Young

Marianna was sure to be the death of me. The girl was fucking crazy in all the wrong ways. She never listened to any of the advice I gave her or did what I suggested. If she knew what was good for her, she would. But she was just too fucking stupid for that.

I didn’t even bother chasing after her that night at the party. I just let her go. She was convinced that this guy named Tyler was “the one” which was completely ridiculous because I knew him, and I also knew that the only thing he was remotely interested in was sticking his dick in her. When I told her this, she slapped me, and told me that Tyler appreciated her “fabulous personality.” I told her there was no way he’d taken an interest in her for her personality due to the fact that she was completely fucking crazy.

I made my way over to Pat and Becca, still shaking my head at Marianna’s stupidity. “Hey, man,” Pat said. “Trouble with the ladies?” I laughed and shook my head, shoving him in the shoulder.

“Dude, you know the ladies love me,” I said, raising my eyebrows at him.

“Count me out!” Becca said. “I’m quite happy with this one, thanks.”

“Burn!” Jared hollered, approaching us with a huge grin on his face.

“You’re not my type anyway,” I said with a smirk.

“That’s because Marianna is your type,” Becca laughed, leaning into Pat’s side. He tightened his grip around her shoulders and laughed loudly, his eyes alight. I looked between them, extremely jealous of the relationship they had. Everybody was.

“I don’t like Marianna like that,” I said.

“You do so,” Becca countered.

“Watch yourself,” I warned her, lowering my voice, the smile disappearing from my face.

“Hey! Don’t tell my girlfriend to watch herself,” Pat said. I rolled my eyes at him.

“Pat,” Becca said, “I got this.” I looked over at Becca again, who was smiling like she’d just won the fucking lottery. “You like her, she likes you,” she said. “Trouble is, you’re both too busy fighting to realise it.”

“No, that’s where you’re wrong,” I countered. “See, there’s a reason we fight all the time. It’s because she’s a fucking mentalist and - ”

“And you fucking love her,” Becca finished for me. I stared at her and she just grinned back at me and then I was reaching into my pocket for my car keys and telling the others to come with me because I had a great idea.

I found Marianna on our way out, throwing her drink in Tyler’s face. I smiled at her and grabbed her hand, pulling her after me as we all piled into my beat-up car that smelt of cigarettes and alcohol. I got behind the wheel, Becca and Pat squished in the front seat beside me. Marianna, Garrett, Jared, and two other girls I didn’t know yet were all crammed in the backseat, the girls sitting on the guy’s laps.

I started the engine and took off away from the party, turning the sound up on the stereo. Becca started screaming because her favourite song was playing. I rolled the windows down and laughed as Garrett lit up a cigarette in the back seat and filled the car with smoke, whilst the rest of us sung along with Becca at the top of our lungs.

“I want something else, to get me through this, semi-charmed life of mine! Baby! Baby! I want something else! I’m not listening when you say goodbye!”

Our obnoxiously loud singing echoed around us as I drove much too fast up the quiet streets of our small town in Arizona. The summer heat was almost suffocating, but we hardly noticed, too caught up in the moment to care.