*set in the 1950s
n i c h o l a s *
"I heard they were playing 'Backseat bingo'!" Catherine Porter says, breaking out into giggles right after. "Nicky! Come sit!" She adds upon seeing me.
"Oh, he's such a dreamboat!" Ann Mathers says, looking as the cafeteria door opens.
I look up and see Eddie Michaels walking across the floor. A total dreamboat, but also my best friend. Of course, I can't voice the fact that I think he's a dreamboat-- I'd probably have to skip town!
Eddie walks over to the empty seat beside me and sits down, causing tons of girls around us to break into fits of giggles.
"What are we talking about, ladies?" Eddie asks, elbowing me and grinning. I put my head down momentarily and look back up at him, smiling.
"We heard from Gerald that he saw Dale Walters and Bonnie Wreath playing backseat bingo last night at the drive-in!" Catherine tells him.
"Oh, ladies you stay away from him!" Eddie says. "That Dale's bad news!"
Catherine and Ann look at each other.
"Come on, Nicholas, let's go burn rubber!" Eddie says, flicking me.
I stand up.
"Bye Nicky!" Catherine says, waving as I walk off with Eddie.
"Nicky?" Eddie asks as we near his baby blue 1955 Chrysler Windsor. Eddie's father got it for his birthday, sure it's already a two-year-old model, but she's a beauty! I've got a red 1954 Lincoln Capri that has a white roof, from my grandfather on my past (seventeenth) birthday.
"D'you hear?" Eddie asks me as we get in the car.
"Hear what?" I ask.
"Bobby nearly got caught by the fuzz!"
"Cut the gas, really?!"
Eddie nods and looks at me. "Wanna go to the drive-in tonight?"
I shrug. "Yeah,"
🎙️📻☎️📽️
"Bye, Ma! I'll be back later!" I call as I go out the front door to Eddie's car.
When I get in Eddie's car, the radio is cranked up, Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets playing. Eddie turns it down when I get in. He grins at me.
"How're you?" He asks.
"Swell," I tell him.
"Did you see Gerald's hunk of junk that he bought?" Eddie asks me as he drives down the road.
"I heard about it from Wally, but I haven't seen it," I say.
Eddie laughs. "It's lumpy!"
I look out the window.
"Howard is made in the shade with this job he's picked up at the diner," I say. "Wanna stop by after the movie?"
"Keen," Eddie mutters.
🎙️📻☎️📽️
The Sun Also Rises is the movie playing tonight.
"I tried to phone Maureen yesterday," Eddie says, breaking the silence.
"Oh? Trying to go steady?" I ask, teasing him, but feeling slightly hurt on the inside.
"Nah, just checking up on her. She said her brother was fixin' to join the army!"
"Really?"
"Yes. She said he gave dean a real bad shiner. Dean wanted to go steady with her, but he found out and wasn't keen on the idea, punched him in the face."
I grimace. "Wouldn't want to mess with him, but he's always been a spaz (klutz)."
Eddie nods.
I look over at Eddie in the middle of the movie, staring at his profile.
He looks over at me, catching my eye. Before I realize it's happening, his lips are on mine. It's a quick movement, and it's over just as quick.
"Eddie?" I mutter confusedly when he pulls back.
He looks at me apologetically.
🎙️📻☎️📽️
"Thanks," I mutter when Eddie drops me off in front of my house.
"'S no sweat," he replies quietly, looking pale.
I shut the car door, go into the house, and shut the door. I wait until I hear Eddie's car drive off before going in to say goodnight to Mom and Dad.
We left the movie early.
We didn't stop at the diner to see Howard or get shakes.
I go up the stairs and into my room, closing the door behind me.
Gilbert, my little brother, is snoring softly on the other side of the wall. I change and flop down onto my bed.
I lay awake. Hearing my parents go to bed.
I don't sleep much.
🎙️📻☎️📽️
After breakfast the next morning, I go into the living room to phone Eddie.
"Hello?" A voice says on the other line, but it's definitely not Eddie's.
"Hello?" I say.
"Who's this?" His little sister, Penny, asks.
"Nicholas. Is Eddie there?"
"Yes, one second,"
A moment of silence.
"Hello?" Eddie's voice says. I can't tell if he knows I'm on the other side of the call or not.
"Hi," I say.
"Look I'm-" he begins.
"Meet me at the abandoned Griffin House on Maple in fifteen minutes," I tell him and then hang up.
"Mom, I'm going for a drive," I say.
"Okay honey, be home in time for supper." She tells me.
I nod and go out to my car, petting my German Shepherd, Lucy, on my way out.
I lay a patch on the road, I drive so fast to get to the house. I park at Welch's Drugstore, about a block down from the house so no one gets suspicious. I walk back down to the house and wait around for Eddie. When Eddie approaches me, I look up from the ground. He has an apologetic look on his face.
"Come on," I say. He follows me into the house via the unlocked (and broken) back door. I quietly go up the stairs and find the closet. Weird, I know. I'm trying to find a room with no windows.
"You go first," I tell him.
He looks at me suspiciously but goes ahead anyway; I follow him in and pull the door closed behind me.
"What are we doing, Nicholas?" Eddie asks.
I grab his face, forcing him to look at me.
"What do you think we're doing?" I ask him.
"I don't know...talking about last night?"
"I don't want to talk about last night..."
"You don't? I didn't rattle your cage?"
"...I want to do it again."
I can't see him very well, but I know he looks at me.
I push him against the far wall and find his mouth with mine.
The closet isn't very big, but it's soon filled with the heavy breathing of Eddie and I.
"You want to---?" Eddie asks me, pulling away from the kiss and looking down.
"In the closet?" I ask him.
"I parked in the trees. No one would see--only if you want--"
Eddie and I sneak out of the house and back into the light, going into the forest, pretty far back. Eddie opens his car door and shoves me in the backseat, climbing in behind me.
7/3/2020
This is ridiculously bad lol
