Burn You Down

We hung out at the beach for hours. Drinking, eating, being chased by Jimmy. It was the best time I’d had in ages. Zacky’s phone kept buzzing, but he turned it off and left it with the rest of our stuff. The guys would not leave him alone. It was like they were making up for all the lost time since he’d started going out with Gena. All the time they weren’t being five best friends who were completely comfortable with each other and just wanted to spend time together. It was fucking cute.

“These guys are the most precious boys, ever,” Michelle observed.

Val, Michelle, Maria, and I sat around and literally just drank beer and ate thousands of burgers. I was pretty drunk by the time it got dark. The only thing I wanted to do was run around on the mushy sand. It was probably my favorite thing about the beach for some reason. I ran back and forth while the girls laughed and laughed at how crazy I looked.

“Guys this is seriously my favorite day, right now!” I drunkenly yelled.

Jimmy raced past me over and over trying to be faster than me. It’s impossible. Even though he is like a foot taller, I don’t smoke and I exercise. Well I guess Jimmy gets plenty of exercise, since he’s a limitless energy lunatic.

“Goddamn this is fun!” Jimmy hollered. “Z, get a girlfriend who can hang with us!”

“Maybe I will!” Zacky called back, laughing. Brian said something in his ear, but Zacky just shook his head, sighed, and looked at me. I smiled back but he remained serious. Because I was drunk, it made me feel even more uncomfortable than usual, and I was unable to come up with a snarky thing to say. I glanced around at everyone else to relieve the tension I felt from his staring. Johnny and Maria were making out everywhere, of course. Matt and Val were laughing at some joke shared between them. Brian had walked over to Michelle and was trying to keep her warm. Jimmy was still running around like a goon. These people were my friends now, and I knew that my life was the better for it.
Man, too much alcohol.

I suddenly felt pretty lonely and decided that it was time for me to go home. I fished around in my bag for the keys and called out goodbyes to everyone. Everyone waved back unthinkingly, but Brian and Zacky looked at each other and then ran over to me.

“You can’t drive home, Avinne,” Brian said.

“Why not?”

“Jesus, cause you’re drunk!” Zacky yelled.

“Don’t yell at me, Z! God, you’re mean. I will drive home if I want to, boys, and there’s nothing you
can do to stop me,” I declared as I stormed off.

I was probably halfway to the parking lot when I heard heavy breathing behind me. Suddenly, I was lifted up off my feet and flipped over onto my stomach. The world was upside down and it kind of made me want to barf.

“Go, Zack. Get the car ready,” Brian whispered.

“I can hear you fools! What are you scheming?”

Brian ran off and I bounced against his back while I heard Zacky yell that the car was ready. I beat on Brian’s back, but to no avail. We reached Zacky’s car and Brian threw me in and slammed the door, sticking his tongue out at me afterward. I gave him the finger and he laughed, telling Zacky to get me home safely and that he would somehow get the car to the house. I tried to open the door but the locks flew down and I was too inebriated to figure it out.

“Damn it, you trickster!” I yelled at Zacky.

He laughed and peeled out of the parking lot. He drove toward the house and I realized that there was no hope of me getting into my car.

“I don’t understand why you won’t let me drive!”

“Because Av, you’re hammered.”

“Since when do you care?” I snapped.

“Seriously, Avinne?” He said softly.

“You’ve said some mean things to me Mr. Zacky.”

He was about to respond when his phone rang. He answered it and was about to say something when a bright idea came to my mind. I snagged the phone and asked if it was Gena. He nodded but tried to grab it from me. I dodged and held it up to me ear.

“Geeeeena. Zacky can’t talk right now because he’s too busy having a life without you.”

“You bitch, why do you have his phone?”

“Because we were making out and you interrupted us!” I yelled back.

Zacky cursed and tried to grab the phone again, but I was not having it.

“Let me talk to Zacky right now, you skank!”

“No, I don’t think so. No one likes you, so you are not approved to speak with Sir Zacky. Goodbye.” I
hung up and Zacky tried to grab the phone again, so I shoved it down my shirt.

“Now what?”

“You are infuriating, Avinne. I will have to deal with the consequences of that, later.”

“I thought you said she was history?”

“Well, I lied. I never told her we were breaking up; I was going to do it later. But now it’s going to be a much bigger pain in the ass, so thanks.”

“Sorry,” I pouted.

He shook his head and drove faster toward the house.