Yearbook Club. ||Joshua Bassett||

Izzy's Party

The last football game of the season was, so far, going really well. Our team was barely winning by one point, so the steaks were high. The five of us were standing together on the track, snapping photos for the yearbook. The cheerleaders were hyping up the crowd to cheer on the players, and Max, being quite the player himself, couldn't pull his eyes away from them. I playfully nudged his arm, "Hey perv, how are the interviews coming?" I asked him.

He snapped his head to face me. "Good, I interviewed two of the football players."

"You wanna take a few pictures?"

His eyebrows raised. "Sure!"

I handed my camera over to him, making sure he wrapped the attached strap around his neck for better security. "Just don't break it, Mrs. G will kill you."

He nodded in response, and I walked over to where Josh was standing. He glanced at me, "Where'd your camera go?" I pointed over to Max, who was holding the camera up to his eye. Josh laughed at him, that was a sound we all heard more frequently now. He used to never laugh, but the five of us have been in a really good place recently.

We'd been hanging out every weekend, wether it be going bowling or watching movies at each other's houses (usually mine or Max's). It felt like we were on top of the world, drama free and rid of all problems. 

The next morning at school, I went through the pictures that Max had taken. He was sat right next to me, looking at his work too. "These are actually pretty good, we might use some of these." I complimented.

"Yeah, I've been told I'm good at a lot of things." He jokes.

I roll my eyes and continue looking through his photos. "Woah wait- why'd you take ten pictures of the same cheerleader in a row..?"

"That's Izzy Martin."

"Yeah, but- do you have a crush on a cheerleader, Max?" I tease him.

"Pftt, I've had a crush on her since fourth grade."

Josh chimes in, "That's some dedication you have there."

"Izzy is so cool! She's my lab partner in chemistry." Maddie adds.

"We used to play tether ball in elementary school." Charlie also adds.

Max let's his arms fall onto his lap. "Great, so she knows everyone exists except me." He swivels around in his chair to face his computer screen again, and begins typing up his interview conversations to put in the yearbook later on.

The next sports to cover in the yearbook were basketball and soccer, our group didn't have to work on either of those since they were assigned to other groups. In the meantime, we had planned on finishing up our spaces in the yearbook, and use the rest of the time to have fun. The first thing on our agenda- according to Maddie- was to go to another party. Izzy Martin's father had a huge house about 20 minutes away from school, and he coincidentally would be out of town for business. There was not better time than that for her to throw a party. Of course Max begged us all to go, and since we had nothing better to do, we all agreed.

I was scared of the idea at first. Josh could tell I was anxious while we were all talking about it and asked, "Is this really a good idea? Remember what happened last time we went to a party?"

They all looked at me. "It's okay, I'll be fine as long as I'm with you guys." I respond. I really didn't want to be the reason not to go.

Maddie shook her head. "Mason won't even be there, Izzy doesn't like him."

"She doesn't?" I asked.

"Hell no, she heard about what he did to you and told me she thinks he's a scumbag." Maddie reassured.

I shrugged. "Alright, then I'm in!"

The party was scheduled for Saturday night, which was two days away. Josh volunteered to drive since he had more experience than the rest of us. We decided to meet at Josh's and head out at 9. Our parents would never let us drive to a party 20 minutes away, so we planned on lying and saying we were going bowling since that was more believable.

I felt nervous to lie to my parents, I wondered if I should at least tell Will the truth just in case, but he might snitch.

Saturday came around quickly, and we were all excited for Izzy's party. We were waiting at Josh's house for Max to show up. He told us he'd be running late but was in his way... that was 10 minutes ago and we were losing daylight. Luckily though, Josh was comfortable with driving in the dark. Max finally pulled up and quickly hopped in the back seat next to Maddie. Josh and I were in front. "Okay so, here's the plan. Maddie: you're going to introduce me to Izzy, then her and I will hit it off and talk all night, I'll get her number-" Max rants.

Maddie cute him off, "Slow down, I'll introduce you if you promise not to creep her out."

"I promise.." he says.

I planned on staying near Maddie or Josh the whole time, just in case Mason rudely invited himself to Izzy's. Surprisingly there weren't a lot of cars on the road that night. We were on the access road going towards downtown, there was a truck driving a little bit ahead of us, but they were swerving in and out of each lane. "What the hell is this guy doing?" Josh asked. He decreased his speed in order to distance ourselves from the other car. We stayed behind them for quite a while, then they started slowing down too. He was in the lane right next to us, and Josh tried speeding up to get away from him. The other car swerved again, hitting the right side of Josh's car. What happened next was a blur, but we ended up on the side of the road after spinning out of control. Thankfully, everyone was okay. We were all at a loss for words.

I looked to the back seat, "Is everyone alright?" I asked.

Max, Charlie, and Maddie all nodded their heads in response. "We almost just died.." said Charlie.

"Yeah, but we didn't." Maddie remarked.

Josh unbuckled his seatbelt. "I'm gonna go check the damage.."

"I'll go with you. Someone call 911." I said.

Maddie took her phone out of her bag. "I'm on it."

I got out of the car and walked over to Josh, who was in front of the car inspecting the damage. The whole side of the car was scratched, the right headlight was completely broken, and the bumper was half off. He stood there frozen. "It can be fixed." I said.

He shook his head. "My parents are going to kill me..."

"No they're not. Josh, this isn't your fault. It's his." I gestured to the other driver. They were on the opposite side of the road, still in the car with the lights on. "They'll be glad that no one got hurt."

"Yeah maybe my mom will, but my dad is gonna be pissed, and then that'll start a fight with my mom and I can't be the reason they get into another fight. I-I can't, I don't know-" he spoke in such a panic that his voice cracked a few times, he was shaking like crazy.

I looked him straight in the eyes, told him that everything was going to be okay, and he nodded before pulling me into a hug. It wasn't the first time he held me, or perhaps it was. Last time i was the one who hugged him and he was so surprised by it that he didn't hug back. But this time, he wanted to; needed to hold someone, and I was glad he'd chosen me. I wrapped my arm around his torso, while his arms were around my back, and we just stayed there. I knew that from this point on, I'd be exactly this. Whenever he needed someone to talk to, or someone just to hold, I would be there for as long as he'd let me.

When he pulled away, his eyes glistened. We could hear sirens in the distance. I couldn't figure out what it was, but something in him changed that night.