After The Ending (John Frusciante)

Chapter 2

1985

"John, are you coming?"

"In a minute, mom," John answered as he stood in the middle of the driveway and observed his surroundings.

The mass of systematically placed middle class houses stretched as far as the eye could see, all of them surrounded by flower beds and other types of decorative features like garden flamingos or funny looking dwarves John had always found a little bit unsettling. The palm trees that were lining the street were lightly swaying in the wind and the sun was absolutely burning his uncovered arms.

Oh, the suburban life, he though as he made his way to the car's trunk and digged out his guitars and then made his way inside the house.

For all his life, he had been a more of a city boy, but a house in the suburbs away from all the chaos was his mom's dream and finally she and John's stepdad had managed to make that dream happen. They had a new house of their own that was ready to welcome the family of four.

"So, which room is mine?" John inquired as he slowly dragged his feet upstairs and heard his mom Gail yell from the kitchen, "The rooms on the right, you and Erik can divide them however you wish."

He then made his way into the first room in his way only to find it already occupied.

"No way, dude!" John's little brother stopped him on his tracks and declared in all his seriousness, "I'm taking this room!"

"Jesus," John rolled his eyes over his baby brother's defensiveness regarding the room sorting business and backed out from the door, then taking his chance with the next one.

Alright, could be worse, he thought as he looked around and placed his guitars into a nearby corner that actually seemed perfect for their acommodation.

It was a spacious room and if there was anything that John loved about a room, it was most definitely space. Enough space for his guitars, enough space for his records, enough space for his books and enough space for his music magazines. Once those conditions were met, there was nothing much he could really complain about.

"John, could you please help us with the rest of the boxes?" he then heard his mother call from downstairs, right as he was in the middle of observing the neighbouring windows right across from his.

"Coming, mom," he answered and quickly made his way downstairs, then engaging in the most tedious of all moving activities – carrying boxes.

Well, perhaps packing and upacking them was even more annoying, but considering that most of the boxes were not his, he still found carrying them inside the worst of the worst. Running in and out of the house in this heat was absolute torture and John couldn't wait to go and try out that little pool they had in the backyard once he was done. And perhaps then he could get out of the house for a little while and have a better look at his new neighbourhood and also sneak a few cigarette breaks for himself.

But until then, he was stuck with the box carrying and just as he was about to wonder over exactly how many boxes labeled as fragile he had carried in already, because it seemed like an endless amount, he noticed his mom taking full advantage of her suburban dream – chatting with the neighbours.

Must be the couple next door, he thought as he observed the pair, a beautiful blonde woman more or less the same age as his mom and a man, who seemed to be of Asian descent.

They seemed friendly and nice and just as John was about to go back to his business, he noticed someone slide herself out of the neighbour's car and close the door with a bang. It was a girl he figured was the couple's daughter since she seemed more or less the same age as him and she didn't seem to be in a good mood.