CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Connor
Nineteen YearsAgo
The warm smellof a fire somewhere nearby fills the air as Mike, Rich, and I make our way to our usual spot to hang out and drink in the woods near the high school. The cops never come up here, which always amazes me since nobody makes it a secret that we all party in this place. Maybe the police just don’t care. It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong. We’re just having a few beers and some laughs. What’s wrong with that? So what if we’re underage? The whole having to be twenty-one to drink is stupid. They can send us to war, but we can’t have a beer? Ridiculous.
“Did you see that girl at the convenient store?” Rich asks as we head down the path. “I’ve never seen her around here before.”
Mike laughs at our usually timid friend. “Yeah, I saw her. She must be new around here, or I would have noticed her already.”
With more than a hint of dejection in his voice, Rich mumbles, “Noticed her? You would have banged her already.”
I laugh at his disgust with our friend’s success when it comes to girls. Out of the three of us, Mike always gets whoever he wants while Rich and I end up wishing we were as ballsy as he is. Girls love his confidence, something the two of us are sorely lacking, unfortunately.
They don’t mind his six foot three height too, something neither of us can claim to have. Son of a bitch had a growth spurt in seventh grade and never seemed to stop. Rich and I have never caught up, and by the way our health teacher talks, the possibility that either of us will ever top six foot is highly unlikely now.
I guess we’ll have to hope we can find some girls who like their guys around five foot ten. It’s only a few inches. Other than that, all the two of us have to work on is our confidence. In that area, at least I have something going for me. I’m no Mike, but I can fake it pretty much most of the time, especially once I’ve got a few beers in me. Poor Rich is too damn shy and usually can’t even approach girls, no matter how much he’s had to drink.
Mike looks over at Rich and smiles. “Well, don’t sound so upset, dude. I saw you checking her out and told her and her friend to come up here and join us. By the way, their names are Samantha and Kelsey. Samantha’s the one you liked.”
When I glance over at Rich, I see his face lit up with a huge grin. Mike can be a complete dick when it comes to girls most of the time, but if he’s not interested in one, he’s happy to help a friend out. Neither Rich nor I like to admit it, but we’re happy to have him do the work to get girls to come around.
By the time we reach our usual spot in the woods, all I can think of is popping open a beer and chugging it down. We sit on the rocks we arranged around a campfire a while back, and Rich proceeds to hand out the refreshments for the evening.
Raising his in the air, he smiles and says, “To having a great night after a shitty week of school.”
Mike and I raise our bottles to his toast before pounding down our first beers in a matter of seconds. Rich takes a little more time, but after a minute or so, he’s onto his second one too.
“Can you believe old Mrs. Loftus giving me a hard time?” Mike asks, shaking his head before he lets out a loud belch. “That old bitch doesn’t want to see me graduate, you know that? I swear to God if she fails me for the quarter, I’m going to find a way to make her last days on earth a living hell. I promise you that.”
“What can she do? It’s not like they’re going to hold you back. You’re a senior. Nobody ever fails senior year,” I say with a chuckle.
“That’s what she threatened me with last Monday when I was late to class again. I can’t help it her damn speech class is right after homeroom. Who the hell needs speech class anyway? I obviously know how to speak.”
The three of us laugh at that comment before Rich mimics Mrs. Loftus and her famous words she says to us nearly every damn time we have speech day. “You must annunciate!” he says in a shaky voice that sounds just like the old bag’s when she barks at us while we’re up in front of the class. “Annunciate, Michael!”
“I’m going to annunciate. All over her damn face. Bitch,” Mike grumbles.
Reaching over to grab his third beer, he looks at Rich and me and silently asks if we need another. The two of us shake our heads. Rich always ends up nursing his drinks, but tonight I’m thinking he’s going slow for the same reason I am—if we’re going to get laid, we need to at least be able to function. Pounding down half a dozen beers before those girls get here is going to make getting it up difficult, even for two eighteen-year-old guys who have hard-ons almost constantly.
The three of us sit in silence for a few minutes as the smell of burnt wood begins to dissipate. Whoever had the campfire nearby must have left. That means we’re probably the only people out here in the woods tonight.
Good. The last thing a guy needs is some stranger walking up on him while he’s trying to get into some girl’s pants.
These woods are usually filled with people during the warmer months, but once school starts up again, the crowds thin out. The first sign of a chill in the air makes everyone head indoors for their fun, but we like to hang out here as long as we can. Last year, we even drank a few times when there was snow on the ground. It was a little cold, but we had a cooler all around us, so at least the beers didn’t get warm.
“So when did the girls say they’d come?” Rich asks eagerly.
Damn. He must really like that Samantha chick.
I laugh as Mike looks over at him, and in the moonlight, I can see he’s amused too. “Soon. Jesus, Rich. Desperate much?”
“Fuck you. I’m not desperate. I just asked a simple question. You don’t have to be such a dick all the time, Mike.”
He tips the bottle back and downs the last few ounces of his second beer before tossing it off to the side. Things always get edgy between these two when it comes to girls. Maybe if Mike didn’t seem to get every damn one he laid his eyes on, Rich wouldn’t get so fucking surly about him busting his balls about them. I don’t know how he does it, but I swear Mike is a chick magnet.
He elbows Rich in the side and chuckles. “Sorry. I was just having a little fun. Samantha told me she and her friend had to meet up with someone before they could get up here. I think they were buying some weed or something. I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”
