Life After Dinosaurs

2 - Cred

The car was aNissan Altima, which had seen a couple fender benders. Despite thebruising, the silver model had been scrubbed and waxed, and the floor freshly vacuumed. The driver was a bleached blonde with a partialtan named Sally or Shelly or something. I was in back, driver's side, next to April and Donovan in that order. April was ashort girl with a party girl smile, and she didn't seem the least bitinterested in talking to me or Donovan despite maintaining constantskin contact.

April kept talkingto the driver about who was or wasn't going. Both of them went toSanta Monica High or something like that, and a large portion of theschool was apparently trying to get in. The car was playing Sally'siPod through the speakers and the club music talked about sex anddrugs and bunch of stuff that I might be getting involved with. Rodger or Donovan would try to get in a word edge wise orsteer the conversation, but it only seemed to annoy the girls. Duringevery lull Sally would shout over the speakers 'April, you won'tfucking believe this!' and she proceed to tell April something completely boring.

When April gotexcited she would lean forward and gesture her hands in front ofSally's peripheral vision. Every time she did, her low hanging blousewould loosen up and my curious eyes caught a glimpse of her blackbra. I straightened up and for some reason looked over at Donovan whogave me a knowing glance.

Donovan didn'treally like me.

Which was fine,because I thought he was a jerk. He had this younger brother that hewould pick on every time Rodger and I visited. He would grab the kidby the back of the neck throw his head into the side of a wall; literally. HisMom never said anything about it, so Donovan just kind of didwhatever he wanted to his brother. His brother put up withit for reasons I couldn't figure. It was like he was trying to prove himself to his brother, it wassad to watch.

That knowingglance made me feel sick. It was like by going on this trip I wastrying to be like Donovan and Rodger. I wasn't a kid who thoughttrips to the museum were the coolest thing in the world. I wasadmitting that I was a boy with a sex drive. Just thinking about itmade me feel nauseous, so I practiced being aloof by looking out thewindow for the rest of the drive.

The party was upat a beach south of Santa Barbara or somewhere. It was about twoo'clock when we finally got there, and we weren't walking up to thecheck in until at least four. The sun was already starting to hanglow over the horizon and cast a grim shadows over the asphalt. Thecrowd was full of people dressed in the trendiest mall clothes.People were desperate to get into this party and they were wearingsome of the most ridiculous things I had ever seen. One guy had a gasmask, and another had metal spikes weaved into green dreads. Isuddenly felt like less of a tool and more of a sane rational man.

The check pointwas right next to the fence. The birthday girl had erected a fourteenfoot tall fence with green plastic covering. Bythe main entrance, massive servers, routers, and computer terminalswere connected to some generators on the other side of the fence.Standing by the computers, and what I assumed were security cameras,were the welcoming committee. There were two check-in stations andeach had three security guards that looked like action movie stars. Iended up on the Stathem-Cruise-Hemsworth line.

Off to the sidewere the rejects.

At first, I justthought it was a bunch of people who had forgotten their coats or Idsor something, but as we got closer to the entrance I saw peopleopenly crying. One of the groups of girls was openly yelling abouthow it was because one of them wasn't pretty enough. Each of thesegirls could've been prom queen, easy. I felt the impending sense ofdoom.

Would I be the oneto keep the group from getting into this exclusive party?

I was sure that ifwe weren't accepted, that it would be because of me. The second thethought entered my head, Sally lookedat us boys.

"We should allgo in separately," Sally insisted. "I don't want to go homebecause of one person."

I bowed my headand started to speak, "I can just-"

"You guys can,"Rodger said interrupting me. "I'm sticking with Ian."

He put his hand onmy shoulder and I felt touched. Rodger would rather go home with methen have me wait alone.

Sally just noddedand looked forward. She was too nervous to gossip with April. We allwere. When things quieted down a little, I thanked Rodger.

"Thanks forsticking with me," I told Rodger. "I'm sure my sister will pickus up. She won't be happy about it, but she'll do it."

Rodger chuckled."Dude you still don't realize it."

I looked at himand tried to pry the information out of his head.

"You're notgoing to keep me out, you're my ticket inside," Rodger boasted.

---

It's strange to go back to my old work like this. There's a temptation in me to rewrite every line, but at the same time the simplicity of the language has a certain charm that I frequently overlook. To some extent, I'm looking at this work as something that I honestly had no part of it. I don't want to mess with my voice too much-which is strange, because it is essentially my voice. In a way, I'm preserving the decisions of my younger self.

I do wonder about the intent of this chapter as a whole. What aspects it accomplishes and how it fails to ennoble the protagonist with the reader, but in the regard, we're still very much in the introduction of the story. I think it's good that I keep the pacing quick and I feel like I'm doing a decent job of show how much Ian is out of his element, but it's a little too much telling. Then again, if I did more showing, it could slow down the story in a moment that we really need to speed through. I don't know. I guess I'm of two minds about this section.