my eyes fixated on the soft, green plant that I had picked out of the ground.
"But dad might force me to go to college... " Tré said, breaking the silence, with a twinge of regret. "That'd suck worse than the principal."
I laughed quietly, suddenly worried about Tré. I know he said his dad would force him to go to college, but his dad was also getting older; I wasn't sure, but I knew that he wouldn't be around much longer. Of course, I didn't say anything about that to Tré. They had a relationship that nobody really knew about; other than his dad, Tré really didn't live with any other family. His siblings had all moved out, and, although I never asked, I guessed that his mother left when he was very young.
"Well maybe we can run away together; I mean, with the guys of course. We could have a free life, and you guys could spend all your time on getting a record deal! Ah, shit, that'd make me a groupie... bleh!" I grinned, getting up and kicking my shoes around in the grass impatiently. The thought of summer was making my stomach do back flips in excitement!
"You're not trashy enough to be a groupie, Erin. You'd be the nerdy girl that stalks the band and sneaks into our tour bus looking for autographs and free ice," Tré sneered, grinning as I shot him a mock-nasty look.
"I bet you planned that out, didn't you Frankie?" I teased, dodging a kick he aimed for my shins as he got up from his spot.
"Oh, you're gonna get it little missy!" Tré snickered, tackling me and sending us both to the ground with a cushy thud. It turned into a tickle fight, which Tré one, as usual.
"Ah, shit man, STOP IT! I'm gonna fucking wet my pants!" I managed to blurt out through my laughter as Tré tickled my sides without mercy. "PLEASE, DAMMIT!!"
"Hah!" Tré said victoriously, dancing around like a horse that was high on crack. I started laughing again, and clutched my sides in fear of my stomach exploding from the laughter. He smiled, helping me up and placing me back down on the porch, sitting down beside me and sighing with content.
"What are you gonna do after you graduate?" Tré asked after I caught my breath. I looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before replying.
"Well, I never really thought about it much. I've always wanted to be an artist, or maybe a veterinarian. But there's no chance of me going to college... Ollie's having a tough time just trying to send Billie to a good school, I couldn't rag on her for the money," I said, referring to Billie's mother. "So I dunno... I'll probably end up a bum, like you."
Tré punched me playfully in the arm, making me laugh and rub my arm in pain at the same time. "But really," I said with a more serious tone, "I don't know. My only chance of a good life is either getting a scholarship, or hanging out with your band when it gets out there. I'm relying on the latter more or less now... I'm not talented enough for a scholarship."
We sat there silently for the longest time, Tré looking up at the sky with an unusually thoughtful look on his face, and I looking at my shoes blankly.
"You know, whatever you decide to do, I'll be there all the way. I won't let you turn into a fucking hobo on the street; I couldn't live with that," Tré said, making me stare at him with a stunned look. Since when was Tré so serious about something? "If worst comes to worst, you could live with me as my slave."
"Aww, thank you Tré. That's so sweet... in a sick, twisted way," I grinned, pulling him into a bear hug.
"Get offa me you dumbfuck, I wasn't being sweet!" Tré whined, struggling pathetically to get me off of him. "I've always kinda wanted to just run away though, yah know, forget the rules and go live the way we want. Just like you said; we'd never have to worry about anything, well, other than eating. But if we were starving Billie would probably eat us, so we'd be dead before we got too hungry."
"Speaking of Billie, did you ever notice him and Caitlyn before? I didn't realize they liked each other that much!" I questioned wonderingly. It was rather random that they had started making out in the playground in front of us just about an hour ago.
"No, dude, that fucking surprised me! But I guess Billie has a way with the chicks...maybe he brainwashed Caitlyn into liking him, and he's gonna do that to every girl he sees, and then he'll make an evil army of slutty whores who—"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa there dude! First of all, neither Caitlyn nor I are slutty whores, and secondly—"
"No, you hold on a sec! I never said he'd brainwash you! You're too cool to turn into a hooker," Tré interrupted my interruption, looking at me with a smirk.
"Aww, that's the sweetest thing anyone's ever told me!" I squealed, reaching to him for a hug. Tré screamed loudly like a girl, and ran away from me towards the back fence of the yard. I grinned, and started chasing him around the big tree in the corner, just close enough to touch him but not close enough to grab his shirt.
"Run, run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the sexy whore man!" Tré chanted as I chased him, slowing down just enough for me to leap onto his back. Tré ran around in circles with me on his back, making me dizzy as hell, and then charged straight toward the fence connecting him to his neighbor's back yard.
"What the hell, you fu—" but I was cut off as Tré collided with the fence, sending me flying over the fence, upside down, until I crashed into his neighbor's lawn mower. I got the wind knocked out of me, and it took a few moments before I could speak, still upside down, of course.
"You shit face!! What the hell was that?!? Oww... ." I moaned, slowly turning my head to face Tré, who was on his tiptoes staring at me over the fence, a huge grin on his face. "That hurt you maniac!"
Just then I heard a snarl come from behind me, and I craned my neck around to see that behind the lawnmower, a large rottweiler was staring at me with wide orange eyes. Its mouth was dripping foam, and its hackles were raised as it stared at me angrily.
"Fuck..." I whispered, glancing at Tré helplessly. "Help!"
Tré's eyes widened, and he got down from his position on the fence, leaving me with my stomach twisting in fear. I slowly tried to move, but my legs were tangled up in the lawn mower, and my back hurt too much to move. I could hear the dog approaching slowly, it's growls getting louder and more threatening all the while. I let out a whimper of fear, looking around frantically for a sign of Tré, but didn't see or hear him anywhere. Was he just gonna leave me there to get ripped to shreds?
Just as I was about to give up hope, I turned to see Tré literally fly through the air, land on the dog, and send both he and the animal tumbling across the backyard in a yelping heap, hitting the opposite fence with a loud thud. I was too stunned to speak, and watched in horror as Tré got up and ran towards me, the dog quick to follow, its bark as loud as a vicious foghorn. Tré grabbed me by the waist and, surprisingly quickly, dragged me out of the backyard through the neighbor's gate, the lawnmower still attached to my legs. The dog randomly attacked the lawnmower, and managed to pull so hard on it that it fell of off my aching legs. Tré took his chance and threw me over his shoulder, dashing out of the back yard and shutting the gate just in time, as the dog rammed into the gate and was sent to the ground with a bang. Tré ran, with me on his shoulders, all the way down the street until he realized that the dog wasn't chasing us. Yeah, sometimes he was pretty dumb. He slowly placed me on the ground, and gasped for breath, his hands on his knees and his shirt ripped nearly in half from when he collided with the dog. I sat there in silence for what seemed like forever, until Tré finally controlled his breathing and could talk again.
"Your bones are loud when you hit things," Tré commented, making me stare at him with my teeth barred angrily.
"Excuse me?! You're the one who fucking almost got me killed! And all you can think about is that it made a loud noise when I nearly broke my neck falling on a lawn mower?!" I said, exasperated, falling back on the grass and staring up at the late afternoon sky helplessly. I could hear Tré laughing quietly, and sat up to see him staring at my crotch.
"What the hell, man! You're such a fucker sometimes—"
"Your pants are ripped. I can see your ass," Tré giggled, making my face turn a deep red color.
"Shit... well at least I wore underwear, Mr. Commando!" I couldn't help but laugh, and Tré helped me up from the grass. He pulled off his torn shirt and tied it around my waist, covering the rip in my pants but leaving him shirtless.
Tré stood in front of me for a moment, looking at me with a smirk on his face as if he was displaying himself.
"If you're trying to impress me, well... it's not working!" I laughed, and with Tré's arm over my shoulder we stumbled back to his house, both of us laughing our heads off and looking like idiots.
We both changed, Tré lending me a pair of his board shorts, which I held up with my belt, and cleaned up a little until we realized it was already close to six. We would usually get to the "shots house" early, you know, to "unsober" ourselves before the competition began. Tré and I were serious shots drinkers.
We walked to Billie's house quietly, the sun setting above our heads and making the sky turn shades of purple and orange. I had butterflies the size of airplanes swirling around in my stomach madly as I thought of summer; I just couldn't get over it. It would be a whole three-or-so months of doing nothing but hanging with my best friends...summer was always the highlight of my life. I could hardly wait.
And it smells of defiance.
I'll just wait for mom and dad to die.
And get my inheritance."
*
The leaves were bright green above our heads, filtering the bright sunlight that shone down on us as we walked down Tré's street toward his house. This was what we normally did, and I couldn't be happier; Rodeo was quiet and sunny, which made up for its poverty in my mind.
Tré kicked open the door, which was open, and looked around blindly since all the lights were off.
"Dad doesn't get home till nine, so we're home alone for a while," Tré said, kicking off his shoes and heading into the kitchen. I followed, after taking off my shoes and closing the door, and took a seat on one of the barstools with my elbows on the counter. Tré handed me a beer, already opened, and sat down beside me at the bar. I took a long swig of the cool, icy drink, savoring the relief that I could feel gliding down my throat. We sat there for what seemed like forever, the silence occasionally broken by the sound of kids playing outside. Even though we weren't talking, I always enjoyed just being with Tré. He always found a way to make me laugh, and today was no exception.
"Wanna egg someone's car?" Tré asked randomly, smiling as I nodded and grabbing an egg carton out of the fridge. We ran outside, and saw a car pull to a stop in front of Tré's neighbour's house. Just as it came to a halt, we hurled the eggs at the car, to my surprise hitting the guy as he stepped out of the car.
"HOLY MOTHER FUCKER! FRANK WRIGHT, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" the man yelled furiously, throwing his briefcase on the ground and violently shaking the egg off his work suit.
"Ah shit..." Tré mumbled, before grabbing my arm and pulling us back into his house hurriedly, locking the door tightly behind us.
"HEY!! HAAAAYYYY I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU SICK BASTARDS!!!" we could hear the man's muffled voice yelling from Tré's doorstep, the door rattling as he pounded on it with his fist. Tré gestured for me to follow him, and we went out his back door into his highly undersized back yard. We sat down on the steps, and listened with content grins on our faces as we heard the man cursing loudly and stomping his way back into his house, which was two doors down from Tré's place.
"Aren't you worried he'll tell your folks?" I asked, glancing over at the house worriedly.
"Hell no. Dad won't do anything. He's used to me being a jackass," Tré said, a proud smirk placed subtly on his face. I giggled, and played with the grass in between my fingers gently. As the days slowly grew longer, I could hardly wait for summer vacation. We would go out to Tré's cabin, the place that had made my life seem worthwhile so many times, and spend days on end doing anything we damn well pleased. I was counting down the days until school finally let out, and I could spend every waking moment with my friends; well, they were really more like my family.
But the summer also made me think to the future; what was I going to do with my life? I wouldn't be able to afford college, so my only real education would be high school, and the best job I could get with that would be at a grocery store. The guys had their minds set on making it big with their band, and, really, that's the only hope I ever hung onto in my life; if their lives were successful, I would know that I had lived my life well. It wouldn't matter what happened after that. I wasn't afraid of dying.
"So, you never really told me; are you planning on going to college?" I asked out of the blue, still staring at the grass I held in my fingers. Tré looked up at the sky for a moment before turning to me and saying, "Nah. I'd never do any good there. Hopefully Green Day will get big before then... "
I nodded solemnly, continuing to stroke the grass, my eyes fixated on the soft, green plant that I had picked out of the ground.
"But dad might force me to go to college... " Tré said, breaking the silence, with a twinge of regret. "That'd suck worse than the principal."
I laughed quietly, suddenly worried about Tré. I know he said his dad would force him to go to college, but his dad was also getting older; I wasn't sure, but I knew that he wouldn't be around much longer. Of course, I didn't say anything about that to Tré. They had a relationship that nobody really knew about; other than his dad, Tré really didn't live with any other family. His siblings had all moved out, and, although I never asked, I guessed that his mother left when he was very young.
"Well maybe we can run away together; I mean, with the guys of course. We could have a free life, and you guys could spend all your time on getting a record deal! Ah, shit, that'd make me a groupie... bleh!" I grinned, getting up and kicking my shoes around in the grass impatiently. The thought of summer was making my stomach do back flips in excitement!
"You're not trashy enough to be a groupie, Erin. You'd be the nerdy girl that stalks the band and sneaks into our tour bus looking for autographs and free ice," Tré sneered, grinning as I shot him a mock-nasty look.
"I bet you planned that out, didn't you Frankie?" I teased, dodging a kick he aimed for my shins as he got up from his spot.
"Oh, you're gonna get it little missy!" Tré snickered, tackling me and sending us both to the ground with a cushy thud. It turned into a tickle fight, which Tré one, as usual.
"Ah, shit man, STOP IT! I'm gonna fucking wet my pants!" I managed to blurt out through my laughter as Tré tickled my sides without mercy. "PLEASE, DAMMIT!!"
"Hah!" Tré said victoriously, dancing around like a horse that was high on crack. I started laughing again, and clutched my sides in fear of my stomach exploding from the laughter. He smiled, helping me up and placing me back down on the porch, sitting down beside me and sighing with content.
"What are you gonna do after you graduate?" Tré asked after I caught my breath. I looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before replying.
"Well, I never really thought about it much. I've always wanted to be an artist, or maybe a veterinarian. But there's no chance of me going to college... Ollie's having a tough time just trying to send Billie to a good school, I couldn't rag on her for the money," I said, referring to Billie's mother. "So I dunno... I'll probably end up a bum, like you."
Tré punched me playfully in the arm, making me laugh and rub my arm in pain at the same time. "But really," I said with a more serious tone, "I don't know. My only chance of a good life is either getting a scholarship, or hanging out with your band when it gets out there. I'm relying on the latter more or less now... I'm not talented enough for a scholarship."
We sat there silently for the longest time, Tré looking up at the sky with an unusually thoughtful look on his face, and I looking at my shoes blankly.
"You know, whatever you decide to do, I'll be there all the way. I won't let you turn into a fucking hobo on the street; I couldn't live with that," Tré said, making me stare at him with a stunned look. Since when was Tré so serious about something? "If worst comes to worst, you could live with me as my slave."
"Aww, thank you Tré. That's so sweet... in a sick, twisted way," I grinned, pulling him into a bear hug.
"Get offa me you dumbfuck, I wasn't being sweet!" Tré whined, struggling pathetically to get me off of him. "I've always kinda wanted to just run away though, yah know, forget the rules and go live the way we want. Just like you said; we'd never have to worry about anything, well, other than eating. But if we were starving Billie would probably eat us, so we'd be dead before we got too hungry."
"Speaking of Billie, did you ever notice him and Caitlyn before? I didn't realize they liked each other that much!" I questioned wonderingly. It was rather random that they had started making out in the playground in front of us just about an hour ago.
"No, dude, that fucking surprised me! But I guess Billie has a way with the chicks...maybe he brainwashed Caitlyn into liking him, and he's gonna do that to every girl he sees, and then he'll make an evil army of slutty whores who—"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa there dude! First of all, neither Caitlyn nor I are slutty whores, and secondly—"
"No, you hold on a sec! I never said he'd brainwash you! You're too cool to turn into a hooker," Tré interrupted my interruption, looking at me with a smirk.
"Aww, that's the sweetest thing anyone's ever told me!" I squealed, reaching to him for a hug. Tré screamed loudly like a girl, and ran away from me towards the back fence of the yard. I grinned, and started chasing him around the big tree in the corner, just close enough to touch him but not close enough to grab his shirt.
"Run, run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the sexy whore man!" Tré chanted as I chased him, slowing down just enough for me to leap onto his back. Tré ran around in circles with me on his back, making me dizzy as hell, and then charged straight toward the fence connecting him to his neighbor's back yard.
"What the hell, you fu—" but I was cut off as Tré collided with the fence, sending me flying over the fence, upside down, until I crashed into his neighbor's lawn mower. I got the wind knocked out of me, and it took a few moments before I could speak, still upside down, of course.
"You shit face!! What the hell was that?!? Oww... ." I moaned, slowly turning my head to face Tré, who was on his tiptoes staring at me over the fence, a huge grin on his face. "That hurt you maniac!"
Just then I heard a snarl come from behind me, and I craned my neck around to see that behind the lawnmower, a large rottweiler was staring at me with wide orange eyes. Its mouth was dripping foam, and its hackles were raised as it stared at me angrily.
"Fuck..." I whispered, glancing at Tré helplessly. "Help!"
Tré's eyes widened, and he got down from his position on the fence, leaving me with my stomach twisting in fear. I slowly tried to move, but my legs were tangled up in the lawn mower, and my back hurt too much to move. I could hear the dog approaching slowly, it's growls getting louder and more threatening all the while. I let out a whimper of fear, looking around frantically for a sign of Tré, but didn't see or hear him anywhere. Was he just gonna leave me there to get ripped to shreds?
Just as I was about to give up hope, I turned to see Tré literally fly through the air, land on the dog, and send both he and the animal tumbling across the backyard in a yelping heap, hitting the opposite fence with a loud thud. I was too stunned to speak, and watched in horror as Tré got up and ran towards me, the dog quick to follow, its bark as loud as a vicious foghorn. Tré grabbed me by the waist and, surprisingly quickly, dragged me out of the backyard through the neighbor's gate, the lawnmower still attached to my legs. The dog randomly attacked the lawnmower, and managed to pull so hard on it that it fell of off my aching legs. Tré took his chance and threw me over his shoulder, dashing out of the back yard and shutting the gate just in time, as the dog rammed into the gate and was sent to the ground with a bang. Tré ran, with me on his shoulders, all the way down the street until he realized that the dog wasn't chasing us. Yeah, sometimes he was pretty dumb. He slowly placed me on the ground, and gasped for breath, his hands on his knees and his shirt ripped nearly in half from when he collided with the dog. I sat there in silence for what seemed like forever, until Tré finally controlled his breathing and could talk again.
"Your bones are loud when you hit things," Tré commented, making me stare at him with my teeth barred angrily.
"Excuse me?! You're the one who fucking almost got me killed! And all you can think about is that it made a loud noise when I nearly broke my neck falling on a lawn mower?!" I said, exasperated, falling back on the grass and staring up at the late afternoon sky helplessly. I could hear Tré laughing quietly, and sat up to see him staring at my crotch.
"What the hell, man! You're such a fucker sometimes—"
"Your pants are ripped. I can see your ass," Tré giggled, making my face turn a deep red color.
"Shit... well at least I wore underwear, Mr. Commando!" I couldn't help but laugh, and Tré helped me up from the grass. He pulled off his torn shirt and tied it around my waist, covering the rip in my pants but leaving him shirtless.
Tré stood in front of me for a moment, looking at me with a smirk on his face as if he was displaying himself.
"If you're trying to impress me, well... it's not working!" I laughed, and with Tré's arm over my shoulder we stumbled back to his house, both of us laughing our heads off and looking like idiots.
We both changed, Tré lending me a pair of his board shorts, which I held up with my belt, and cleaned up a little until we realized it was already close to six. We would usually get to the "shots house" early, you know, to "unsober" ourselves before the competition began. Tré and I were serious shots drinkers.
We walked to Billie's house quietly, the sun setting above our heads and making the sky turn shades of purple and orange. I had butterflies the size of airplanes swirling around in my stomach madly as I thought of summer; I just couldn't get over it. It would be a whole three-or-so months of doing nothing but hanging with my best friends...summer was always the highlight of my life. I could hardly wait.
