Memories That Fade Like Photographs

It’s been a long week but it’s finally Friday. At the moment I’m in the car with Alex talking on the phone with Rian because I forgot to tell him that Alex came to pick me up. “I’m so sorry Rian.”

“It’s fine, at least you’re safe. Your aunt wasn’t home and neither were you so I panicked. I didn’t think about calling you till I called Kara.”

“Let me guess she told you to calm your balls and call my phone?”

“Something similar to that, but she said it more sweetly.”

“Oh thanks, but yeah. Alex came and picked me up because I needed to stop at the store for food coloring. Lisa’s been a bitch all week and I’m getting fed up with it. I warned her but she must think I’m joking.”

Rian chuckled, “Okay, I’ll let Jack know so you he can be prepared with your plan.”

“Thank you Rian. I’ll see you later.” And we hung up after our goodbyes. I turned to Alex and smiled, “This is going to get messy.”

“I’m kind of scared; you seem really evil right now.”

“Well, your bitch of an ex-girlfriend has been on my nerves. Like I said, I warned her but she thinks I’m joking, so I’m putting her in her place.”

“Remind me to never get you mad.”

“Even if you did I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because you’re still one of my friends and I’d only do it as a joke. Actually, no, I wouldn’t exactly do this but if you or any of the others led me to do this then yes, I might do the same exact thing.”

“Well, what would happen?”

“Your skin will turn the color of the dye, it won’t come off for at least two days depending on where it hit you, if it just got your clothes then you might want to just throw them out. And you’ll be all sticky and a hot mess.”

“What if they’re not hot?”

“Then it's an ugly mess, duh?” I stated and we both laughed.



“Do you have everything we need?” Jack asked when Alex and I sat down in Study Hall. I nodded my head, “Yes, we do. Her locker isn’t that far from mine so we need to either use all of the stuff or throw away the evidence. Security is on break and there are not many teachers in the hallway at this time so we won’t get caught.”

“What if we do? Won’t they ask why we’re in the hallway?” he continued to worry.

“We’ll just say that it’s my locker and I needed to get something out of it. Not that hard, but do you have the pass so we can leave?”

“Yeah, I have it.” He said as he got up. Alex and I stood up simultaneously and followed the lanky boy out of the classroom. As we were nearing my locker Jack, started to make weird noises and slowly looking around the corner of the hall. Alex started chuckling and followed the exact same moves. I stood there watching the two in amusement and when they quickly turned the corner I shook off my laughter but kept my smile on. They weren’t in the hallway so I guessed they were already by my locker.

“So, how are we going to get in her locker?” Jack questioned from behind me. I jumped but didn’t scream when he surprised me. When I caught my breath, I glared and pointed my finger at him, “Don’t do that ever again.” I warned. He smiled but nodded in approval. “And to answer your question, Alex knows the code. Where is he?”

“He ran into a teacher and was sent back to class. He doesn’t have the same ninja skills as I do.”

“How are we going to get in her locker?!” I panicked. His smile turned into a smirk and I instantly calmed down. “Don’t worry Luc, I’ll get us in.” And then he turned around pulling a pair of keys out and opened her locker. My mouth hung open and Jack’s smirk grew but didn’t question it. He and I both knew why I looked like that.

I grabbed the supplies and we quickly went to work on my prank. Well, I guess to me it sounds better as revenge. I don’t appreciate that she had to dig through the internet about my father. It’s a good thing the death of my parents haven’t been linked anywhere. I don’t want anyone to know until I’m comfortable with it. I know it’s on my files at the school, but I seriously doubt the principle looked at it.

“Hey Lucy, I’m going to go fill this balloon up. I’ll be right back.” Jack said as he hurried off.

You see, we’re setting up a catapult in her locker. Something Brooke and I use to do when a guy did something we didn’t like. We’d fill a balloon with corn syrup, water, and blue food coloring. The catapult would be set up (us being able to get in by picking the lock) and we’d carefully place the balloon inside. One of us would stay behind and film it while the other pretended to be innocent. But this time it’s different. Those were just jokes we’d play on the victim and they’d forgive us immediately. They’d laugh about it because they’re our friend but I don’t want this victim to be my friend. I want to embarrass the living hell out of her.

“I’m back!” Jack said and I took the tied balloon and carefully placed it on the lever. I shut the locker and Jack gave me a questioning look. “Done.” I said quickly and walked away with the left-over supplies. I walked to the supply closet and hid the stuff deep inside.

When I was finished I turned to Jack, “Shall we go back to class?” He smirked and shook his head before coming closer to press his body against mine. He held his hands on the wall trapping me from escaping and whispered, “Don’t worry; I won’t kiss you unless you want me to but I do have a question.”

I looked him in the eyes to see if he was serious and I relaxed when I saw he was. I nodded waiting for his question. “Go on a date with me.”

I laughed and responded, “Do I have a choice?” he nodded, “Of course you do, but if you say no then I’m very determined to ask you as many times till you say yes.”

I rolled my eyes, “Sure, I’ll go on a date with you.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes really!”

“That’s great. I’ll pick you up Saturday at seven.”

“Why not do it tonight?”

“Can’t wait to get in my pants?” he wiggled his eyebrows. I scoffed, “If it helps you sleep at night, but no. I’m just curious.”

He smiled, “Well, tonight we have somewhere to be and it’s kind of a demand.”

“Where are we going?”

“Actually it’s all of us. It’s a surprise, but Kara’s picking out your outfit and she’ll be driving you. We guys have a few things to take care of beforehand.”

“I don’t like surprises.” I whined.

He laughed and poked my nose, “Too bad. Now come on, we have one more class till Lunch.”

“Alright let’s go.” I said as he pulled away from me and grabbed my hand. We walked back to our study hall and un-hooked our hands before anyone saw. I sat down next to a focused Alex. I looked over his shoulder and read what he was writing. ‘Should I write myself out of the history books? And mark a place in time for every chance you took? Don’t get me’- and then the notebook shut and Alex starred at me. I smirked, “What are you writing?”

“A song.” He said slowly.

“Can I read it?” He shook his head, “It’s not finished.”

“So?”

“No, Lucy.” He smiled.

I sighed, “Fine.” And then the bell rang for our next period.



Kara and I sat down at our lunch table as we waited for the others. They all came at their separate times but Jack and Alex weren’t here yet.

“Where do you think they’re”- Rian was cut off by both boys jumping into their seats; panting.

“Why are you two out of breath?” Kara questioned and they took a look at each other before looking at me with a huge ass grin. Then Jack held up a camera as he asked me, “Do you want to watch it?”

“I wouldn’t.” Matt said as I started nodding. “Why not?” I asked but before he could say what he was going to say there was a loud scream, “Where the fuck are they?” and then the whole cafeteria went quiet as they watched the scene unfold.

Lisa spotted our table and charged over. I held in my laughter as I took in her blue appearance. Sadly, my blue bomb didn’t get her face but at least it got her arms. Now she’ll have to scrub for hours to get it off her stained skin. Alex and Jack started to lose their cool and Lisa attacked, “You think this is funny!? I haven’t done shit to either of you and you decide to break into my locker and fix it up to throw a fucking blue stick concoction on me? What the fuck is wrong with you two?”

“There isn’t anything wrong with us, and you did do something; at least to me you did. You slept around while I was on tour and when I get back you confessed it because you saw me bring Lucy to the bonfire. I don’t even know why you were jealous? If you want to sleep around go right ahead, but don’t assume Lucy did something when you don’t even know her. She’s not you. I’m tired of you and your bullshit attitude. You’re only good for one thing.” Alex fumed.

“Shut the fuck up Alex! You and Jack are going to”- but she was cut off by my laughter. “Why are you laughing, bitch!” I continued laughing but started calming down to say, “You. You’re yelling over something that these two didn’t do. My idea, my revenge.” I said as I stood up and grabbed my bag.

“So you’re the one that did this?!” she screeched angrily and I nodded and waked closer to her to say, “I warned you to watch your back, but it looks like you didn’t take my advice. You see, I don’t like the people like you. And I most certainly don’t like that you had to snoop around to get information about my life.” I was about to walk away but I felt a pain on my right cheek. The entire cafeteria was all eyes now when they all said, “oooh!”

I took a deep breath and smiled, “That was cute, but if you’ll excuse me I’d like to get away from you. You kind of smell a little too much off a bitchy whore.” I finally walked away and made my exit out of the room. Everyone was either staring at me or Lisa, but I was relieved to feel the eyes off of me when I left.

Suddenly, I heard the door fly open but I didn’t turn around. I was tackled from behind. My hair was being pulled and the person on top of me was screaming the language of a truck driver. When I had my chance I kicked her off of me and starting hitting back. I took one big swing and hit her right in the cheek. I shook my hand off and watched her fumble back.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, you crazy bitch!” I screamed but she resurfaced and slapped me… She fucking slapped me, again! “God, you’re so pathetic. Is that all you have?!” and then she punched me in the face, so I attacked back. We fought one on one, rolling around and screaming profanities at each other. We didn’t even notice the crowd swarming around us. We were then being pulled away and we both turned and punched the person. When I heard those two grunts in pain, I was brought back to reality.

“Are you okay? I’m so sorry!” I said as I grabbed Alex’s face to look at it. His eye was quickly swelling and bruising and I instantly felt guilty.

“Don’t worry about it. But damn, you sure have an arm.” We both laughed but turned our heads to the screaming girl being held by Matt and Rian. I gave them a curious look and Kara said, “She tried to surprise attack you while you were checking Alex but they got her.”

I nodded my head and thanked them both. The crowd had left in a rush and the principle came into our view. “Why is this not a surprise? Boys why are you fighting girls?” he said.

“They weren’t the ones fighting. They stopped my fight.” I said, taking the blame. I didn’t care about what he had to say because I was too busy walking over to Jack and checking his face. He had a busted lip and a bruised cheek, obviously Lisa swung more than once at him.

“Well, I want all of you in my office… Now!” he strictly said and walked away. I helped Jack up and all of us followed our principle. That day was the first I’ve ever faced a real punishment. Even the guys and Kara got punished and they didn’t do anything! I begged, but it was no use.

Lisa and I were suspended for two weeks, Alex and Jack got in school suspension for three days and the others got two, one hour detentions on Monday and Tuesday morning. Now it’s time to face our parents who came in shortly after.



“Really Alex; It’s the first week of school and you’re already getting in trouble?” Isobel scolded her son. I watched from afar as she kept yelling at him, they were talking loud enough for me to hear, but Alex didn’t really seem to care because he kept glancing over at me.

“Alex, are you even listening?!”

“Huh? Sorry mom but can we talk later tonight when I get home? I’ll take whatever punishment you’ll give me.”

“Fine, I’ll see you at home. You’re grounded for a week; no band practice, no gigs unless you finish whatever punishment your father or I put upon you.”

“Okay bye mom.” He said carelessly and came to sit next to me. “Hey.” He said.

“Hi…” I said and then it got quiet. He turned his head to face me more and my stomach flipped when I saw how dark his bruised eye was getting. “I can’t believe I did that. I’m so sorry.” I apologized.

“No worries, it’s all good.” He smiled, “So, I was wondering… Do you want to hang out for a while since we get to leave school early?”

“You want to hang out now?”

“Why not?” he asked and I shrugged. He chuckled and then stood up saying, “Let’s go.” I followed his actions but before we left Jack stopped us. “Hey, are you still able to go tonight?” He said to Alex who nodded and then he asked me, “I can still pick you up tomorrow, right?”

“Yes.” I smiled at him. “What are you two doing?” Alex asked.

“I asked her out on a date.”

“I only said yes because if I didn’t, you’d ask till I changed my mind.” I teased.

“But you didn’t!” he sang and then laughed, “Okay, I’ll see you two around. Oh and Lucy, make sure you wear something pretty.” And then he walked away.

“What?” I asked to myself.

“You and Jack are dating?” Alex asked. I looked over at the boy I’ve grown close to since I’ve been here. His brown eyes were full of questions and there was a tiny glint of both jealousy and hurt.

I shook my head, “Not like boyfriend-girlfriend, it’s just one date. He told me I had a choice of yes or no but if I said no he’d bug me till I say yes.”

“Oh, so you don’t have feelings for him?”

“Well, yeah I have feelings for him. I’m not exactly sure if it’s the type where I’d have a relationship with him. I mean our friendship started off when I made out with him on the beach.”

He nodded; “Okay…” he paused for a second before saying, “Is Kat coming to talk to Principle Davis?”

“No, she won’t be home till tomorrow. So, Bob is in there with Rian. Then, he’ll be told of my punishment and then it’ll be passed to Aunt Kay.” I spoke as we started walking out of the school and towards his car. We got in and started driving away in silence.

“Do you have anywhere in mind for us to go or do?” he asked while we were stopped at a stoplight.

“Not really. I haven’t exactly been around the town since I’ve moved here.” Alex smirked, “Well, then here’s to a day worth of exploring.” And he drove off to places that I’ve never seen. We went to a coffee ship on Thames Street, we went to the beach and walked near the shoreline talking about things when we were little, and then the last place we went to was the park that was near both of our houses. We were sitting on the swings when it started to pour rain. He stood up quickly and grabbed my hand pulling me under a nearby gazebo to keep us dry. I laughed, “Are you afraid of the rain, Gaskarth?”

He smiled, “No, I just thought you’d like to be dry.”

I shook me head and backed away, walking into the rain. I looked up with my eyes shut and started to smile. I loved the fell of the rain streaming down my face. “Alex, are you going to stand and stare or are you going to join?” I yelled over my shoulder. He smiled and walked over to where I was staring up at the sky again. I smiled up and then over at him and he smiled back at me and asked, “What makes you this happy about rain?”

I laughed, “This might sound strange but I feel like I’m part of the world. As if I’m free to be whoever I want. I’m not afraid to think about things.”

“And what’s on your mind now?” he asked hopefully.

“I can’t tell you.” I said shyly because everything going through my mind was about him. My thoughts kept thinking about how he makes my sad thoughts turn around on a better path. How his eyes fill with calmness and excitement… Just everything about him makes me feel safe. I’ve learned so much about him that I feel so much closer except I know I’m missing a big piece of information that I haven’t told him or Jack.

“Earth to Lucy…” Alex said waving his hand in front of my face. I laughed and moved his hand away, but when I let go he looked down at my hand and hesitated to take it again. When he got close enough I took his hand and looked at him. His smile grew and he laced our fingers together and looked at me to say, “You know, you’re not easy to read. You’re spontaneous and you think way too much.”

“Am I that bad?” I joked and he shook his head, “No, not bad at all. I know for sure that I’ll never get use to you because of how different you are, but I can get use to holding your hand.”

“And if I don’t let you hold it, then what?” I smiled as I took my hand out of his. He reacted quickly and took it back. He looked me dead in the eye and slowly said, “Then I’ll take it back and possibly kiss you.”

At this point we were drenched from the rain. My breaths became short when he said that but I wouldn’t allow him to know that he made my heart speed up. He stepped closer and I quietly said, “How would you know if I want to kiss you back?”

“We’ll just have to find out together then, won’t we?” and before I could answer, his lips were on mine. I kissed him back and wrapped my hands around his neck. He wrapped his arms around my waste and pulled me closer to get rid of the space between us. Our lips danced against each others, neither of us wanting to pull away. It was an innocent kiss, one that I’ve never experienced with anyone before. I really liked this type of kiss, probably better than making out with Jack.

A loud clap of thunder emerged and I pulled away a little too quickly and jumped because of shock. Alex laughed and I looked up at him and blushed, “Sorry.” I said.

“It’s okay… We should probably go though; we both have somewhere to be.” I nodded my head and we walked hand-in-hand to his car. We got inside and drove the short distance to my house. When we pulled up to my house Alex turned off the car and got out. He walked me up to my front door and we stood there staring at each other. Finally, I got the courage to speak, “I had a great time today. Even though we both got in trouble, but thank you.”

He smiled, “You don’t have to thank me. I should be thanking you. I got a lot of amazing and surprising things out of it.” I raised one of my eyebrows, “Like?”

“Well, for starters I got a pretty black eye from a pretty girl and I also spent the day with her.”

I laughed and played along with his game, “She sounds nice, and what she did was surprising or amazing?”

“Both, but the biggest shocker was when I got to kiss her twice.”

“I believe you only kissed her once.” I giggled.

“Let’s see. There was the time at the park and then there was the time she let me kissed her goodbye.” He stepped closer, “But she had to give me her approval first.” And instead of me saying something I kissed him.

“Yes, I knew it!” a very familiar voice cheered. Alex and I pulled apart and turned our attention to the dancing girl behind us.

“Kara, what are you talking about?” Alex asked nervously.

She laughed, “I drove to your house to see if you were home because you didn’t come to Rian’s and you didn’t answer your calls and when I drove past the park and saw you two getting into your car. So, I followed you here and see you two talking and then Lucy kissed you. And I knew it was bound to happen soon. You two are so cute together!”

“Kara, nothing’s going on between us!” we said in unison and then turned to look at each other and started arguing, “What do you mean? You’re the one that’s been making cute ways of saying you like me!” I yelled.

“Yes, and you’re letting me think you like them so I took my chances.”

“I never said I didn’t like them. Why do you think I let you kiss me twice? Did you think it was out of guilt?”

“Guilt, what do you need to feel guilty about?”

“I gave you a black eye!”

“Really, I haven’t noticed?!”

“Guys, shut the fuck up!” Kara yelled, “You two are so weird. You’re fighting over the stupidest thing. Obviously, there is something going on between you two. And whatever it is, I don’t want to know. Now, Alex get your ass to Rian’s so you guys can get ready and leave for tonight and Lucy we need to get you dry and in clean, hot clothes for tonight.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see, now kiss Alex goodbye so we can get ready.” She said as she walked past us and into my house. I looked at Alex who was smiling slightly, “What?” I asked.

“Aren’t you going to kiss me goodbye?” he wiggled his eyebrows.

“You sound like Jack, but sure.” I said and I pecked him on the lips. When I pulled away and walked into my house he quickly called my name. I turned around and waited for him to say something, “I’m sorry I got mad. It’s just that I really like you and I’m hoping that there will be something between us.” I smiled sweetly, “I understand, I feel the same way but I don’t think it’s the best thing for us right now.”

“What do you mean?” he asked confused.

“The only person that knows so far about us is Kara, if anyone else knows, what will they think of it? Plus, you just got out of a relationship with Lisa, and I don’t need her to start any more shit with me once she hears we’re together. So, how about we take things slow and keep it between us and I guess Kara.”

He smiled, “Yeah, I get it. I’ll see you later tonight?”

“I guess so, Jack said something about us all going to the same place, so yeah I will.” He nodded and then said goodbye but this time he I called out to him, “Yeah?” he asked.

“I think you forgot something.” He was confused at first but then smirked when he realized what I was getting at. He came closer to me and properly said goodbye with another kiss just like the one when we were standing in the rain at the park. I shut the door once he was gone and leaned against it sighing happily. Then out of no where Kara jumps in front of me and yells, “You two are so cute…! But, no time for details we have to get you ready.” And then I was off to my room where Kara basically ripped me apart like a Barbie doll to get ready for whatever shenanigans we had planned for tonight.