SCRATCH OFF ☆ Summer of '84

002

"Vaginas are Magical."

    Two months later, Joshua and the boys had become good friends. Always meeting at the treehouse or the bowling alley. Today, they were in the treehouse; Eats, Davey, Farraday and Woody reading an exotic magazine, while Joshua was sitting across from them while reading a murder mystery book. He was getting to the good part when he heard woody speak.

    "Vaginas are magical," he stated in a dreamy sort of tone.

     "I can't wait to get laid..." Farraday added.

    Eats stood up and scoffed "Aren't you guys tired of lookin' at those same chicks?"

    "Shit no, man," Farraday laughed "Even just to feel up a chick..."

    Eats looked disappointed, "Second base?" he continued starting to walk over to where Joshua was sitting. "I rounded third once," he slowly started to sit down, while looking Woody and Farraday in the eyes. "She was hot, too."

    "Oh just happens to be a chick none of us know..." Woody retorted and chuckled, along with the other three boys.

    Eats quickly responded, "It was on vacation, dipshit." Which caused Josh to nudge him and laugh.

    "I'd just be happy to get on any base with Nikki..." Davey responded, jumping up a bit.

    Woody laughed again, "In your dreams Davey,"

    "Yeah, wet dreams..." Farraday added, laughing along.

    "Oh my god guys," Joshua stopped them, making them look at him weird, before continuing. "If Davey wants to jerk off to the girl across the street, let him...of course it'd be one of those blow-up things-" he finished the sentence by blowing a raspberry and using his hands to imitate a balloon, Making all of them laugh.

    "But she's so friggin' hot!" Farraday responded.

    "Too bad she's into my brother-" Eats said, making them go silent for a second, Joshua chuckling.

    "Kyle?" Davey asked in Disbelief, "No way, he's like twenty and he works at a hardware store-"

    Eats nudged Joshua and continued, "You think Kyle's a dick? My asshole father wants to tear this thing down..."

    Joshua sat up and looked at him. "What?"

    "S-Seriously?" Woddy stuttered. "No, man."

    "Can't he just wait 'till we go to college?" Davey asked desperately. 

    "Eats I need this place, shit I'd live up here if I could..." Josh grabbed his arm, looking at him with sadness.

    Eats smiled softly and sighed, jokingly nudging Josh off.

    "I  mean, I don't know how safe that would be with, you know, the kids going missing..." Davey added, chuckling slightly.

    "Okay here we go-" Eats groaned.

    "What?" Davey questioned.

    "C'mon, we all know what you're going to say! 'It's a conspiracy, It's all connected, the missing kids aren't random they're part of some vast, governmental, alien, cover-up right?" Eats joked.

    "So you don't think it's weird?" Davey looked at all of them.

    They all shrugged except for Joshua, who was listening intently.

    "Look, last summer a kid goes missing in Hazelton, now another kid goes missing in Freeport?"

    Joshua looked afraid but hid his face in the book he was reading.

   "uh, Davey I love you man but you do sound like a schizoid," Davey chuckled.

    Farraday laughed and said, "Remember when he connected a light bright to his keyboard to try and communicate with the extra-terrestrials?" Causing them all to laugh.

    "Or when there was a demonic presence in his room because our houses were built on ancient burial grounds?" Eats added on jokingly.

    Davey chuckled and groaned softly. "That was like three years ago!" he paused, " And our houses were built on Indian burial grounds!" He protested.

    "Davey, there's literally no proof of that!" Farraday told him.

    "Yes, there is!" Davey continued.

    "No, there's not," Joshua added.

    "We done here? I gotta beat-off before my parents get home and world war three breaks out..." He said solemnly and stood up. "Want me to walk you home Tiny?"

    "I told you to stop calling me that!" Joshua protested.

    "I can't, it's too cute, just like you." Eats joked and puckered his lips.

    Joshua blushed again and grabbed his stuff, "Fine."

    "Good call, I'm gonna make a withdrawal from the spank bank," Farraday added, getting up as well.

    "You guys, are animals," Davey told them.

    As the four of them left they heard Woody say, "Yes, you are."

    Eats told Joshua to wait for him and went back inside. He grinned as he heard Joshua laugh at the two wrestling boys.

    As the two of them made their way home, it was non-stop laughter, before some kid walked by them and called Josh a fag and told him to go to hell. Joshua pretended not to know what he was talking about or care but Eats certainly did. 

    "What an asshole! Hey, Tiny, you okay?" Eats said as he put an arm around him.

    Joshua saw his house in the distance and looked at eats, giving him a nod before breaking away and running back to his house. Leaving a very concerned Tommy standing there.

    Usually, Joshua always left his curtain open, he liked how the street lights shone on his wall, and the fact it seems cooler in his room, letting him sleep shirtless. However, when he got into his room, he immediately closed them, took his shirt off and laid down on the bed, staring blankly into the ceiling. As he stared, he did something he always liked to do at his old home. He sat up, turned his bedside lamp on, put his arm under the light, and started viciously scratching. He scratched until the skin was red and warm to the touch, and a few splotches of blood were on his fingers. Then he laid down, a few tears from the irritation streaming down his cheeks.

    Tommy, from across the street, was concerned. He never liked to see the curtains closed, because he never knew what he was doing behind them. Joshua was his best friend and Eats cared for him personally. So when those curtains were drawn, Tommy was on high alert.

    Suddenly, a voice came in through their walkie talkies, Davey's voice asked them if they wanted to go to Ipswich lanes the next day. Two of them responded, Eats jumped really high and then agreed, but they were all concerned when Joshua didn't answer. He was always up till late reading murder mysteries, so it's rare he doesn't respond. Tommy knew that Joshua didn't want to respond, so he told the other boys he'd ask tomorrow. After a few jokes and signing off, Tommy went to bed.

    Joshua heard the walkie, but could barely feel his arm, so he ignored it, sighing happily when Tommy took care of it. He weakly army crawled to the walkie, used his other arm, and pressed the button, whispering a small thank you to Tommy.