The Boys

Casey sat in the front seat of Sean’s car. They both sat in silence, along the bumpy road.

“So,” Sean said, making small talk. “You must have left a lot of friends back home, huh?”
“Yup,” Casey said, staring out the window.
“But no boyfriend, right?” he asked.
“Right,” she replied.
“That’s good.” He commented.
“It’s good?” Casey was confused. Was he happy that she was single?
“It’s fun being single,” he said.
“Oh,” Casey adjusted the strap of her tank top.
“A lot of my friends are single.” Sean.
“That’s good,” Casey.

After what seemed like the longest car ride of Casey’s life, they finally pulled up to a house, where all of the lights were off. They stepped out of the car, and there was loud, pounding music coming from the garage. Casey followed Sean to the side of the garage, where he pounded on a door. The door swung open towards them, and a built, blonde guy with a diamond stud in his ear greeted them, his body in the way, arm dangling on the doorframe. He was clutching a half empty bottle of Heineken and had a lit cigarette dangling from his lips.

“Sean!” he exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air, sloshing beer onto the ground. “My man, Sean!”
“Hey, Johnny,” Sean replied, extricating himself from Johnny’s grasp.
“Hello there, pretty lady,” Johnny said, looking at Casey and smiling. “Is this yo’ new girl, Sean?”
“No!” Sean and Casey said quickly, at the same time.
Sean laughed. “This is Casey.”
“Oh,” Johnny said. Silence.
“So are you going to let us in, or what?” Sean asked.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, man,” Johnny said, punching Sean in the arm. He stepped out of the way to let them in. The garage was filled with smoke, and there was some kind of makeshift stage set up in the back corner with a band playing on it. In addition to the five guys playing on stage, and Johnny, there were three other guys in the garage, all sitting on a couch, all with beers and cigarettes in their hand.

“Can I get you guys a drink?” Johnny asked, glancing over his shoulder.

“I’ll take a beer, dude,” Sean said. “Casey? You want one?”
“Yeah, for sure,” she said. She always partied back at home, and was secretly hoping there wouldn’t be any shortage of that once she got to Kingston.

Sean and Casey took a seat opposite the three guys on the couch. Casey felt a little awkward as she sipped from her beer, as she noticed the lack of other girls at this little gathering of theirs. This party was a little more low-key than what she was used to back home.

“So, do you guys party like this often?” Casey asked, trying to make conversation.

“What? This?” one of the guys laughed, “This isn’t a party. We gather like this every night. You want to see a party? Come over here on Friday,”

“Is that an invitation?” Casey smirked.

“Sure is,” another boy said. “A girl like you is welcome here anytime,” finishing his sentence with a lick of his lips. Casey rolled her eyes.

“Take it easy over there, Gabe.” Sean said, staring him down while Casey couldn’t see. Gabe held up his hands as though the police had just caught him red handed.

“Relax man, it’s all in good fun,”

A few hours, and about 3 beers later, Casey was feeling a buzz, and was listening to Gabe drunkenly tell her all about how he was on the football team, and this year was going to be his year to bring the team to victory.

“That’s all really great, Gabe” Casey said, uninterested, her buzz making her want to do all sorts of things that didn’t include sitting there listening to him. “But I hate football.”

“Oh,” Gabe said, taken aback a little, then he grinned, his eyes glazed over. “Well, do you like this?” And he leaned closer to her, and just before their lips touched, Sean appeared and pulled her by the arm.

“Come on, Case,” he said, sounding a little annoyed, “It’s time to get home.” Casey giggled and waggled her fingers at Gabe as he rolled his eyes and groaned.

“Aw man, you never let me get any!”

“You’ll get over it,” Sean said. “Now really, it’s time to go,”

Casey and Sean silently got into the car. “Are you sure you’re okay to drive?”

“I’m fine,” Sean smiled. “Unlike you, miss party girl, I only had one beer.”

“So how much trouble are we going to be in?” she asked.

“Depends on if we get caught or not,” Sean looked sideways at her, smirking. “But then again, that’s half the fun.”

Luckily when the pair had gotten home, the lights were off in the house, meaning nobody was waiting up for them. However, when Casey tiptoed up to her room, she was about to open her door when a voice made her jump and turn around.

"What are you doing?" She breathed a sigh of relief however, when she saw that it was only Jamie. Casey smiled at him. He was standing against his doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing a faded black thirt, and loose pyjama pants. She noticed then how cute he was. She was standing with her back against her closed bedroom door, and the tight hallway space made their faces a mere foot or two away from eachother’s.

“Hey,” she said.

“You smell like beer,” he said flatly.

“Oh,” Casey was taken off-guard.

“You better hope that next time you don’t get caught,” he glared at her, then retreated back to his room, gently closing his door. Casey stood in the hallway still.

What the hell was that? She thought to herself.