In All This Chaos

I drove my car through the scalding Arizona heat and to my father’s home, whom of which lived a few minutes outside of Tempe, with Death Cab blasting through the speakers of my shiny new black BMW; my seventeenth birthday present from my father. That was something I got from John, my love for Death Cab For Cutie that is.

John and I have always shared a serious love for music; most of which was all thanks to his father. We shared a liking for most of the same bands, but he’s more into the classics from the ‘80s, while I am a huge Tom Petty fan, I prefer the music of today. The only difference between us though is that he’s multi-talented when it comes to instruments, and I couldn’t even play the recorder to save my life.

When we were little – boy, I remember that day vividly – John and I were hanging out one day after school, trying to study for a Living Environment test, when we got bored and he wanted to show off what he finally mastered at guitar lessons. He grabbed his old acoustic guitar and started playing cords to what would become one of our songs – Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The two of us were singing and dancing around his room to the beautiful sound; him on the guitar and me trying to play the tambourine. His parents walked in on us with bemused faces, and that’s when his father decided to make a little music studio in the basement so that we could go down there and play around without the rest of the world hearing the off-key ruckus.

“Hey, daddio,” I greeted my father happily as I strutted into his home.

He was standing in front of the large mirror in the foyer, trying to tie his tie. “Oh, hi, Bay,” he replied, distracted.

“Whatcha doin?” I asked, taking a seat on the foyer bench as I watched him finish tying.

“Getting dressed what does it look like I’m doing?”

“For?” I questioned a little confused, and then followed it up with a dry joke of my own. “You don’t need to wear a suit for me.”

“I’m heading to work.”

“Oh.”

“Oh, shit,” something in my father’s composer changed and it seemed like realization just finally slapped him in the face. “Babe, I forgot you were coming today,” he finally turned to face me, acknowledging my presence and apologized.

“It’s Friday,” I told him matter-or-factly. You’d think for a businessman who relies on his iphone for everything would have penciled me in for the day. But, no. I’m not that important. Work comes first; it always has. “You said we were gonna have lunch and then go pick up some stuff for the gala in two weeks,” I added in to jog his memory of the promise he made me in the beginning of the week when he blew me off to go to one of his girlfriend’s co-worker’s birthday parties.

“Fuck. I’m sorry, Bay. I completely forgot,” he apologized again as he slid on his shoes. “I’ll leave some cash on the table,” going into the dining room and placing a few bills on the table from his wallet. “You’re welcome to stay here if you want, have Lydia make you something,” he offered his housekeepers services to my disposal. “Or would you rather hang out with that boy?”

I rolled my eyes at his unfriendly tone towards the latter. “His name’s John, dad. We’ve been friends for over five years.”

“Whatever you say,” he shrugged it off, and I knew that whatever was just said between us was forgotten forever. “I suspect I’ll be home late, so don’t wait up.”

“Whatever,” I got up off of the bench and made my way to the cash. “I wasn’t planning on staying over anyway,” I mumbled to myself.

My dad was nearly out the door when I heard him call behind him, “Okay, have a good night.”

“You too,” I yelled back. I put the three hundred dollars of cash into my purse and took out my Blackberry Bold to call John.

He answered on the second ring with a “yeah” instead of the common “hello”.

“It’s Friday. So what’s our plan?” I asked my party planner.

He sounded a little confused. I thought you were with your dad.

“He flaked,” I shrugged it off.

Oh, well, we were planning on hanging out with Kendele.

“Who?”

The girl we met today.

“I thought her name was Alaska?”

I could tell that he was shaking his head at me on the other end. She’s from Alaska.

“Oh.”

And this is why you don’t have many girl friends…

“I can’t help it if they don’t appreciate my awesomeness.”

Yeah, it’s them that don’t appreciate you. John was definitely rolling his eyes at me because his his statement was dripping with sarcasm.

“Fuck you.”

I didn’t say anything!

“Whatever. I’m coming over.” I told him as I started my car.

Since when do you announce your arrival?

“Since you’re crushing on some girl across the street and I want to make sure I don’t walk in on something inappropriate.”

Uh huh. Sure.
_________________________________________________________________________

I let myself into the O’Callaghan household like I usually do. I walked through the foyer and noticed no one was around, which was weird because Mrs. O was usually running around cleaning. As I walked through the foyer I heard the faint sound of a television coming from in the den.

“Hey, Ro,” I greeted the fifteen year old.

“Oh hey, Bee.”

“Whatcha doin?” I asked as I took a seat next to him on the large leather sofa.

“Nothing really,” he stated blandly. “Just channel surfing.”

“That’s lame. I thought you were cooler than this,” I joked.

He rolled his eyes and smirked his family’s beautiful signature smirk. “Well we all can’t be the fabulous Bay Amelia Carnegie.”

“Well my initials do represent a pretty successful composer. What do your initials represent?” I challenged with a wink.

Ross didn’t get to answer because John came in a scolded the poor kid.

“Ross, what did I tell you? Stop bugging Bay.”

“She came to me!”

“Oh John, you know this kid could never annoy me,” I told him as I wrapped my arms around Ross. “I love him too much.” I leaned my head on his shoulder and stared right at John. “You on the other hand…” I trailed off, which caused Ross to lightly chuckled and John to give me a scowl.

“See, I told you she’d choose me over you any day,” Ross gloated with a wide grin.

“He’s got a point there,” I said to John, agreeing with his little brother.

John ignored my comment. “Come on, everyone’s in the back,” he motioned to point to the back of the house.

“Nah I think I’m good here,” I snuggled closer into Ross.

“Come on, Bay, stop fucking around,” John demanded with a tap of his foot and a swift motion of his arms.

Ross whispered in my ear, “I think he’s jealous.”

“Nah, he’s got the hots for the new girl,” I told his frankly.

“New girl?” Ross questioned like he didn’t know about her because his green eyes brightened at the thought of new meat to hit on.

“The one who moved in across the street from you, stupid.”

John was still standing in the archway to the den looking very impatient. “Bay, let’s go.”

“Make me,” I challenged him with a smile.

“We have alcohol.” Damn. John knew exactly what card to play to get me to consider getting up since booze made everything much, much more appealing.

“What kinds?”

“The kinds you like.”

“Bullshit.”

“Fine. You want to stay and mess around with my brother, then that’s fine by me,” he shrugged, turning on his heels and heading back outside. “Have fun.”

I looked up at Ross and questioned sourly, “What crawled up his ass?”

He shook his head like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. “He likes you,” he stated. “Always has.”

“Now that’s a load of shit.” I rolled my eyes at him. There was no way in fucking hell that John and I had any feelings that weren’t simply platonic. It just wasn’t possible. “We’re just really good friends.”

“Alright fine. Don’t believe me,” he backed off. “He’s my brother, but I guess you know him best.”

“Yup,” I popped the “p”, and after a few seconds I started to get up off of Ross and the couch.

“Going to get booze?”

“Duh.”

When I walked out into the backyard it seemed like everyone’s eyes turned my way. Sitting around on the lawn furniature were Jared, Max, Eric, Tim Kirch, John’s friends, Rex, Gibson, and Richard, and of course the girl, Kendele.

“Well look who decided to finally join us,” Jared smiled.

“Was Ross that quick?” Eric tried to ask seriously, but failing because of the giant smile that spread all over his features.

Richard shook his head in pity, “Poor kid, he needs some more practice.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ha ha you’re all hysterical.”

“We try,” Max smiled.

I made my way to the cooler sitting over in the corner near the grill.

“Booze isn’t here yet,” Tim told me before I could go to open the ice filled plastic cooler.

I turned around and shot John a death glare.

He put his hands up in defense. “What can I say, Trey’s late.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, “You lied to me.”

“Oh damn. John’s not getting any tonight,” Richard tried to joke.

“Psh he’s never getting any of this. He’s not worthy,” I said as I took a seat in the open chair between Jared and Tim.

Next came an eruption of “oh” and “burn” from all of the guys.

I turned to John, who was sitting two chairs down from Jared, next to Kendele, and gave him my best smug grin.

“What were you and daddy dearest supposed to do today?” Jared asked out of curiosity to start a conversation.

“Get lunch. Go shopping. Finalize plans for the gala,” I listed off.

“Gala?” I heard the girl question. I figured she’d be listening in on a private conversation.

I rolled my eyes before explaining to her. “My family holds two giant parties a year. One in the winter and one towards the beginning of summer,” I explained and then added, “Almost everyone of importance is invited.”

“That’s cool,” she nodded, impressed I’m sure. “I’m sure it’s the shizz of the century,” she smiled her toothy smile.

“Yeah, something along those lines,” I responded. Who actually uses the word ‘shizz’? Well I guess that’s what you get for living in the middle of nowhere for your whole life…

“Oh, yeah, all of you guys are invited,” I addressed to the group of boys after a moment. “My dad decided it would be nice to have some fresh young faces around.”

“Will there be booze?” Eric questioned skeptically.

“Since when is there a party I’m at not have booze?” I challenged.

We all chatted idly for a little while, while we all waited for Trey to get here with the very much needed booze. When the conversations started to get personal or boring I turned to my phone and started playing Word Mole.

“So, Kenny, are you all settled in?” I overheard Jared ask her. Kenny? What is she a fucking dude? That’s a gay ass pet name. I love Jared and all, but what the hell!

“Kind of, but not really,” she responded to him. “We just have the essentials out. Like the kitchen, beds, clothes, and the toilet. Yeah, pretty much those things,” he added with a cutsey laugh that made me sick so I tried as best I could to tune out their conversation.

Fifteen minutes nearly passed and I couldn’t beat the game, and I was getting really impatient. Usually by now we were all on our third or fourth beers and fucking shit up. This waiting thing is just a whole new form of torture.

When I couldn’t take it anymore I let out a loud impatient groan, “When’s Trey getting here?”

“Withdrawals much?” John laughed to himself.

I glared at him evilly for the second time that night. “Fuck you.”

“Will you two stop flirting for one fucking second!”Richard nearly shouted to break up mine and John’s stare-down. Richard Lopez is gay. And because of this fact he thinks he knows everything about the male and female species, and like Ross beforehand, he has this weird idea that there’s something more than friendship between me and John. Ha! Hardly. That bitch and I can’t stand each other sometimes.

I rolled my eyes, “Ha ha. You’re funny.”

“You two do make a cute couple,” Kendele agreed with him, but her statement seemed like she actually meant it. What did she know, she’s just the new girl.

“You’re kidding, right?” I rhetorically asked her, my eyes wide and mouth pretty much agape. “John’s ass is way too skinny for my liking,” I told her with a smug smile, knowing that I was dissing John at the same time. “And to mention his dick’s pretty petite too,” I added and the guys all erupted with “oh’s” again. But, hey, the bitch deserved it. He lied to me about the booze!

John was staring down at his lap, embarrassed. “You’re a bitch, Bay,” he practically whispered harshly. He must really like Kendele because he never ever lets my words get to him. Hence, he never ever backs down in embarrassment. He usually just gives it back to me full force and more until one of us backs down and buys the other a drink for successfully burning the other.

“You love me, John.”