How Life Works

I never pictured myself as much of the party girl. I was always pretty toned back for my friends, even. I never really went out and did anything. Looking back on it, maybe it was my boyfriend at the time. Throughout most of early high school I had dated a wanna-be rockstar who thought he could control me, but even he wasn't that wild. I think that's probably why I was never out with the others.
It's so cliche to say that things changed, but they really did. I got dumped, first of all, for a younger, prettier model. Right before my senior year of high school, after three years with the guy, I was old news. I wasn't the sexy, side-stage girlfriend he'd wanted me to be and I don't regret it anymore.

We moved, conveniently, after that. So I didn't have to deal with him. I did, however, have to deal with finding new friends. Fortunately for me, moving to the border of Oakland and Berkley meant I was going to have a lot of new experiences. I just didn't know it yet.

"Hey!" I stared down at the girl on my doorstep. She was a little round, but with a lot of muscle to her. She almost looked like a dancer. Her eyes were dark brown and shining and her hair was too natural-looking to be permed, but sometimes you couldn't be too sure, and almost black. "You just moved in, I know, but I figured I'd welcome you to the neighborhood."

"Th--" I began before she cut me off again.

"I'm sorry, I'm Kimberly, call me Kim. I'm not usually like this, I just figured it's the start of summer and you probably wanted a friend to hang out with since you don't know anyone here." She apologized.

"I'm Jennifer, Jen." I smiled awkwardly. "Um, it's really nice to meet you."

"I hope I didn't come at a bad time. I was wondering if you wanted to go out and do something? My parents said I could use the car tonight."

"N-no, not a bad time. Sorry, I'm just, I was just unpacking some clothes. Should I change?" I looked down at my jeans and t-shirt. I hadn't actually planned on dressing up to go out when I rolled out of bed.

"Dress up a little, but nothing too crazy. I was just planning on meeting with a few other friends." She took in my facial expression and grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry, this is all really sudden. I'm not going to kill you or anything, honest. I just figured you could use something to do on a Friday night and you moved in only a few days ago. You certainly don't know many people, I figured I'd help."

"Don't worry about it." I shook my head. "You wanna come in? You can help me pick out something to wear?"

"Oh God, yes! That's my favourite part about going out." She followed me inside. "You and are are going to be very close friends, honey."

Before I'd met Kim, I'd never really had a friend who enjoyed doing my hair and makeup so much. It was like something out of a movie, but I didn't mind it. I'm still surprised that my parents let me out of the house with someone I'd just met, but I guess she really made a good first impression. Honestly, I think my parents were just happy to see me out of my funk. After the break up and the move, I'd been absolutely shut inside my new home with my three younger siblings even making friends before me.

"We're going to have to walk a ways, there's not much parking near there." I was instantly regretting the clothes she'd helped me pick. A ripped, white t-shirt that hung off my shoulders and cut off at mid-riff paired with a black skirt and just about every bracelet she could find in my wardrobe. Plus, my chucks and fishnets. It was chilly out, however, and I was not looking forward to a walk in nearly no clothes.

"Where are we?" She locked her car behind her and I followed her down the road.

"We're about to be at Gilman. You'll know when you see the crowds of people. "

Crowds. Crowds of people.

"Relax, you'll fit right in. You're regular punk rock princess," She made a face, "Which actually should worry you. We might need to dress up your wardrobe with some more originals. I'll take you shopping next time I have the car. There's a really fun shop here, they sell patches. We could make you a vest."

"I have one." I laughed, rubbing my arms from the light chill.

"Oh, I didn't see it, my bad!" She shrugged. "Bring that next time, this crowd is half wanna-be, half real-thing. You don't want to be mistaken for the wanna-be."

I paused and Kim went a full four or five steps before stopping and turning around. She burst out laughing when she saw me.

"Don't worry, no one is going to murder you. Honestly, we're just grabbing a few drinks with my friends. You'll love them." She came back and grabbed my hands. "They're in a band, or they think they are. I haven't actually heard them yet, so I can't tell you what I think."

"A girl's band?" I questioned, it'd been done, obviously, but it was still really unusual. I hadn't seen any local girl bands back home.

"No, three guys. Nothing special about any of them, really. They're a bunch of assholes." She made it sound like a promise. "You'll like them though."

I nodded and suddenly the sent of dope hit me like a train. We rounded a corner and there was the crowd. It was smaller than I imagined, but I guess it was still big by comparison to the empty street around it.

"Kim, you made it!"

"Of course!" Kim ran ahead of me a few steps to greet a group of guys. "I brought a new friend. Please don't scare her off, she lives by me and I'd like to keep her as a friend. She's sick."

"Hey." I nodded to the group, catching up to Kim. "I'm Jen."

"Tre, call me Tre." The first boy nearest Kim spoke up.

"Nice to--" I began before being cut off.

"Mike." I turned my head to see which one had spoken before the final voice spoke up.

"Billie." Green eyes met mine. He wasn't much taller than me and his hair was toussled in all directions.

"Cool." I nodded at all three of them with a small smile.

"She's a little shy." Kim spoke for me. I blushed. "She just moved here a few days back."

"Well, come on then, let's show her a good time." All the encouragement the boys needed was in that one sentence from Tre before they'd all taken off into the crowd.

"We'd best go follow them in, they get into trouble when they're left alone."

I nodded and followed closely behind her and we weaved through the people. We had followed them through the door when the sound hit me. I could hear the band outside, but inside it was so much louder. I could feel the sweat radiating off of the people around me and making my own body wet.

I watching Kim scoop up a few un-opened beers from a bar and pass me one as we continued. When we finally caught up, the boys were already in the thick of the audience. We hung back, I wasn't nearly drunk enough to throw myself into that mess and I was relieved to know that Kim felt the same.

"I usually just watch from here for a while." She shouted over the music. "Once I'm drunk I can go in, because then I just don't care."

I nodded. "Sounds good."

But it wasn't long until we were following in behind the boys. I would have given it about thirty minutes, maybe. We were set on getting at least tipsy fast, and we pulled it off.

"Kimmi is gone." Mike shouted with a grin. "What the hell did you do to her?"

"She's a fucking lightweight." Billie laughed loudly. "Jen seems to know how to handle her liquor."

"It's beer, that's hardly liquor." I shouted back. Kim was rocking out a little clumsily, completely oblivious to the conversation around her and I had to giggle, grabbing her and letting her pull me back and forth.

"This is fun." She yelled in my ear and I smiled and nodded.

It was a long while just bouncing around in the crowd. A few pits opened up, which meant that I was dragging Kim back to make sure her drunken self didn't wander into the thick of it, and the boys happily joined in. Mike kept coming back to check on us whenever they'd get lost in the damage until eventually things began to settle down.

"Do you guys wanna head back with us? We're going to B.J.'s pla--" Tré began before Billie Joe cut him off.

"Dude, we can't. I have siblings and they're fucking asleep, and so is my mother." He rolled his eyes, grabbing a beer for the road. He looked at me and I nodded before he tossed me another.

"Ok, my place then, my folks won't care." Tré shrugged. "We could have a few more drinks."

"Tré's is easier, we're a few blocks down." Kim told me, "We can park the car at my place and walk there."

"I'll drive." I giggled, grabbing the keys from her, at least I was seeing straight.

"We'll follow you back and pick you up." Mike shrugged. "I have no problems with that."

We said our temporary goodbyes before I brought a happy little Kimmi back to her car and started it. A car pulled up on the road beside us as I reached the end of the parking lot and I heard a shout. I rolled down my window to face a grinning Tré.

"You need to follow us back instead, new girl?" He asked.

I looked at Kim, who was jamming out to music that only she could hear and looked back into the car beside us.

"Yeah, could I?"

"No problem! Let's roll!" I was suddenly thankful for the fact they had invited us over. Following them home was quick and painless, and I didn't have to rely on Kim to get us back. Plus, the boys were just nice enough to bring us right to our doorsteps. Kim explained that she and Tré had dated briefly the year before and that had been why he knew where she lived. I quickly put the car in park and cut the engine. Kimmi jumped out before I'd even done that and ran into the boys's car. I laughed and followed her.

"Hey there." Billie Joe pulled me in after helping Kim over to the other side of him.

"You have to be in the middle?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Only way I can be in touching distance of two hot girls and both of my friends." He joked back.

"Dude, lay off, would you?" Mike groaned. "You're worse than Tré. You don't even get to try this shit, you're not attractive."

The car burst into laughter and even Billie Joe's eyes sparkled a little bit.

"I can't ever catch a break."