Status: Active
She Just Went Automatic
On The Wing
I was raised in student housing. Loud, angry music until 3 am and puke on our front step was normal to me. It wasn’t until I was in third grade that I realized living cross the street from a college campus had changed my up bringing. My home was an old Victorian the last house on frat row; Alpha Pi was our next-door neighbor. My dad, an English professor at the college always said it kept him in touch with his students and gave DJ and I “culture”. I don’t think he meant culture the way my older sister took it though, because screwing a guy from as many countries as you could is most likely NOT what he had in mind. But, she got to stay in Towson and attend the University our dad taught at and I was dragged to Tempe.
As Kennedy drove his dad’s truck back to our development I saw ASU out the window, a large stadium rising above the mostly flat landscape. I couldn’t help but think of the frat houses and loud thumping music I had hated and learned to love. I watched it pass, lost in thoughts of home when Kennedy’s voice cut through the car, “I have a couple of friends who go there. I’m not a big football fan but we could go watch a game or something… I mean you seem lost in the stadium already and all and I was-“
“Ken.” I interrupted his rant, “You don’t need to explain everything you say. It’s ok. How far… Umm…. How far is it from our houses to the school?”
“Are you going there? I mean no offence but I assumed you were still in high school and moving with your mom and all.”
I laughed at his continued rambling, “I’m going into 10th grade. I just grew up in a frat house basically. So I miss college in a weird way.” Kennedy looked confused as he kept driving and then took an exit with out a word.
“Twenty minute drive.” He said as we pulled back into his driveway and it took me a minute to realize he was talking about ASU still. As we unloaded the boxes into my room taking them into a corner I was lost in the idea of walking down to ASU or at least closer to campus hoping that a party or some drunken night would make me feel at home. Kennedy kicked a box, painted blue, a side and set down the last of my furniture.
My pocket buzzed and I answered without looking at the called ID, “Did you find a bed yet? How much was the cab ride?”
I sighed. “Yes and the neighbor, Kennedy gave me a ride because he has a pick up truck so I could bring things back.”
“Ok well then I’m going to get back to work. It’s probably going to be a long day at work so you’re on your own for dinner.” And with that she hung up. No goodbye or I-love-yous nothing. I expected nothing less from her. She’d been cold before but somehow her moving out a year ago turned her into the ice queen. How she got a judge to believe she loved me so much that I just HAD to move with her and be in her full custody I will never know.
Getting off the phone with my mom I had made up my mind so I turned to Kennedy and asked him about his friends at ASU. After about 15 minutes he had a list of 30 parties, which he quickly narrowed down to 10, and I had plans for the night. We started putting together the bed I had picked out and I quickly realized Kennedy was not a person of manual labor, 5 minutes in had him bitching about the weight of the piece he had to move and after fifteen minutes I sent him home insisting I could do it on my own.
Once I finished my bed I looked at the box that was to be a dresser, pushed it aside and opened up the blue painted box. It was filled with t-shirts I used to cover my pale blue walls back home. We had packed up all the shirts and I was going to put the box in the truck when Alex protested, “You can’t just put that in there like any old box. That box is special Dan. Here let me see it.” He plucked the box from my grasp and set it down on the bathroom floor before grabbing my art box and pulling out a bright, royal blue tempera paint. He coated the box in the color before using a brush to slightly even it out. Being less than graceful he got my tiled floor and the counters with the paint that I later spent hours scrubbing clean.
They were bands like Blink-182, New Found Glory and Green Day but there was also bands that Alex had toured with along with a couple of All Time Low shirts he had hung on my walls when I wasn’t looking. I started to pin them up above my bed and filled the first wall before stopping. I glanced at my phone reading 7:35 and realized I had 25 minutes before I was going to meet Kennedy and head over to ASU. I quickly opened up boxes find clothes and changing before racing down the stairs to find food for dinner.
As Kennedy drove his dad’s truck back to our development I saw ASU out the window, a large stadium rising above the mostly flat landscape. I couldn’t help but think of the frat houses and loud thumping music I had hated and learned to love. I watched it pass, lost in thoughts of home when Kennedy’s voice cut through the car, “I have a couple of friends who go there. I’m not a big football fan but we could go watch a game or something… I mean you seem lost in the stadium already and all and I was-“
“Ken.” I interrupted his rant, “You don’t need to explain everything you say. It’s ok. How far… Umm…. How far is it from our houses to the school?”
“Are you going there? I mean no offence but I assumed you were still in high school and moving with your mom and all.”
I laughed at his continued rambling, “I’m going into 10th grade. I just grew up in a frat house basically. So I miss college in a weird way.” Kennedy looked confused as he kept driving and then took an exit with out a word.
“Twenty minute drive.” He said as we pulled back into his driveway and it took me a minute to realize he was talking about ASU still. As we unloaded the boxes into my room taking them into a corner I was lost in the idea of walking down to ASU or at least closer to campus hoping that a party or some drunken night would make me feel at home. Kennedy kicked a box, painted blue, a side and set down the last of my furniture.
My pocket buzzed and I answered without looking at the called ID, “Did you find a bed yet? How much was the cab ride?”
I sighed. “Yes and the neighbor, Kennedy gave me a ride because he has a pick up truck so I could bring things back.”
“Ok well then I’m going to get back to work. It’s probably going to be a long day at work so you’re on your own for dinner.” And with that she hung up. No goodbye or I-love-yous nothing. I expected nothing less from her. She’d been cold before but somehow her moving out a year ago turned her into the ice queen. How she got a judge to believe she loved me so much that I just HAD to move with her and be in her full custody I will never know.
Getting off the phone with my mom I had made up my mind so I turned to Kennedy and asked him about his friends at ASU. After about 15 minutes he had a list of 30 parties, which he quickly narrowed down to 10, and I had plans for the night. We started putting together the bed I had picked out and I quickly realized Kennedy was not a person of manual labor, 5 minutes in had him bitching about the weight of the piece he had to move and after fifteen minutes I sent him home insisting I could do it on my own.
Once I finished my bed I looked at the box that was to be a dresser, pushed it aside and opened up the blue painted box. It was filled with t-shirts I used to cover my pale blue walls back home. We had packed up all the shirts and I was going to put the box in the truck when Alex protested, “You can’t just put that in there like any old box. That box is special Dan. Here let me see it.” He plucked the box from my grasp and set it down on the bathroom floor before grabbing my art box and pulling out a bright, royal blue tempera paint. He coated the box in the color before using a brush to slightly even it out. Being less than graceful he got my tiled floor and the counters with the paint that I later spent hours scrubbing clean.
They were bands like Blink-182, New Found Glory and Green Day but there was also bands that Alex had toured with along with a couple of All Time Low shirts he had hung on my walls when I wasn’t looking. I started to pin them up above my bed and filled the first wall before stopping. I glanced at my phone reading 7:35 and realized I had 25 minutes before I was going to meet Kennedy and head over to ASU. I quickly opened up boxes find clothes and changing before racing down the stairs to find food for dinner.
♠ ♠ ♠
Kind of filler. Sorry.