Teenage Tragedy

The boy with the British handshake

Lay-Lou:

I was woken to the sound of my phone ringing on top of my face. I’d fallen asleep texting my friends from home, and evidently dropped the phone on my forehead. I throw myself up in a rush, and grab my phone to see Merie was calling me. I answer, smiling and rubbing my eyes. “Hey babe,” I say.

“Did I wake you?” she says; judging by the tone of her voice, it’s not exactly early.

“Of course not,” I say, “what’s up?”

“Me, Joe, Jack and you are going over to Suki’s, get ready you lazy cow,” I laugh, guess I wasn’t very convincing in pretending she hadn’t woken me. “Meet at mine in an hour?” she offers, and I agree glad to have plans. We say goodbye, and I start rushing to get ready. I was so terrified I’d have to spend the days here by myself. I run downstairs towards the shower, yanking my clothes off on the way. I’m in my underwear, blind due to the t-shirt I’m struggling to pull over my head, when I hear brother groan in horror, and I pop my head out my top in time to see him bury his face in a tea towel. “Appreciated,” I mutter, and leg it into the bathroom. I’ve been awake for five minutes, only one horrifically awkward moment. A new world record if you’re Lay-Lou Patell. I throw myself into the shower, and go into hyper drive as I shower as fast as possible. How many drops can fall in fourteen seconds? I jump out the shower and start attacking my face with makeup. Unfortunately, my face didn’t know how to be pretty on this fine morning. Or afternoon. I still hadn’t checked the time. I was soon ready and heading out on my Mission to Merie’s.

I leaned on her doorbell, knowing her parents were out and I had no need to be respectful. To my surprise, Joe answered the door, his hair still rumbled from sleep. I push his hair back from his forehead “I think your horn has swapped sides…” I say thoughtfully. “It’s all new. Merie smacked me in head opening the door,” he stepped away from the door to let me in. “Come in, Merie’s in the kitchen,”

“Joe, are you ready?” I hear her call.

“Just let me finish my toast!”

“Damn it Joe- Oh, is Lay-Lou here?” she says eagerly coming out the kitchen to hug me. “Come on, let’s go!” she says, dragging us out the house.

“My toast…” says Joe, his face suggesting he’d just been dragged away from his family by an axe murderer.

“Starve.” Merie says flatly “We’ve got a schedule.”

We start power walking to Suki’s. I don’t know why we’re rushing, seeing as not only is it pretty early, we’re also uninvited. Turns out Merie actually woke me up at 8:30, the little bitch. “Jack’s waiting for us at the corner shop,” Merie tells me brightly over her shoulder “You’re going to love him!”

“Yeah, what makes you say that?” I ask, intrigued.

“Everyone loves Jack,” I grin at Joe’s expression as she says that.

“I don’t think Joe loves Jack…” I say slyly. He scowls at me.

“He’s my friend, actually,” he says sardonically. I ignore him, and Merie giggles.

“Jack certainly loves himself enough to make up for it! He’s funny though, Lay-Lou, I think you’ll get along.” Merie seemed to want me to like him, I didn’t know why. “He’s been Suki’s friend for years, and I think you can already tell Suki doesn’t like many people.”

“Yeah, her best friend for years,” says Joe, getting his own back at Merie.

“Um, no, Sweetie, Suki and I are best friends, you and Jack are our play things for when we need some entertainment,” I silently raise my hand and high five her. Joe digs his hands into her waist and tickles her, making her shriek with laughter. I can’t help but laugh too; I’d forgotten Merie was ridiculously ticklish. At that moment, we cross across the street, and a boy leaning against the side of shop waves at us. Clearly, this is Jack. He was quite a bit taller than me that I found strange; seeing as most of the boys I knew back home were short arses. His hair was all blond and messed up, due to him running his hand through it. That could be my job, begged the horny idiot who lived in the back of my head. I shook my head slightly to clear my evil thoughts. His eyes shone in the bright sun light the colour of blue topaz. He was wearing three quarter length jeans with a turn up, and sneakers that had no laces in them. I wondered why he didn’t replace them. But you don’t argue with random hot guys your insane friend introduces you too. This had happened twice now. God bless you, Merie. His tanned arms were folded across his chest as he waited for us to cross. He was wearing a white t-shirt, which had a tiny skull sewn into the bottom left hand corner. It was done well, but I got the idea it was homemade. I smiled to myself; probably Suki. Jesus Christ. Suki Soprano, I can’t fault your choice, I thought to myself, despite Merie saying they were just friends.