Notes From The Underground

CHAPTER THREE

On Sunday mornings, most folk find themselves heading inside a church. Now I myself have never been much of the religious sort, so instead of church, I found myself getting dressed up to go to the park and light things on fire with Kendall.

I double checked my appearance in the mirror before I slung my bag over my shoulder and rushed myself out the door. Rushing over the grass and into her yard, knocking on her front door. I heard some shuffling from inside, some footsteps, so while I waited for her to open the door I lit up a cigarette, blowing the smoke and leaning to the side of her porch.

Eventually she opened the door, motioning for me to come inside before rushing off, doing whatever it is she was in such a rush to finish up before we left. I sat on her couch, looking around the room. On her walls there were framed photos of her and her family, a mom and two older brothers who had moved out years ago, shortly before her and her mother moved next door to me.

Her oldest brother looked almost exactly like her, all except for his hair color was a much darker shade of blonde, but she bleached hers monthly which explains that fact. Her second older brother looked like her father, a tall, stocky man with piercing green eyes like Kendall's. Her father wasn't in any of the photos on account he lived two hours away during the week for work and only came back into own on weekends, if even that. I had only met her brothers a handful of times, her father only once. Odd, she knew all my family disturbingly well while I hardly even knew the names of her loved ones.

I knew he oldest brother was called Michael, he wasn't very nice to Kendall but he was extremely charmed to meet me. He isn't kind to his mother either, or really any woman I've ever seen him interact with before so I felt it safe to assume he was just extremely sexist. Her other brother was called George I think, he wasn't bad. A little boring, to say the least. Didn't ever have much to say, didn't seem like much was ever going through his mind. He played a lot of video games though, so that was kind of cool I guess.

My thoughts were disrupted when Kendall stepped out of the bathroom, looking at me.

"Red or black?"

"Red."

"Got it." She said, making finger guns at me and snapping before ducking back into the bathroom, the door slamming. I guess I had caught her while she was doing her makeup.

I went back to looking at the photos, my attention focusing on one of Kendall and her mother/ You could tell by the photo alone the two didn't have too close of a relationship, her mother was so overbearing and fake. Her personality was a shadow of who she really was. She was a cheater, she was never home, and she had this nasty habit of lying about what she cared about most. She would tell you it was her children, but really, she loved sex more than them. She was a despicable person for it too, and Kendall couldn't stand her for it. Kendall was wearing a black floral dress just before her knees in the picture, her hair tied up in a messy bun and the smile across her face completely false. Her mother was smiling a fake one too, her eyes looked as dead as the sea on a still night. You could tell how forced everything about this photo was, it made me uneasy to think about.

Photos like this and of similar feel were hung everywhere on the walls of the small room, captions written under them that I suppose were meant to be encouraging or something of the like. I was suddenly really glad my mother never cared enough to pretend to care like Kendall's did. I had been in this room a million times, I had all these pictures memorized but they still surprised me every time I saw them, like it was the first time every time.

Finally Kendall emerged from the bathroom, full face makeup. She was wearing these ripped denim jeans, a long sleeved blue and black striped sweater that hung down just enough to show a small amount of cleavage. Her lips were painted ruby red, her hair brushed to the side and staying in place there, straightened and platinum blonde.

"You look awesome." I blinked dumbly, looking her up and down. She smiled, shrugging and walking over to me quickly, flopping down next to me and folding her legs underneath her.

"What did you bring to burn today my dear?" She asked, patting my backpack that was laid next to me.

"Some old albums from bands I stopped liking when I was 13, a few pictures from when I was 14 I want wiped from the earth, and a picture of me and that girl I dated when I was 16."

"Wait. Girl who cheated on you or girl who you cheated on?"

"Cheated on."

"Leah." She nodded, patting my shoulder. 

"It's not like I ever really cared much for her to begin with, so it's hard to feel bad about cheating." I shrugged softly.

"Why did you even start dating her again?"

"She had braces and like..this really nice smile and laugh. Plus, she had an accent and I'm a sucker for accents." I smiled a little, remembering why I had a thing for her. When we started dating though, I realized it was just a crush, no actual desire to be in a relationship with her.

"You cheated on her with Lucas." Kendall snickered.

"He had a nice personality." I said in my defense, to which she replied-

"He had a nice dick you mean."

"It was pretty nice." She rolled her eyes at me and smiled.

"Alright perv. Let's get going. I found this nifty little spot in the park that'll be perfect to do what we're going to do." Her eyebrows wiggled at me, grabbing my arm and pulling me up quickly, dragging me out of the house and down her driveway with strength I didn't even know she had until that day.

One thing I always enjoyed about our little town was how easy it was to walk practically everywhere. It wasn't small, but it wasn't large by any stretch of the imagination. It was a quiet, easy going, drug infested town that while I wasn't exactly thrilled to be living in, it wasn't as bad as some places. It was later in the year, the fog thick, the sky gray, the air cold. I enjoyed this time of year most, the time where the air was dry enough to give you a nose bleed.

Kendall still had firm grip on my hand, dragging me down the non busy streets and into the nearest park. It was small, much like most was here. It had a jungle gym, a swing set, a hill towards the road and a little bridge with a stream under it. Kendall led me to the bridge, ducking us under it and showing me a little hole in the dirt there she had dug, surrounding it with rocks and filling it with sticks.

She reached to her side, opening up this little bag I hadn't even noticed she had grabbed. I wasn't very observant, I suppose. She dug through it, biting her tongue in thought and one eye shutting as she dug deeper, grinning when she found what she was looking for. Out of her bag a little yellow bottle of lighter fluid emerged. She popped the cap, squeezing the bottle and soaking the sticks in the hole before she lit a match, the whole thing flaming up immediately.

She reopened her bag, digging for all she had brought to burn and tossing it in, the look in her eyes a reflection of the flames and pure excitement. I smiled, shaking my head and following her lead, doing the same with what I had brought, watching it all slowly turn to ash. I liked this, it was almost therapeutic. She smiled, sitting down on the dirt, resting her arms on her knees and motioning with her head for me to sit by her.

I moved by her, sitting down and resting my arms against my knees as she did with her own, we tended to mimic each other a lot like this. Her head leaned on my shoulder, her yawning softly. I remember how pretty she looked, the lighting of the fire and the crisp air blowing her hair to the side. She was always so lovely, as lovely as someone so obnoxious could be. I still don't know what happened to her.

That's a lie. I happened.

I happened to Kendall Oliver.