Summer days

Chapter 17: The Hipster and the Dog

Danica

I was in Ven's room, we were just doing the usual "girl stuff". Reading Teen Vogue while listening to an old Spice Girls Cd of hers. I was going to ask her my question but she was talking about "hipsters" instead. So I just nodded along flipping the latest issue of Teen Vogue.

"I mean most of the girls in school are slowly turning into hipsters, they think they're so cool just because they have a record of this very retro artist." She scoffed. "I mean they're just posers, they don't even know one song of the band on their shirt. Trust me, I asked them and they didn't even know they were a band..."

"Yeah, hipsters..." Even if I'm not listening that much, I agree with her. It's not like we are saying that we are hipsters or indie kids but we just appreciate old music from the 50's to the 90's. I looked at Ven to see if she were going to rant about hipsters but she just took a sip of her lemonade and flipped the page of her magazine.

"So Ven, I was wondering if you could answer my question for uhh..."

"For what?"

"Uh, let's just say it's for English." I cleared my throat. "Okay, so what do you think of Romeo & Juliet's tragic love story?"

She cringed at the word love story but answered me anyways. "Okay... Let me see. I would say that they were young and stupid so they died. You know what is Juliet without her Romeo? Alive! Boom." She said as she dropped an imaginary mic.

"Okay..." I frown. I was expecting something way more sweet since this person I'm asking is Ven. Well, I guess she's just really bitter about this story as well. "I'm gonna go get more lemonade..." I walked out of the room and walked down the stairs. I went down the stairs and went to the kitchen. I refilled my glass with lemonade and looked around. It's weird that Ven seems to be the only one in their house today. I mean it's normal for their mom and her brother Zac to not be here at this hour but, Will is not here this time. I didn't want to go up yet (because Ven started singing when Wanna be started to play) so I just sat down on the kitchen stool and just drank my lemonade.

The front door then suddenly opened and Will came in. He looked kind of messed up. He didn't seem to notice me, he crashed on his couch and made a sound like he groaned, out of frustration. I checked on him from the kitchen, he seemed to be tired so I just left him there and quietly went up the stairs. I guess I could always ask him next time...

William

I like dogs but Gordon's neighbors dog is an exception. She hates our guts and probably wants to rip our heads off. That's why I rarely visit Gordon's place. But I had to go to his house today, he wanted to just hang and talk about "the latest news" or whatever. We were walking to his house, and that's where it all started...

"Will, did you ask Dani out yet?" Gordon asked me.

"No, did you ask Rose out?"

"No." He quickly said.

"And why is that?"

"Well, she was in a rough state. She was telling me all about her bullies and stuff and I tried not to make her more upset. So I'll give it some time..." He explained. I just nodded and continued walking when we heard Gordon's neighbors dog barking at us when we walk by their house.

"Man, that dog really hates us. I mean I have lived here longer than this dog and he thinks she's so tough or something. And whenever some random person walks by, she doesn't bark at them. But when we do, she barks like there's no tomorrow. And when..." He stopped talking when the dog stopped barking. It got awfully quiet for a while, we stopped moving and stayed still. We talked in whispers.

"Dude, did the dog escape? Or is she inside their house?" I whispered.

He shook his head slowly. "They never let her in..." He whispered back.

"She doesn't have a leash on. Do you think she escaped?" He doesn't answer. We didn't move, we waited for something to happen (which is how all horror stories start). And then from afar, we heard a grr-ing noise. We quickly panicked and Gordon started to run. So I ran. Whenever your friends run, you should run. Gordon and I were running towards the next neighborhood where he lives, I don't know how many times I tripped (almost tripped actually).

"Dude, we just passed your house!"

"I know!" He panted as he headed for this place behind his house. We ran there and we crashed landed into these bushes. I think I may have broken some bones, Gordon too but I guess that doesn't really matter now does it? We were groaning as we both got up.

"Dude, why in the world did you run?" I said. "It was just a freaking motorcycle right? Not that demon dog..."

"Yeah but I panicked..."

I just ignore him and got up and walked away. "Whatever, I''m heading home..."

"See you tomorrow?" I just groan and walked away and left the neighborhood. That's the story about how Gordon caused so much trouble for nothing.

***

I came home, my body aching (I really need to work out but, nah) and I looked messed up. I just went in my house and crashed onto our couch. I didn't care that my sister was there, she was probably going to ignore me and just ascend upstairs. Which she did. I then found myself falling asleep. Everything today just seemed to be... Messed up. That's my word of the day.

***

"Will." A voice said. It felt like light was illuminating me. It's like I'm going forth to the light. "Will" The voice said again. It's like it's calling me, the voice is saying something like it's calling me. I tried to wake up but I couldn't move. I guess this is it. I was going...

"Will!" I suddenly jumped up. I woke up. I saw the person calling out my name, it was Ven. I got up and sat from the couch. "You were talking in your sleep..."

"Yeah, whatever..."

Ven then lend me this paper. "Dani was here earlier but she didn't want to disturb your sleep." She said as she walked away. I just look at her with a confused expression, I opened the crumpled paper. There was a question on it (which I didn't have the answer to. That's a first). But her question seemed to be relating to a certain assignment or she's giving me hints like what Rosemary did to Gordon. I planned to answer her question the same time I'll go and ask her out. Fingers crossed for tomorrow...