Since last Winter, me and my friends had kept within us a dark secret, not that I had to keep it a secret in the first place but, to secure the loyalty of friendship of my four childhood buddies; Cassie, Emily, Caleb and Mike.
The Incident was still vivid in my mind, it seemed like it happened just yesterday. It was the coldest of winters, that night; I had a job at Delphini’s Pizzeria, as a delivery boy. It wasn’t the coolest of jobs, but, I went for it as I had no choice in the matter, my dad kept hounding at me about how he was independent and had to work for a living at my age, instead of whiling my time doing nothing. He kept on at me from day to day (not to forget the nights too!). My mom didn’t have a say on the matter, come to think of it, she never had a say in anything!. Work was okay, had my difficulties. Guess in a way dad was right about keeping me busy.
Me and the guys, had just finished our Junior Year at Raven Falls High. We were out to celebrate the end and toast in the awaited new Senior Year. Which meant only one thing to any average, young, guy, ‘PARTY’. The time to freak out, break all the rules, stay up all night, not worrying about curfews and nagging parents, not that we didn’t do all this during school, but just literally let loose. We decided to hang out after the party held at Kingston Avenue, a place must for every party animal to hang out and strictly prohibited from the likes of decent people. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go and participate in the ritual, my so called boss Delgado, laid out a new law, saying that I had to put in a few extra hours. I remember having the conversation with Caleb, He was in the football team, socially and financially elite. He even had his own frickin’ fan club so to speak!, With every bodacious babe ready to do anything for him. He was 5ft 7, with short, curly, blonde hair sitting crazily on his head. He was good-looking, smart, with wild green eyes!. He dropped in at the parlor and found me writing down some code numbers from the telephone directory. He gave out a yell saying ‘HI’, which made me jump out of my skin, as if you were caught red handed doing something you weren’t supposed to do. He stood there with flirty smile on his face, proud of scaring the shit out of me. “So you’re comin’ tonight at Kingston Avenue right?”. I replied hastily, “well kinda tied up for the night, Delgado insisted I make the extra rounds, I’d be lucky enough if I can make it to the party itself!” He gave in a sigh of sadness and nodded his head in a very soulful way, much to my irritation. He finally looked at me and said, “geez that’s too bad man, we had great plans for the party, you sure you can’t get away now, ‘ol Delgado won’t flip or execute you now would he?”. bursting into fits of laughter, I hated what he said, but it was true, besides, this was the time and night I craved and waited in anticipation and I couldn’t lose it to cranky, old Delgado. “Well what you thinking?” Caleb’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Look Caleb, I told you I can’t come”. “Suit yourself, I’ll see you probably in the next world” grinning wickedly he left. I garnished about how much I hated him!. That evening, I knew I had to get away and so I tried the ‘I’m not feeling well’ line, with conviction. It worked! I guessed it was the way I was feeling somehow then. I called my folks and told them I’d be late.
I met the guys at Kingston Avenue that late evening, most of the party revelers were dispersing to other parties. I had missed most of the fun. The gang kinda looked taken aback, by my presence. “Well, well, well, lookie who’s here?, so quit your job and decided to suicide after having fun?” Caleb welcomed me with sarcastic comments, had to admit he was getting on my nerves but, before I could shut him up, Cassie greeted me.
“Hi! Aidan, so glad you could make it”. “Yeah well I wouldn’t miss it for the world”. “K, guys let’s put the pedal to the metal,” Mike yelled, sitting behind the wheels. We started from the Avenue making way to Halen Park to just camp and talk. The night was enveloped in coldness, the streets shone like a billion diamonds from the light drizzle. There was a young night ahead of us. We approached our destination with enthusiasm. Well you couldn’t really call it a park now, regardless of the few trees still standing, thanks to some guy name Marlon Crueggar. He had bought the land to build a shopping mall and now it was just a restricted area. We headed down memory lane and to our favorite spot where we used to play as kids. “Say, it’s driving me crazy with curiosity, to know how you eluded Delgado to get on the hot spot tonight” enquired Mike. “Well, I just faked at being sick and besides there were plenty of guys having nothing to do, nothing to it really”. Yeah, nothing to it really, I took a long drag on my cigarette, I couldn’t care less if he dropped over at my house on purpose, just to check if I was really puking my guts out. After all a slave needs a night out if not a day. I guess that satisfied Mike, he was a lot different from Caleb. He wasn’t irritating like him for one, and he wasn’t the bullying type either, I guess that’s why I kinda liked him. His 6ft frame like mine, with perfect muscled chest nothing like mine, fitted him well. He groomed his hair short, 50’s style finished with fine sculptured jaw and dark brown eyes. What was great about him was his cool suave attitude and the way he handled things that came his way, wisely. He and Emily, had been together since grade school, childhood sweethearts you could say. I liked Emily, she was the no nonsense type of girl. As for Cassie, well she was Caleb’s girl, although she didn’t like to be called that, she had her own identity carved out in Raven Falls. She was the Home coming Queen three times, she won every beauty pageant held in our town as well as Nationals. Beauty was her vital existence, everything revolved around it. Her prized possessions were her face and her long, silky, blonde hair, more like Rapunzel. Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit! Well, below the waist. In addition, as for me, well I was the odd one out, just can’t commit to relationships. Nevertheless, that didn’t bother anyone. Therefore, that’s how we hung out and looked out for each other.
