Your Friend, Jordan

Nine

Three months earlier..

Our laughter filled the forest area as the night was approaching, and the light began to fade. The five of us sat along the tracks, kicking at the damp and dried up leaves, along with the pieces of thick weeds and grass that had overgrown along the train tracks, in between the grooves.

  "Oh come on, I wasn't that bad," Troy said, shoving Jordan's shoulder as he nearly fell off the thin railing he was sitting upon, but caught his balance quickly.

  "Yeah, you were that bad, man. It was your party too!"

  "Hey hey, you shouldn't be talking. You were the worst one there Jordan! You are always the craziest one at parties!"

  "What can I say? I'm the life of it!" Jordan raised his hands a bit while he lifted his beer, before taking another swig. And the five of us just laughed some more.

  The train tracks located in the woods, near Troy's house was our usual hang out spot; had been ever since the ninth grade when we all met. Well, when Jordan and I met the other guys. It had been a spot Troy had always gone to as a kid, he was the one who found it years ago. And once our group was formed, he showed us the place, and it had become ours as well. The tracks were hardly used anymore, just abandon almost, and no one seemed to remember they were here. Although out of the blue there had sometimes been a train passing by, but that was hardly ever.

  Bringing a few drinks with us, like usual, the five of us had hung around on this day for awhile by now, already spending hours here as the warm summer air sat still in the forest, no wind around as the tall and shaded trees blocked it. With the green branches full of leaves ahead of us, it blocked a lot of the light and sky above as well, making it seem much darker as the night went on. But it wasn't a huge deal, the guys and I had spent hours upon hours here in the forest at night, all we had to do was bring out the flashlights from our phones and we were set. And that mixed with our foggy minds from the alcohol, we didn't care too much about a little darkness. It was fine, if anything it was more fun in the dark.

 
  Taking another swig of my beer, I swirled the remainder at the bottom in the can, swirling it around and around as it made a funny noise in the blue tin can. That noise became the only as silence took over our group for a few moments, and our laughs died down a bit.

"Dude, you have to have another party before we go back to school. Like an 'end of summer' one or something. And it's gotta be big!" Jordan said after a few minutes, breaking the silence as he spoke up once again. But he didn't say it to the group, he meant specifically to Troy, for he was the one in our gang who threw all the parties. None of us did, maybe that was just because Troy had the biggest house for parties, he could fit a lot of people, and his parents always seemed to go out on the weekends. I'm not too sure if they were aware of the parties their son threw most of the time, maybe Troy was just real good at hiding things. Or maybe they did know and just didn't care; it seemed like the second option was more likely, I always got the impression that Troy's parents were just laid back and didn't fuss much. If anything they seemed like the cool parents in the group.

  "Oh yeah, for sure I will! I mean, I have one every year before school starts, why would this year be any different?" Troy asked, although it wasn't so much a legitimate question, more of a statement.

  "But I mean it's gotta be the biggest one yet! It's our last year of school, senior year man!"

  "Man, senior year, I can't believe I actually made it this far," Ethan said in almost a sigh tone, as he brushed his dark, loose, curly hair out of his face and back.

  "Yeah, I can't believe you've made it this far either. I hate to say it man, but your grades suck," Daniel said, laughing the whole time as if he couldn't even get his sentence out. And laughter came after another as the rest of us joined in, even Ethan. He knew he wasn't the best in school, it was no secret to him.