I was
sitting in the cafeteria today with Harley, Neil and Jagdish. Man, I missed
those guys.
I’ve
been sitting on my own, or just wandering around like a space cadet for so
long, I never got caught up with my friends. Sure, I hung around with them for
the occasional event, chatted with them in the hallways and sometimes sat with
them during lunch or spares.
But
today was different.
It was
like old times, back before things between Sarah and I fell apart.
I
hadn’t felt normal, like one of my old pals since before Christmas. But they
welcomed me right back into the fold.
We
were talking about old man Cottman and his fuckin’ end of year pop quizzes. We
ended up getting all razzed about that morning’s pop quiz surprise and the fact
that none of us passed this one. We started worrying about the upcoming History
exam that Cottman would present us with when Harley made an announcement.
“We
should fucking party tonight!” he said.
“What?”
Jagdish looked at him, stunned. “It’s a school night.”
“Fu .
. . Screw that,” Harley said, quickly changing the first word of his sentence
because a teacher was walking by. “We all flunked this pop quiz, we’re likely
going to flunk Cottman’s exam. Why don’t we take a moment to just say ‘to hell
with this’ and party it up?”
“Not a
bad idea with all of the bizarre shit that’s been going on around here lately,”
Neil said. “Both a teacher and a student died just this semester, never mind
the accident that nearly took out Miss Hamilton and Sarah.” Neil paused very
briefly to look at me when he said this, sensitive to my reaction to her name.
“We could use the release. Besides, this is our last year in high school. Next
year -- who knows? We should make the most of our time together.”
I
started laughing. “Hey, Neil, that’s awfully sentimental of you.”
Jagdish
leaned toward him. “C’mon, Neil. Give us a hug.”
“Yeah,
you fairy.” Harley said. “Let’s have a group hug and a cry. What are you, like
Oprah?”
“Lay
off Harley,” Neil said. “I was agreeing with you, okay.”
The
group was quiet for a minute when Jagdish spoke up. “Where?” he asked.
We all
looked at him.
“So,
we know we’re going to do this. So where? The pit?”
"Fuckin'
A, Jag." Harley said
The
rest of us immediately agreed as well. The pit was an abandoned dump that was
just off the highway. There was easy access to it, but the deep pit allowed us
to make a lot of noise and have a bonfire without anyone being able to see or
hear from the road.
Plans
were made as to when we were going to meet, who was going to bring what and it
was all settled by the time the bell rang announcing our lunch period was over.
Man,
was that ever a good thing. It’s been way too long since I’ve felt that good.
I’m so looking forward to getting drunk with my buddies later tonight. Going to
pretend to go to bed early then sneak out. Can't wait.
