Status: commenced
Lost Boy
| i remember the last time i saw your face |
I pressed my phone between my ear and my shoulder uncomfortably as I hopped around my room trying to get my shoe on, whilst talking to my friend on the phone animatedly, I never really did like to do things the conventional way. I had finally got my ankle boots on my feet and set about trying to locate my purse, and consequently, my keys which seemed to love hiding from me, when my foot became tangled in the strap of my bag, causing me to fall to my floor rather ungracefully. My two left feet tended cause a fair bit of trouble, always assisting the long winded public humiliation that was my life, they were rather good at it too, and chose to showcase this ability on the most opportune occasions. I combed through my tangled and unruly curly blonde hair with my fingertips and brushed it into a high bun at the crown of my head, securing it with a hair tie and a flower crown.
Today was precisely a month before classes started back for a new semester at the university, and as such, that meant it was the annual moving in day for the on-campus apartments. They weren’t your conventional dorms, like most university housing though, they were actual and legitimate little two storey houses in a complex just off campus. I was a third year education student, and had been sharing my accommodation with my best friend Jade for the past two years, who was a journalism major and I had to say that we had it pretty good. Between the two of us, we were never short of laughs or happiness; we were both naturally optimistic people and that tended to work in our favour around the time of finals at the end of the semester.
Nevertheless, I picked myself up off the floor and slung the heavy bag over my shoulder, my laptop bag finding its way onto my other shoulder naturally. My Macbook Air was my most prized possession, I had always loved to write stories and music, I just couldn’t quite figure out how to make a career out of it, so teaching seemed like the next logical step for me. I managed to balance all of my bags whilst walking down the stairs and talking to Luke on the phone. Luke was probably one of my favourite people in the world, but things were strictly platonic there. I was forever trying to set him up with my friend, Lani but he was too shy to make a move, despite the obvious attraction that was there, sometimes it really made me want to wring the dumbasses neck to be perfectly honest; why couldn’t he just make a bloody move?
“Lucas, I understand that you’re a shy and awkward little penguin trapped in a nineteen year old man-child’s body, but for the love of god, man up! She likes you and you like her and you both know it so why the hell won’t you just ask her on a date? It’s not that bloody hard, mate!” I chastised him, as I tended to do quite often, whilst stumbling outside to my car. My younger sister was at school and my mum had an early shift at the retirement village this morning, leaving me to make my way across town to the university on my lonesome. It wasn’t too bad though, I had said my goodbyes last night and I preferred it like this anyway; I was absolute rubbish at goodbyes and this way I could stop at the service station on the way and pick up a slurpee to ease the pain of unpacking all over again for the year.
“You say it like it’s so easy, Lee! I can’t do it though, she’s so pretty and cute and god damn perfect! There is no way in hell that she’d say yes and then our friendship would be down the drain! Do you really want that to happen? Huh?” My lovely best mate groaned to me over the phone, no doubt rushing around his room and trying to do all of his own packing he should have done last night. Like I said, I loved the kid to absolute pieces but he could drive a person to damn near destruction.
I flung my bags into the back seat of my car, the only thing I loved more than my laptop; Archibald was a part of my soul and I adored him like no other. I sighed and turned on the ignition, trying to find a way to kindly end my phone call with Luke, not that it mattered though; I’d be seeing him by the end of the day anyway. “Look Luke, i’m about to drive over to Varsity, I strongly suggest that you pick up the damn phone and call Lani, or better yet, walk your skinny punk ass over there and ask her out! Either way, i’m hanging up and i’ll see you whenever you and Michael drag yourselves over”
“Yeah yeah yeah! Love you too, Lee!” he sarcastically snipped at me, making me laugh as I hung up on him and buckled myself in, my foot pressing down on the clutch as Archibald revved to life and the sound of All Time Low’s new album began pumping through my speakers. I felt a giddy grin spread across my pale face as I pulled out of my drive way, I just knew this was going to be a good
year; I could already tell.
[&&&]
It’s generally not a good sign when the first sound you hear when walking into a house is two voices yelling at each other. But these weren’t just any voices, oh no no no, these were the voices of Jade and Michael and it was a sound I was well used to. Jade and Michael were kind of like Ross and Rachel, everyone knew that they liked each other and that they were destined to be together, well everyone except for Jade and Michael. The house was never quiet when the two of them were in close proximity, they were constantly arguing about this and that and the other, something which everybody knew was just a sign of their unresolved sexual tension but they refused to admit. I knew they liked each other too, since they both had a weakness for tequila and ended up spilling their feelings to me at different times over the past year. So much so, that I had made it my personal mission to get those two knuckleheads together.
Nevertheless, breathing in a deep gulp of air and calming myself down, I stepped through the door way of number 18 and dumped my bags in the hallway before following the sound of two voices yelling and shouting in what I could only guess was the direction of the kitchen. Once I rounded the corner, I was met with the sight of two of my closest friends standing about a metre apart, the strong glares painted on both of their faces making me burst out laughing. Their heads snapped towards me and I caught sight of Luke sitting on the couch with his head phones on, I swear that boy was as useful as a beetle.
“Jesus Christ you two, you’ve been back for five minutes and you’re already at each other’s throats? Can’t you just kiss and make out already?” I teased them both, laughing harder when they both attempted to splutter out responses.
“I would never -”
“She’s so -”
“UGH!”
Before both of them stormed in separate directions, Michael skulking back to the couch to continue with his video games, while Jade ran upstairs to continue unpacking and I knew she was intentionally trying to piss him off when loud pop music was blasting through the house soon afterwards.
I could only shake my head at the two of them before dragging my bags upstairs and flinging them onto my bed, a content breath leaving my lips at the sight of the view from my bedroom window. Not only was the volleyball court clearly visible, but so was the beach in the distance, somewhere that I tended to spend any free time when I wasn’t either in class or at work at the bar down the road. For a city girl, I really did adore the beach.
I had just finished reassembling the corkboard that hung above my bed when I heard a loud crash and Jade was suddenly appearing and hurriedly dragging me out of the house by my hand. I had no idea what had happened or why we were running but I was more than eager to find out, I did however notice that Luke and Michael were nowhere to be seen throughout the house, which was anything but normal – trying to get those boys to move from the couch was like trying to make a cat take a bath, in other words, it was damn near impossible.
“Jade, what the hell is going on?!” I asked – more like whined- yet I received no reply; however, as soon as we got out the front door and I saw the scene in front of us, it all made perfect sense.
Standing at the end of our driveway were two boys that were idolised across campus, and they were two boys that Michael and Luke always managed to get into a problem with.
Today was precisely a month before classes started back for a new semester at the university, and as such, that meant it was the annual moving in day for the on-campus apartments. They weren’t your conventional dorms, like most university housing though, they were actual and legitimate little two storey houses in a complex just off campus. I was a third year education student, and had been sharing my accommodation with my best friend Jade for the past two years, who was a journalism major and I had to say that we had it pretty good. Between the two of us, we were never short of laughs or happiness; we were both naturally optimistic people and that tended to work in our favour around the time of finals at the end of the semester.
Nevertheless, I picked myself up off the floor and slung the heavy bag over my shoulder, my laptop bag finding its way onto my other shoulder naturally. My Macbook Air was my most prized possession, I had always loved to write stories and music, I just couldn’t quite figure out how to make a career out of it, so teaching seemed like the next logical step for me. I managed to balance all of my bags whilst walking down the stairs and talking to Luke on the phone. Luke was probably one of my favourite people in the world, but things were strictly platonic there. I was forever trying to set him up with my friend, Lani but he was too shy to make a move, despite the obvious attraction that was there, sometimes it really made me want to wring the dumbasses neck to be perfectly honest; why couldn’t he just make a bloody move?
“Lucas, I understand that you’re a shy and awkward little penguin trapped in a nineteen year old man-child’s body, but for the love of god, man up! She likes you and you like her and you both know it so why the hell won’t you just ask her on a date? It’s not that bloody hard, mate!” I chastised him, as I tended to do quite often, whilst stumbling outside to my car. My younger sister was at school and my mum had an early shift at the retirement village this morning, leaving me to make my way across town to the university on my lonesome. It wasn’t too bad though, I had said my goodbyes last night and I preferred it like this anyway; I was absolute rubbish at goodbyes and this way I could stop at the service station on the way and pick up a slurpee to ease the pain of unpacking all over again for the year.
“You say it like it’s so easy, Lee! I can’t do it though, she’s so pretty and cute and god damn perfect! There is no way in hell that she’d say yes and then our friendship would be down the drain! Do you really want that to happen? Huh?” My lovely best mate groaned to me over the phone, no doubt rushing around his room and trying to do all of his own packing he should have done last night. Like I said, I loved the kid to absolute pieces but he could drive a person to damn near destruction.
I flung my bags into the back seat of my car, the only thing I loved more than my laptop; Archibald was a part of my soul and I adored him like no other. I sighed and turned on the ignition, trying to find a way to kindly end my phone call with Luke, not that it mattered though; I’d be seeing him by the end of the day anyway. “Look Luke, i’m about to drive over to Varsity, I strongly suggest that you pick up the damn phone and call Lani, or better yet, walk your skinny punk ass over there and ask her out! Either way, i’m hanging up and i’ll see you whenever you and Michael drag yourselves over”
“Yeah yeah yeah! Love you too, Lee!” he sarcastically snipped at me, making me laugh as I hung up on him and buckled myself in, my foot pressing down on the clutch as Archibald revved to life and the sound of All Time Low’s new album began pumping through my speakers. I felt a giddy grin spread across my pale face as I pulled out of my drive way, I just knew this was going to be a good
year; I could already tell.
[&&&]
It’s generally not a good sign when the first sound you hear when walking into a house is two voices yelling at each other. But these weren’t just any voices, oh no no no, these were the voices of Jade and Michael and it was a sound I was well used to. Jade and Michael were kind of like Ross and Rachel, everyone knew that they liked each other and that they were destined to be together, well everyone except for Jade and Michael. The house was never quiet when the two of them were in close proximity, they were constantly arguing about this and that and the other, something which everybody knew was just a sign of their unresolved sexual tension but they refused to admit. I knew they liked each other too, since they both had a weakness for tequila and ended up spilling their feelings to me at different times over the past year. So much so, that I had made it my personal mission to get those two knuckleheads together.
Nevertheless, breathing in a deep gulp of air and calming myself down, I stepped through the door way of number 18 and dumped my bags in the hallway before following the sound of two voices yelling and shouting in what I could only guess was the direction of the kitchen. Once I rounded the corner, I was met with the sight of two of my closest friends standing about a metre apart, the strong glares painted on both of their faces making me burst out laughing. Their heads snapped towards me and I caught sight of Luke sitting on the couch with his head phones on, I swear that boy was as useful as a beetle.
“Jesus Christ you two, you’ve been back for five minutes and you’re already at each other’s throats? Can’t you just kiss and make out already?” I teased them both, laughing harder when they both attempted to splutter out responses.
“I would never -”
“She’s so -”
“UGH!”
Before both of them stormed in separate directions, Michael skulking back to the couch to continue with his video games, while Jade ran upstairs to continue unpacking and I knew she was intentionally trying to piss him off when loud pop music was blasting through the house soon afterwards.
I could only shake my head at the two of them before dragging my bags upstairs and flinging them onto my bed, a content breath leaving my lips at the sight of the view from my bedroom window. Not only was the volleyball court clearly visible, but so was the beach in the distance, somewhere that I tended to spend any free time when I wasn’t either in class or at work at the bar down the road. For a city girl, I really did adore the beach.
I had just finished reassembling the corkboard that hung above my bed when I heard a loud crash and Jade was suddenly appearing and hurriedly dragging me out of the house by my hand. I had no idea what had happened or why we were running but I was more than eager to find out, I did however notice that Luke and Michael were nowhere to be seen throughout the house, which was anything but normal – trying to get those boys to move from the couch was like trying to make a cat take a bath, in other words, it was damn near impossible.
“Jade, what the hell is going on?!” I asked – more like whined- yet I received no reply; however, as soon as we got out the front door and I saw the scene in front of us, it all made perfect sense.
Standing at the end of our driveway were two boys that were idolised across campus, and they were two boys that Michael and Luke always managed to get into a problem with.