Summer: Undefined

Fortunately for me I didn’t have to make that decision. Before I knew it Aimee was joyfully bounding towards me. She hesitated for only a moment before sitting next to me in the grass.

“What’s up?” She asked, slightly timid.

I sighed and hoisted myself up from the grass and became at eyelevel with her. “I’m thinking.”

“Well, I can see that.”

“I was actually just wondering whether or not to go back to the party.”

“Ah,” She mumbled knowingly. “I know how that feels. Well… until…”

Aimee glanced over her shoulder and smiled. She stared at her feet for a minute, the smile still planted firmly on her lips, until she finally noticed that she’d been aimlessly smiling at her shoes and laughed nervously.

“It’s… Frank?” I asked, taking a wild stab at her reason for smiling. Of course it was Frank, though. There was nothing else that she could possibly be so giddy about.

“Maybe…” Her cheeks turned a few shades darker than the ripest strawberry and she went back to look at her feet. “Yeah! I just can’t help it! He just makes me feel so… at peace with myself, and he’s the only one that manages to make me braver than I really am.”

“I noticed,” I said remembering what happened at the hot tub. “It’s really sweet, you know? The way you two are…”

Aimee’s face lit up and she giggled.

“Do you think he really likes me?”

“I think so. But I haven’t really known him for very long. I met him practically when you did. If you wanted a truthful answer you should probably ask Mikey or something, or better yet… You could ask Frank.”

I thought I heard her breathing stop. When I looked over I noticed her eyes were wide and mouth pressed so tightly together it looked as if she barely had any lips at all.

“I’d take that as I no,” I laughed to myself and leaned back on the grass again.

“I couldn’t…” She tossed her head away from me in shame. “I just… couldn’t.”

“I’m not forcing you.”

The sound of crunching grass was followed by total silence on her part. When I say total silence, I really mean total silence. I couldn’t hear her heartbeat, or her lungs expanding, or anything along those lines.

I turned my head in the grass to see what she was doing, or if she was even still by my side. She was still there, only her knees were underneath her chin and her bangs were hiding her eyes.

“What’re trying to do? Use reverse physiology on me or something?” Came muffled words from behind her blond hair. “Cause it’s fucking working.”

“It wasn’t intended… but good. You should just do it.”

“Whatever, Delilah.”

Aimee swooped to her feet and trudged back to the party with her hands balled up in her jean pockets.

“Alone again…” I muttered to myself.

“Actually, I’m afraid to report that your not.”

I opened my eyes and saw Vince towering over me, smiling. He sat down beside me in the grass.

“Hey, Vince.”

“I’m sorry about what happened to Elle,” He leaned his head on his fist and looked down at the grass.” I probably should have stopped her…”

I mindlessly nodded; it took me a while for this thought to fully register. For a brief moment in time they were just words with no meaning. It wasn’t until I actually used my mind and though about it that I finally got what Vince was saying.

“Wait… you knew?” I shot up in the grass. “You knew she’d taken it?”

“I was there when he gave it to her.”

“Why didn’t you stop him? You know drugs are stupid, Vince! Ugh! What… Why… Jesus, Vince!”

I shot up from my spot and fumed in the opposite direction.

“Trust me, Delilah, you would’ve done the same thing!”

“No!” I stopped and turned around.

He was joking right? He had to be joking? Why would I give my best friend? Why would he just stand there and do nothing? The hatred that boiled inside me was even stronger than the anger I had towards Matt. It was so strong that I was almost positive my irises were pure red.

“I wouldn’t have done the same thing! Because unlike you, Vince, I have a heart! And a brain! I can actually thin for myself!”

My body couldn’t handle it anymore. It was overflowing my heart and pouring out into my physical being. I was biting down on my lip so hard to try and stop myself that I soon tasted my blood flowing between my teeth.

“God, you’re just as prude as she is,” He muttered and started to stand.

That was it! The last straw! I ran towards him and launched myself at him and took him down to the ground with me.

We rolled around in the grass for a minute before I could finally get my balance and start striking him.

I could hear people running over to us. They were yelling and trying to pull me off of Vince. But I wouldn’t budge. If they knew what he has just said… They would probably be helping me.

My fist flew in all directions, the passion making it hard to control were the punches landed.
I knew were Vince stood on the subject of hitting women, he was against it one hundred percent. I used this opinion to my best advantage as I felt some of his blood splatter up onto my cheeks. Though he did try and defend himself with his hands I pushed past them and continued to beat away at him.

“Delilah!” I felt Jude pull on my shoulders, I resisted. “DELILAH!” Still I refused to move. Nothing anyone said or did could stop me from settling the scores. “Guys help me!”
Three pairs of hands placed themselves upon my shoulders and hoisted me up off Vince who was trying to make his bleeding stop.

“Delilah!” Jude pinned me to the ground. He hovered over me and stared me down. “Calm down, Delilah! Just breathe!”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Frankie and Bob lifting Vince up and trying to carry him into the house to take care of him.

“Just breathe…” Jude repeated trying to grasp my attention. He probably knew this, but he was failing. My eyes were too busy trying to swallow the heat of the situation.

When I finally stopped squirming Jude finally led up the pressure he was putting on my wrists and let me sit up.

A circle was formed around me. Half of the people I didn’t know, they were from the party, yes, but I didn’t know them. Having these strangers’ eyes follow your every move was a few steps below disturbing. The minority of the faces were familiar yet far from comforting. Halle seemed to be the only one who was happy with my beating up Vince. The rest were highly on edge. Every time I did anything they would flinch with fear.

Did they think I was a monster now? Did they think I was going to attack them?

I felt like I was on a merry-go-round. All the faces around me spun viciously; it was hard to maintain standing. My feet felt glued to the floor. I was trapped.

Why was this happening? What has happening?

Before I knew it I pushed past the circle of people and ran into the darkness of night not bothering to look back. Where I was going I wasn’t sure, I just knew I needed to get away.

Thanks to my lack of physical endurance I had to stop at the end of my street, where it turned into the coldisac by Elle’s house. In the middle of it there was a patch of grass with some bushes that outlines a smaller circle in the center.

I trudged over to the grass and pushed my way through the bushes until I was in the center of them. I let go of all the control I had in my muscles and collapsed.

There was no time for me to think. Literally seconds after I had fell down the echo of a familiar voice came ringing through the vacant street. It called out my name and responded with a slight smile when I sat up.

“Hey, you,” Halle laughed and joined me in the bushes. “That was quite a show.” I grunted in response and fell backwards again. “So how’re you feelin’, sweets?” She played with my hair and laughed again. “Probably not the best, huh?”

I weakly nodded my head and scrunched my nose together.

“What did I do?” I asked, my hands rubbing against my face, thus muffling my words.

“Well, it seems to me that you beat up Vince, for one reason or another. He deserved it though, cheating on you like that.”

“That was a rhetorical question, Hal,” I half-laughed and hit her knee. “And it wasn’t even because he cheated on me. This was a different reason.”

“Ah,” Halle nodded. Her head tilted up at the sky. I could see she was trying to find constellations from the brisk bouncing of her eyes from one spot to the other. “So why was it then?”

“It was just some confusing thing about Elle. How he was there and didn’t stop her, I just… I got mad.”

“Well that’s an understatement,” She talked over the urge to laugh, for the third time in two minutes. “But I don’t blame you, I would’ve beaten the bastard up too, if I were you. In fact… I think I’ll give him seconds!”

“No, Halle!” I pulled on her jeans as she stood up and tried to run back to my house. “Don’t.”

“I was just joking, Delilah.”

I smiled and rolled onto my stomach, face first in the wet grass.

“Come on, girlie. We’re going back. Up, up, up!” She lifted me up and wiped some grass off my back and shoulders. “Gorgeous!”

We walked together at a slower pace than normal, I was in no rush to get back to the party and she was fine with missing ten minutes.

“You know that Gerard, kid?” She asked out of nowhere. “He really likes you, if you didn’t already know.”

“I think I had an idea,” I smirked at the memory. “Why?”

She shrugged. “It’s just when you ran off, he went to chase after you, but I told him that you probably needed a girl right now.”

It’s not that wouldn’t have enjoyed seeing Gerard, it’s just that Halle was right, I needed a girl. But not just any girl, I needed Halle. And thank God, that’s exactly what I got.

The house came into view and Halle stopped and swooped me into an unexpected hug. Though for a moment I didn’t know how to react I gratefully accepted it and squeezed my friend tighter.

“You sure you want to go back just now?” She said holding tightly onto my shoulders and holding me at arms length. “Things were pretty hectic when you left. Maybe they haven’t calmed down yet?”

“Yeah, maybe waiting is a good idea.”

I plopped myself down in the grass, patted the area next to me and looked up at Halle.

“Join me?”

“Of course!”

The conversation following our decision to sit was relatively normal. That is my and Halle’s definition of normal, which, honestly, is anything but. I guess that’s just what makes our friendship so strong.

“That’s why I hate school without you,” She concluded her long-winded story. Now when I say “long-winded” I mean it. She seriously could have said that entire story in one sentence. But with it being Halle she had to get into the tiny details of everything.

“Interesting,” I said resting my cheek upon my hand. “So did you say that it was… chocolate pudding?”

She nodded, “Unfortunately yes. It was really quite- Oh, my, God!”

I jerked my head to one side to see what she was suddenly starring at. I was just as shocked as she was. Nothing could prepare us for what we were seeing. And no one probably ever expected this to happen.

Lurking in the shadows my house was giving there were two people intertwined in each others arms- and legs apparently- kissing feverishly.

“Is that who I think it is?” I whispered, shocked, to Halle.

“I think so… Who would’ve thought it, eh?”

We stood up and walked past them, trying not to disturb their… fun. Even though we probably could’ve walked past them banging drums and blowing whistles and nothing could faze them.

“He’s probably going to get his heart broken, He’s probably never gonna see her again because she’s such a whore.”

“Poor Mikey,” I shook my head and rejoined the party with Halle by my side.