Diving Into The Wreck

Getchoo

Getchoo

About two weeks after my junior year at William McKinley High School began, Blake texted me and asked me if I could come over to his house for band practice, and of course, I said yes. I had only seen Blake a handful of times since the school year started, and I was desperate to reconnect with my best friend. School hadn't gotten any better since that first day, and The Love Martyrs still hadn't started recording our EP. I made a mental note to ask Blake about that as Mom handed me the keys to her car. "Be back by eight," she told me. "You need to leave some time to finish your homework."

"I know, Mom. We'll probably be done long before eight," I said. "See you later."

"Have fun at Blake's, Dani!" she exclaimed as I walked out of the house. I loaded my bass guitar into the trunk of Mom's car, got into the driver's seat, and drove to Blake's house.

He lived on the other side of town, in a plain-looking two-story house that was a little bit larger than mine. I parked in the driveway and rang the doorbell, and Blake let me in to the house. His parents didn't seem to be home. "Hey Dani," Blake said. "How have you been?"

"Terrible," I said.

"Why?" Blake asked as he headed toward the basement.

I followed him downstairs as I explained just how awful school was without him. "I miss you a lot, Blake," I said.

Blake laughed and then said, "Sorry Dani, but I'm not going back to McKinley, even if you give me a million dollars. High school was a living hell for me. By the way, my parents are trying to enroll me in community college."

"Really?"

"They think that I should either go to college or get a 'real job.' Why can't they just be proud of the work that I'm doing with The Love Martyrs? We're making a lot of money from our shows, and we have fans in Japan. I don't see how they can say that I don't have a real job."

"Yeah, that sounds awful," I said, even though I knew that Mom and Jason would have never let me do what Blake did. Mr. and Mrs. Pinkerton may have been disappointed in Blake and his life choices, but Mom might have killed me if I didn't enroll in a four-year college.

"I swear that I'm going to move out of this place as soon as I save up enough money," Blake said. He paused for a moment and then said, "On second thought, there's a scratch on the Mazda's windshield. I might need to get that fixed."

"How did that happen?"

"That's the scariest part. I have no idea!"

"What else is going on?" I asked. "How's the search for true love going?"

"What search for true love?"

"You talked about it at the last Love Martyrs concert. You said that you were tired of sleeping around and that you wanted to find true love."

"Oh yeah," Blake said. "I tried that for a little while, but I'm pretty convinced that true love doesn't exist."

"What makes you think that?"

"I don't know. Maybe I just haven't met the right girl yet, but I'm not sure that I really believe in love or soulmates or anything like that. Do you?" I shrugged, and Blake continued to speak. "Looking for love just doesn't seem worth it anymore."

"You seemed pretty convinced that you wanted someone to fall in love with last time I saw you."

"I guess I've changed my mind."

There was an awkward silence as Blake's words echoed through the basement. As much as I didn't want Blake to go back to screwing every groupie he laid his eyes upon, I wasn't about to interfere in his love life.