Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Connor
Nineteen Years Ago
The warm smell of 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.”
Rich just shrugs and gives him a half-hearted smirk. This is how things usually are until Mike gets so blasted that he starts telling both of us how much he loves us and how much he thanks God for having friends like the two of us. It’s a little sappy, but he means well.
At least he’s not a mean drunk.
Hoping to get the two of them talking again, I grab my third beer and say, “Did you see the signups for the winter dance in the cafeteria at lunch today? That Laura Carollton was manning the table. Too bad she’s stuck like fucking glue to that idiot boyfriend of hers. I’d go to a dance with her.”
Rich and Mike look over at me like I’ve just announced I’m going to be moving to Neptune next month. They stare at me for a long moment before Mike finally says, “You have a thing for homecoming queens? I had no idea, Connor.”
“Yeah, I mean, you’ve never mentioned her even once before, and now you’re saying you’d go to some dumb dance just for her?” Rich says like he’s shocked I could even notice someone like Laura.
“I don’t have a thing for her or any other homecoming queen. I’ve noticed her. Don’t tell me you haven’t. She’s fucking gorgeous, for Christ’s sake,” I say, suddenly feeling defensive about liking the hottest girl in school.
That makes Mike throw his head back and laugh.
“Of course, I’ve noticed her. I’m not fucking dead.
But Jesus, Connor. She’s been with Chase the asshole star quarterback for so long I figured nobody even paid attention to her anymore.
I mean, there’s taken and then there’s Laura Carollton taken.
They’re probably talking about their impending wedding plans right now. ”
“Yeah, Connor. She’s so into him it’s like she can’t see he’s a total tool,” Rich says with a chuckle. “Not that she’s not hot, but like Mike said, she’s so taken there’s no point in even looking at her.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t notice her and think I’d do her.”
It’s not that they’re wrong. Laura Carollton is Chase’s. Nobody’s saying otherwise. But Jeez, can’t a guy dream?
As I sit there on that cold rock fantasizing about what it would be like to be with her, Samantha and Kelsey call out from the path, “Hey, you guys out here?”
They sound unsure, like they think we’re the kind of asshole guys who’d say we’re going to be partying in the woods but bailed, leaving them out here alone. Obviously, they don’t know us. We’re not the type to leave once the beers have started.
“Over here!” Mike yells.
I see Rich look over toward the path and watch the current girl of his dreams as she and her friend walk over to join us.
She smiles in his direction when she sits down on the rock next to him, so he has a good chance of getting together with her tonight.
The other one sits down next to me, strangely enough.
I was sure she’d be more interested in Mike. Girls always are.
“What’s up?” he asks, taking on the role of host in the absence of any female attention on him. “Want a beer?”