Skeletons

8:50 in the morning. Why the hell were Zack and I up this early? Oh yeah, we didn’t actually sleep. Last night, we were channel surfing and he stupidly found the horror channel, the night when all my favourite movies were on, of course, I insisted we watched them all.

“Right, me and Zoë are off,” Mom said kissing the top of my head as she rushed off to work with Zoë in tow, “Bye Zack,” she ruffled his hair.

“Mmflmm,” he mumbled, his head buried between his both arms.

“Come on we need to get ready,” I whined poking his side.

“Fine,” he sighed lifting his head up, rubbing his eyes, “I’m gonna head off home to get changed and have a shower, I’ll be back in half an hour,” I nodded my head.

After Zack left, I raced upstairs to my room ,obviously by raced I mean as fast as I usually could in the morning. Complete snail pace.

I flicked my CD player on which started to blast out my favourite Amen album “Now We Have Come For Your Parents,” I quickly picked out my outfit which consisted of a pair of black skinny jeans, a Frankenstein Drag Queens t shirt and my favourite pair of Doc Martin boots. I dodged down the stairs just in time to hear Zack bust through my front door.

“You ready?” he asked, I nodded my head as I grabbed a black hoody, my bag and car keys.

After 20 minutes of listening to White Zombie, singing along and driving, we finally arrived at the mall.
“Who are we meeting again?” I asked with my arms across my chest.

“A couple of new people I want you to meet that’s all,” he smiled. We walked towards the fountain where I saw a huddle of guys dressed in black picking pennies out of it, “Hey guys,” Zack said causing them to turn around.

“Oh hey, it‘s about time, where you been?” One of them turned around. His eyes scanned me making me feel slightly uneasy.

“Hey we just spent ages getting ready, sorry man,” Zack turned to me and gave me a reassuring smile, “This is my best friend, Louisa,” I waved shyly.

“Nice to meet you,” The guy smiled sweetly. I returned it and his dimples stood out perfectly.

“And this is?” I asked turning to Zacky.

“Oh sorry, this is Matt, and over there is Johnny and-” Zack was cut off by a huge splash noise coming from behind us, I turned around and saw a six foot something soaked mess attempting to dry off by shaking his head. Another guy stood up and hid behind Matt.

“Dude, help me,” he panted gripping onto Matt’s arms, his head slowly stuck out, “Who’s that?”

“This is Louisa,” Matt introduced.

“Oh!” He yelled wagging his finger, “I’m Johnny-”

“No, you’re dead meat!” I heard the fountain guy yell before seeing them both sprint circles around us.

“Jimmy, what happened?” Zack stopped him.

“Johnny pushed me into the fucking fountain,” he breathed heavily.

“He said my mom was a MILF!” Johnny yelled sticking his head out behind Matt again.

“She is,” the other guy laughed making Johnny lash out on him again.

“Guys, come on,” Zacky told them, “I bet Lou thinks you’re a total bunch of asshats,” he scolded.

“No I don’t, just as long as you don’t openly show that you think my mom’s hot,” I laughed.

There was an awkward silence, “Is she?” he asked earning a punch in the arm from Zacky, “Oh, I’m Jimmy,” the other guy waved. His hair was clung to his face and some water dripped on the lino floor from his sleeve. I waved biting my lip and wiggling my thin eyebrows.

“Where’s Brian?” I heard Zack’s voice next to me.

“I don’t know probably with…that…” Matt trailed off, I turned to Zack who was waving his arms about, gesturing him to stop, “He’s probably with his girlfriend,” he shrugged. I looked towards the main entrance of the mall and saw Brian walking in with Adrienne clinging onto him for dear life. It suddenly felt as if my heart dropping to the pit of my stomach became visible as Zack forced a smile on his face.

“Uh oh, here comes the queen of Sheba,” I heard Jimmy say.

“Hello boys,” she winked, Johnny gave a disgusted look on his face. Brian gave each of the guys those ‘guy hugs’ they do. The stink of half a bottle of perfume crawled up my nose as I felt Adrienne’s arm wrap around me.

“Hey honey,” she said before she pulled away. I gave a smile before turning to Zack.

“Hey Louisa,” I heard Brian’s voice.

“Hi,” I replied, “Do you have work today?” I asked.

“Yeah, I start at-”

“So, I need to tell you my news,” Adrienne interrupted, “Come with me to get a smoothie,” she tugged on my arm, I looked to Zack who pointed at her mouthing the word ‘bitch’.
“I’ll be right back baby,” she said to Brian giving him a hard kiss on the lips making my stomach turn. I felt her arm clench around mine and we started walking again.

I switched off by the time we got to the smoothie stand, she was rambling on about how ‘awesome her and Brian are going’.
“So Adrienne, what’s the news?” I asked standing behind a couple.

“Well, you know how every year I go and visit my Grandma and Grandpa in Florida?” she asked.

“Yeah…” I trailed off.

“Well this year, I’m going a little earlier,” she explained, “Oh, two strawberry smoothies please,” the guy who looked about our age handed them to us, his eyes were kept on Adrienne the entire time.

“On the house,” he stared her down.
“Thanks,” she winked at him. I rolled my eyes and followed her.

“When are you going?” I asked taking a sip of my smoothie.

“Next week,” she grinned from ear to ear. I for one know that she doesn’t go to visit her grandparents.

I wanted to slap myself silly for what I was about to say, “Don’t forget about Brian,” I muttered.

“Honey, you’ve got a lot to learn,” she laughed, I furrowed my eyebrows and decided to keep quiet.
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, I wriggled it out and slid my phone out.

If you aren’t bored to death, we’re outside the Punker Bunker x I held in my laughter, “Come on, lets go,” I told her as I walked as fast as I could to go and see Zacky.

The more you hang out with superficial people, the easier it gets to block out what people say. Take Adrienne, when she’s not completely talking out of her ass, not picking on people and not spending hours in front of the mirror, she can be a nice person.

However, she chooses not to. She chooses to be Adrienne, the narcissistic, boy obsessed bully. Sometimes, I did feel bad for her.

“What up?!” Zack said waving his arms around in the air. I heard Adrienne scoff and stomp her foot. Brian immediately latched onto her noticing how angry she looked.

“I’m going to the bathroom, Come on Louisa,” she commanded.

“Last time I checked, Louisa wasn’t your butt monkey,” Zack snapped. All of the guys’ eyes shot open in a state of shock, including Brian. An awkward silence filled the air. Each second, Johnny’s face was getting redder and redder from holding in his laughter.

“I don’t think you should talk to me like that, Baker,” she prodded his chest. He laughed and shook his head in amazement.

“Or what? Daddy’s going to sue me,” Adrienne’s face scrunched up and she stamped her feet towards Brian.

“Come on baby I want to go home,” she kissed Brian gently on the cheek.

“I have work,” he said cautiously, knowing full well that if he simply said no all hell will break loose. She huffed and stomped out of the mall, “there goes my ride,” Brian sighed. The awkward silence still surrounded us. My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and scrolled through the text.

Get in there! I turned to Zack, giving me the most mischievous wink. He’s a smart one.

“Brian, you shouldn’t…no. Brian, don’t worry…no that’s stupid,” I said to myself pacing through the locker room.

“Hey,” I jumped out of my skin as Brian walked in, “They say that talking to yourself’s the first sign of Psychosis,” he joked.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that too,” I said awkwardly. Good one.
“So what did you ask Wayne?”
“If I could have a locker yet, which I don’t,” he said sounding annoyed.

“Well, feel free to share mine, I only have my bag and hoody,” I told him. He smiled at me and nodded, “Good, good,” I stuffed my things into it.

“At least someone’s done something remotely nice for me today,” he sighed. Okay, it was a tiny comment but knowing that I could make the guy I was head over heels for feel good, it made me happy.

“It’s no problem, everyone gets those days,” I told him.

“Actually, you couldn’t do me another favour could you?” Brian asked. I nodded, “You couldn’t give me a ride home could you? If not it’s-”

“No, it’s fine,” I interrupted hoping I didn’t sound too keen.

“Thanks,” he smiled making my heart melt, “So you ready for shitty customers?” he asked placing all of his stuff in my locker.

“Of course,” I laughed placing my name tag around my neck.