Your Voice Was The Soundtrack Of My Summer

“Ok it’s the battle of the sexes. Becky, Piper, and I will go get drinks. Jennifer will go get some alcohol and Andy will assist. Patrick, Pete, and Joe, you’ll go get the snacks. If the girls make it back to the checkout first then tonight we’ll be playing Twister, Hailey edition.”

“Sounds fair enough.” Pete said.

We all rushed to the snack isle and raced to get to checkout first. We grabbed random kinds of soda, not consulting what everyone liked. Becky, Hailey, and I made it to checkout first and we shared some victory high fives.

“We could have won if Joe didn’t drop half of the shit.” Patrick said.

“Aw.”

I kissed Patrick on the cheek to cheer him up.

“Hey why can’t I get a kiss?” Joe complained.

“Ok then come here Trohman, and close your eyes.”

Joe did what Becky said and Becky flicked him in the nose. Joe rubbed his nose and groaned at Becky.

“You’re evil, an evil little woman.”

We waited in line and Hailey realized that she didn’t have any money on her. So we got out of line to wait for Jennifer to come back. I decided to wait outside. I took out some change to get a soda at the vending machine. But the vending machine didn’t give me my soda… or my money back. Pissed, I kicked the hell out of the thing. Pete appeared next to me out of nowhere and startled me.

“Whoa, do you want me to get you a gun that way you can shoot the thing?”

“Sorry.”

“Here let me try.”

Pete put his hands on the vending machine and started talking in some kind of accent.

“Now listen here, see, Piper wants her soda. And if you don’t give it to her then I’m going to have to take you out, see.”

I laughed as Pete started spewing profanity out at the vending machine.

“See that made you happy.” Pete said as he pinched my cheek.

“Hey do you have a dollar? I can try the other machine.”

“Yeah sure.”

This time around I was successful on getting a soda. Then everyone came outside. Becky and Hailey were skipping with lollipops in their mouths.

“Here you go Piper! A bubble gum flavored lollipop.”

“Thanks Becky.”

“I got grape!”

Hailey pop the purple sphere out of her mouth to show me.

“And! I have a cherry one for later. Becky got sour apple.”

“Which would make sense cause her attitude is sour!” Joe said.

Becky chased Joe around the parking lot. Then Becky tackled Joe and Joe shouted as he was walking back to the car. He didn’t cease to over dramatize the condition of his hand when everyone got inside.

“She made me fuck up my hand!”

“Suck it up Trohman and be a man! It’s only a few scrapes.”

Joe stuck out his tongue at Becky. Pete laughed.

“That’s the thing with you two. You piss off each other, yet later I bet that very tongue with be down Becky’s throat later.”

Everyone at the same time expressed his or her disgust in some way. When we got back I managed to sneak out of there to go take a walk down the beach. I found a spot down by the water. I took my flip-flops off to let the waves barely touch my feet. The cold water felt nice as the sun was beating down on my head. I noticed a blonde boy across from me on a beach towel with a bunch of other kids. He noticed me looking and stumbled his way over here with a beer. I turned my head so I could roll my eyes. He plopped down on the sand right next to me, almost knocking me over.

“H-h-hey.”

“Um, hi.”

“I’m Logan.”

He held his hand out to me and accidentally dropped his beer. He lied down in the sand and started to laugh hysterically. I awkwardly scooted over some.

“You are eighteen right?”

“Um, no…”

“Older?”

“No.”

I got up out of the sand and made my way back to the condo.

“Hey wait I just w-wanted to have some fun.”

Logan attempted to get up onto his feet but fell back down. And like heaven answered my prays of getting me away from this douche bag my cell phone rang. I tried to walk as fast as I could through the sand while talking on my cell phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey baby.”

I sighed in relief.

“Patrick.”

“You disappeared! Where are you Houdini?”

“On my way back up to the condo. I went to sit down on the beach for a while.”

“Ok.”

I almost went back inside with sand all over my feet. I ran to the back porch and used the outdoor shower to clean my feet off. When I got in everyone was putting away groceries. A few bags of chips were thrown from one person to the next.

“Oh my fucking God. Jen!”

“What is it Hailey?”

“Dude I thought the last time we stayed up here you cleaned out the fridge?”

“I did!”

“Well there is an old sausage in here.”

“Are you serious?”

Everyone crowded around the refrigerator to see. No one had the guts to pick it up, except Pete. He picked it up and everyone examined it disgustingly. Then Pete threw it at Andy. Everyone laughed as Andy sprinted and screamed like a girl.

“That was not cool man!”

Andy stormed out of the room and up the stairs. I went up after him to see if he was ok. He was lying down on the bed throwing a football up in the air.

“Sup?”

“Nothing much…”

“You ok? You seemed pretty pissed off.”

“Yeah I’m ok.”

“Ok then.”

I watched the football fly up in the air and land back in Andy’s hands.

“Dude when was the last time we played catch together?”

“Since forever…”

“Well I have time to waste…”

“Ok.”

After I played catch with Andy I spent some quality time inside my room, my face buried deep inside a tattered spiral notebook with doodles and stickers littering the cover. Joe knocked on the doorframe before walking in.

“Hey we’re about to start the party… you coming?”

“Yeah sure hold on.”

I reached over and put my notebook and pen on the nightstand. Joe walked over and picked my notebook back up.

“Ever heard of privacy Troh-fro?”

“Nope… what’s in here anyways? Nothing girly and nasty I hope.”

“No just poems and whatever.”

“Oh mind if I ask what you were just writing?”

“Lyrics. I’m quite terrible at it though.”

Joe scanned through the pages until he found the paper dated today. He skimmed through the words and glanced up at me every once in a while.

“They’re not that bad.”

I just shrugged my shoulders and got up from the bed. I looped my arm through his and pulled him out of the room. I heard the notebook hitting the floor in the process. Once I got out of the room I let go of him and listened to his footsteps follow behind. I walked out to the backyard and smiled. The lanterns I didn’t notice before were light up like a rainbow. Flames from the tiki torches danced in the breezy Florida air. It really set the mood to party. I walked over to the table where all of the food and drinks were. I noticed my Hello Kitty boom box was on top of the table. I rolled my eyes as I poured some Coke in a cup. I trailed my eyes across the array of alcohol. I picked up the bottle of rum and counted to four as I poured it in with the Coke, so it would equal an ounce. I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. But as I looked down and noticed the slightly tanned skin tone I realized it wasn’t Patrick. I leaned forward towards the table to signal I was quite uncomfortable.

“Let me go Pete!”

“Aw I love you Piper! You’re my best friend in the whole w-world.”

Pete was pretty trashed already. I pushed him off a little and he stumbled back. He screamed as Hailey ran over and jumped onto his back. I flinched when they hit the ground. But Hailey bounced back up like a rabbit.

“Hyper much?”

She jumped into me and almost knocked me into the table.

“I had some mother fucking Skittles and I’m going insane!”

I giggled as Hailey ran back over to the guys. Patrick looked over my way and smiled. I smiled back and he walked over my way. I looked down at Pete who was still lying face down on the ground.

“You ok dude?”

“The ground is cold Piper… it r-reminds me of Chicago.”

I chuckled at Pete’s random drunken comments.

When Patrick made it over to me and wrapped me into his arms. I sighed in his shirt as his warmth made me feel at home.

“How are you my little wallflower?”

“Pretty good. How about you?”

“Good. Why don’t you come on over here with?”

Patrick cut his sentence short when he saw Pete on the ground moving like he was making a snow angel.

“Is he ok?”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure he’ll be over with us once he’s done getting intimate with the ground.”

We laughed all the way over to the corner of the backyard where everyone else was. Hailey jumped up when she saw us coming over.

“Finally Piper! We were waiting for you!”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s time to play Twister! H A I to the L E Y style!”

“Um, ok…”