Throwing Kisses At The Sky

Lunch was over, Brian and Zacky had stayed with me the whole time. Brian walked me to the only class I didn’t have with him or any of the guy and he said he was ditching school with Zacky. He never offered for me to join him, so I left the subject alone. I sat down in the back of the class, where the teacher wasn’t going to get pissed off at me if I was sleeping in class. Halfway through class, someone had thrown a piece of paper at me, I was scared to open the paper but I did anyways. A sigh left my mouth when the word “WHORE” was written on the paper. I shoved it in my pocket and sank lower in my chair, not bothering to look at a
group of girls who sat across from me laughing.

Class was over soon enough, and I was the first one out of my seat walking down the aisles of desks. One of the girls I walked by had stuck her leg out and tripped me, muttering the fakest sorry I’ve ever heard when I fumbled to get up. I ignored her and she wasn’t too happy about that either. I rushed out of class and moved quickly towards the bathroom. I heard my name being called but I moved quicker, trying to fight the tears threatening to fall.

The person chasing after me couldn’t keep up, because they didn’t catch me as I turned into a girl’s bathroom, shutting the door quickly. I bit my lip and entered the bathroom, relieved that it was closed. I sucked in a breath and ran my fingers through my hair, staring at myself in the mirror. This day was going so well, I was beginning to believe I could actually be happy at this school. A strangled sob left my lips and I turned on the tap, splashing my dark face with water. I pushed my hair back and pulled it over my shoulder, brushing my fingers through the dark hair.

My mind lingered to how nice Brian and his friends were to me; they were the only ones who actually gave a big enough fuck to talk to me. I looked at myself in the mirror, and I slammed my fist into the mirror, flinching at the pain.

I didn’t break the mirror, but I wish I could’ve. I took a couple of deep breaths and forced the tears in my eyes to go away. I wasn’t going to cry, not here. I took the small crumpled paper from my pocket and tossed it in the trash. I shook my head and prepared myself for the flock of kids in the hallways. I sauntered over to the bathroom door and pulled it open. As soon as the door opened, I was bombarded by Brian who just stared at me.

“What was that?” He asked me, raising his brow.

“What?” I questioned him, pretending as if I didn’t do anything.

“You really didn’t hear me calling your name four times in the hallway?”

Yes. “No.”

I lied to him, gnawing on the inside of my cheek as I kept eye contact with him. His brown eyes were looking for the real answer, I could see it. He doubted me. I looked away from him and started to walk away.

“You’re going the wrong way Jenny. Music class is that way.” Brian called out to me.

I blushed again and turned around, he laughed at my flustered face and he led me to class, not questioning anything else. We ended up in class ten minute late, and the teacher gave us detention. I wasn’t mad or anything, but Brian’s friends were. Something about band practice. I didn’t know what they were talking about so I kept to myself, letting my mind
wander around in its mind palace.

By the time the class was over, Jimmy had invited me to their so-called band practice. I wanted to reject them so I could go home and sleep, but they somehow conned me into going with them to Johnny’s house. Brian and I had just decided that we'd skip detention and face the teachers wrath tomorrow. When we left the school, girls were staring at me funny as I walked with the five guys out of the parking lot. I felt my gut wrench then I pulled out my phone and began to take long steps ahead of the guys. I dialed my mother’s number and waited patiently for her to answer.

“Hello?”

“Hey mom.”

“How was school sweetie?”

“Good. I just wanted to tell you I got invited to a friend’s house so I won’t be home right away.”

She squealed on the other end of the phone, and I pulled it away from my ear, flinching at the sudden loud noise. When she was done, I brought it back to my ear and waited for her to answer me.

“Alright, be home before 10:30!”

With that, we said our goodbyes and she hung up the phone

“Hey Jenny, slow down!” Johnny called from behind me.

I turned to see the guys a little further behind me then I expected. I laughed and waited for them to catch up before I resumed walking. “Sorry, I walk really fast.” I apologized, scratching the back of my neck.

“No biggie! Just don’t go it again shortie, you might get lost!” Jimmy exclaimed, wrapping his arms around my neck. I pulled away from him and moved to walk beside Brian.

The guys laughed at Jimmy’s rejection but he just pouted like a little kid. I smiled at him and he just brightened up again.

“Hey Jenny, what kind of music do you like?” Zacky piped from in front of me.

“Anything really. I grew up with mostly stuff like Led Zepplin, Guns n’ Roses, Slayer etc. I don’t limit myself to genres and stuff. If I like the way it sounds I’ll listen to it.” I explained.

“I love you!” Jimmy screamed, he lifted me off my feet and twirled me around in a circle before he gave me a big bear hug.

I laughed and hugged him back. These guys were going to be the highlight of my high school year, I could just feel it. Jimmy put me back on my feet as we apparently were nearing Johnny’s house. I couldn’t stop laughing as Jimmy tormented poor Johnny as we walked up the steps, poking, punching and shoving him around.

Matt just kept silent the whole time, he laughed occasionally, but he didn’t seem to be interested in their crazy antics. He noticed me staring at him, and he smiled. Johnny finally shoved Jimmy back, sending him flying into me. I fell onto my ass, letting out a small cry as Jimmy landed on me. It hurt like hell, but I couldn’t stop laughing.

“Fuck! Are you okay Jenny?!” Jimmy asked quickly, jumping off of me.

“I’m fine, you guys are the funniest. Oh my god.” I laughed, running out breath.

I wrapped my arms around my stomach and forced myself to calm down. I’ve never seen such a silly group of people before. Jimmy was staring at me like I had seven heads, and Brian was laughing along with everyone else. I got up and brushed myself off, still holding my sides in pain from the laughter. It felt like someone had jabbed their fingers in my side continuously. It hurt, but I got over it.

We went inside and I followed the guys into a basement where there were instruments and amps laying around. The guys talked for a bit about what they were going to do, and then I sat down on a small two person couch in front of all the instruments. I curled up and rested my head on the arm of the couch, waiting for them to do something. They took thirty minutes to get their instruments tuned and ready, but by then, I was already falling asleep. I jolted awake as guitars started to ring through the basement. It was a rough, unedited song, but it held feelings that I could relate too.

The guys played through the song and I bobbed my head to the music. Brian’s eyes never left me as he played his guitar, every time I would glance at him, he’d smile and do something impressive with his guitar. It was cute.

The day progressed and it started to get dark outside. Johnny’s mom had come downstairs with sandwiches and she was quite surprised to see me sitting there on the couch. The guys took a break and Jimmy was back to doing his crazy antics. They munched on the sandwiches and decided that they’d practiced enough music for the day. So, they just sat around on the floor, while Johnny sat with me on the couch and spoke about different bands, and video games.

“Jenny, are you getting bored?” Johnny asked quietly beside me.

I glanced at him and shrugged my shoulders. “Not really, just a bit tired. I’m in bed by now.”

“What the hell? It’s only 8:30!” Zacky exclaimed.

“I didn’t have anything to do the first week I was here. All I did was sleep and watch T.V.” I defended, crossing my arms over my chest.

“That must have sucked.” He mused.

“I liked it, but I guess that depends on the kind of person you are.” I mumbled, leaning back into the couch.

“Mm, I guess so! Why don’t we watch a movie or something?” Zacky suggested.

Everyone agreed, and we all piled into Johnny’ living room to watch something off the video on demand. The guys agreed to watch some gory movie that they thought would be stupid. The lights were turned off and this time, Brian sat beside me, and Matt sat on the other side of Brian. The movie progressed, and I had to cover my eyes more than once. When one of the girls got a random axe to the head, I jumped and buried my face into Brian’s shoulder.

“C’mon Jenny, you can’t be scared of this, the graphics are so shitty!” Brian laughed, putting his arm around me.

I didn’t answer him. I peeked through my fingers a couple minutes later and declared the scene on the television wasn’t as bad as the others. All the main characters were just talking together while walking down a hallway in whatever they were in. A body dropped out of nowhere and I screamed and covered my eyes with my head buried into Brian’s arm again.

Everyone was laughing at me.

“Alright, I think you boys should turn it off and stop scaring the poor girl.” Johnny’s mom interfered with their laughter.

“Oh my god, thank you...” I sucked in a breath as the lights flicked on.

Johnny’s mom laughed and smiled sweetly at everybody. I glanced at the digital clock beside the T.V and I swore under my breath. I was supposed to be home in ten minutes.

“Thanks for inviting me over, but I have to go. I have to be home in ten minutes or my mom’s going to think someone killed me.” I said, jumping out of Brian’s arms.

“Thanks for coming!” Jimmy grinned at me.

“I’ll walk you home if you want?” Brian offered, I just nodded and bounced to the front door.

On the walk home with Brian, I got lost and Brian and I had to run to be there on time. Brian laughed at me for getting lost. I gave him a small hug and I turned to run inside. My mom was standing at the door waiting for me. She had a big grin on her face as I jogged up the steps and entered my safe zone. My mom kissed my head and told me to go take a shower and get to bed. I did as I was told and I got some decent sleep.