Our Perfect Disease

It turned out Zara was a cool girl, nothing impressive. She was pretty much like those girls Roth used to sneak home, ones that ended up being no good and just cause shit. She mentioned this to John, who chuckled and asked what she was on the scale of their STD.

“10 most definitely now,” Halen whispered into John’s ear.

John looked over towards Roth, and averted his eyes just as quickly. He had a smirk on his face, he chuckled.

“Yes, I think you are most definitely rocking this rating thing.” John said, his eyes lighting up with amusement.

“I know I am. I am not big headed for any reason.” Halen smirked. She finished off her second beer of the night.

They were sitting down on the grass beside the pool with Jared, Kennedy and Joel. Axl was coaxed into the pool by Garrett, Pat and Janelle. The sky was turning darker by the second the sun was still there, only an hour or two until sunset.

“Lenny! Please come into the pool!” Janelle pleaded for what seems like the twentieth time.

Halen bit her lip, contemplating the idea. She started to shake her head slightly, but then Kennedy groaned and picked up Halen with the help of John. Halen could barely register what was happening until she made contact with the water, she realised she got thrown in, Halen squealed angrily. Her shirt was soaked through along with her shorts. She resurfaced with a mouthful of incoherent cuss words.

“You jerks!” Halen shouted, keeping her cuss words down to a minimum.

Kennedy and John erupted into a chorus of laughter, keeling over.

“You dicks!” Halen shouted again, her cheeks heating up anger.

“Sweetie, you can suck my dick.” John retorted with a smirk.

Halen huffed, taking off her soaked shirt to reveal her blood red bikini top. She took off her shorts too, revealing her black bikini bottoms. She chucked her clothes on the side, and gave Kennedy and John one last glare before swimming to join Janelle.

“They are such pains. But I am happy you’ve joined me!” Janelle gushed with a grin.

Halen rolled her eyes. “I had no choice. But would you care to help strike revenge?” She asked.

Janelle’s green eyes lit up with her mischievous grin. “Oh how I love having a girl in this group.”

In the end, both Janelle and Halen managed to wrestle John into the pool. He was not happy, luckily his shirt was off. Halen had to remind herself to not get distracted by his tattoos. Then Kennedy surrendered and jumped into the pool.

“Lucky you both are cute.” John mumbled.

Halen splashed him, rolling her eyes playfully. “Get a grip douche!”

John looked at her with a pissed off expression. “Right, you are so getting it now!” John yelled.

Halen squealed loudly, swimming away from him as possible. She hid behind Kennedy. Kennedy hoisted her up onto his back then onto his shoulders.

“Kenny! What you doing?” Halen laughed, wrapping her arms around Kennedy’s head to keep herself steady.

“Is that what game we’re playing Ken?” John asked, his eyes lighting up with roguish glint.

Axl got helped out of the pool, and the game began. Janelle hopped onto Garrett’s shoulders, then Pat’s on John’s. Halen honestly didn’t know who was more unimpressed John or Pat. Janelle was bossy as hell, but Pat always managed to drag her down.

Halen always got attacked by Pat too. She couldn’t keep a silly grin off her face. John caught her glance, and gave her a wink and sent a cheeky grin her way. She returned a wink back to him.

“You. Fucking. Scuffing. Little twat.” Janelle shouted in big huffs, as she got wrestled off Garrett’s shoulders once again. “Lenny! You’re such a bitch! Traitor!” Janelle was getting flustered with anger. Garrett laughed kissing her nose to calm her down. Janelle softened her gaze but then turned to Pat with a glare.

“Guys! Get out of the fucking pool, the burgers are ready!” Tim shouted.

Kennedy threw Halen off his shoulders. She fell into the water again. When she submerged she was again looking incredibly pissed off. Halen followed the guys out of the pool, Roth handed her a towel. She wrapped herself up to prevent herself from shuddering.

“There you go. I got yours cause I know how fussy you are with sauce.” Roth smiled at Halen as he handed her a hotdog.

“Thank you bro,” Halen mumbled.

Halen grabbed another beer for herself and sat cross legged by Kennedy. She tugged her towel around her closer for warmth, the sun was finally setting. This meant the cold Arizona nights were rolling in. Roth sat on the other side of her, with Zara. Axl lay in the middle of everyone, drying off. Halen finished off her hotdog and swigged it down with her beer.

Everyone was sat down in a circle just talking quietly but absorbing the peacefulness. Halen felt her eyes wander to John’s, he gave her a slight nod in recognition she gave him a small smile in return. She had seen a different side of him tonight, the more fun side. Less of the brooding sour guy but more of what she presumed was the old John before his heartbreak. Halen could tell the guys weren’t used to his mood being happy, it was as if they were almost anticipating the snap back to his sour mood.

Halen let out a yawn, and leaned her head on her brother’s shoulder. The chill was getting to her now. She gnawed on her lip and looked for her wet clothes.

“They are in the dryer. I will show you where they are.” John said, following her gaze.

Halen gave him a small smile. “Thanks.”

John got up, and held a hand out to Halen for her. She took it tentatively and let him pull her up. She let go of his hand almost immediately not wanting to make a fool of herself. They walked side by side into the house, she followed him into the washing room.

“Your shorts and shirt should be there. But I have a hoodie here, if you need it?” John asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, if I could please.” Halen smiled softly. “It gets so fucking cold in the night.”

John chuckled and nodded his head, no stranger to the hot days and cold nights. He reached into the dryer, pulled out her Pink Floyd t shirt and shorts, then reached into one of the cupboards and pulled out a large navy hoodie.

“Do you just have a spare pair of clothes here?” Halen questioned, her eyes narrowing on the stack of clothes in the cupboards.

John glanced at Halen, threw the clothes to her. He shrugged slightly. “I often crash over night if needed.”

“If you’re wasted basically,” Halen concluded. She moved away from John, towards the bathroom.

“You make it sounds like I am a drunken ass all the time.” John spoke up, a sly smirk tugging at his lips.

Halen turned around, her hand on the door knob for the bathroom. Her eyes met his green ones.

“From the stories I hear, it sounds like it. Shame though because you and I both know you obviously can do so much better than the company of the bottle.” Halen spoke, her words echoed bitterness.

She opened the door and closed it firmly behind her. She didn’t know why she reacted like that to John. Maybe it was the fact that he might’ve lost the girl he thought he would’ve been with forever but to throw away good friendships and his rising career. He had something about him that frustrated Halen to the core.

Halen pulled her t shirt over her, putting her shorts on. Then pulling the hoodie on, the sleeves were too big, she had to scrunch them up. She glanced at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, she could see her sun kissed face dotted with freckles, her skin lightly pink with sunburn from too much sun but gradually fading into a tan. Her messy dirty blonde hair was getting turning into a lighter blonde with the sun. She definitely looked like a changed person with only roughly near enough 2 weeks away from home, she hardly recognised herself. And that was a good sign.

Halen walked out of the bathroom, and headed to the garden where everyone was sitting down. All chatting with huge smiles upon their faces, that tugged at Halen’s heart, again she never experienced this at home either. The close companionship was something that she has yearned since her mother left, now that she was close enough to this rare friendship. She didn’t want to fuck it up or let it slip away.

“So Len, what do you think about our idea?” Kennedy asked her, his head turning
around, his hazel eyes fixating on Halen.

Halen snapped out of her thoughtful trance, and a dreamy smile was upon her face. “It could help if I knew the idea.” She laughed breathlessly. She sat beside Kennedy in the vacant place.

Kennedy rolled his eyes, and nudged her. “Go down to the lake for the weekend.”
Halen shrugged her shoulders. “Sounds cool dude.” She bit at her lip. “Never been to a lake,” She admitted, glancing at Kennedy then took a quick glance at John, whose eyes were on her.

“Well, we’ll be sure to show you how we do it.” Garrett grinned, his arm around Janelle, who had a matching grin.

“I’ll take note.” Halen returned a half grin.

“Great, we’ll go down tomorrow night. At least then we are there for the weekend.” Tim nodded, he got out his iPhone and started to type. “Going to inform Halvo, Austin and see if Joel can make it, god knows who can come.”