Catastrophic Happenings

Austin stared at Rick’s mom’s house in awe. It was beautiful. Full brick. White shutters. Weed-less grass. And it was huge; almost two and a half times as big as Austin’s house.

He walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. His eyes studied the pattern of the glass panels until he saw the door open.

“Hi,” he forced a smile.

Mrs. Under’s eyes opened a little wider and stared at the top of his head. Austin put all his effort into not rolling his eyes; his blue hair had always made adults have that reaction.

“I’m Austin Hayden. I’m in your son’s band.”

Now it was Mrs. Under’s turn to force a smile. “Yes, yes. He called a few minutes ago to let me know that you were coming.”

“May I please come in,” Austin was growing tired of the pleasantries. “I’m supposed to meet Azalea.”

“Actually, she went back over to her house,” Mrs. Under automatically looked over to the Henderson property, “to change into some cooler clothes.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll just go over there then.”

Austin immediately turned and jumped off the door stoop.

“I really don’t feel comfortable…” Mrs. Under began to call after him, but she saw that he was already speedily making his way down the incline to the Henderson’s backyard.


Azalea ran up the staircase and made the left to her bedroom. She felt the rush of excitement flutter in her belly and course through the rest of her body.

She went to her Mac desktop, slid the mouse back and forth to exit the screen saver, and double clicked on “Time to Dance” by Panic! At the Disco on the open iTunes window.

She immediately started jumping up and down to the beat of the song, and soon she was practically screaming the lyrics all the while trying to pull her shirt up and over her head.


Azalea began to swing her head around as her body began to thrash from side to side. She kicked off her jeans, leaving her in her zebra-striped panties and bra.



She pumped her hands up and down in the air as she shimmied over to her dresser drawer to take out a spaghetti-strap shirt.

Facing the window, she raised it high and pumped her arm while she continued to sing. Azalea then jumped up, turning her body to face the other direction.

Her hand suddenly went limp, and the shirt fell to the floor in a green heap. Her mouth no longer formed words, just hung wide open as she saw an amused looking Austin in her doorway.

“Nice panties,” Austin said with raised eyebrows.

Azalea let out a high-pitched scream. She reached over to her dresser and started flinging whatever hard objects her fingers wrapped around at the blue-haired boy.

“Get out of my house you fucker!”

Austin tried dodging whatever was being thrown at him and opened his mouth to speak. But when she thought that the boy was trying to step inside her room she dashed over to her house phone to call the police.

“I’m Austin!”

Azalea immediately stopped her finger from hitting the dial for “one”. She put the phone back in its holster and then turned to Austin.

“What the fuck are you doing in my house?”

“You weren’t at Rick’s mom’s so I came over here. The back door was unlocked,” Austin tried to justify his actions.

Azalea put her fingers on her temples and rubbed in small circles. She had too many scares for one day.

“I want to see some ID.”

“What?”

“Show me some frickin’ ID,” Azalea demanded.

Austin gave a loud sigh, This chick is way too over-dramatic.

Regardless, he pulled out his wallet, took out his driver’s license, and then threw it on to the bed. Azalea slowly reached for the card, her eyes on Austin the entire time.

“I see that you’ve changed a lot since this picture, Austin Hayden.” Azalea said as she looked back at him.

“Uh huh,” Austin muttered.

Azalea walked up to Austin to give him back his license. When Azalea got about an arm’s length away he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, “Geeze, would you put some clothes on?”

Azalea looked down at her body, forgetting that she was just in her underwear. She shrugged, “You wouldn’t have seen me like this if you didn’t trespass into my house. Didn’t anyone ever teach you that that ‘s a big no-no?”

“Didn’t anyone ever teach you that being in your underwear in front of a guy you don’t know is indecent?” he retorted.

She shrugged again and slightly rolled her eyes, “In my opinion, seeing a girl in her undies is the same as seeing her in a bikini. But, nooo. Society says that there’s a difference and blah, blah, blah.”

But she picked up her shirt off the floor and put it on anyways. Then she went over to the closet and pulled out a pair of ripped jean shorts.

“I don’t know why I didn’t wear shorts in the first place. I knew it was going to be hella hot outside.”

Austin tried not to watch as she shimmied into the pair of shorts, but finding Azalea to not be unattractive made it hard.

After buttoning and zipping up, she looked around the room for her cell phone. Once she had it in her hands she walked past Austin to exit the room.

“Come on. No offense but I don’t feel comfortable being alone in my house with you.”

“Cause I might rape you, right?” Austin said sarcastically.

“Exactly! And I would much prefer that you didn’t,” Azalea replied.

Austin followed Azalea down the hallway and to the staircase and made their way to the house next door.