Young Lather

Hot Night

I took a little walk because my butt hurt from sitting. Out in the parking lot, you could see the stars coming out. I thought about going home, but that thought didn't last long at all, because it felt like a big night. I wanted to be here. I mean, school was out! Done! Summer's here! And all my friends are still here too. Where else would I want to be. ...Still, I felt antsy. And thirsty. I went back, sat in my spot again, and watched Archie and Dara for awhile. I couldn't hear anything, but it was pretty obvious that they wanted each other. Made me smile. Made me a little sad, too.

Kara and Celeste saw me, then came up and sat with me for a bit. They agreed that it looked good for those two. Celeste surprised me when she said...

"Dara's been trying to get him to pay attention for so long, it's about time."

"Really?" I answered.

"Yeah really," she said. "For like most of the year."

I stared.

"Lather, you are so dense sometimes," Kara said. "You don't see things that are right in front of you. All you boys are," she added.

Now I was kind of worried. What else had I missed? I looked at Celeste, who was looking down at the fire. Celeste was probably the prettiest of the three girls in triple double, maybe because of her blond hair, but also she was an athlete. She swam and ran track, and she sort of had that athlete pretty going for her. You know, thin with muscles, hair in a tight pony tail, nice face that looked like it had been outside a lot. Was I missing something about her? About her being into someone? Well it wasn't me — I knew that much.

But what about Kara? I looked at her. She smiled and shrugged — I wasn't missing anything with her, was I? I stared at her, but then she leans her head and raises her eyebrows, like she's saying, 'why are you staring, doofus?' I looked away. Not Kara. I wasn't missing anything with her. She was sort of like me, but she didn't like me, if you know what I mean. I mean, she liked me — she was my best friend of the girls — but...

So suddenly I'm sure I'm missing something. I sighed and started looking over the party again, like I might figure it out that way. It was well dark now. Yeah, you'd see some decent light left in the sky if you went up higher and got into a meadow, maybe, but down here by the falls, it was getting pretty dark. Except for the fire. The fire was getting wild bright now. It made the falls and trees all around look like... well, sort of like a horror scene, with hard shadows and weird colors — like maybe I was sitting on the edge of a big old bomb crater, and the partiers were kind of like survivors.

Survivors who sang! Because there was Track and half a dozen guys singing, We will, we will, rock you! Over and over they sang it, stumbling around on the rocks and lifting their beers high, but then one of them tried to sing, Buddy, you're a boy, make a big noise, playing in the street... but whoever it was couldn't remember the words, so the whole thing fell apart, and a couple of the guys fell down. it was a good laugh.

...But seeing Track...

Yeah, so there may be something I've been missing, right? If Dara's right. If she's right. So then — like I do sometimes — I decided I should say something, and I did.

"Yeah, so Dara thinks Track's gay!" I said to Kara and Celeste, shaking my head with a smug smile. "And that he's into me," I said, adding a little laugh to my smug smile and shaking my head more, like I'm saying, 'what an idiot' about Dara. ... "What an idiot," I said out loud, because Kara and Celeste were sitting very still.

Awkward. But then...

Lonnie!

"Aaaaawwwoooooooooooo!" we hear, and right behind where we're sitting, Lonnie steps to the edge so the firelight can hit him. Everyone looks. He's got a cast on his right arm, wrapping his elbow. Teri, Bets, Ed Guller and a couple others are with him. "Parteee!" he shouts — though it's obvious he's maybe down a little energy since earlier. But still, people cheer. Ed Guller's got some portable speaker thing with him, and he cranks it up with some tunes. That gang walks around us and heads to the fire, and now the party picks up good.