They're Not Gonna Get Us

I had been sitting up in my room, staring at the walls for the past 30 minutes waiting for one of the guys to meet me at the window. It really isn’t fair – my parents let Zacky go out tonight, but not me. Why? Because, and I quote, “Zacky is a boy and he can handle himself.” I can handle myself way better than Zacky, thank you very much. My parents are so naïve. I bet they still think that I haven’t ever consumed alcohol. Ha. What a joke.

The room had started to get a little toasty, mostly because of my excitement and anticipation. I finally heard something hit my window, and I knew that it was time to go. As I lifted up my window, I paused a moment just to enjoy the crisp night air. It felt good to be out of the house. By now I am an expert at sneaking out. My room is perfect for it, actually. There’s a bit of roofing below my window, and then the ground is just a few feet below the roof. Not too bad, really.

Once I was on the roof, I squinted my eyes in the darkness to see which of the guys had come to pick me up. It was Matt. He was wearing his stupid aviator sunglasses, even though it’s like 10 pm. Sometimes that guy’s a creeper, but he’s the coolest (and strongest) guy that I know. He’s like my cuddle buddy, and who I turn to when Zacky’s too busy being an ass to be my brother.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Zacky to death, but sometimes he’s a crappy brother. Not so much anymore, but we’ve had our tough times. Zacky’s best friend would definitely be Brian.

Oh Brian. I’ve had my eyes set on him from the moment we met, at the beginning of high school…or maybe eighth grade, I’m not quite sure. Anyway, he’s the hottest of all my friends and I’m not afraid to admit it. I can’t exactly picture us going out, but the topic has never come up, so I’m almost afraid to make a move. And I am rarely ever scared. So, I guess we’ll just wait and see how that plays out.

Then there’s Jimmy, quite possibly the funniest guy you’ll ever meet. He can make anyone or anything laugh without even trying. Hell, I bet he could make a rock laugh if he wanted to!

And last but not least, the newest edition to the gang: Johnny. He’s the sweetest, shortest guy that I know but he’s a cutie.

Alright, enough about the guys…back to me sneaking out. I glanced down over the roof to make sure that there wasn’t a sprinkler or garbage can down there, and the coast was clear. But once I looked back over in Matt’s direction, he wasn’t there anymore. “Haha Matt, you’re so funny,” I said sarcastically. “I already saw you out there.” I rolled my eyes when he didn’t respond.

I swear sometimes he thinks he’s James Bond. Like at the Halloween party that Brian had last year, Matt dressed up as James fucking Bond and walked around looking all sketchy and sneaky, while pretending his beer bottle was a gun or something. Oh yeah and all he’d say was, “The name’s Sanders, Matt Sanders.” It was funny the first few times, but it got old.

I was shaken from my little holiday flashback there once I felt what felt like sprinkles of water dripping on me. I noticed that it definitely was not raining…so why was I suddenly getting drenched? I looked down below the roof again to see that a sprinkler had magically appeared on the lawn and was what was spraying water all over me.

“Matt, I’m so gonna get you,” I said lowly as I dodged the water droplets and managed to make it on the ground in one piece. I swear if my make-up is running, I will make Matt pay!

I walked aimlessly around my yard, trying my best to find my way to the fence door. It was a wooden fence and was so tall. It hurt like hell to jump over it, so I’m just gonna stick to using the door. As I felt my hand wrap around the latch, something else was being thrown at me. “What is this, ‘Attack Taryn Day?!’” I groaned.

Matt was throwing the little stones from the front landscape over at me. Well, two can play that game. I grabbed whatever was the closest thing to me – which ended up being a huge-ass rock – and chucked it over the fence door. I heard a groan and then what sounded like someone falling on the ground. Damn it, I can’t even enjoy my own attack because Matt got hurt!

I quickly opened the gate and saw Matt sitting on the ground, holding a hand to his head, which had a few thin trails of blood flowing down it. “Holy shit, Taryn, you didn’t need to go and attempt to stone me to death!” Matt complained as I helped him stand up.

“Um excuse me, Matt, if you wouldn’t have been playing James Bond again I wouldn’t be wet and you wouldn’t be bleeding so I blame you!”

“Yeah but c’mon Taryn, how am I supposed to get any action tonight with this blood everywhere?”

“Is that all you ever think about?” I asked, with a smile tugging at my lips. Same old Matt for ya. I licked my thumb and held it on his ‘wound’ applying pressure. He looked
questionable, but once I pulled away, you could barely tell that he had been bleeding.

“Can we get going now? The biggest party of the year is happening right now and we’re gonna be late!” I shouted, running over to Matt’s car. He was close behind.

“Yeah, yeah I know, Taryn. But why the hell couldn’t Zacky come here and pick you up?”

“Good question. But really, I don’t know. First of all, he wasn’t gonna wait around for me to get a chance to sneak out, and lately he’s been acting really distant, but I don’t get into his personal shit and I don’t care,” I answered, in a slightly bitter tone.

“But he’s your brother. Maybe he’s just going through a weird time or something? I haven’t noticed anything weird, but that’s just me,” he said, starting up the car and driving toward the party.

I just dropped the subject, and Matt understood that I didn’t want to talk about it. He turned on his stereo as loud as it would go and we drove the rest of the way without saying a word. Fine by me.

The Berry's, Jason and Matt, are good friends of ours and they are the ones having the party. Their parents left for New York on business, and no offence to them, but they were stupid enough to leave their house alone to Jason and Matt.

From what I’ve been hearing all week, this party is supposed to be the biggest party of the end of the year. Oh yeah, it’s December 27th or something like that, by the way. Luckily, it doesn’t snow or anything here in California, so I’m pretty sure there will be a portion of the party outside too. The bottom line is, there’s no way in hell that I’d miss this party. Who knows, maybe I’ll make a move on Brian? Why not, I mean it’s almost 2008 already…might as well end the year with a bang!

Even though we were still a block away, Matt and I could already see all the lights (and spotlights) coming from their house, and the music was so loud that it totally beat Matt’s stereo, which was on volume 23! The song, I could even tell from this far away, was an old one – some Black Eyed Peas song… “Let’s Get It Started,” or something like that.

I turned Matt’s radio off for him and we glanced at each other before bursting out laughing as we sang along to the stupid song. Well, I realized something as he pulled into maybe the last empty spot of concrete on the street… One thing is for sure, tonight will be a night to remember.

Only…it would be remembered for both good and terrible reasons…