Current Status 13.4.06
Hi-ho.(Hi-ho, it's off to work we go. Love those Disney songs.)
Aite aite. (That's about as gangsta as I get.) Current status! Whoo, an update. Current status is that it's actually sunny in the Bay Area today. Sunny as in NO RAIN. Dang. I was beginning to think we were going to start taking after Seattle or something.
Anyway, down to some more important business. Or semi-important, anyway. I have been doing some writing, so I've got a teaser all set up for y'all. My lips are sealed on the plot of this story, because plots are hard things to come by, and if some shady person decided to take a plot o' mine, that'd be pretty janked up. And we don't like janked up situtations now, do we?
Alright, enough jimmy-jackin' around. Here's your teaser.
Teaser 13.4.06
Mel is calling to me. “Come on, Meg, let’s go meet some boys.”
“Already? But we just got here,” I say.
“That’s the point,” Denise laughs. “Come on, Meg. The night is young.”
I don’t feel like going with them. “You can go ahead,” I tell them, “I’ll catch up with you girls later. I wanna hang with the guys for a while.”
“Okay, if you say so,” Mel says, and they’re off, moving as a pack, ready for a hunt.
“Is this how it always is?” Lee asks me curiously as they leave without me.
“I’m not as hormone-crazy as they are. I prefer to hang with the guys, as long as they’re not meeting girls. It’s a calmer night this way, trust me,” I reply.
Kenny and the rest of the boys are standing about a foot away from me and Lee, fooling around, and they’ve just realized the girls have left and I’ve stayed.
“Hey, is tonight a girl-hunting night or a guys chilling night?” I ask Ken.
He glances around at the rest of the boys. Phil points at the keg, and Marcus nods in agreement.
“Guys chilling,” Bobby answers for all of them.
Ken smiles. “You can hang with us, little girl.” He slides an arm around my waist, tousling my hair affectionately with his other hand. I duck a little, laughing and trying to pull away but he doesn’t let me.
“I’m not little,” I protest.
Marcus gives me a look.
“Well, only compared to you guys. Y’all are like a foot taller than me,” I say, pretending to be offended, hiding a smile. It’s so easy hanging with the guys. I can just ignore Michael and everything’s cool. They take care of me, especially Ken, and I take care of them; it all works out. No need to try and impress anyone.
“You got a beer already?” Ken looks down at the bottle in my hand.
“Yeah, you want it?” I offer. “I’m DD tonight. Jess and Mel forgot and gave it to me.”
“Nah, one beer won’t hurt ya. You hold on to that. I’ll get something later,” he says.
We hang out for a while near the bonfire, and the guys’ antics make me laugh, as always. None of them are drinking too much, which I’m glad for. I guess they’ve gotten tired of the same thing over and over again. I know I get tired of it sometimes. Marcus wanders off when his girlfriend Carrie shows up about half an hour later. There’s a lot of people there I don’t know, so I stick close to the guys. We find a place to sit, not too far from the fire or else it’d be too cold. It’s a typical bonfire party, typical guys chilling night – they’re goofing off and I’m quiet, sipping at my beer when I remember it, and listening to them.
About an hour and a half has passed since we’ve gotten here, and the current topic of conversation is girls.
“Dude, I still say she’s hot stuff. Maybe she’s a mean one, but she’s hot, I’m telling you,” Bobby says emphatically. “It cancels out.”
“Yeah, to zero,” Phil snorts.
“You have to admit, she is pretty mean,” Ken points out.
This has stirred my interest. “Who are you guys talking about?” I join in.
“Jen McPheron,” Bobby says. “Let’s get a girl’s opinion. Meg, is Jenny hot?”
I furrow my brow. “She’s mean. She always says bad stuff about other people.”
Bobby obviously thinks I’m missing the point. “But she’s good-looking.”
“She’s pretty, I guess,” I say diplomatically.
“How do you know Jen bad mouths other people?” he asks.
“She says bad stuff about me,” I say simply.
“Oh. Shit. I take it back. She’s not so hot anymore. No one messes with Meg. I’ll glare at her on Monday for you, babe.”
This makes the guys laugh, and I have to smile a little. “Thanks Bobby,” I say.
“She’s the blonde, right?” Lee asks.
He hasn’t said anything in a long time, and we all turn to him.
“Yeah,” Kenny replies. “Blonde, kind of short, never smiles. Apparently mean to Meg.”
“She’s in our English class,” Lee says to me. “She sits next to you.”
I nod. I’m surprised he knows this. Jen McPheron is pretty mean to me. She always has little snide comments about Michael. She thinks she has the authority to pick on me about him because she was his girlfriend two days after we broke up. I just ignore her, like I ignore Michael.
Suddenly I don’t feel like being with the guys anymore. I want to be alone. I stand up and dust off my backside.
“I’ll be back,” I say.
“Wait, where are you going?” Kenny asks, stopping me with a hand around my ankle.
“Just, over there,” I gesture. “Um, I want to go find the girls, or something.”
“You don’t have to go. I’m sorry Meg, we’ll stop talking about Jen.”
“No, it’s not about Jen,” I reassure him. “I just…just let me go, Kenny, please.”
He does, reluctantly. “Okay. Come find us before you leave.”
“I will. See you guys later.”
I walk off. There really are a lot of people here. I want to get away, I want to be by myself. I find my way to the edge of the park, away from the bonfire, and find a little path that leads through a small cluster of trees, to a rocky cliff. The grass has changed to gravel. There’s no railing between the cliff and the drop off to the sea churning below, but it’s safe. There’s a picnic table there, but I choose to sit on the ground instead. With the absence of the bonfire, it’s dark save the light of the stars and moon. Half Moon Bay is a lot less urbanized than our city, so there’s less light pollution out here. I can see the Big Dipper and Taurus – those are about the only constellations I know.
I hear a quiet crunching of gravel, and know that someone has followed me. I expect it to be Kenny.
“Hey.”
It’s not Kenny. The voice is slightly deeper. I turn around and see Lee Summerfield standing next to me, slightly behind, hands stuffed in his pocket jeans. His eyes are scanning the coast line.
“Mind if I sit with you?” he asks.
I do mind, but I say, “Go ahead.”
We are quiet, and I realize after a moment that he is watching me. He’s always watching me, I’ve noticed. Ever since the first day of school. Every day at lunch, every day in English, whenever I’m around him, he knows, he’s watching.
I decide to confront him about it. “Why do you always stare at me?”
“Because you’re beautiful. And intriguing.”
“I’m not intriguing,” I deny. “Or beautiful.”
“But you are. You just don’t realize it,” he says lightly.
“Right,” I say.
“Are you always so distant?” he asks.
“Only to people who stare.”
The response slipped out by itself, and I wonder how he’s going to take it. Lee laughs. It’s an honest laugh, a nice laugh, I decide, then stop myself from following down that train of thought.
“I think you’re the first person that has dared to say anything remotely harsh to me since I’ve started going to Matthias High,” he grins. “I like that. So are you going to start the conversation, or shall I?”
“Must we have a conversation?”
He laughs again. Is it really that funny?
“Most people like having conversations with me.”
“Oh really.”
“Really. Girls like talking to attractive guys.”
“No, girls like talking to modest guys.”
“Like there are any left in the world?” he teases.
I find myself smiling. Just a little. “There are some,” I say, “If you look hard enough. You can always find something if you look hard enough.”
He nods slowly. We are silent for another long moment. Out here on the coast by the ocean, on the edge of the world, I feel like I can breathe. Away from people, away from my life, away from everything. I love watching the ocean. It’s always moving, it never achieves rest, but it’s beautiful in its infinite power.
“So what kind of music are you into?” Lee asks casually. His eyes, their blue color almost indistinguishable in the dark, flicker sideways and connect with mine for a moment, as if he’s judging my response before I even give it.
I shrug. I hate it when people ask me this question. “Lots of different stuff,” I say.
“Like what? Be more specific.”
“Like…” I bite my lip. “Music. Music is music. I don’t know.” I shrug again, my hair sliding against my bare shoulder with the action.
“Like pop? Rap? Reggae? Do you like that kind of stuff?”
Why does he prod in the most uncomfortable places?
I rub my thumb around the mouth of my beer bottle. “I listen to that stuff.” It’s not a lie. Melanie and Jess love that crap, so I have to listen to it too, when we’re in the car, or at parties.
“Oh, I see. What else?” Lee asks.
“What do you mean, what else?” I play dumb. This guy is really something. Usually when you tell someone you listen to pop or rap, they don’t pry any further. Usually people assume it’s either that or the alternative scene.
Lee Summerfield does not follow what most people usually do.
“Do you like any other kinds of music?” he elaborates. If I were him, I’d be exasperated at this point, and would have given up on an obviously forced conversation topic, but he plows on.
“Sure.”
“Like what?”
“Like…I don’t know. Just other stuff, you know?” It’s hard to be vague when someone asks you such direct questions.
“Not really,” Lee says. “Not really.” He’s undeterred though. He pushes on. He should be glad I’m a patient person. “Do you like rock?”
Maybe longer answers will get him to stop asking. “It’s okay. I don’t like classic rock too much. I don’t understand it. But maybe that’s just ’cause I’m not a musician. That’s what Tori says anyway. Tori loves rock.”
“I don’t like classic rock much, myself. How about oldies?”
“Yeah, I listen to that sometimes,” I smile slightly. “My da loves KOIT. That’s the oldies station around here,” I tell him.
“That’s cool.” Lee seems pleased. “Any other stuff you like?”
I’ve already ventured too far, admitting that I listen to oldies, so I pull myself back. “Yeah. Just some other random stuff.”
His gaze is calculating, but he says, “Okay.” I take a tiny sip of my beer.
“You don’t like beer much, do you?” he says suddenly, his voice cutting the silence between us.
“Why do you say that?” He has caught me off-guard.
“That’s the same bottle you’ve had with you all night. I remember. It’s a Heineken,” he explains. “No one drinks Heineken around here. It’s usually Bud and Coors.”
“Yeah,” I say. “I don’t like beer much. Heineken’s better than Bud and Coors though.”
“What do you prefer?” Lee asks.
“I prefer not drinking at all,” I find myself saying. I’ve never said this to anyone before. Never. It must be the ocean air out here that’s made me relax and loosened my mouth. Now that I’ve started though, I should finish. “I think drinking is the stupidest aspect of high school social acceptance. Drinking shouldn’t make you cool. Doing something illegal shouldn’t make you cool. But, in answer to your question, when put in a social situation where I have to drink, I prefer the stuff we use in drinking games. Like vodka and orange juice. Or coke with rum. It’s easier that way. You can control how much alcohol you want in your drinks. You can get drunk a hell of a lot faster, but it’s better than sipping at a carbonated beer.”
I see a flash of perfectly white teeth in the darkness. Lee is grinning. “I should talk about drinking with you more often,” he chuckles. “That’s the longest speech you’ve ever said to me.”
I flush. I try to get him off this topic. “What about you?”
“My drinking preferences? I don’t care much for beer either. I agree with you. Coke with rum, vodka and orange juice, that stuff is mildly better. Beer is not a man’s drink – you want manly man alcohol, you go for wine,” Lee says.
“You like wine?”
“Yeah. Just a glass here and there though. It’s a treat. You should try it sometime.”
I glance sideways at him. The wind is picking up his hair, ruffling it.
“Do you get drunk a lot?” I don’t know why I’ve asked, but the question is out there before I can take it back.
“No,” he replies. “I prefer not to make a fool of myself. And plus the hangover is a – it sucks.”
I smile in spite of myself. “You can swear in front of me, you know. I won’t be offended. Go on, say it.”
I’ve surprised him this time, I can tell. He grins again.
“Hangovers are –”
“ – a bitch,” I finish with him in unison. I sigh. “A bitch,” I repeat very softly, looking out at the waves below us, thrashing on the rocks.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks me quietly.
I am silent for a long, long moment. What am I thinking about?
I’m thinking about a night much like this one last year, when I had been at a party. I am thinking about how that was the first time I got really drunk, and how Michael took advantage of me that night. I am thinking about how sick I had felt the next morning, how I couldn’t stop throwing up, how much I hated myself, hated Michael, hated that being drunk had left me powerless. I am thinking about how I broke up with him. About how pissed he had been. How much the spiteful words he said afterwards hurt, even though they shouldn’t have. About how the first boy I’d ever come close to falling in love with had turned out to be exactly the kind of person I realized I couldn’t fall in love with – the kind of person who could hurt me and had, simply because he’d been able to.
I sigh. “What am I thinking about? Nothing, really.”
end.
There you go. I do not have a title for this piece yet.
Much love -
Kit
posted by K. Harlande @ 13.4.06
5 Comments:
I really like it...it's a lot different from The Storm. She's a LOT different from Winter but just as interesting and intriguing just like the guy said...and well the guy is egotistic- pure hotness like always. He's still different then Zack though, he's more forward, open-minded and hopefully not filled with a bad past...one bad past from the two romance characters is enough really.
I also like the part that she's more comfortable with guys then with girls and she's fine with admitting it, she's very honest to herself- that can be a very good and fun thing. But she's dishonest and hidden from the others, that's good too because it's realistic. There are many people in the world like that, me for one...but I find myself being like Winter a lot too *snort* enough about myself- in short I like the teaser and would love to see where this is going.
-emerald
I absolutely adore your writing. So I have a suggestion for you, only if you want to of course. There is a site called lulu.com where authors can publish there work as a book. You get to choose everything, cover, price, etc. and it's all free. If people choose to buy it, the site takes a small percent of the price for publishing and you get the rest. I just found out about it and thought it was a cool idea. I'm sure you could get some extra bucks off of it so, just letting you know! By the way, can't wait to here from you back on fictionpress soon. :)
-hold your breath
Hi
http://poker-moza.blogspot.com/
Bye
http://tramadol-best5.blogspot.com/
Good Luck!
that is actually about me lol, i am lee summerfield, i have blue eyes. im not like other boys, and i have a music obbsseion
email me - savage1875@hotmail.com
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