It’s Wednesday night of Spring Break. The crowd is bigger than the past nights, primarily because someone collapsed and died yesterday night. Everyone wants at a party that good. The music is blaring and the bass can be felt from the toilets two blocks.
Calum and his two younger brothers Cyle and Criss were stuck on Rosemary Street, bored out of their minds. Calum takes a phone call, his thighs tear off the leather. The dark loveseat was welded to his skin by the heat in Santa Cruz. The phone call was from Calums best buddy Bremmen. Calum rolled his eyes at his little brothers as he overheard the blaring music over Bremmen’s incoherent yelling.
“Oh dude. I gotta go! Michelle’s taking her top off for some college guys!” Calum threw his phone down, the most innocent girl at school was getting buckwild at the beach and he’d only hear stories about it. He caught himself before blurting out the F-word in front of his brothers.
“Hey, guys! It’s pretty hot in here, you want to go get some frozen yogurt? Maybe at the boardwalk? Mr. Palichi’s?”
“Dad told us not to go to the boardwalk during Spring Break. Said it would be too dangerous”, Criss objected without taking his gaze off the colorful tv screen.
“Ah, Criss. Spoken like a true eight year old”, Cyle protruded his chest and placed his fists on his hips, “We don’t have to tell dad!” He was already slipping on his thongs.
“Yeah, atta boy!” Calum threw his fist into the air.“Listen Criss, your big brothers are responsible. Straight to the ice cream and straight back.” He crossed two fingers.
Criss ignored the two older boys.
“Fine, stay here by yourself then, dude. Guess you’re not brave enough anyway”, Cyle threw shade. He already had a foot out the door.
“No! Don’t leave me alone! I’ll come, I’m coming!” Criss scrambled to get up off the floor.
“I knew it”, Criss huffed as Calum held the door open to the frozen yogurt shop.
There was Calum’s group of friends better known as the “gang”, or at least that was the name Cyle worshipped them as.
“Hey David!” Cyle ran into the shop, smiling wide at the gang’s leader and Calum’s ex-rival.
“Hey kid. Eh, Calum you finally made it”, he smiled crookedly, “You gotta try this shit bud. Gots vodka in it.” He wriggled the halfway empty cup, the small pink plastic spoon swaying from side to side.
“Don’t worry about getting the kiddos something, they don’t all come with liquor. We just bring the party”, Beatrice, the redhead of the group, winked. She reached down to tousle Criss’s short brown hair. He shivered and growled, to which she obliviously laughed in response.
“Go on then, go get some ice cream!” Calum shooed the younger boys, using his elbows to lower himself into a short neon green chair next to the rest. Cyle stayed put while Criss participated in a one-man race. “What are you waiting for? I didn’t want to see your ugly face when I turned my head back this way.”
Cyle crossed his arms and lifted his leg to rest against the wall. “I’m gonna let Criss get all the frozen yogurt he wants. I’m too much of a man for that now”, he stared shamelessly at Michelle. Little did he know that water wasn’t as pure as he thought it was.
“You’re 13!” “Yes, but it’s a manly thirteen. You can be young at seventy-one and old at twelve is that what they say Calum? Is that right? Is that how it goes? I saw it on Tumblr.” Calum completely blocked out his nonsense.
“Hey kid, you gotta pay for that!” Criss froze in his position two steps away from the table.
“I was coming to get my brother!” he cried, shaking.
“Hey Tina, it’s okay he’s with me”, David nodded cooly.
The girl in the pink cow shirt blushed, “Okay Davy.” A smirk played on the groups’ lips; David could persuade any girl in town. Even talked himself into a couple A’s to please his prude parents the past first semester. Everyone wished to be like and didn’t want anything to do with David all at once. Except Criss, of course, Criss was full on convinced.
“So, where’s Bremmen?” Cal asked, tampering with a stack of napkins. David shot a look to Beatrice.
“Chatting up my cousin in the surf shop.”
“Since when have you had a cousin that works at the surf shop?”
“Yeah, only the Italian old guy is there I go buy boards”, Cyle commented.
“You can’t even swim”, Criss said, before popping the pink spoon back into his mouth.
“She’s only here for Spring Break. Home from college”, Tina yelled. The gang shot a look of confusion to her.
“How do you know my cousin’s life, stalker?” Beatrice burned her with a stare.
“It’s boardwalk gossip, can’t escape it when you work here”, she shrugged.
“Chatting her up? What do you mean?” Cal crossed his arms.
“He’s going to try to bang her, duh.” Beatrice slapped Michelle on the wrist for being indecent in front of the kids.
“Girl shows a couple guys her boobs and she gets a potty mouth”, David winked a green eye at her.
“And what a perv you are for enjoying the transformation”, David stuck the finger at Calum, “Seriously tho, Bremmen has Mandy. Right? Or did I miss that breakup?”
“How slow are you”, Beatrice placed her hand over her face. “Mandy’s been getting with every guy she can out of the other side of the country. It’s about damn time Bremmen got some fun too.”
“Hey Cal, sorry to interrupt but Dad’s going to be home in twenty minutes”, Cyle interjected. He watched the group’s reaction, his face warming up.
“Better get home to your daddy mate”, David patted his back with a howling laugh.
“I-“ Cyle begun as soon as they were out of the shop.
“Just go”, Cal sighed.
“How did today go?” Mr. Hood asked, taking a seat on the couch in his scrubs.
“Great”, Cyle smiled.
“We went to the boardwalk”, Criss smirked before walking to his room with a sassy head cock.
“What did I tell you”, Mr. Hood clenched his teeth, staring straight at Calum.
“I didn’t make them go!”
“When are you going to stop making that excuse! You’re almost eighteen, you have to start taking responsibility!”
“They’re not my kids.”
“Oh, right. Must have forgotten”, Mr. Hood looked away. The look on both his dad’s and Cyle’s faces made Calum feel like a dick.
“Look, I’m sorry”, he sighed. His dad didn’t respond to him, the TV's volume skyrocketed. “Fine.” Calum abruptly left the living room, slamming his palm down on his room desk.
