You Only Live Once

Arizona smelled like summer. The desert sand blew through the streets on a warm breeze that announced the arrival of everyone’s favorite season. Well, it was in Chone. It meant they could finally uncover their pools and unmask their hot tubs, buy a new two-piece, and stock up on sunscreen. Parties were planned; invitations were sent out. At the local high school, Chone Union High, the students were so focused on the summer ahead of them; their studies were pushed aside to think of more important things.

For Alyssa Summer Watson, these things consisted of tanning lotion, sunglasses, and a lot of booze. Alyssa was born the Queen of Summer, thanks to her ironic middle name. Tall, blonde, and beautiful, Alyssa ruled the season with her numerous raging parties in the backyard of her one point five million dollar home in the middle of the Chone dessert. It was the perfect place for a party, always had been. It was far enough away from suburbia that the cops would never hear about it, and close enough to town to get more booze and be back in twenty minutes. It was perfect.

This year Alyssa had planned for the party to end all parties. It was her senior year, and the last summer she would spend in Chone. She was going to go out with a bang.

She invited anyone worth inviting. All the cool, beautiful, and popular people would be there. All the pretty alcoholics and the elegant stoners would show up too, even if they weren’t invited. Everyone that came always had two things in common: they loved to dance and they loved to drink. Well, everyone except for Alyssa’s boyfriend, Andy Towerson.

He was the epitome of perfection. Sweet, friendly, and athletic, it was bothersome to many that he was dating such a whorish, spoiled brat like Alyssa. He loved her though none could deny that. They were the kind of couple that walked around school holding hands every second between classes. They shared kisses in the halls every ten minutes and always seemed to be talking about the other when they couldn’t be together. Andy was the most dedicated and committed guy that ever existed, but Alyssa was less than faithful. Despite knowing this, Andy continued to love her—for what reason, no one knew, but some guessed he didn’t know himself. Andy attended these parties without absence, though he hardly participated. He usually held onto the same red plastic cup all night, never filling it even after he had finished. But he was always there afterward to make sure Alyssa was safe. Most didn’t question him. Many of the guys in his class would have killed to date Alyssa, faithful or not. Many of them would have sacrificed everything to rule as king with the Queen of Summer. Many of them would attend Alyssa’s parties religiously, just hoping they would get lucky enough to have Alyssa jump into bed with them. Many did. It was because of this that so many people pitied poor, sweet Andy Towerson, the perfect boyfriend that didn’t know the meaning of the word jealously. And Andy Towerson had the whole town fooled.



“You two are disgusting,” were the first words uttered by Todd Baker as he approached the pair lovers, sitting in Alyssa’s slightly heated pool, fervently kissing any visible part of each other’s tanned skin. The kissing didn’t cease at Todd’s comment. The couple continued. Andy’s lips moved to Alyssa’s neck and she replied to Todd snidely.

“If you think we’re disgusting then you should take a look in the mirror, you jealously pervert.” Andy smiled lightly on Alyssa’s neck, nipping it causing Alyssa to moan in response, returning to ignoring Todd. He rolled his eyes and walked over to a reclining pool chair and seated himself on top of it. He laid back and closed his eyes trying to ignore the kissing sounds coming from within the cyan colored pool.

Todd Baker was Andy’s and Alyssa’s best friend. Though he was Andy’s friend before he met Alyssa, they grew fond of each other. Todd was probably the only attractive guy at Chone Union that Alyssa hadn’t slept with. He was tall, tan, and muscular; thanks to his many years playing on all the same teams as Andy. He had spent most of his high school career whoring himself off to every hot girl in the school. It was something that he and Alyssa had in common. Andy also usually babysat Todd on a normal basis, like Alyssa. It was interesting that Andy was the only one of them that hadn’t turned into a slut. He was more attractive than either of them, by girl or guy standards. He too was tall tan and muscular, but his eyes, the color of an ocean during a sunset, with patches of green and yellow laced between the deep blue, and his smile, the brightest shade of white possibly ever seen, were gorgeous enough to make even the pickiest girl fall for him. His hair was thick, luscious, and golden brown. He was the perfect man-whoring candidate, yet he chose to limit his sexual relations to solely Alyssa.

They figured it was his upbringing. His parents were extremely conservative. They weren’t even religious, but they were unbelievably cautious and scared of everything. They hardly let Andy have a social life until freshman year. Andy was so used to be a goodie-goodie, he never had the chance to get into the drinking, parting, and whoring that Alyssa and Todd did.

It was ironic that Todd and Alyssa were virtually the only people that had not slept with each other. They were both the most pernicious individuals on Chone Union campus. The size of Chone was small, limited to about eight hundred kids, two hundred seniors, and eighty-eight of those seniors were deemed fuckable. Cut that number relatively in half, and you get the ratio of boys to girls, which means that there was about forty-four members of the opposite sex to sleep with.

Alyssa and Todd were one-nightstand sort of people. Alyssa had made an exception for Andy, but for the most part she tried to never sleep with the same person unless absolutely necessary. Being that Alyssa was a complete whore, the numbers of eligible bachelors she had yet to sleep with was slimming. It was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened, and Alyssa and Todd finally went at it.

Andy had mixed feelings about this eventual meet up. The whole school knew it would happen. In fact, the whole school was waiting for it to happen. But Andy tried to ignore the inevitable. He hated the thought of the love of his life sleeping with his best friend. Todd was too close to him for Andy to just ignore something happening between him and Alyssa. He wouldn’t be able to handle seeing him every day after it and wondering if Alyssa liked him better, If she thought he was better looking, or if she would rather be with him. He couldn’t put himself through the torture of wondering if Todd could please Alyssa in ways he never could. If Todd would be the man Alyssa would stay true for and he wasn’t. He couldn’t handle it, and he prayed it would never happen. He didn’t know what he would do if it happened.

Alyssa and Andy continued kissing until Alyssa spoke. “Mmm, Babe, we have to start setting up,” She told him, licking her glossy lips.

“Okay,” Andy replied smiling. Andy maneuvered his arms around her waist until he had a firm grip around her middle. She grinned.

“Andy!” She said warningly, but it was too late, Andy had picked her up, spun her around and ducked both their heads underwater, giving her a chlorine kiss before carrying her out of the pool. She hit him, but they were both laughing. Todd rolled his eyes once again from where he lay on the chair with his arms behind his head. His eyes closed again and Alyssa took this opportunity to anger him. She wrapped a towel around her soaking wet body and walked over to Todd, wringing out her long blonde hair on his face. She laughed manically as he sat up in anger and surprise. He reached out to grab her, glaring at her tiny frame, but she had jumped away, still laughing at the wet man. She slipped on a pair of shoes and began to walk away, pulling a now clothed Andy with her. “You coming, pervert?” Alyssa asked Todd. He grunted, but eventually followed the pair.

The trio walked over to Andy’s shiny black truck. Alyssa had gone into the house to quickly place a pair of shorts and a shirt over her bathing suit. She immediately headed to the back of the truck, lifting herself up into it. Andy raised his eyebrows at her. “Aylssa,” he said, almost sighing. Aylssa rolled her eyes as the pair of them approached the truck, aiming her sarcastic body language at Andy in particular, although she often rolled her eyes around Todd for no reason just because he was annoying.

“C’mon, Andy! You never let me ride in the back!” She whined, placing her thin arms on the side of the vehicle, pouting at her boyfriend. “You only live once!” she reminded him, as if that little saying of hers would change his mind. Alyssa used this popular saying to get herself and anyone one else to do anything and everything they wanted. It was like the theme of her life. Andy and Todd, and the rest of the school had heard her say it so many times, any time someone heard the saying, Alyssa’s face automatically popped into their head. If the proverb did have a known owner, Alyssa would soon take over as the keeper of “You only live once”.

Andy sighed. “How about on the way back?” He asked gingerly. She sighed dramatically.

“Okay!” she reluctantly agreed, and hopped out of the back and into the cab of the car. “Ew!” she exclaimed as she seated herself in the car.

“What?” Andy and Todd asked in unison as Andy slipped into the driver’s seat.

“Now I have to sit next to Todd.” She moved away from Todd, grimacing. Andy laughed, but Todd scoffed, making a habit out of rolling his eyes at the girl.

“I’d rather eat shit than sit next to you,” Todd retorted glaring her way. Alyssa laughed at him.

“I’ll remember that,” she said, and Todd smiled.

“I hate you,” he told her, hitting her shoulder playfully as Andy started the truck and began to drive away.

“Likewise, darling,” Alyssa replied, winking playfully in response. Todd shook his head in response, looking out the window as the couple joined hands and face the road ahead.

Ten minutes later they arrived at the Towerson’s Family restaurant Bottom of the Barrel. It was one of high-end restaurants in Chone that also served beer. It also operated as Alyssa’s party guest’s personal keg resource. Alyssa and Andy always got their booze from the restaurant. They couldn’t buy it anywhere else, because the town was too small for fake IDs. It was perfect.

Andy drove the truck and around back and him and Todd exited out of the car to retrieve the beer. They were going to get an extra amount because of the quality of the party that was to be had, but Alyssa was meeting her own friends to increase the good time to be had later that night. Alyssa hopped out of the car and walked along the backside of the restaurant until she reached an alley between Bottom of the Barrel and the neighboring business. In this alley stood two familiar faces, Jade Arnold and Amelia Richards. When they saw each other they smiled and rushed to hug each other. “Ohmygoodness, Alyssa, I’ve never been this excited for anything!” Jade exclaimed, flipping her long brown hair over her shoulder. Alyssa’s smile twitched slightly. Honestly, Alyssa hated the bitch with a passion, but she wanted what she had, so she would grin and bear it. Alyssa laughed.

“I know, right!” She exclaimed, in the same tone of voice. Amelia nodded enthusiastically.

“Hope you don’t mind if I bring a little extra house warming gift, do you?” Amelia asked, grinning broadly. Alyssa smiled widely. Her excitement was growing by the moment.

“You promise?” Amelia nodded in response. “Great! Let’s get going!” Alyssa cried grabbing the two attractive girls by the hands and walking them over to the black truck, which Andy and Todd had just finished loading. Todd flashed a smile at the two new girls as they waved flirtatiously in response. Andy eyed them curiously. Alyssa noticed this and quickly informed him, “I picked up a few stragglers! You don’t mind right?” Of course he didn’t. Andy smiled and offered Alyssa his hand, pulling her up to the back of the truck. Jade and Amelia followed Alyssa, and sat in the back of the truck. Alyssa let her blonde hair hang out of the side of truck as she lay her head against it. She felt the truck spring into life and speed away, sighing in bliss “This is going to be the best summer of our lives,” she told them, unable to hear their cries of agreement over the warm Arizona wind blowing through he long blonde locks.