Love By Our Side

The rest of the day was spent lazing around. No one wanted to do much of anything, and with school starting up again in three days, there wouldn't be a lot of time to not do anything for a while. The topic of school came up in their conversation, and the questions were pointed towards Stephen and Delaney. Both told everyone what classes they were taking already, but, as usual, that discussion had been forgotten.

“I'm taking English, Pysch, some high school math, since I'm obviously terrible at that shit, and Spanish,” Delaney stated. “Can we all remember that this time so I don't have to list them again?”

“Jeez, sorry we forget things sometimes...” Taylor said, defensively. “We are only human.” Delaney rolled her eyes and threw a pillow that was conveniently on the chair next to her, at his head. “Okay, this sudden violence form you needs to stop, too.”

“You just don't like getting picked on by a girl, since I could obviously kick your ass,” Delaney laughed.Taylor made a hurt face but dropped the conversation, knowing what she said was true. “Anyways, are we just gonna sit here all day? We need to do something big before school starts.”

“There's nothing “big” to do around here though,” John pointed out.

“We can make something big. Or, at least have a bonfire or something,” she suggested.

“I can dig that. My house, tomorrow night?” Brian asked, receiving nods of approval. “Spread the word, and find a source of alcohol.”

The rest of the kids got right on his second demand, always eager for an excuse to drink. Word got around to the people that needed to know, and it quickly turned into a BYOB. Around nine the next night, cars started pulling up at Brian's house. A fire was already going and “discreet” red cups were being handed out, as people negotiated with one another for different drinks other than what they brought.

“I got us all set,” John said, smiling at his girlfriend while showing off his bottle of Captain Morgan. She, in turn, grabbed the bottle and chugged as much as she could before he snatched it back. “Calm yourself, this has to last the whole night!” She rolled her eyes before wandering around to find some food. She sat herself in a chair between Jess and Josh, who were roasting marshmallows. Better junk food than nothing, she thought. She found a stick on the ground and started to brown her own.

“Wanna make a s'more?” Jess questioned, offering a box of graham crackers and bar of Hershey's. Delaney nodded and graciously accepted them. She considered s'mores her second favorite food, only beat out by extra cheese pizza. When her marshmallow was almost burnt, she pulled it out of the fire and placed it between the two crackers and pieces of chocolate, allowed a few minutes for it to cool down, then devoured it in two giant bites. As soon as the second half was in her mouth, she reached out her hand in attempt to ask for another marshmallow. Instead, her friends laughed at her mumbled words, teasing her to not speak with a full mouth.

“Fuck heads, you knew what I wanted,” she grumbled once her mouth was empty, grabbing the bag of marshmallows and securing them by her side. AS she started on her second s'more, Stephen walked past her and made a grab for the bag by her leg. “What the hell, that's my dinner!”

“Looks like it's my dinner now,” he mocked, shoving three raw marshmallows in his mouth. This started a game of Chubby Bunny, which quickly turned into a drinking game, where the loser had to chug a beer. These two things didn't make for a nice mixture, and soon after the game ended, the bushes became the new home for anyone who had lost.

Nothing much happened after the excitement of the vomiting died down, just more talk of school and the forthcoming summer. Delaney had to, yet again, explain her courses, but she learned that Justin Godsey was in her Spanish class, and he was “someone to carpool with.” He didn't think Delaney's poor attempt at a joke was funny, and acted hurt the rest of the night. Charis, his long-time girlfriend, yelled at him for being a pussy, which gained many laughs.

“You guys have been less lovey-dovey than normal,” Delaney said to Charis.

“Yeah I guess. It gets old after a while, ya know?” Charis replied, shrugging.

“I can feel ya...” Delaney trailed, again thinking about why she had moved here.

“You having second thoughts about something?” Charis asked, concerned.

“Not exactly second thoughts...just, other thoughts. I don't know, I feel weird about some things, but I just moved here, school hasn't started yet, and whatever else. Once things start happening I'll be fine.”

“Definitely, I'm sure starting college early has something to do with how you're feeling, too.”

“Oh, I'm sure it does. I just like to blame my nerves on other people, I guess.” The two girls smiled at Delaney's comment, turning back to listen in on the conversation around the fire. The boys were arguing about some TV show, and everyone that had never seen it were confused and yelling at them to stop. Delaney smiled at the foolish fight going on in front of her; this was one of the reasons she wanted to move here. Stephen, very drunk and apparently very angry, looked like he was about to launch at his brother for whatever had just been said. Delaney was glad that she was sitting away from the two of them, not wanting to get in on the confrontation, which would have undoubtedly happened if she was involved.

“So, are you thinking about getting a job down here?” Charis asked, turning back to Delaney and away from the argument.

“Yeah, it would be a good idea. I'll need some way to occupy mysel' while John is in his baby high school classes,” she responded.

“Hey now, I'm in those “baby” classes too, and you would be if you weren't here,” Charis laughed. “Anyways, I'm going job hunting next weekend, if you wanna come. I think Justin is, too.”

“Definitely, but I don't wanna work retail. I had that experience all ready and it was awful.”

“Fine by me, I'll take those applications and you can take the restaurants.”

“Sounds like a great idea.” That was just what Delaney needed, a reason to eat more food, and get paid for doing it.