bruh u comin to tommy boys today?
KAZ MY MAN! see you in the water, bitch ass.
kaz i s2g if you donât show up today iâmm gonna nut check you on monday
hey cutie, are you going to tommyâs? iâm only going in the pool if you do lol :)
They kept coming, all morning. Kaz hated to be a complainer, especially about something that was clearly a privileged problem, but he wanted to throw his phone at the wall. He wouldâve done it, if he thought his parents would shell out the money to buy him a new one. As it was, they never would, and he really didnât want to spend all Summer mowing lawns to buy some shitty iPhone 4 from the local pawn store.
Heâd gone ghost on them. He showed up to practice, but his mind was never really there. When they didnât see him on the field, it was like heâd never existed at all. He had disappeared to live in a different universe - one full of the monsters that Jamie described in that old, stuffy classroom. He couldnât understand how everyone else went on with their lives in a world that seemed foreign to him now.
It was almost nice, if he thought about it. They cared enough to text him, knowing he hadnât answered in weeks. They wanted to see his face. They missed him. Maybe they even worried about him. One of them had told the others to help get Kaz out of the graveyard that day, and there they were, all bombarding him with texts until he couldnât say ânoâ.
He went to the pool party, but there was a newly grown stubborn part of him that refused to have fun. He was a miserable sight in bright flamingo board shorts, holding a cup of stale Sprite and laying prone on the white trim that surrounded the pool. The concrete was rough, like sandpaper against the skin of his back, and it made him uncomfortable enough that he could consider it unenjoyable. His own personal punishment for daring to be there at all.
People came over to speak to him and then quickly vanished once they realized theyâd somehow entered a depressing Twilight Zone episode where Kaz played the role of Death. He was there to kill the party.
It was only Johnnie that persevered despite Kazâs unwillingness to play along. The sun had wound down and Tommy was announcing part two of the evening. Kaz could hear Johnnie approaching; he was talking to some girl. Kaz couldnât see her, but he knew she was blonde without looking.
Without much warning, Johnnie was straddling his waist and slapping his face. He said something about being Kazâs âwake-up callâ. Kaz was bringing them all down and it was high time he nutted up and buried his emotions like a real man. Johnnieâs invitation to the warehouse was more of a command, and Kaz, like he always would, dutifully followed it.
The warehouse was dark and humid. It smelled of old, rotting wood, cheap acrylic paint, and the perfume some 14 year old had too heavily doused herself in. Johnnie pressed two bright orange handprints to either side of Kazâs face, smooshing his cheeks together and blurting out something crass about getting fucked up, or fucking, or both.
To Johnnieâs credit, it took him nearly an hour before he decided to take matters into his own hands. Kaz was vaguely aware, through the flickering black light, that Johnnie was whispering in the blonde girlâs ear, while the two both looked in his direction. She blinked in and out of existence with the strobe lights as she approached him. He wasnât ready for her mouth to be on his, let alone her tongue down his throat. She left pink claw marks on his tshirt where she grabbed it, pulling him close until she could successfully lodge the pill far back in his mouth.
He sputtered as she pulled away. He hurked like a cat about to vomit, but Johnnie shoved a bottle of water into his hand before he could, with nothing but a wink and a âhave funâ. He and the blonde disappeared into the crowd like mischievous imps.
Kaz downed half the water, moving along the wall to the corner of the room. When his eyes found Johnnie again, so close despite having walked the opposite way, he was astounded that whatever had been shoved down his throat had worked that fast, but then -- No, that wasnât Johnnie. Not with that surly look on his face.
âJamie?â he asked, squinting into the purple dimness. âYour face looks how I feel. Whatâre you doing here?â
@devilsward












