Sunshine

“Brian Elwin Haner Jr.! You get your ass back home this second!”

The voice sounded so distant to Evelyn, probably because it was. She felt weight on her left side and slowly opened her eyes. She nearly jumped when she spotted Jimmy laying awkwardly close to her on his stomach, his left arm draped over her waist. He was even still gripping a bottle of beer.

She also spotted Brian, who was rubbing his eyes and struggling to get up from the other side of Jimmy. Realization hit him and he scrambled to clean and dust himself off in the dim sunlight, also known as sunrise.

“Shit! Jimmy, wake up!”

Jimmy stirred and mumbled something incoherent into the ground. Brian couched down and shook him, looking at Evelyn with pleading eyes. He was silently asking her to help him.

Evelyn, not one to reject those in their time of need, lifted Jimmy’s arm off her and took the beer bottle, tossing it to the side as she shook his arm.

“Get up, Jimmy!”

She couldn’t be loud even if she wanted to, but she gave it a shot. Jimmy didn’t move a muscle.

“Briaaaaan!”

Brian was getting visibly distressed and shook Jimmy more violently, yelling at him to get up. Jimmy hardly moved. He had managed to get Jimmy on his back and gestured for Evelyn to come over. She did, watching Brian wearily.

“Straddle him,” he commanded.

Evelyn gaped at him, “What?!”

Brian looked around nervously, “I’m already in deep shit and if I don’t come back with Jimmy I’ll be in even more deep shit. This will wake him up; trust me. Just hurry!”

“Okay, okay,” Evelyn said, holding up her hands in defense. Brian sighed and tapped his foot impatiently, worried about his punishment for being out late and drinking in the park…again. Evelyn frowned, unsure of what to do. Truth be told, she hadn’t ever…straddled…anyone before. She didn’t really know how to go about this task.

Brian was growing irritated and gripped Evelyn’s shoulders and pushed her down so she was now sitting on Jimmy’s waist. He grunted and shot his eyes open, his hands immediately going to steady whoever was on him.

Jimmy gave Evelyn a groggy, crooked grin, “Well good mornin’ there, Evie.”

Brian smiled in satisfaction and shoved the mortified Evelyn off of his best friend. He pulled Jimmy to his feet and started dragging him out of the clearing in the trees. Evelyn followed close behind, jogging to catch up to them.

“Suzy’s pissed,” Brian said. He was obviously nervous.

Jimmy seemed slightly more awake as he stood up straighter and wiped the sleep from his eyes as Brian continued to drag him along.

“Well, shit.”

Brian gave him an ‘are you stupid’ look, “Ya think?!”

Brian pushed his way through the bushes separating the park from his property, snapping twigs and stepping on flowers. It was clear that he didn’t care at this point what happened to them.

Evelyn felt like she was invading in on Brian’s personal life and as they reached his backyard and opted to sneak around and go home. Jimmy grabbed her by the sweatshirt and pulled her along with him and Brian.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Why?” she asked.

Brian sent her a look, “If you’re not here with us, I’ll be in even more shit. So as much as I don’t care to say it, you have to come back to my place.”

Jimmy couldn’t help but laugh. He quieted when Brian gave him a dirty look, but still snickered to Evelyn.

“You sound like you’ve been forced to hook up with her.”

Brian rolled his eyes and Evelyn stared at Jimmy, appalled. Jimmy just laughed.

“And where have you been?!”

Brian stopped and let go of Jimmy, causing him to fall backwards slightly into Evelyn. Both of them straightened up and dusted themselves off, trying to look presentable for Brian’s less than happy stepmother.

“Uh…we were…”

“Brian!”

Brian’s father came out of the house and shook his head. He looked unhappy himself, though his reason was because his wife woke him up with all her yelling.

“What?!” he asked, clearly irritated.

Like father, like son, Evelyn thought.

“Brian was out all night again! He even took Evelyn with him and Jimmy this time!”

Brian Sr. gave his son a disapproving look, but didn’t scold him, “I doubt he was doing anything. They probably just fell asleep.”

“I can smell the alcohol!” Suzy insisted, sighing at the end of her sentence, “I’m just worried about you, Brian. I don’t want you to end up hurt or anything bad to happen to you, or Jimmy.”

“We don’t do anything wrong! And we were in the park! How could we possible get hurt there?!” Brian yelled, tossing his hands up in the air. Jimmy said nothing, seemingly used to this situation by now. Evelyn put her hands in the front pouch of Jimmy’s sweatshirt, which she was literally swimming in, and stared at her feet.

“I just want you to be safe and stop this, Brian,” Suzy said quietly. Brian Sr. turned and went back into the house, probably to go back to bed. Brian Jr. sighed and ran a hand across his short hair.

“I know, Suzy.”

“And you ruined my bushes! I worked so hard on those!”

“I know, Suzy.”

Suzy sighed and turned to Evelyn, “I think it’s best you go home now, Evelyn. I’m sure Maudie and Nik are already awake.”

Evelyn nodded and opened her mouth to reply, but Suzy stopped her.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell them about this little incident if you don’t, okay?”

Evelyn closed her mouth and nodded. She turned to Jimmy and started to take off the black sweatshirt, but Jimmy once again pulled it back down over her head.

“Keep it. You can give it back another time.”

She gave him a smile and mumbled goodbye to Brian, Jimmy, and Suzy, before walking through Brian’s house and across the street, back to her own. She looked out at the sunrise, guessing it to be about 6 in the morning. Her Ma was probably already up, like Suzy had said.

Evelyn quietly knocked on the door. Maudie answered with a puzzled expression, though it turned to one of happiness and confusion when she saw who was at the door.

“Back so soon?”

Evelyn nodded and followed Maudie inside, shutting the door behind her. Nikolaus was already perched in his chair, reading the newspaper. Cooper ran down the stairs to greet her and she scooped him up, giving him a hug.

“I could hear Suzy’s yelling from across the street. What’d you kids do?” Nikolaus asked curiously, his eyes drifted up as he eyed Evelyn through his glasses.

Evelyn remembered Suzy’s words and shrugged, hating lying to her grandparents, but she couldn’t just tell them the truth either. She came to a quick compromise in her head.

“Brian ruined Suzy’s bushes. She wasn’t happy about it at all.”

It was a lie by no means, yet it wasn’t the entire truth. Unless her grandparents specifically asked, she wouldn’t mention the night to them. She thought it to be best that way, at least for now.

Nikolaus nodded, believing the answer to be true. Maudie also nodded, knowing how peculiar Suzy was about her gardening.

“Well come on in and eat some breakfast, Scout. I bet you’re hungry.”

Evelyn, still holding Cooper, followed her Ma into the kitchen. She was more than ready to eat some real food after nothing but hotdogs, s’mores, and a couple beers last night.

As long as drinking with Brian and Jimmy at ‘the spot’ was just a onetime thing, Evelyn felt no need to be concerned about it. She could push it to the back of her mind for now and put herself at ease. Too bad for Evelyn, it wasn’t just a onetime thing.

It became a routine for the rest of her high school life.