Teenagers

The day trudged on for what seemed like forever. When school was finally over, I met up with Ray and Mikey by the front office again.
“I can’t wait to practice our new song,” Mikey said, bouncing around a little. I felt someone put there hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Mr. Mabbitt with a huge grin.
“You boys practicing tonight?” He said. We nodded. “I might have to come and see you guys sometime.” He patted me on the shoulder and walked away as we all waved goodbye.
“C’mon guys,” I said, “we should go.” We headed out of the school and onto the sidewalk. We walked across the street to Ray’s house, where we have all our rehearsals. Ray opened the garage door and we began to set up our equipment.
I finished hooking up my microphone to our crappy-ass amps when Mikey said, “so what song are we going to play first?” I looked through the list of our songs I had put on my phone. I scrolled through until I found one.
“How about ‘Cancer?’” I said. Mikey and Ray agreed.
I started with the opening piano lines, then I began singing:
Turn away,
If you could get me a drink
Of water 'cause my lips are chapped and faded
Call my aunt Marie
Help her gather all my things
And bury me in all my favorite colors,
My sisters and my brothers, still,
I will not kiss you,
'Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you.
Now is when the drum parts would start, but Bob wasn’t coming today, so we had to bare without. I began to sing again as the guitar and bass lines picked up.
Now turn away,
'Cause I'm awful just to see
'Cause all my hairs abandoned all my body,
Oh, my agony,
Know that I will never marry,
Baby, I'm just soggy from the chemo
But counting down the days to go
I loved the joy singing brought me. It always made me happy to be able to get up there and sing. To show the world I have a voice, and godammit I’m going to use it. I’m not going to waste my voice on some petty 20 year old who can’t even graduate high school.
We practiced for about two or three hours, stopping at one point to eat the pizza Ray’s mom ordered. When practice was over, Ray’s mom drove us home, Ray in the front, Mikey and I in the back. On the way home we talked about how the band is getting better, when our next practice will be, how we need new amps, etc.
We finally reached our house. Mikey and I hopped out of the car. “Thank you Mrs. Toro,” I said, trying to be mature. She nodded. “See you tomorrow, Ray”
“Later,” he said as I closed the door. Mikey and I trudged up the steps to the house. He unlocked and opened the door. Unsurprisingly, my mother was taking a late shift tonight, so we had the house to ourselves. We threw our stuff down on the floor.
“Want to watch me play some GTA?” Mikey said, turning on the TV, then the PS3.
“Sure,” I said with a shrug, sitting down on the couch. “You hungry Mikey?”
“Nah, I’m good,” he said, starting up the game. I sat there and quietly watched him kill prostitutes and steal cars. I kept nodding off, and finally decided to go to bed. I stood up and started walking towards the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Mikey said, pausing the game mid robbery.
“I’m tired,” I said, “I’m just going to go lie down for a while.” Mikey shrugged his shoulders and returned to his pixilated crimes.
I slowly opened the door to my bedroom. I drug myself over to my bed and layed down. I pulled of my shirt and my pants, lying there only in my boxers. I pulled the blankets up around me to block the cold. Soon, my bed was warm and cozy, and I slowly fell asleep.

Notes