The Payback or The Adventures and Pranks of Zachary O'Connor

Chapter Eight: Chillin'

It seemed that it was about time to lie low anyway because the teachers were preparing us for end of semester exams, and marching band competitions were coming up. In fact, on the 8th, Gabby and I had to be a few counties over and waking up before the ass-crack of dawn. We were leaving Friday night. Unfortunately, we had a football game that night, so we would most likely not get much sleep.

So, that sucked, but we'd do well.

I also got a job and worked during the week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays. I was getting low on money due to gas payments and stuff, and I had to buy presents for my friends and family soon for Christmas. I would hopefully save up a fair amount and have enough for a while. I ended up scooping ice cream at Maxie's. That was pretty "chill." THE PUNS ARE LEGIT!!!

Anyway, Reagan was avoiding us, and I was forced to tell Anti what had happened. He was worried that there was now no reason for her to keep our secret, but I wasn't worried about that. I had been trying to communicate with her again, but I stopped trying when after two days she hadn't responded to multiple texts or phone calls.

ME-> hey, sorry i rejected you

REAGAN-> fuck you, zach

ME-> sorry

REAGAN-> yeah

At least that's how I imagined it at the time.

The actual convo was like this:

ME-> hey

ME-> look, i'm sorry about what happened the other night

ME-> just respond when u can

The next day...

ME-> sorry

She said nothing to me until Saturday. But I'm not quite there yet. On Tuesday night, in preparation for a shit-ton of un-fun activities, the five of us (minus Reagan) decided to play...wait for it... putt-putt. Yes, our activity of choice was mini-golf. And John utterly sucked. On the very first hole (the par was 3), John took 14 shots to get the ball in. As his ghostly pale face blushed red, he said to me:

"Now would be the time for you to fuck up."

I made par.

John must have been joking on the first hole cuz he did reasonably better on the next 8. When I say "better" though, I mean "better as compared to 14 shots on a par 3." He still sucked. Upon reaching the 10th hole his score was almost +40. Meghan came up with the idea that if John managed to not get last place, we'd all buy him an ice cream, but if he did he would buy us ice cream. He didn't agree. So, I came to a compromise: if (when) John got last, we would all buy our own ice cream. John agreed.

The 10th hole was in a fake pirate cave with the actual course running over a bridge. John's face was covered in shadows as he bent to putt. At that moment, Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" started playing in the restaurant the putt-putt course was adjacent to. John's face was partially revealed in some light shining in through the cave entrance. I saw him grin, swing and... knock the ball off the bridge into a shallow pool.

"Hmm..." John said.

The rest of us started laughing.

"I can't even see it," I said, leaning out across the water.

"Let's go ahead and add another 30 to his score," Anti remarked, "cuz we aren't getting that ball back."

We all agreed (except John), leaving him with a finishing score of +68. He just shrugged, walked to Gabby and put his arm around her shoulders. I approached the course and promptly made par again. Anti got a hole in 1. We continued to advance through the holes, and John got last place. Anti won with a -2 score, and Meghan was totally pissed cuz her score was -1. Gabby and I both had a score of +3. It turned out that the "Hole of the Day" was the 10th one, and Anti got a free Chocolate Chimichanga for his hole in one. We all bought our own Chocolate Chimichangas and sat on the curb of the parking lot eating them. A few adults stared warily in our direction, but it just so happened that we were NOT going to burn down the mini-golf course. Five teenagers eating Chocolate Chimichangas should not worry people. Honestly.