Catcher in the Rye meets The Silver Linings Playbook in this coming of age tale.
Life is complicated for nineteen-year-old Miles Henderson. He was supposed to go to community college, graduate, and leave his crime polluted community for good.
But...
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It was past eight-thirty: the closing time for the Shooting Stars Burger Joint.
Kids—young and old—were about to leave the restaurant. Girls leave first, taking their perms, spandex, ripped knees, lacey shirts, high wasted jeans, and neon-colored leg warmers with them.
The boys followed them sporting light blue jeans, loose shirts, bomber, leather, and denim jackets. Some had these crazy mullets while others turned their hair into colorful mohawks and spikes.
Or at least that's what people in magazines wear.
As soon as the raucous teenagers left, the dazzling jukebox automatically stopped singing.
One of his Caleb's buddies fumbled into his pocket for a quarter, approached the jukebox, then slides the coin into the slot.
Peering inside the glass dome, the teenage boy started searching for the perfect song to suit the tense atmosphere; however, the flipping vinyl records stopped when all of a sudden, I hear a familiar tune flowing from the speakers.
The sullen guitar, the singer's solemn tone, and the haunting acoustics made my ears feel numb. Of all the song choices in the world, this asshole picked "Mother" by John Lennon?
The first time I heard that song was during the night my mom had decided to go to Florida on her own.
Before she left, Mom told Jesse and me that she loves us no matter what. I give her a hug while Jesse called her a liar then stormed upstairs.
I try to think back to the details of that night, but John Lennon's depressing lyrics made the memory so painful that I had to block them out.
Thankfully, Dad and Jesse helped me move on by taking me to movies, the arcade, and eat boatloads of chicken at KFC.
At first, I believed the nightmare was over.
I had already forgotten all about Mom and her selfish desires; but when I attended my senior prom, I heard that John Lennon song playing through the speakers.
My excruciating dance partner, Marissa Clyde pressured me to have sex with her that night but I didn't want to.
First, I didn't have a condom with me and second, she was clueless when it comes to peer pressure.
In fact, Marissa would give in to beer, drugs, and partying without giving a second thought.
Now, I know what most of you are thinking: why the hell did I take her to the dance in the first place?
Well, even though I hated Marissa's clingy personality, I wanted to protect the girl from insults, lies, and her so-called "best friends".
And that's coming from a nineteen-year-old bipolar kid who is having conversations in his head.
So anyway, if that DJ hadn't allowed kids to dance to a song about negligent moms, I wouldn't have been kicked out of that fucking school.
It wouldn't have caused me to have volatile outbursts on the dance floor until Jesse showed up and drove me home.
