If it's just a game, then I like the way that we play.

But the day pressed on like crushing weights
for no man does it ever wait
like memories of dying days
that deafen us like hurricanes
bathed in flames we held the brand
uncurled the fingers in your hand
pressed into the flesh like sand
now do you understand?
Rise Against- Savior.

“Yeah Julie! You shouldn’t take their crap anymore. You’re 18!” Juliet’s best friend Monica tells her as they blare Rise Against from the stereo of her ’09 BMW 650i convertible on a warm June Tempe, Arizona night. She had just gotten into a fight with her parents on curfew rights. Even though Juliet turned 18, her parents treated her like she was 12. Juliet rolled her eyes as Monica went on about her parents. Juliet and Monica’s other good friends sitting in the back agreed with everything Monica said. Juliet stopped at a red light and start singing along with the song when she saw a big white van collide with a blue Lincoln. Out of instinct, she turned down the radio. Everything was dead silent. She started dialing her mom’s cell number to let her know she would be late because of an accident. As soon as it starts ringing, the woman in the passenger’s seat of the Lincoln’s phone lit up and played her mom’s ringtone. At that moment is when she got a real view of who those people were. Juliet’s mom and dad. Time slowed down. . .

She darted up in her bed surrounded by a pool of sweat and angst. It was 2:37a.m. It was the 3rd time she’d had a nightmare of the night her parents got into an accident since it happened 8 months ago.

Juliet swung her legs over the bed and stood up, still disoriented. As she made her way to the bathroom, she couldn’t help but notice some noise coming from outside. When she was in the bathroom, she took cold water and splashed it on her face after taking another anxiety pill. Trying to forget about her nightmare was impossible. This was one she couldn’t wake up from. The reminder that her parents weren’t alive haunted her every day, especially since her parents had enough money to support her great grandchildren; she lived in her parents’ huge, now empty house.

As Juliet looked into the mirror, she couldn’t help but think of the last thing she said to her parents. “Why don’t you just stop caring about me.” She felt horrible knowing she could never reverse time and take it back. The argument was over the silliest thing.
Thinking about the night brought tears to Juliet’s eyes like wild fire. She tried to blink away the cloudiness, which resulted in tears overflowing like a river on her cheeks. Now all she could hear were the rowdy boys outside her house. She marched downstairs and opened the front door.

“You know,” She called to the five guys causing the noise “It would be great if I could actually sleep without immature idiots being loud.” As her eyes adjusted to the night light, her focus was directed to a boy who stood about 6’3” and had an apologetic look on his face. It wasn’t until a blonde boy wolf-whistled when Juliet realized she was in nothing but a short, lacy, low cut chemise. The tall guy hit the blonde and said something to the rest of the guys standing around him. He started walking towards Juliet’s house, but before he got close, Juliet shut the door, locked it and went back to bed.

After a night of tossing and turning, Juliet awoke in the morning and decided to go out for her typical Saturday breakfast at Denny’s. She showered, let her hair stay curly, like it naturally was, threw on a pair of white skinny jeans, a loose top, and sandals. When she went to check the mail, she noticed a letter taped to her door. It read-

Dear Ms. Night-time Stranger,
On behalf of everyone, I would like to apologize for our being loud. Well, it wasn’t all of us, more or less Pat. He has a lot of spaz attacks. So, yeah, we’re really sorry, it won’t happen again.
- John O’Callaghan, Kennedy Brock, Jared Monaco, Pat Kirch, Garrett Nickelsen.

...P.S. I would have apologized for the wolf-whistle, but you did look really good.

As she read the note, she couldn’t help but wonder who was who. She figured John wrote him seeing as how his face was apologetic, and his name was first.

Once she was at Denny’s, she walked in and sat in an open booth. She heard a man’s laugh that sounded oddly familiar. Looking over to a table in the middle of the restaurant, she saw the five guys from last night. The tall guy got up and walked over to her. He had no hesitation sitting down and introducing himself.

“Well hello m’lady. I’m John. John O’Callaghan. The fifth.” He added a skillful hair flip at the end which made the corners of Juliet’s mouth turn upward.

“Hello, John. I’m Juliet Fenton. Call me Julie” She gave him her captivating movie-star smile, which made John shift in his seat a little bit.

“Okay, Julie. I hope you got our note, well, my note.” John said trying to make conversation.

“Ah, yes I did. Don’t worry about it. I’m not that upset over it. I won’t sue.” Juliet chucked.

John smiled crookedly knowing it was his lucky charm to getting girls. It hadn’t failed him in the past. Juliet was different though. She definitely thought he was attractive, but a lot of guys were attractive. A sly motion isn’t a trick to win her over.
After some small talk, John had somehow talked Juliet into meeting the other guys. She mainly said yes because of her curiosity of who was who.

“Hey guys,” John stated standing by his table “this is Julie. Julie this is Kennedy,” he pointed to a brown haired kid that simply smiled and said hi “Garrett,” a reddish-brown haired boy with glasses and a nose ring who gave a head nod with a ‘what’s up?’ “Jared,” The blonde boy who whistled at her last night.

“You still look good, without the piece of lingerie.” Jared said making Juliet blush. John gave him a look and put his hand on Juliet’s back gaining her attention back from Jared.

“This is Pat.” John said pointing at the last boy with long brown hair, and an adorable face. He gave a sweet smile, which oddly, gave Juliet a small rumble of butterflies in her stomach.

Denny's