The Arlingtons had decided to move into the new house early and were hosting a New Year's Eve party as housewarming.
Eva, Dustin, and I were killing time before we went over to the high-rise to hitch a ride with Alan.
Eva had found some old home movies of us when she lived on our street and decided that we needed to watch them.
"New Year's Eve 2006." I laughed as I watched the footage of my grandparents trying to entertain us kids. "Jesus, we were all so tiny."
"Probably the first time my parents let me stay up past eight back in the day." Eva smiled. "I probably fell asleep before midnight anyway."
"Oh, look at our dads!" Dustin pointed. "Winter did not stop them from grilling."
On the screen, the camera panned to Dad, Paul, Mr. Harlan, Mr. Wahl, and another one of our neighbors all in Mr. Wahl's garage making food on the grill.
"Yeah. If there was a way to grill out of season, our dads knew it." I said.
"That guy beside your dad, Ricky." Eva pointed at the unnamed neighbor with brown hair and broad shoulders. "I remember his pork sandwiches were so good. What ever happened to him?"
"Oh, that's Cliff." I said. "He, er, shot himself back in November of '09. Not too long after my mom died. Not really a topic for the dinner table."
"Damn, I do miss those sandwiches." Dustin sighed before pointing to another family on screen. "What about them?"
"Oh, the Delarosas." Eva said. "They moved away back in 2010. I remember going over there to ask the daughter if she wanted to play and the house was empty. What about the old guy talking to Henry?"
"Oh my god." I smiled. "That's MacFinnegan. The old World War Two veteran. He passed away in 2013, I think."
"God, I miss that old codger." Dustin shook his head. "He used to give me a dollar every time I passed by his house if he was outside."
"Look at Kerry!"
On screen, a smaller version of Kerry was jumping around on a broom acting like Harry Potter.
"My brother, the goof." Dustin smiled solemnly. "We were so innocent back then."
"Oh!" Eva started giggling. "Here comes one of the best parts!"
In the recording, Mr. Brenner, another one of our former neighbors, burst through the front door.
"Brenner's here!" He said, all sing-song.
"Who was he, again?" Dustin asked.
"Brenner?" I turned to him. "He was the gay guy who lived across from MacFinnegan and Cliff. Our whole street loved him. The rednecks on Ogara did not, however. That's why he moved."
Hopefully things would be tame tonight. The bad stuff always seemed to go down at parties or any type of gathering- Anthony usually involved. The Country Club, Danielle's house, you name it.
Town seemed kind of quiet tonight. I guess everyone had gone to Marion or something, so we were just hanging around until it was time to head over to the Arlington's new place.
As the tape wrapped up, we threw our jackets and winter gear on. We ejected the tape from Eva's ancient VHS player after rewinding it and went outside to start walking over to the high-rise and making small talk along the way.
"Does anyone know when break ends?" Dustin asked. "Just wondering what day of the week we go back."
"I dunno." I said. "But I'll be damned if they try to make me go back on a Thursday. I'll skip it."
YOU ARE READING
Survival of the Toughest
General FictionIn 2016-2017, Ricky Patterson, a lower class teenage boy with repressed trauma, and his friend group are in the early stages of growing up, hoping they can make it to the other side. Ricky feels that his friends are all he has due to having no famil...
