Reckless Youths

Chapter One

- Reckless Youths -

Chapter One

Sometimes I forget there's an audience, that a camera is capturing everything we say and do to broadcast to millions of people all over the world. I forget the bigger picture and am in the moment, with Tyler, and no one else. It's dangerous, but when I look back over the footage while editing it makes us more alive.

It all started way back when, before the internet infected our brains and sites like YouTube didn't yet exist. It had always been me and Tyler, my parents working to support me and my little sister with Tyler's mum a nurse, scheduled for the night shift. I think it distracted her from thinking about Tyler's father. Sis was the socialite of the family so more often than not I was left at home.

Funnily enough, so was Ty.

We met on our first day of high school, both coming from low grade public schools outside of town. Somehow we fell in together, fitting together as perfectly as two adjacent pieces of a puzzle. It has always been that way between us, our relationship easy and uncomplicated.

Skip forward two years and we had gotten past the stage of cooties and boy germs girl germs, past potential crushes and rumours that we were a couple. We were just two run of the mill kids, two kids so incredibly alone we suffered together.

I remember keeping Tyler company one Friday night after his mother was called into work, essentially ditching any former plans she had made with him. He called me straight away and I was over with popcorn I didn't know he hated and a television show I knew he would grow to love. He sat on the couch, I sat on the floor, and we watched and ate and talked about our feelings until we fell asleep. Our friendship in it's finest hours.

I woke early the following morning; Tyler snoring loudly on the couch. I had been over often enough to fetch my own towel out of the linen cupboard and help myself to a shower. It was and still is the first thing I have to do as soon as I wake up, for no reason other than habit.

I was in the Wilson's rustic bathroom, one of those with cream coloured fibreglass sinks and a matching bathtub, complete with shower head and all. I pulled the shower curtain closed behind me and turned the water on, loving that I could use up as much hot water as I wanted without running out. I didn't have that luxury at home.

I was singing in the shower, minding my own business when the door flung open.

Cue the gasps.

"Lilith Amalie Dresden! You didn't tell me you could sing!" Typical Tyler and his dramatics. I couldn't sing, not well, not back then. "Yes, okay." His mind was racing, the process of his thoughts almost tangible through the shower curtain. "We're going to do something with this. Get out of the shower."

"No?" I wasn't as used to Tyler as I am now, and his behaviour was even more unusual than normal. "I'm in the shower."

"And I'm not in the shower," he stated, as if to say what's your point?

"Can I finish my shower?"

A hand reached behind the curtain and I jumped back, almost losing my footing on the slippery bathtub as a squeal escaped my mouth. It felt along the wall for the single lever tap and shut off the water.

His retreating footsteps were a bass to his chuckle, a rich and earthy melodic accompaniment. Like a drum to an acoustic guitar. "YOU'RE FINISHED!" He called out, and then closed the door after him.

I was left standing in the shower, with nothing but my thoughts and the cold that was beginning to bite through the crack in the window. I wasn't quite sure what had just happened, what was happening then and what was about to happen, but I never would have guessed it would lead us here.