Love Is Hell

Lina.

I let out a shaky breath and turned my car off. What the hell was I doing here? It was only two o’clock. I was three hours early.

I closed my eyes, replaying the events that had just happened. Joey and I had gotten into one of the biggest fights we’d ever had. Apparently, because he’d watched Danny for me that Thursday night last week, he thought that it should be my turn to watch him tonight -even though I’d had plans on this very day for a week, which Joey was fully aware of. He’d gotten excessively angry at me, because he had a date tonight, but was supposed to watch Danny. I hated to throw a fit over something like a silly birthday party, but, I was not going to miss it. I mean, Joey was the one who told me I needed to get out more (that bitch). In the end, after Joey and I screamed at each other, my mom said a few curse words and said neither of us needed to watch our little brother. My mom claimed she could do it herself. As selfish as this sounds, it was times like this that really made me hate my so-called father. He was supposed to be there, to help us, to help my mom. Instead, he’d ditched out on us.

I looked up at the house I was parked in front of. It was a typical Arizona home; beige and dark brown coloring with native shrubs and plants making up the landscaping. It looked very homey here, but I was still contemplating backing my little car out and going home. After the fight between Joey and I, I’d gotten in my car and started driving in attempt to cool off. As a result, I ended up here. Garrett Nickelsen’s house. Today was the day of his birthday party.

Giving in to my temptation, I got out of my car and headed towards the front door, a DVD serving as Garrett’s birthday present in my hand. I absently hoped I wouldn’t be forced into an awkward conversation with one of his parents. When I knocked on the door, an older boy -who was thankfully not a parent- I’d never met before answered.

He stared at me for a few seconds, but it felt like minutes. “Are you here for Garrett’s birthday party?” he asked finally. This boy looked weirdly similar to Garrett; he must be his brother.

I nodded. “Look, I know I’m here early, but... is Garrett home?”

He nodded, but said nothing.

After a large gap of awkward silence, I said, “Well, are you going to let me in, or what?” My tone came out harder than I intended.

Suddenly, he grinned at me. “Sure. Come on in,” he opened the door wider, allowing me access. “I’m Trey,” he said as we entered the living room, a large open space that was adorned with a few modest birthday decorations. In all honesty, I hadn’t expected decorations at all. But I was right; this room had a very homey vibe. It was nice.

“I’m Lina. You’re Garrett’s brother, I take it?” I asked.

Trey nodded, the grin still on his face. “Sure am. Garrett’s room is the first door on the left,” he said, raising his hand and pointing towards a hallway behind me. I thanked him and headed in the direction he’d told me.

Feeling oddly nervous, I gingerly knocked on the first door on the left. I could faintly hear music playing, but I couldn’t recognize the song.

“What is it, Trey?” Garrett’s voice called, muffled by the door that separated us.

“Can I come in?” I asked, desperately hoping he wasn’t in his underwear or something along those lines.

I heard a clattering sound, as if something had been dropped, and then more shuffling. I’d bet you fifty dollars that he was trying to clean up his room before he opened that door.

The door swung open, revealing a messy-haired Garrett in a faded tank top. I smiled at him as I watched the corners of his lips twitch up, too.

“Happy birthday,” I said softly. His smile grew, and I felt my heart pounding in my chest. Why was I so nervous?

“Thanks. So, uh, what’s up? Not that I mind you coming early, or anything...” He gestured for me to come into his room.

“Well, see, I kinda got into this big fight with Joey,” I said, sitting down on the end of his bed. “And I really just wanted to get out of the house. So I brought your present over...” I handed it to him, a DVD with no wrapping on it, only a red bow. “I thought maybe we could watch it before the party starts.”

He looked at the movie in his hands, then back at me, giving me the most adorable grin. “Thanks, Lina.” He moved to go put it into the DVD player. “What’s it about?”

At his question, I grinned too. “Aliens and zombies,” I said, as he sat down on the bed next to me. When I saw the movie in the grocery store, I automatically thought of Garrett and bought it without hesitation.

“No way! This has got to be, like, the coolest movie ever.”

“I got it for six bucks. It’ll probably suck.”

He shook his head and shushed me as he hopped up to turn off the lights, which would “enhance the experience”. Giggling, I moved so that I was laying on my stomach, facing the tv screen. Garrett did the same after pressing ‘play’, starting the movie.

***

“Garrett, this movie sucks. I’m sorry,” I said into my arm. We were still lying on his bed, the alien-and-zombie movie filling the room with intergalactic sound effects.

He laughed a little. “Are you kidding? This is the best movie I’ve ever seen!” he joked goofily. “I’m sad that it’s almost over!”

I rolled my eyes, allowing a tiny smile on my lips. Garrett had been right; turning off the lights enhanced the movie, but even in the dark, it still sucked. The script was cheesy and the aliens looked too fake. It was disappointing. “Is it the best birthday present you’ve ever gotten?” I asked.

He looked at me with big, blue-green eyes and nodded vigorously. “Best birthday present in the history of the universe. No pun intended,” he said, making me laugh. I liked this silly Garrett.

“Gare, this movie is a disgrace to the history of alien-and-zombie movies!” I said, but he quickly shushed me like he had earlier and returned his attention to the tv, where aliens were decimating the zombie populace.

Fifteen minutes later, the “best birthday present in the history of the universe” was finished, and we still had half an hour before people would start showing up. This was probably the longest amount of time I’d spent with Garrett in one day, and I didn’t mind one bit.

Garrett sat up. “What do you wanna do?”

“What do you normally do?”

He shrugged. “Oh, you know... I spend my spare time either getting drunk or getting laid.”

I gasped and smacked his arm as he started laughing loudly. “Not funny!” I yelled.

“But Lina, you should have seen your face!” he laughed. Keeping a poker face, I blinked at him. “You looked surprised. You have a cute surprised face,” he said, making me blush. God, I couldn’t even take a damn compliment without blushing.

“You know... I could just go home now?” I said, trying to act serious. “Then you wouldn’t get the other part of your birthday present,” I teased. I really hoped he didn’t actually take me seriously, because there wasn’t another part to his birthday present.

“No! Lina, don’t go!” he called, and I grinned at him.

“Did I scare ya?” I asked, returning to my spot on his bed as he stuck his tongue out at me.

***

After scrunching my nose at Garrett’s idea of playing video games until his friends -our friends- started arriving, we settled for doing, well, nothing.

Currently, I was hanging upside down off the edge of Garrett’s bed, my hair sprawled out beneath me while Garrett sat on his swivel chair spinning wildly. “Garrett, cut it out! I’m getting dizzy watching you!” I laughed.

He chuckled and slowed down, coming to a stop and clicking a few times on his computer. As a result, the sound of Ryan Adams -surprise, surprise- filled the room. Sighing, I got off his bed and walked over to where he was sitting.

“Okay, I love Ryan and all, but I have a better idea,” I said, reaching over him to his computer and scrolling through his iTunes until I found a random, flashy pop song. Before playing it, I gave him a grin and then turned the volume up full-blast. I ran over to his bed and stood up on, gesturing for him to come over, too.

Walking towards me with a confused look on his face, Garrett stood watching me as I started to jump on his bed, dancing to the beat of the music.

“Come on, Nickelsen!” I yelled over the music, standing still for just a second before I resumed jumping wildly on his bed.

Finally he grinned and joined me. Together, we jumped like monkeys on his mattress, kicking the pillows and blankets to the floor, yelling and laughing and dancing. The bass of the song was pumping loudly in my ears, but I didn’t care. It felt like it was pumping through my veins, instead. I hadn’t laughed this hard in a long time, and I felt so, so free.

Unfortunately the song ended, and Garrett and I stopped jumping, both of us out of breath as we stared at each other. Slowly, a smile grew on my face, and I was very, very glad I had come early.

Right then Garrett’s bedroom door swung open, revealing Trey. “What the hell are you guys doing?”

Garrett and I simply laughed. “Can you go replay that song, Trey?” Garrett asked, gesturing towards his computer.

Reluctantly Trey complied, and the music erupted once again. Promptly, Garrett and I started jumping and dancing again, earning a laugh from Trey. He turned to leave, shutting the door behind him.

Garrett and I only got to dance to the corny pop song one more time before Pat, Tim, Courtney, and John showed up, unfortunately.

“Well damn! Looks like the party has started without us, guys!” John said, laughing at Garrett and me.

I smiled sweetly at him. “That’s right, O’Callaghan!”

As we were walking out of Garrett’s room, my best friend pulled me aside and whispered, “Lina, how long have you been here?”

“Oh, you know, just a few hours,” I said.

Courtney’s eyebrows shot up, and I groaned. I didn’t want her thinking that there was anything going on between Garrett and I, because there wasn’t...right?

“Court, we just watched a movie. Chill,” I whispered, pulling her towards the rest of the guys. “It was his birthday present.”

“His birthday present was watching a movie with you?”

I laughed. “No, the movie was his present. I just watched it with him.”

***

“Well, look who it is; my no-drinking buddy!” a familiar voice called from behind me.Then a flop of red-hair materialized, revealing Nick Santino.

“Hey,” I said, not too into the socializing mood anymore. I’d been sitting on the bottom of Garrett’s staircase in his living room, which was my usual place for parties. The party -which consisted of around twenty people who were all yelling and laughing loudly- had been going on for a couple of hours now, and said birthday boy was nowhere in sight.

“You’ve been hiding from us!” Nick grinned. “We’ve been looking for you. This party’s over, babe. Come on, let’s go find the rest of the guys,” Nick said, pulling me from my comfortable seat. I let him tow me through a group of people, who didn’t notice us at all, until we reached the foyer of Garrett’s room, where I finally saw familiar faces.

“There you are!” everyone seemed to say in unison, as if I’d been hiding. I rolled my eyes. Oddly, they all started pulling on their shoes, which were piled close to the front door.

Suddenly my own shoes were being handed to me. “What’s going on?” I asked to the person closest to me, who happened to be Jared.

Instead of answering me, he just smiled and opened the front door, disappearing outside. Several others -including John, Tim, and Rex- followed suit.

“Lina! Hey, girlfriend!” Halvo called from across the room, using a faux voice.

I rolled my eyes again and slipped on my sneakers. “Halvo, what the hell is everyone doing?”

“We’re heading to the real party,” he said, walking over to me and grabbing my hand. He pulled me towards the door and led me outside, where I spotted Courtney, Pat, and Garrett standing in the driveway.

“Lina, what’s up with them? Do you know where we’re going?” Courtney asked, nodding towards some of the guys, who were loading into their cars.

“No. These dumbasses won’t tell me!” My comment earned a few smirks and snickers from the people close enough to hear me. Although, it did make me feel a little better that they hadn’t told Courtney where we were going, either. Actually, that probably should have scared me instead, but it didn’t.

“Come on, Lina,” Eric said, walking up to a car that I assumed was his. “You’re riding with me.”

“Why can’t I just drive my own car?” I whined.

“Because you don’t know the way,” he said, winking at me and getting into the driver’s seat.

Reluctantly, I trudged towards Halvo’s car, assured that Courtney, Garrett, and Pat were riding along with me, too. I ended up in the backseat squished next to Garrett, with Courtney in the other window seat and Pat riding shotgun.

“Garrett, will you please tell me where we’re going?” I whispered loud enough for only him to hear.

He gave me that crooked smile that put butterflies into my stomach and said, “It’s a surprise. You can’t ruin surprises, Carolina.”