Only the Young

Part I: The Rock Show

1979
Carl and I were in after school detention. Carl was my best friend since the second grade. He was the one who was always coming up with the schemes; he was fearless or maybe he just never had anything to lose. It was on this day, in that classroom he met Sharon. Carl and I were sitting next to each other in the third row. She was sitting beside him, and they started talking. He was a real easygoing guy, could talk to anyone, but scared a lot of people 'cause he liked to fight. She was just his type bold and looking for a good time. She was a known stoner and ran with a more intense crowd than we did; a group of weed fiends and rockstar wannabes. This meeting was crucial to our adolescent lives. Because it threw us into orbit with people and places that were pivotal to our future. It was through her I met Allie, and that was the exact moment my life simultaneously started and ended.

Carl and I lived in the same apartment complex, had our whole lives. So after school we'd just walk or bike home. Mainly 'cause the bus was suffocating. Especially on hot days like these in early September. We started walking home much later than normal cause of our stint in detention. It was hot and sticky outside, had been all week, and I was sweating in my Levi's.

"Ay Mikey look what I got." Carl said. "Sharon gave me her number." He pulled out a piece of paper with a number written on it. He was quite smug about it, Carl considers himself a bona fide lady killer.

"Gosh man ain't you got anything better to do with your time." At this point I was kinda sick of the routine.
"Mikey I don't know what your saying. You must've been dropped on your head as a baby." He replaced the slip of paper back to his jean's pocket and kept walking. Smiling to himself the whole time like he'd actually achieved something.

A few weeks later Carl convinced me to sneak out to go to this band's show. He was going with Sharon and Sharon's friend was in the band. It wasn't really my scene, but I tended to go along with Carl's whims, as long as they were within reason. When Carl and I got there the show had already started. Sharon was sitting at a table in the back, most of the people in there were standing next to the stage towards the front. The back of the room was higher up than the front so you could see the stage real good. It was poorly lit, loud, smokey and smelled of sweat and stale alcohol. We got in cause Sharon knew the bouncer, but even if you didn't it was the kind of place you could pay 'em off to get in. You could pay off most people if you had enough money. Carl sat by Sharon real close with his arm around her, and I sat across from them.

"Mikey do you have a girlfriend?" Sharon asked me. She was always blunt and masked the more aggressive comments and questions with a flashy smile. Sharon had a great smile it's what made her so pretty. It set you at ease when everything else about her set you on edge. She was a paradox beautiful and dangerous.

I answered "No?" it sounded like more of a question than a statement.

"You see the guitarist, that's Allie. She's single for the most part. I think you'd really like her" She said. Then she laughed to herself nonchalantly. She always did that, and you could never tell if she was laughing at you or just at some humorous thing she had previously encountered. The band itself wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good. Nothing of real substance but good enough to be enjoyable. I think the real reason there were so many people there was 'cause of Sharon's friend Allie. She had something magnetic about her on that stage. I sat there for a while pretty much to myself just taking in the scene. Carl and Sharon were in their own little world. After the set was over everyone pretty much cleared out or got kicked out. But we three stayed 'cause Sharon was with the band. It's weird seeing places always filled with people empty, it gives off a melancholic feel. Sometime later the girl Sharon pointed out as Allie came over to our table.

"Allie how ya doing?" Sharon asked, "this is Carl and his little friend Mikey. I waved awkwardly and Carl just nodded as he took a drink. Allie said some kind of greeting back. You know how they say time stops when you meet someone you can tell you're gonna fall in love with. Well, that didn't happen to me; everything sped up, as I desperately tried to hang on to every detail about her. She sat down in-between Sharon and me and she smelled like vanilla and cherries and smoke. Her eye make-up was heavy and smudged. I liked how she talked. She talked lower and slower than Sharon, to where you had to lean in a bit to hear the full lengths of her voice. She told me all kinds of things in the 60 minutes we talked when we initially met. Like how she liked me immediately because of my eyes. They were grey with a bit of blue like storm clouds and weather was always untrustworthy. Being deemed untrustworthy isn't necessarily a compliment but from her I didn't care. She went on to tell me how she always liked to know up front if someone was untrustworthy because they all were. It's the ones that hide it who you should watch out for. About this time the band crew had gathered most of their stuff, so we headed into the parking lot. It was dimly lit as well but this side of town tended to be. Easier to hide things. Allie and Sharon had grabbed their gear and headed to the bands van. Carl came jogging over.
"Hey Sharon and the band are going to hang out, and they invited us to come."
"Sure man whatever you wanna do."
"Alright come on get in the van." We both hopped in I sat on the ground it was pretty crowded in there. Smokey to. The radio was blaring and Allie was sitting on a box to my left. It was gonna be a long night.