A List of Best Intentions

The invitations were out, and allegedly, everyone I invited was coming to the party-show-thing. I couldn’t be happier; man, I was looking forward to seeing everyone, especially the people I hadn’t seen in a while.

The catch was that I had to have Mom and Dad at it. That meant that I Am You Are couldn’t do any songs with dirty words. Not too shabby, still.

What sucked even worse was that Steph wasn’t coming. Obviously. But the day before the party, I was so caught up in a flurry of preparations that I kind of forgot about that, to be honest with ya.

And the day of the show and the hours before it, despite it not being that huge of a deal, from noon until the time guests arrived, it was straight-up setup. Mom insisted on cleaning the house, never minding the fact that most of the partying would be outdoors. Dad hung streamers and crap.

Cody came over early and brought a bunch of CDs; we spent a few hours burning mixes on the computer. Keisha dropped by with her big brother Owen, too, arms full of homemade stuff and about ten bathtubs’ worth of root beer.

When I stared blankly at the soda bottles she was carrying, she smiled and said, “We’ll be drinkin’ a lotta soda.”

Setup in the backyard took a while. We had to dig a bunch of tables and lawn chairs out of our garage and put ‘em all up, and so the porch was crowded as hell. Then Keisha and her brother and Cody put all their food on it, though, it didn’t look all that bad.

At around five, Elton arrived with Charlie in his Jeep. Charlie had his hands full with a bucket of fried chicken, and of course, Elton held a bag of white bread.

“Told’ja he was bringing four fried chickens and white bread,” Charlie shrugged.

When Keisha saw them, she laughed. (They ended up talking for a good hour.)

Like clockwork, more people filed in as the sun set. The next to come was I Am You Are, who, while still looking like total local rockstars, were only carrying acoustic instruments. They said doing an electric show would be too exhausting and might get the cops called on us (and we all know I didn’t need another tussle with the police…).

Still, they put their instruments in my spare room until it was time for them to do a few songs. I carried Alyssa’s acoustic guitar while Bruce held his along with Jon’s bass. Everybody else was outside when we stored them.

We put them down. But as I turned to walk out to the backyard, Bruce put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me back.

“Wait,” he said sternly.

He was looking at me like I’d just punched him in the gut. “Huh?” I replied.

“Um…” he mumbled. “Steph’s mad at you.”

My heart dropped. “I know.”

“’Cause you were a douche the day you got outta jail.”

“Yeah.”

Bruce bit his lip and ran a hand through his combed-back hair. “Yeah.”

I looked at the floor.

“Don’t mess with my cousin. I mean it. I mean, I like you, Kev, but…yeah.”

“I know. I like her, a lot,” I sighed.

“I know you do. But she’s kinda pissed,” he smirked.

I hesitated, but asked him anyway. “Are you…do you hate me?”

Bruce pursed his lips and tilted his head. “A little bit. But…you’re a good kid.”

I had to snicker a little. “Just…tell Stephanie I’m sorry.”

“Alright,” he smiled.

“Good.”

“Now let’s party. I didn’t come here to be all awkward.”

~~~~

Nick and his gang of Ryanna, Michael (Magathis), and Noel (Nethrezar) came last. They were decked out in black capes and chains and crap, but when they came out back, nobody cracked a joking smile at them. Not even Cody, who never spoke highly of them.

Nick had a big tub under his arm. “I brought spinach dip.”

Charlie gasped. “Dude, spinach dip?! Aw, gimme some!”

Every so often, Tungsten would run around the porch and lick everyone; she grew a lot in the past few months and we let her run around without her leash that night. I knew if I was a dog I wouldn’t wanna be all cooped up when everyone else was laughing and having fun, especially after I’d been moping around for a while, unable to play with her.

She particularly liked pawing at Elton. He’d laugh and pet her shyly, like he was kinda scared of her. I could tell he was a cat person.

And Tungsten barked. A lot. Not just at Elton, either. She kept running around in circles and screaming at random people, especially if they made any sudden movements. (The fireworks didn’t help, either.)

Keisha’s brother Owen, though, shut her up. It was crazy. Tungsten got up in front of him and barked once. Then, Owen looked down at her and just stared. For a full thirty seconds, we all went silent and watched.

Then Owen bent over and ruffled Tungsten’s fur playfully. She didn’t bark at anyone else that night after that.

I was downing a cup of root beer, taking in the atmosphere. Sure, it wasn’t no huge Hollywood party, but it was still great. I was around the people I’d befriended over the year. All these people – Elton, Nick, Keisha, I Am You Are – I’d never really known before.

It was nice, not having anything to worry about, if only for a night.

Well…for everybody else.

2000 was gonna be there in just two days. Two days! I only had forty-eight hours to live it up. And…possibly live, period. It was scary. Even though everyone else told me Y2K wasn’t real, I…I was still a little apprehensive. There was a part of me who believed the conspiracy theorists, since their thoughts were the reasons why my year ended up the way it did.

This was the force that compelled me to make that list. To do all the things I’d wanted to do, and meet all these people. Now it was only a matter of hours until the moment of truth – maybe the world would end after all the nuclear missiles went off. Maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe everything I did was for nothing.

No…wait.

I looked around at my new best friends.

All of this wasn’t for nothing. Whether I was wrong or right about 2000, it didn’t matter. ‘Cause right then, I had almost everything I could ever ask for.

Except one thing…

Cody threw his arm over my shoulder just as a Dixie Chicks song came on from the CD.

“You having fun? You don’t look like you are,” he said.

I shrugged and smiled, ‘cause he caught me thinkin’. “Yeah, I’m…I’m just…yeah.”

He smirked, a gleam in his eye. “You’re not thinking about Stephanie, are you?”

I stuttered; that didn’t make me look intelligent.

“Aw, dude, don’t hang up on that,” he assured, slapping my back. “She’ll come around. Just ‘cause you were a dick then doesn’t mean you’re a dick now.”

I cracked a laugh. “Ha.”

“No, seriously, Kev. I mean…you’re a pretty good kid. Except when you got arrested that one time. But really. And you’re my best friend, so I’m supposed to cheer you up,” Cody went on. “So look on the bright side, I guess. Though if I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t be able to find one…”

“Aw, I can always count on you to stay positive,” I joked, elbowing him. It tickled me pink to hear him give a speech like that and totally negate it by being a party pooper.

“That’s what I’m here for.” He took a long swig of soda and tossed the cup at a trash can. “It’s what I’m best at.”

“Hells yeah,” I smiled. “Say…what about you and Keisha?”

“Me and who now?” he gasped, eyes wide as if he didn’t know who the hell I was talking about.

“C’mon, I know you got a thing for her. How about kissing her before the big ’00?” I suggested, grinning knowingly. “Ain’t like she hates you.”

He blushed, but turned away. “Kevin, shut up.”

I elbowed him again. Harder.

“I don’t – I don’t – no. I don’t have a ‘thing’ for her. So stop saying that,” he grunted.

“Come on, it’s so obvious!”

He turned up his nose. Then he sighed and looked over at Keisha, who was talking to Robert. “Um…alright…if I said that I did like her, then how would you react?”

“Well, shit, I’d tell her!” I cheered.

Cody looked like he was constipated. “Well…see, that’s why I didn’t wanna tell -”

“Oh my God, I’m right?!”

“Yeah…sorta…” His voice was low and weak.

I flailed and snorted. It was too good to be true – and it distracted me from my own crappy luck in love. I turned in Keisha’s direction and yelled, “Keisha! Come over here!”

“No!” Cody shouted, trying to cover my mouth. It was a brief scene we’d made, what with us wrestling over the information he’d just given me.

She looked over at us, caught a glimpse of our episode, and laughed. Then she walked over.

“You boys called?” she smiled.

“Yes!” I yelled.

“NO!” Cody countered.

Keisha cocked her brow at him. “You sure…?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” He shot me a death glare before I could spill his secret. “Uh, run along…”

“Coward,” I whispered to him.

Cody elbowed me harshly, sending a sharp wave of pain through my ribs. I coughed.

“Okay,” Keisha laughed. Then she shot a rather serious look over at Cody and said lowly, “When you wanna tell me what you were gonna say, just holler for me again.”

When she walked away with her hips swaying all confident like that, I think Cody pooped his pants. You should’ve seen his face. It was hilarious.

“Guess you should’a come clean,” I said sarcastically.

His face turned even redder, if that was even possible.

~~~~~

A little while later, I Am You Are started setting up for their acoustic set. Cody broke off when I helped them get their amps out and everything; I didn’t see where he went, but I was kinda hoping he’d spoken to Keisha.

The time was, like, nine PM and we had some leftover Christmas lights up, giving a little festive light to the backyard. I Am You Are were set up on some tables that were empty, and they were sitting on a few of the chairs. We all had to stand, though it was worth it to have a pretty good view of the band.

Even if they weren’t jumping around like they normally were, IAYA were still kickass. Hell, I think Bruce’s voice was even better – he only went off-key once a song. And he sounded better when he wasn’t shouting their crazy loud lyrics to “Figurehead.”

They weren’t doin’ just original songs, though. They had a couple covers. They did a Tom Petty song, and then a Green Day one, and then about a thousand other ones by bands I’d never heard of.

I caught a glimpse of Cody on the other side of the crowd. He was whispering something to Keisha; she was smiling. And they looked like they were super close together.

Hm.

I had to laugh to myself. Leave it to him to do somethin’ I didn’t think he’d do.

“Okay,” Bruce spoke into the mic, “Jon and Alyssa got an uncle and he’s in a band. And we’re gonna do one of their songs. ‘Face the World’ by Lucky 7.”

The song was kinda slow, but it sounded like they were working real hard on it. Like they were paying extra close attention to it – with the exception of Robert, who looked like he was gonna fall asleep with just a maraca in his hand.

Bruce had his eyes closed when he sang. (A lot of singers do that, I noticed over the months.)

“Hey
It’s another place and time
Just another hill that I can’t climb
Hey
I don’t wanna face the world
So get back on your own and I won’t cry…”