Under Jersey Skies

Once school had let out for the day Arriana, Joey and I walked home together, I would’ve gotten a lift from Frank with the other guys, but with the addition of Arriana and Joey, there wouldn’t have been enough room in the van. I watched Arriana and Joey as we walked, trying to figure them out. Something struck me, I’d always wondered why Joey was usually pretty quiet until somebody spoke to him, but I had finally figured it out, it was because of whatever it was between him and Arriana. There were vibes there, major vibes.

“Alright, well, I’m gonna skedaddle, I’ll see you guys on Monday” said Joey, as he waved goodbye and walked up the driveway to his place.

“So, you reckon your Dad will let you stay over?” asked Arriana.
“Yeah, he should, I don’t see why not” I replied.
“Cool” she said.

We walked up the driveway to my house and I let myself in with my house keys. I went upstairs to my room and dumped my bag on my bed before going back downstairs to lead Arriana into Dad‘s office so we could ask him.

“Dad?” I said cheerfully, skipping into the room and flopping down on the sofa.
“Yes?” he replied, in a tone that told me exactly what he was thinking;

What does she want now?

“Can I stay over Arriana’s place tonight?” I asked.
“I don’t see why not” he replied with a smile.
“See? Told you!” I said, turning to Arriana.
“Just be good” laughed Dad.
“I will” I laughed back, jumping up from the sofa and dashing towards the door.
“Oi!” Dad said when I was almost out the door of his office.
“Yes?” I asked, turning around.
“Where’s my hug?” he asked, holding his arms out.

I rolled my eyes and went over to him to give him a hug.

“Thanks, now run along” he smiled when I let go.

I grabbed Arriana’s hand and we ran upstairs to my room to pack my stuff.

“Daddy’s girl” she teased as I pulled out a few tops from my drawers.
“Shut up” I retaliated with a laugh.
“Hey, dude, I’m kidding, I’m just as close with my Mum as you are with your Dad” she smiled.
“Really?” I asked, folding up my jeans and packing them into my bag,
“Yeah really, you wait till you meet my Mum, she’s awesome” said Arriana.
“Alrighty then” I replied.
“Oh, you might wanna pack your bathers if you got any” she suggested.
“You got a pool?” I asked.
“Yeah” replied Arriana.
“Awesome” I said, throwing my black and pink bathers into my bag.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yup” I smiled, swinging my backpack over my shoulders.
“Well let’s get going then” Arriana said cheerfully, linking her arm with mine.

The two of us left my room and walked down the staircase towards the door.

“Well we’re off, bye Dad!” I called out to him before I opened the door.

Arriana’s house, unlike Joey’s, was a lot further from my house, Joey only lived about 2 blocks away, Arriana was all the way on the other side of the neighborhood. But it didn’t bother me much, I didn’t mind walking all that way, especially seeing as it was my favourite season of the year. We did make it there eventually, and I couldn’t believe the sight before my eyes.

“That’s your house?” I asked.
“Yup” Arriana replied.
“It’s, uhm, different” I laughed.
“Colourful huh?” she said.
“Yeah” I replied.

Arriana’s house was completely rainbow colored, it was fairly artistic really, the paint job really gave the house it’s own character, I’d never seen another house like it before. We walked up the driveway and Arriana opened the front door. The inside was rather different from the outside, the walls were white and the floor was made up of polished floorboards, which had been covered quite a bit by various rugs.

“Mum, I’m home, and Jackie’s here” Arriana called out.
“Oh really?” I heard a voice call out.

A woman came out of the lounge room to the right, she had long messy black hair, striking blue eyes and wore a Three Days Grace t-shirt with black skinny leg jeans held up by a studded belt. There were a stack of metallic colored bracelets around her right wrist and a red studded cuff around her left. She had dark eyeliner on and her face was almost pitch white from her foundation. But all in all, she looked awesome.

“Hey, nice to meet you, I’m Bella” she introduced herself, holding a hand out to greet me.
“Nice to meet you too, I’m Jackie” I replied, shaking her hand.
“Yeah, Arriana’s told me a lot about you” she said.
“Is that so?” I asked curiously, all wide eyed.
“Oh yeah, she also tells me you’re in need of a fresh hair colouring right?” asked Bella.
“Yeah, desperately, my regrowth’s coming through and it clashes with the black big time” I laughed.
“Haha, alright then, well come with me” she said, grabbing my hand and leading me upstairs.

Arriana stayed behind and retreated to her room for awhile while her mother set to work on my hair. Bella took me to a room at the far end of the hall upstairs and opened the door. I gasped when the door swung open to reveal what was practically Bella’s own home salon. There were washbowls, trolleys laden with brushes and clips, a mirror on the wall and a salon chair in front of it, and in the back corner a sink with dye mixing chemicals all around the place on shelves.

“Wow” I gasped.
“Pretty cool huh?” she said.
“Totally” I replied.
“So” she said, walking over to a table in the corner where a stereo sat with a cabinet next to it filled with CD’s.
“What you wanna listen to? I got Metallica, Bullet For My Valentine, Escape The Fate, Three Days Grace, Blindside and even…” she trailed off, pulling out a CD from the bottom of the cabinet.
“A CD Arriana scored of My Chemical Romance” she smiled, holding it out to me.
“Wow! How did she get this?” I asked.
“A friend of Joey’s father gave it to Joey, and Joey gave it to Arriana” Bella explained.
“How’d Joey’s father’s friend get it?” I questioned.
“Bill did the sound for one of their shows once” she answered.
“That is so cool” I said, surveying the cover, it was entirely black except for the band’s logo and a picture of a few bats and the CD’s title “Unleash The Fucking Bats” in white.
“I’d assume that’s what you’d like to listen to then?” asked Bella.
“Yeah, if that’s alright with you” I smiled, passing the CD back to her.
“No problem” she said, putting it into the stereo and pressing play.

The sound of Ray’s amazing guitar playing and Bob’s unbelievable drumming filled my ears, followed by Mikey’s bass and Frank’s guitar. I closed my eyes and let the music fill me up inside and out, it was soothing somehow considering how loud and heavy it was.

“The amount of pills I'm taking, counteracts the booze I'm drinking, and this vanity I'm breaking, lets me live my life like this, and well I find it hard to stay, with the words you say, oh baby let me in, oh baby let me in” I sang along to Gerard’s voice as he began to sing.

I walked over and sat down in front of the mirror as Bella went into the corner to mix the hair dye. I looked down into the small cabinet where she’d left a stack of magazines and looked through them. They weren’t the usual shitty magazine’s you’d normally find at a hair salon, there was Kerrang, TV Hits, Rock Sound and Rave. I picked up a copy of Rave and flicked through to a Blindside article. Stopping quickly to sing along to my favourite line of the song.

“And you can cry all you want to I don’t care how much you’ll invest yourself in me, we’re not working out, we’re not working out, and you can’t keep my brother, and you won’t fuck my friends”

I heard a laugh from the corner of the room from Bella, before returning back to my article…

***

An hour later, I looked up from my magazine as Bella turned off the hairdryer. I gasped, not only had she re-dyed it for me, but she had styled it for me too, puffy up top, thinner at the bottom, the way I liked it the most, Arriana must have said something. I ran my fingers through it, puffing it up more before suddenly realizing something was missing, something I felt so important with this particular style.

“Bella? Do you have any clip in bows?” I asked her.
“Do I ever” she answered, bringing over a small ceramic bowl full of clips.

I looked through it and picked out a blue bow with red spots on it, figuring it’d go well with my school uniform, which I still had yet to change out of. After surveying myself in the mirror one last time, ecstatically happy with how my hair had turned out, I turned around to face Bella.

“Thankyou” I said, genuinely thankful.
“That’s okay” she said.

I went downstairs to find Arriana watching MTV, there was a Bullet For My Valentine special on, and they were performing my favourite song; Forever And Always. I sat down beside her, and began watching it with her, singing along to the song. Two hours passed by, and then an Elvis Presley special started.

“Ew! No! Kill it!” Arriana shrieked, grabbing the remote and turning the TV off. It was 7pm now, and it was getting dark outside. Bella came down from upstairs, where she had been cleaning out the salon, and tidying up her room. She sat down beside us, holding the phone up in her hand.

“Hungry?” she questioned.
“Yeah” we replied.
“Pizza?” she asked.
“Hell yes!” Arriana & I said excitedly, we were big fans of pizza.

Bella dialed the pizza parlor’s number, before getting up and walking out of the room. I looked at Arriana with a puzzled expression, and she let out a sigh.

“It’s O.C. night again” she breathed.
“O.C. night?” I questioned.
“Yup, every second Friday night, Mum orders pizza, and we watch all four seasons of The O.C. on DVD while eating chocolates, lollies and pizza” she explained.
“You guys watch the O.C.?” I said happily, glad to have found more O.C. fans.
“Yup, huge fans of it, that’s why we’ve got all four seasons, and why we have this little tradition” Arriana laughed.
“Awesome” I smiled.

Once the pizza had been delivered by a very cute boy with floppy brown hair and green eyes who I recognized from school, I closed the door with a smile after relieving the hot pizza box from his hands and took it into the lounge room, setting it down upon the coffee table. I ran upstairs and changed into my hot pink pajamas with black batman logos all over them, before running back downstairs, now more comfortable. Once Bella had returned from the kitchen with a coffee, the three of us settled down for what would be a very, very long night of watching TV…