I stared blankly at my boring, white ceiling. There was nothing to do! I’d already listened to every song on my iPod, I re-read my favorite book, hell I even cleaned my whole room! Crystal was downstairs with her boyfriend and I didn’t want to bother them but my stomach said otherwise. I sat up grabbing my phone to see if anyone had texted me, and to my dismay no one had. I tossed my phone on my bed before walking downstairs as quietly as possible, trying not to disturb the mushy couple.
“Hey,” I sheepishly waved to Vic as he smiled at me from where he was sitting with my best friend.
“She comes out of her room!” Crystal threw her hands in the air in mock surprise.
I rolled my eyes walking into the kitchen to make a turkey sandwich, “I do go outside y’know.”
“When was the last time you hung out with someone besides me?” She crossed her arms staring at me.
“I hung out with Steve last week,” I lied, avoiding eye contact by layering the turkey perfectly.
“Who’s Steve?”
“Look Crys, I don’t want to talk about this when Vic is here. Just let me eat my sandwich and watch Netflix,” I snapped not wanting to be interrogated in front of someone that wasn’t family.
“Actually, I have to be at band practice in twenty minutes so I gotta go,” Vic stood up and kissed Crystal’s cheek before walking out the front door.
“Damn you, Vic,” I sighed running my fingers through my hair.
“Have you even tried talking to your friends from school?” Crystal got up and sat on the island.
“Yes, I texted them every day for two weeks,” I frowned.
“Well now you know who your true friends are,” she ruffled my hair before continuing, “I just don’t want you to spend your last summer vacation inside all the time.”
“You sound like my parents,” I mumbled half joking.
A half smile grew on her face, “Well Vic and I were talking and we were thinking about you giving his brother, Mike, a try.”
“What?!” I practically shouted. There’s no way I’m talking to Mike. The whole school practically quivered whenever he came within five feet of them, I don’t want that to happen to me too!
“Just hang out with him for the rest of summer and if you still don’t like him then you don’t have to when school starts. Please? You haven’t seemed happy at all lately and Mike seems like a good fit for you!” Crystal begged giving me her best pouting face.
It’s only six more weeks, what’s the worst that could happen?
I sighed, “Fine.”
“Yay! Tomorrow night Vic invited us to his friend’s bonfire and that’s when you’re going to talk to Mike, okay? Also you’re going to his house every other day and Mike’s coming over here every other day.”
“Wait. What? I did not agree to that part,” I was perfectly fine with the bonfire part, but hanging out with him every day?
“He has band practice on Thursday nights, but any other day you guys have sleepovers,” I could tell she was forcing back her laughter.
“Why are you suddenly forcing this on me?” I asked finally eating my sandwich.
“Vic told me Mike’s been starting to get bad again and so have you.”
“What do you mean he’s starting to get bad?” I asked raising an eyebrow.
“You’ve been out of it. The other day when I brought up the Blink tickets you shrugged and said it sounded fun. You didn’t even seem excited! As for Mike, he hasn’t been drumming like usual and he just eats, sleeps, and smokes all day,” Crystal was finally starting to get angry with me.
I realized she was right and just nodded.
“By the way Mike’s taking you to the concert,” She hopped off the island and skipped to her room.
“Motherfucker,” I groaned
~~
“Ashley, hurry up! Vic’s going to be here in ten minutes!” Crystal called from the bottom of her stairs.
I threw on my acid washed shorts with an old Led Zeppelin tank top and threw on a hoodie I got from a Green Day concert.
“Crystal! Have you seen my-“ I tripped down the last four steps in the middle of sentence. “Shit, that hurt!” I stood up to see Vic and Mike standing in the door way laughing their asses off.
“Did you fall down the stairs again?” Crystal appeared from the bathroom.
I nodded shyly, “Where are my Converse?”
She pointed next to the couch and I quickly pulled them on.
“So I’m guessing we’re all ready?” Vic asked when Crystal slipped on her shoes.
We both nodded and headed outside. I followed Crystal and Vic to his car. They both got in shutting and locking the doors leaving me outside. Vic was laughing as Crystal shook her head and pointed to where Mike was leaned against a pickup truck. I groaned and walked towards Mike. I hadn’t realized he had a Medusa piercing and plenty of tattoos. Dang.
“I’m sorry about my brother,” He sighed adjusting his beanie.
“It’s fine. Crystal is just as bad,” I reached for the door handle but he beat me to it. I gave him a look but he insisted on opening the door for me.
“Do you think I’m not a gentleman?” He grinned.
I smiled and got into the passenger seat, “Chivalry’s dead my friend.”
“Nice rhyme,” he joked once he entered the driver’s seat.
The car ride there was silent in a slightly awkward way. Well it wasn’t awkward because I blasted Green Day and looked out the window the entire time. It wasn’t that big of a bonfire as there where only five people there, well seven now.
“Hey tonight we have to have a sleepover at my house,” Mike rolled his eyes, “But before Vic heads home do you maybe want to smoke with me?”
He smokes? Sweet! “What do you have?”
“Weed or cigarettes, which ever you prefer.” He had a smug grin on his face.
“Awe dang! Hell yeah!” I smiled widely jumping out of the car and heading towards the fire.
“Ashley!” Vic greeted me with a huge smile.
“Hey,” I laughed lightly for no apparent reason.
“This is Tony,” Vic pointed to an innocent looking guy with a dermal piercing underneath his eye just like me. That made me really excited as many people found the piercing weird.
“Hey! I like your piercing!” I smiled at him.
He studied my face smiling, “Thanks! I like yours too.”
“This is Jaime,” Vic pointed to a much built happy-go-lucky looking guy.
“Hi!” I waved.
“Are you Ashley?” He asked exposing the most perfect dimples.
I nodded seeing Mike out of the corner of my eye talking to Crystal and Tony smoking a cigarette.
For the rest of the night we made small talk and when ten o’clock came around Mike came up to me putting his arm around my shoulders.
“Well we gotta go, I promised her a Harry Potter marathon tonight!” Mike yelled over the music we blasted from Tony’s car.
“She can recite every single one though!” Crystal looked at me suspiciously.
Mike smiled down at me quickly, “So can I! See ya later Vic!”
“I’m actually sleeping over Crys’s tonight, so I’ll see you in the morning!” Vic waved as Mike and I walked to his car.
“Good lie,” I laughed getting into the passenger seat.
“It wasn’t a lie. We’re watching Harry Potter tonight stoned!” He grinned like a five year old on Christmas morning.
“Fuck! You are amazing!” I laughed.
We got to the Fuentes residence to see that his parents were gone.
“Where are your parents?” I asked as we stepped inside.
“It’s just Vic and me,” he led me to his bedroom.
I nodded. His room was a dark shade of red with a desk to the side, which was scattered with drum sticks, a desk off to the side, and a TV.
“Set up Harry Potter,” he threw a remote at me, “I’ll get the bongs!”
I was laughing at the fact that he squealed at the last part. I walked towards his TV putting in the first Harry Potter movie. I was in starfish position on his bed waiting for him to come out of his closet.
“My other friends never smoke, man!” He sat down on the bed setting the items in front of my face. “Sit up or you don’t get any.”
I immediately sat up seeing the sandwich baggie in front of me.
“Do you want to take the first hit?” He asked setting it up.
“Awe Mike I’m flattered,” I put my hand over my heart, “Pass that shit over.”
He smirked handing me his blue swirled bong. I took a pretty big hit and started coughing a bit.
“Don’t cough it up!” Mike rubbed circles in my back.
“I just haven’t done this is so long,” I lay on my back as he took a pretty big hit himself.
“You’re not watching the movie!” He whined.
“Neither are you,” I giggled slightly.
“Well I’ve seen it like a hundred times!”
“So have I!” I rolled over when I felt him lay down next to me.
“Oh,” he laughed poking my dermals.
That’s when I realized Mike wasn’t so bad after all.

Notes

They moved kind of fast, oh well.
Yeah Crystal and Vic are forcing them to have a sleepover atm.
I'll try to update as soon as possible! I have a very emotional plot for this story *rubs hands together*