‹ Prequel: One of the Boys...Right?
Status: In progress! That's right! I'm back!
That Last Little Spark
Eighty Four
“Can you please tell me where we’re going?” Jess sighed for the fourth time as the cab made another turn.
“You’ll see when we get there.” Bam smiled. A country song started playing on the radio, and it made Jess think of high school, when she was seventeen, before the guys started moving away, the summer right after junior year...
Full moon shinin’ bright
Edge of the water we were feelin’ alright
Back down a country road
The girls are always hot & the beer is ice cold
Jess
“Wake up, sleepyhead!” someone was whispering in my ear. I opened my eyes to see Bam and Dunn kneeling before me in the dark.
“What the hell is going on?” I looked at the clock. It was midnight.
“We’re gonna go play in the Brandywine River, since it’s officially Dunn’s birthday.” Bam grinned.
“Are you insane?” I sat up from my spot on the floor.
“Come on, Jess. It’s a hundred and seven fucking degrees in here.” Bam whispered as Dunn started shaking Dico and Kelsey awake.
“Your parents are going to kill you.” I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
“Please. It’s summer, and they told us we could play in the river whenever we wanted.” Bam snorted.
“Who’s going?” I asked.
“Everyone that’s here.” Bam shrugged. ‘Everyone’ included Angie, who was Dunn’s girlfriend, and was one of mine and Kelsey’s good friends, Dico, Raab, Novak, Dunn, Kelsey, myself, Bam, and his friend Johhny, who was visiting for the weekend and had been ‘adopted’ into our little family as an honorary ‘brother’. “And my friend Frankie scored us some wine coolers. We’ll get some wood, get a bonfire going, probably go swimming,” he gestured to my tank top that had slipped down so much that my bikini top was visible. “So are you coming or not?” he added. It only took me about 30 seconds to decide before I grinned up at Bam.
“I’m in.” I jumped to my feet.
Cadillac horns on the hood
My brother Frankie had his dad hook us up good
Girls smiled when we rode by
They’d hop in the back & we’d cruise to the riverside
“You wanna wake up the entire fucking township?” Kelsey hissed through the dark when Novak dropped an entire armful of wood in the back of Dunn’s pickup truck. Being the more responsible ones, we suggested that Bam leave a note so his parents didn’t call the police and report us all missing, and made sure someone brought a cell phone.
“Are we good?” Bam shoved the cooler of drinks in the bed of the truck next to the wood.
“All set. Which way do you want to go?” Dunn asked, jingling his keys.
“Cut through the yard and take the back way through the woods.” Dico suggested.
“Fuck that, you won’t be able to see where you’re going!” I shot back. Kelsey nodded in agreement. We were all in our bathing suits with some form of clothes thrown over them.
“You want us to take the main roads and get stopped because we’re all illegally riding in the back of his truck?” Novak was already sitting up in the bed.
“I’m broke, I can’t afford any tickets. This thing has awesome 4 wheel drive though. It can handle it. It’s not the first time we’ve taken that way to the river, remember?” Dunn asked. We had gone down to the river a few weeks ago and tried to go rafting. It failed miserably. They all fell apart in the water in less than an hour and we had to walk a mile back to get to the truck.
“We’ve never gone at night, but if you think you can do it, I’m game.” Kelsey gave a half shrug, then turned around. “Dico, what the fuck is that?” she pointed at the huge box he was carrying.
“Uh...fireworks?” he laughed.
“Put that shit back, Dico. We’ll get caught if we set off the big ones!” Bam shook his head.
“Dude, it’s the Roman candles and sparklers! Nobody’s gonna catch us!” Dico laughed again.
“You know, we never finished our Roman candle dodgeball game...” Raab smiled. Bam’s face lit up in a smile.
“He’s right! Bring ‘em.” he nodded to Dico.
“Come on, let’s go before someone really does catch us!” Dunn waved to the back of the truck before sliding into the driver’s seat. Angie sat in the middle, and Kelsey climbed into the passenger seat, since she could see everything in the dark. Her vision was like that of a cat’s at night. Dico, Novak, Raab, Johnny, and Bam piled into the bed of the truck and helped me climb up next to them.
“Not going in the cab?” Johnny asked me.
“And miss this excitement? Hell no!” I laughed. Bam tapped the window on the cab and the truck started quietly. Dunn kept the headlights off as he pulled into the street, then turned onto the lawn at the furthest part of the property next to the woods.
“Oh my god, April’s gonna be so pissed.” I looked at the track that one of the tires was making on the lawn as Dunn hugged the tree line.
“She’ll never know. She doesn’t do any yardwork over here anyway. Jess mows the lawn...and that’s it.” Bam shrugged. Kelsey was hanging out the window on the passenger side, brushing her fingers along the pine trees, letting Dunn know when she couldn’t touch them anymore as a sign to get over more. He finally reached the turnoff into the woods and turned on the headlights.
“Ah shit, we forgot a radio!” Novak groaned.
“And things to sit on.” Johnny looked around.
“No we didn’t! I grabbed the cordless radio from the garage, and a bunch of old blankets from the hall closet.” Kelsey said through the window leading into the cab.
“At least one of us was thinking.” Bam laughed. We sat in the back, laughing whenever the ground was uneven and sent us bouncing around.
“Oh my god, I think my tailbone is officially broken.” I groaned when I got slammed into the cooler for what felt like the tenth time. We had been driving for about 20 minutes, and I wasn’t sure how far we were from the river.
“Quit your bitching, Jess, we’re here!” Dunn parked in the trees by the river. The moon was shining in the clear sky, making a reflection on the water. We piled out of the back and grabbed the cooler, the wood, and the fireworks. Kelsey pulled the blankets and radio out when she got out, and then we threw our clothes into the truck bed. We were miles away from anyone, so we could make all the noise we wanted.
“Oh my god, the water feels so good!” Kelsey dipped one of her feet in. We were standing on the sandy edge of the river, waiting for the boys to start the fire in the circle of rocks that we had made before. All of the grass and leaves had been pulled up a long time ago, by Bam’s brother Jess and his friends, and all of the small trees were gone, used as firewood. There was nothing to catch on fire and burn the entire forest down...because we knew it would’ve probably happened to us.
“Finally!” Johnny got the fire to light, and Dunn had the radio playing on the hood of the truck. The blankets were scattered on the ground away from the fire, and the cooler was open.
“That feels awesome.” Novak stood in the ankle-deep water.
“Ninja!” Dico screamed and tackled him in. The current was slow enough to where we could barely feel it. Splashing filled the air as the rest of us dove in, screaming with laughter.
“Happy birthday, Dunn!” I yelled, following Dico’s example as Kelsey, Angie, and I shoved him into the cool water.
Woah never gonna grow up
Woah never gonna slow down
Woah we were shinin’ like lighters in the dark
In the middle of a rock show
Woah we were doin’ it right
Woah we were comin’ alive
Woah we were caught up in a southern summer
Barefoot blue jean night
“Are you trying to take my fucking head off?” I yelled at Dico as I pushed my hair away from my face. Dico had lit one of the tubes of Roman candles and was shooting them off into the river. One had barely missed me when I came up from underwater. We had all been playing in the river with no intentions of getting out, except to grab drinks and keep the fire going. We were all a little buzzed, which was probably how it was going to stay. We all agreed not to get wasted. We wanted to remember tonight...and not through the use of the camera we brought.
“Someone take those away from him.” Raab laughed, clinging to an old tire swing that was tied to one of the trees.
Blue eyes & auburn hair
Sittin’ lookin’ pretty by the fire in a lawn chair
New to town, new to me
Her ruby red lips were sippin’ on sweet tea
Most of us were around the fire as the radio reported that it was nearly four in the morning before launching into another rock song. Dico, Johnny, Novak, and Raab were still in the water, shooting Roman candles at each other. We draped the ends of the blankets over the logs around the fire and leaned on them. Dunn was propped up against one, his arm around Angie, who had her head on his chest, her auburn curls spilling across his white t-shirt. Her blue eyes were closed but she was clearly awake, laughing whenever she heard one of the boys in the river yelling in pain. Dunn was staring up at the sky, singing along with the radio as Bam joined in.
Kelsey and I were on either side of Bam, his arms around both of our shoulders. Johnny had already taken a picture, claiming that Bam was the biggest pimp he knew.
“We’ll do this again, right?” I asked, looking up at the sky. It was still dark, but the moon had shifted into the trees where we couldn’t see it.
“We better!” Novak yelled from the water, his guard down enough for Dico to hit him right in the chest with a Roman candle ball. “OW! FUCK!” he yelled and splashed water on it.
“The best birthday I could ask for.” Dunn raised his wine cooler in the air.
“I’ll toast to that.” Bam raised his bottle and clinked it with Dunn’s.
Shot me a look like a shootin’ star
So I grabbed a beer and my old guitar
Sat around til the break of dawn
Howlin’ and singin’ to our favorite songs
It was coming on six in the morning. We were all still wide awake, and now we were all out of the water. The drinks and fireworks were gone, and the fire was dwindling, but the radio played on, and we were determined to see the sun come up. Already the stars were gone, night was to our west, and the sky was turning a light orange. A song started playing, talking about memories and good times with friends. We all knew it, and started singing along. Johnny was panning across the group, taking a video to add to the other videos and pictures we had taken throughout the night.
Woah never gonna grow up
Woah never gonna slow down
Woah we were shinin’ like lighters in the dark
In the middle of a rock show
Woah we were doin’ it right
Woah we were comin’ alive
Woah we were caught up in a southern summer
Barefoot blue jean night
The sun finally came up over the other side of the river an hour later, lighting all nine of us up in brilliant orange sunshine as we continued singing every song that came on the radio.
“Guys, I really mean it. This is one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had.” Dunn spoke up when we stopped singing for a moment.
“Glad you had fun, man.” Bam grinned.
“Let’s make this a tradition, alright? Not just a once a year thing, but whenever we can. We’ll come out here, spend the night here, play with fireworks all night and watch the sun come up.” Dunn continued.
“Definitely.” I grinned over to him. We all sat up, half-empty bottles in hand that we were saving for a toast, and held them up over the remains of the fire that had died an hour ago.
“To the river!” Novak said triumphantly.
“To all nighters.” Kelsey grinned.
“To awesome birthdays.” Dunn added.
“To spending the summers together.” Angie smiled.
“To being in the middle of nowhere!” Dico yelled.
“To fireworks.” Raab laughed and pointed at Novak’s chest, a purple blotch from where he’d gotten hit earlier.
“To traditions.” Bam nodded
“To memories.” Johnny added cheesily. Everyone looked at me, and I looked at everyone individually, then looked at the sun, still bathing us in orange light, then back to the bottles over the fire.
“To us.” I smiled. “Happy birthday, Dunn.” we all clinked glasses and drank the remainder of the liquid inside.
Woah never gonna grow up
Woah never gonna slow down
Woah we were shinin’ like lighters in the dark
In the middle of a rock show
Woah we were doin’ it right
Woah we were comin’ alive
Woah we were caught up in a southern summer
Barefoot blue jean night
Jess looked up at Bam as the song ended, and he smiled back at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking of.
“Before the summer ends, we’ll go back to the river...do it all again.” Bam promised.
“You’ll see when we get there.” Bam smiled. A country song started playing on the radio, and it made Jess think of high school, when she was seventeen, before the guys started moving away, the summer right after junior year...
Full moon shinin’ bright
Edge of the water we were feelin’ alright
Back down a country road
The girls are always hot & the beer is ice cold
Jess
“Wake up, sleepyhead!” someone was whispering in my ear. I opened my eyes to see Bam and Dunn kneeling before me in the dark.
“What the hell is going on?” I looked at the clock. It was midnight.
“We’re gonna go play in the Brandywine River, since it’s officially Dunn’s birthday.” Bam grinned.
“Are you insane?” I sat up from my spot on the floor.
“Come on, Jess. It’s a hundred and seven fucking degrees in here.” Bam whispered as Dunn started shaking Dico and Kelsey awake.
“Your parents are going to kill you.” I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
“Please. It’s summer, and they told us we could play in the river whenever we wanted.” Bam snorted.
“Who’s going?” I asked.
“Everyone that’s here.” Bam shrugged. ‘Everyone’ included Angie, who was Dunn’s girlfriend, and was one of mine and Kelsey’s good friends, Dico, Raab, Novak, Dunn, Kelsey, myself, Bam, and his friend Johhny, who was visiting for the weekend and had been ‘adopted’ into our little family as an honorary ‘brother’. “And my friend Frankie scored us some wine coolers. We’ll get some wood, get a bonfire going, probably go swimming,” he gestured to my tank top that had slipped down so much that my bikini top was visible. “So are you coming or not?” he added. It only took me about 30 seconds to decide before I grinned up at Bam.
“I’m in.” I jumped to my feet.
Cadillac horns on the hood
My brother Frankie had his dad hook us up good
Girls smiled when we rode by
They’d hop in the back & we’d cruise to the riverside
“You wanna wake up the entire fucking township?” Kelsey hissed through the dark when Novak dropped an entire armful of wood in the back of Dunn’s pickup truck. Being the more responsible ones, we suggested that Bam leave a note so his parents didn’t call the police and report us all missing, and made sure someone brought a cell phone.
“Are we good?” Bam shoved the cooler of drinks in the bed of the truck next to the wood.
“All set. Which way do you want to go?” Dunn asked, jingling his keys.
“Cut through the yard and take the back way through the woods.” Dico suggested.
“Fuck that, you won’t be able to see where you’re going!” I shot back. Kelsey nodded in agreement. We were all in our bathing suits with some form of clothes thrown over them.
“You want us to take the main roads and get stopped because we’re all illegally riding in the back of his truck?” Novak was already sitting up in the bed.
“I’m broke, I can’t afford any tickets. This thing has awesome 4 wheel drive though. It can handle it. It’s not the first time we’ve taken that way to the river, remember?” Dunn asked. We had gone down to the river a few weeks ago and tried to go rafting. It failed miserably. They all fell apart in the water in less than an hour and we had to walk a mile back to get to the truck.
“We’ve never gone at night, but if you think you can do it, I’m game.” Kelsey gave a half shrug, then turned around. “Dico, what the fuck is that?” she pointed at the huge box he was carrying.
“Uh...fireworks?” he laughed.
“Put that shit back, Dico. We’ll get caught if we set off the big ones!” Bam shook his head.
“Dude, it’s the Roman candles and sparklers! Nobody’s gonna catch us!” Dico laughed again.
“You know, we never finished our Roman candle dodgeball game...” Raab smiled. Bam’s face lit up in a smile.
“He’s right! Bring ‘em.” he nodded to Dico.
“Come on, let’s go before someone really does catch us!” Dunn waved to the back of the truck before sliding into the driver’s seat. Angie sat in the middle, and Kelsey climbed into the passenger seat, since she could see everything in the dark. Her vision was like that of a cat’s at night. Dico, Novak, Raab, Johnny, and Bam piled into the bed of the truck and helped me climb up next to them.
“Not going in the cab?” Johnny asked me.
“And miss this excitement? Hell no!” I laughed. Bam tapped the window on the cab and the truck started quietly. Dunn kept the headlights off as he pulled into the street, then turned onto the lawn at the furthest part of the property next to the woods.
“Oh my god, April’s gonna be so pissed.” I looked at the track that one of the tires was making on the lawn as Dunn hugged the tree line.
“She’ll never know. She doesn’t do any yardwork over here anyway. Jess mows the lawn...and that’s it.” Bam shrugged. Kelsey was hanging out the window on the passenger side, brushing her fingers along the pine trees, letting Dunn know when she couldn’t touch them anymore as a sign to get over more. He finally reached the turnoff into the woods and turned on the headlights.
“Ah shit, we forgot a radio!” Novak groaned.
“And things to sit on.” Johnny looked around.
“No we didn’t! I grabbed the cordless radio from the garage, and a bunch of old blankets from the hall closet.” Kelsey said through the window leading into the cab.
“At least one of us was thinking.” Bam laughed. We sat in the back, laughing whenever the ground was uneven and sent us bouncing around.
“Oh my god, I think my tailbone is officially broken.” I groaned when I got slammed into the cooler for what felt like the tenth time. We had been driving for about 20 minutes, and I wasn’t sure how far we were from the river.
“Quit your bitching, Jess, we’re here!” Dunn parked in the trees by the river. The moon was shining in the clear sky, making a reflection on the water. We piled out of the back and grabbed the cooler, the wood, and the fireworks. Kelsey pulled the blankets and radio out when she got out, and then we threw our clothes into the truck bed. We were miles away from anyone, so we could make all the noise we wanted.
“Oh my god, the water feels so good!” Kelsey dipped one of her feet in. We were standing on the sandy edge of the river, waiting for the boys to start the fire in the circle of rocks that we had made before. All of the grass and leaves had been pulled up a long time ago, by Bam’s brother Jess and his friends, and all of the small trees were gone, used as firewood. There was nothing to catch on fire and burn the entire forest down...because we knew it would’ve probably happened to us.
“Finally!” Johnny got the fire to light, and Dunn had the radio playing on the hood of the truck. The blankets were scattered on the ground away from the fire, and the cooler was open.
“That feels awesome.” Novak stood in the ankle-deep water.
“Ninja!” Dico screamed and tackled him in. The current was slow enough to where we could barely feel it. Splashing filled the air as the rest of us dove in, screaming with laughter.
“Happy birthday, Dunn!” I yelled, following Dico’s example as Kelsey, Angie, and I shoved him into the cool water.
Woah never gonna grow up
Woah never gonna slow down
Woah we were shinin’ like lighters in the dark
In the middle of a rock show
Woah we were doin’ it right
Woah we were comin’ alive
Woah we were caught up in a southern summer
Barefoot blue jean night
“Are you trying to take my fucking head off?” I yelled at Dico as I pushed my hair away from my face. Dico had lit one of the tubes of Roman candles and was shooting them off into the river. One had barely missed me when I came up from underwater. We had all been playing in the river with no intentions of getting out, except to grab drinks and keep the fire going. We were all a little buzzed, which was probably how it was going to stay. We all agreed not to get wasted. We wanted to remember tonight...and not through the use of the camera we brought.
“Someone take those away from him.” Raab laughed, clinging to an old tire swing that was tied to one of the trees.
Blue eyes & auburn hair
Sittin’ lookin’ pretty by the fire in a lawn chair
New to town, new to me
Her ruby red lips were sippin’ on sweet tea
Most of us were around the fire as the radio reported that it was nearly four in the morning before launching into another rock song. Dico, Johnny, Novak, and Raab were still in the water, shooting Roman candles at each other. We draped the ends of the blankets over the logs around the fire and leaned on them. Dunn was propped up against one, his arm around Angie, who had her head on his chest, her auburn curls spilling across his white t-shirt. Her blue eyes were closed but she was clearly awake, laughing whenever she heard one of the boys in the river yelling in pain. Dunn was staring up at the sky, singing along with the radio as Bam joined in.
Kelsey and I were on either side of Bam, his arms around both of our shoulders. Johnny had already taken a picture, claiming that Bam was the biggest pimp he knew.
“We’ll do this again, right?” I asked, looking up at the sky. It was still dark, but the moon had shifted into the trees where we couldn’t see it.
“We better!” Novak yelled from the water, his guard down enough for Dico to hit him right in the chest with a Roman candle ball. “OW! FUCK!” he yelled and splashed water on it.
“The best birthday I could ask for.” Dunn raised his wine cooler in the air.
“I’ll toast to that.” Bam raised his bottle and clinked it with Dunn’s.
Shot me a look like a shootin’ star
So I grabbed a beer and my old guitar
Sat around til the break of dawn
Howlin’ and singin’ to our favorite songs
It was coming on six in the morning. We were all still wide awake, and now we were all out of the water. The drinks and fireworks were gone, and the fire was dwindling, but the radio played on, and we were determined to see the sun come up. Already the stars were gone, night was to our west, and the sky was turning a light orange. A song started playing, talking about memories and good times with friends. We all knew it, and started singing along. Johnny was panning across the group, taking a video to add to the other videos and pictures we had taken throughout the night.
Woah never gonna grow up
Woah never gonna slow down
Woah we were shinin’ like lighters in the dark
In the middle of a rock show
Woah we were doin’ it right
Woah we were comin’ alive
Woah we were caught up in a southern summer
Barefoot blue jean night
The sun finally came up over the other side of the river an hour later, lighting all nine of us up in brilliant orange sunshine as we continued singing every song that came on the radio.
“Guys, I really mean it. This is one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had.” Dunn spoke up when we stopped singing for a moment.
“Glad you had fun, man.” Bam grinned.
“Let’s make this a tradition, alright? Not just a once a year thing, but whenever we can. We’ll come out here, spend the night here, play with fireworks all night and watch the sun come up.” Dunn continued.
“Definitely.” I grinned over to him. We all sat up, half-empty bottles in hand that we were saving for a toast, and held them up over the remains of the fire that had died an hour ago.
“To the river!” Novak said triumphantly.
“To all nighters.” Kelsey grinned.
“To awesome birthdays.” Dunn added.
“To spending the summers together.” Angie smiled.
“To being in the middle of nowhere!” Dico yelled.
“To fireworks.” Raab laughed and pointed at Novak’s chest, a purple blotch from where he’d gotten hit earlier.
“To traditions.” Bam nodded
“To memories.” Johnny added cheesily. Everyone looked at me, and I looked at everyone individually, then looked at the sun, still bathing us in orange light, then back to the bottles over the fire.
“To us.” I smiled. “Happy birthday, Dunn.” we all clinked glasses and drank the remainder of the liquid inside.
Woah never gonna grow up
Woah never gonna slow down
Woah we were shinin’ like lighters in the dark
In the middle of a rock show
Woah we were doin’ it right
Woah we were comin’ alive
Woah we were caught up in a southern summer
Barefoot blue jean night
Jess looked up at Bam as the song ended, and he smiled back at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking of.
“Before the summer ends, we’ll go back to the river...do it all again.” Bam promised.
♠ ♠ ♠
As many of you Jackass/Viva la Bam fans probably know, Ryan Dunn passed around 3:30 this morning in a car accident. Even after 8+ hours of seeing Facebook posts and pictures of the accident, I still don't want to believe it. People are saying it's fake, it's a joke, and while I want to desperately believe them, there's no way April could fake the devastation on her face in the video I saw of her and Phil talking about Dunn. There's no way the Jackass guys would tweet all of that stuff about him being a brother and how much they're going to miss him. They would know, and especially MTV, which has his death on the homepage, would know.This update, which really isn't much of an update as far as the story comes into play, is in dedication of Dunn. I can't think about anything other than this right now.
Ryan, you're gonna be missed. My heart goes out to Bam and his family, Ryan's family, his girlfriend Angie, and all of the Jackass/Viva la Bam guys.
As I saw in a tweet on the MTV dedication page: "He's up in heaven pranking God now. That lucky bastard."
The short description is a quote I saw on a Facebook page for him, talking about him pulling stunts in heaven.
Watch over your boys, Dunn. We'll see you on the other side.
You shone like a lighter in the dark
In the middle of a rock show
"You're never gonna die because you loved. Because you loved. You're gonna live forever. We all will."