A Loaded God Complex

A streamer covered float drove past while I watched on the curb of main street. We'd gotten out three classes early to watch the homecoming parade, and four if you were someone in it. Pete, Nicole, and I sat in a line. Pete had his knees up and bent his elbows around them, Nicole leaned back extending her legs and I sat pretzel legged. The freshman float passed and Pete moaned.

"I don't want to be here!"

"It is-" Nicole started happily, only to have her sentence finished by Pete.

"Fun. We could be doing something right now, instead of sitting here watching brainless, rat-bastard, yahoos pretend that being on a float means anything. Over-rated." He spat.

"Raya's in the parade." I quietly mentioned, only loud enough for Nicole to hear.

"Really? For what?" She asked, this grabbed Pete's attention that he was being left out and he began to listen a little harder.

"She was debating between student council and juniors' float."

"I wish I was as popular as her." She sighed dreamily.

"Not you too!" Pete exclaimed and then glowered at the oncoming float.

Fed up, yet again, I silently and independently searched for her in the crowds on each platform. She wasn't with the student council, so I waited for the juniors. After the band a red truck was pulling them up, standing I saw her immediately. Raya stuck out easily, she was subtly clad in burgundy and gold unlike the rest of our classmates around her. She came over to the side of the float I was on, leaning over the railing she smiled wildly. Raya blew a kiss, but I couldn't tell where she was looking through her sunglasses. Furrowing my brow I turned to see if they noticed too, Pete was as red as Nicole's hair. Raya had already returned to the other side by the time I went back to watching the float. Pete was still on the ground with his expression vacant, but not dumb, and his mouth hung a bit slack.

Wordlessly I sat back down, the rest of the parade passed swiftly. Pete's mood got better as it neared the end, although my spirits weren't lifting any. Large groups of people with, rosy and fall kissed cheeks passed. We remained, as the sea of people parted around us.

"This is my last homecoming, guys. I think I should go out with a bang."

"Like what?" Nicole had much concern in her voice.

"I was thinking streaking at the game." Pete snickered, and Nicole smacked the back of his head.

"Don't do that!" She squeaked. The masses of people were thinning, this was usually the time we got up to head out.

"Yeah," I supported, "Unless… you want to stay here another year."

"They'd really do that?" Pete hopped up and stretched. His face contorted, his body flailed, and he let out a grunt, "That's gay."

A passing on looker grimaced and Pete showed no sham. We commenced fourth back to the school. Not many kids were still there, only the ones who were, were cleaning up from the parade. Nicole collected her homework from her locker and we were just about to head the front doors when we saw Raya on her cell phone.

"Yeah Dad…" There was jumbled and low pitched rambling on the other end. "I know! I know…no one in the house without you there. Fine, bye." Aggressively, she hit the 'end' button. She greeted us startled, with a high pitched voice, "Hi!"

"Hey," We all said over one another. Pete was one with less enthusiasm, although his voice normally sounded like that. Still, I felt a little bit of nerves in his voice.

"Where are you guys going?"

"We were going to my house." Pete announced, "You can come if you'd like." Taken aback I whipped my head at him. My mom hated it when we went to his house and when he came to ours. We both were at an agreement that if we were all going to hang out it would have to be at Nicole's house.

"No thanks…" Raya mumbled, "But, have fun." She then genuinely wished.

Nicole shrugged and went with the flow when Pete pushed through both doors to make his exit. My feet didn't move, Raya waited expectantly for me to leave. I had merely forgotten about Pete catching her kiss at the parade, after I saw her in such a distress.

"Ice cream?"

"No, it is getting too cold for ice cream." Raya grinned, yet she appeared humiliated, "I'd rather just walk around with you."

"Ok."

Together we went to the front of the school and went to main street. It was bustling with tons of town's people, in fact this was the liveliest part of the year. Normally I'd just avoid it, with Raya it didn't seem like it could be that bad. Along the way we talked about the weather and how the school was thinking of adding a community help program with Raya as the president.

"Here looks like a good spot." I motioned to a bench next to the town's barber shop. A man was inside have his hair cut by the extra jubilant barber. Comfortably we sat for a while without talking, a few people passed and one caught Raya's attention.

"Does that guy really have anorexia?"

"Him? William Beckett?" I asked to make sure, with a creased forehead she nodded. "He claims he needs to make weight class for wrestling," Snorting, Raya sat forward. "How did you know that?"

"Someone vaguely hinted at it once." She took one last observation of the scene passing him, "Mason, what else is there?"

"Well, do you see him there? Micheal Phelps?" I whispered, she made a confirmation, "He almost made it to the olympics."

"What happened?"

"He was charged with drug possession."

"Tell me more." She whispered into my ear and my body started to tingle.

"And her, Brittany Spears, divorced and shaved her head. She went nuts… Ryan Ross, he's the one walking by the bank, was rumored to be gay." Not once did I feel bad for gossiping, with Raya it was confiding and just plain talking. She hadn't told a single one of my secrets, so I felt no need to worry, "And, auh…" I searched for someone else, "And Miley Cyrus posted nude photos of herself on the internet."

I hushed as she made her way across us. She stared and squirmed as she must have noticed I was talking about her. I was making people wonder if I was saying anything crude or nasty about them and not the other way around. It came with an odd sense of authority. The more people passed the more Raya asked if rumors were true. If she didn't ask about a person I'd tell her something, I treated it like a game so I wouldn't feel guilty.

"Thanks, Mas, this really made me feel better." Unaware that's what I was doing, I didn't question seeing as how I had been dying to tell Raya anything she wanted hear since I met her.