Categories > Celebrities > Green Day > Damn
Chapter 1 And Then There Were Three...
0 reviewsThis takes place in late 80's early 90's. Old friends face problems that have built up through the years, leaving one to find something she doesen't even know she wants.
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Glancing in the review mirror of a '82 Jeep Cherokee, I wonder how in the hell I had gotten myself in this situation. Why did she have to back out in the last minute and leave me here with these two? Directing my eyes back on the road I hear a stifled giggle and breaking sound of lips parting.
"Jesus Christ you guys, we haven't even been on the road for five minutes yet," I say bitterly, damning the other party for not showing up.
"Sorry Jen, I promise we won't be like this the whole time," my best friend of thirteen years coos to me. "You have no idea how much it means to me that you were able to get me out of that house," Alicia continues.
"Well maybe I wouldn't have had to have a two hour pep talk to your parents had you two's hormones not ran off in the first place," I say playfully grudgingly, looking back up into the mirror.
"But we love you for it," Josh exclaims, landing another kiss on her cheek.
"Yeah, well just keep your clothes on and this should be a fairly decent trip for all of us."
A few AC/DC tapes and a Bon versus Brian argument later, we had found ourselves taking chances on a highway leading us to nowhere fast.
"Are you sure we were supposed to take exit 89A and not 89B?" I ask desperately looking for any kind of salvation in the form of inhabitants. "Because cause this looks like the beginning of a bad horror flick."
"I swear I read the sings right," says Josh, leaning over the front seat to get a better look of the road. "Here, pull over on the side and we'll look at the map again."
"Yeah, and that's when some psycho ax murder comes out of the trees and slays us to death," Alicia exclaims. I catch her eye in the rearview mirror and we exchange a laughing glance. We had watched too many horror movies together. A moment later a car passes us and I silently feel a rush of relief. I really need to watch more enlightening films, I think to myself.
"Okay, take this another mile or so and you should hit a sign for Chicago," Josh says.
Pulling back onto the road I hear the two get cozy in the back and I feel an old demon come back to me. For years it has always been Alicia and I. At age five, she was the first person that I sat with on the bus on our way to kindergarten together. Three years later, her house was the first house I had spent a full night at with out my parents. By sixth grade we had discovered the astonishments of the opposite sex, and later that year we had discovered the astonishment of her dad's stash of porn in the closet. We had been there for each other through the awkward stages of growing up, our first boyfriends, and through the tragic breakups of young love.
It was when eighth grade hit that everything seemed to go through a downward spiral. Romances started, rumors flew, and friends and good ole adolescence was lost. This is when her and Josh had met. Since then nothing has really been the same. Nor has it has ever really been just her and I. I love the kid and him and I are very close, but sometimes I wonder if she could ever detach herself from his side for five minutes to hold a decent conversation anymore.
"You still with us?"
"What?" I ask, being pulled out of my thoughts.
"Where the hell are we going anyways?" Josh asks.
"I don't know," I reply, "we never set our plans that far a head."
"Yeah, we ran like a bat out of hell just to get out of that town," Alicia pipes in with a laugh.
"Well, how about a road trip. We have a little over two weeks and whatever money we brought to stay at motels and shit," I say. "And whatever happens happens," I say with a smile as I look at the two in back.
"No strings attached," Alicia finishes as we look at each other and acknowledge our inside joke. If it was one thing that we managed to keep over the years, it was definitely our collection of wild fantasies that we dreamt about, but knew would never come true come hell or high water.
"Well, it's hittin' eleven guys. We gonna crash or ride it out?" I ask, looking for the next road sign.
"I say we get the next exit and grab a motel for the night and try to pull an all nighter tomorrow," Josh suddenly says.
I glance to the back and see them wrapped together as one and can see where their night is headed. And as long as it doesn't disrupt mine we'll be happy campers.
The next morning surprised me a bit when I awoke to find Alicia and Josh already awake and ready to go.
"Now, this is the first," I say in disbelief as I look to see it is only 6:30 AM.
"Well, we figured if we're going to the west coast we'd better get an early start," Alicia says excitedly.
"Now why in the hell would we want to go there?" I ask, feeling my heartbeat begin to rise and panic take over in my voice.
"Well, we have a little surprise in store for you," she continues on even more excited.
I sigh knowing where this is headed. "Does this surprise has anything to do with a certain person?" I ask.
"Maybe," she smiles.
"Well then it's a good thing there is about a one in a million chance I'll actually make it to his house now isn't there," I say with a smile.
"Come on Jen, I want to meet him."
"No," I simply state.
"Why?"
"Because there's nothing to meet."
"You were together for three years. I've talked to him and heard everything about him but have never met him. And God damnit I want to meet him," she breathlessly states.
I laugh and look around the room to find something to stare at. After a minute I look back at the two and can see them smirk, which in turn makes me smile. "I'll tell you what," I say exasperated, "If we happen to be in his area, then we might be able to take a little detour to go see him. But," I stop to point a finger at the two of them, "You two can not in anyway interfere so that we just happen to end up in that area. Understand?"
"Yes ma'am," states Josh. I can already see the wheels in their head turning.
What in the fuck did I get myself into?
We had spent the past two days driving and the most exciting thing we had seen was a corn field turn into a wheat field.
"Wow, I don't know how else I would have seen such fields," I say looking out the back window. "Maybe I could have looked out my kitchen window," I continue on sarcastically and slowly look over at Josh.
"True, but it's just that much better since we're with you to look at this corn," he says and smiles.
"Salvation comes in the form of a sign," I excitedly say as I sit up more. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad to see a California sign."
"Now where abouts do we head?" Josh asks as he climbs up front.
"From what I'm seeing, we take this up about a mile 'n a half and get on an expressway that takes us right up to the business loop," Alicia mumbles as she concentrates on getting the right directions.
I look at the passing traffic and think about the past couple months. They haven't been the greatest between school and work. Then you add in the fact that Reilly and I split and it barely even seems feasible. Everyone had always said that we were one of those couples that if we broke up, then no one could last. They were wrong. Everything wasn't exactly paradise for us, and from what I can see in the front seat, other people have lasted with out us being together.
We stop for lunch at a Ritzy Glitz truck stop just outside the Bay Area and gladly climb out of the car to get some fresh air.
"I don't know who the fucks idea it was to drive here, but the way I see it we just wasted two and a half days in a car staring at nothing when we could have flown and been here in four hours," Josh grumbles as we make our way inside.
"Well we wanted to stop at some sights along the way," Alicia explains.
"What like the corner of Nowhere and Rapistville?" Josh protests.
"Hey, it wasn't my fault her starter like to stick," I defend myself.
"But you have to admit that Yellowstone was pretty cool," Alicia states.
"Especially when we got to ride the camels at the zoo," I add in. "So was the fact that I got to stand in four places at once."
"Yeah, we can cross off those on our list to do before we die now," Alicia laughs.
"What like in a Walk to Remember, where after Mandy does all those things she suddenly dies?" I ask, "Because I really don't want to die right now."
"Maybe not right now, but in about thirty seconds you might," Josh mumbles, looking at the ground.
"What?" I ask looking at him and then opening the door to one of the diners inside.
It was then that I saw him. It was then I wished I would have took that ride offered by a guy who stopped to help us when we were broke down in Nebraska.
"Hey," was all he said.
"Shit," I mumbled under my breath as I closed my eyes. /Damn./
"Jesus Christ you guys, we haven't even been on the road for five minutes yet," I say bitterly, damning the other party for not showing up.
"Sorry Jen, I promise we won't be like this the whole time," my best friend of thirteen years coos to me. "You have no idea how much it means to me that you were able to get me out of that house," Alicia continues.
"Well maybe I wouldn't have had to have a two hour pep talk to your parents had you two's hormones not ran off in the first place," I say playfully grudgingly, looking back up into the mirror.
"But we love you for it," Josh exclaims, landing another kiss on her cheek.
"Yeah, well just keep your clothes on and this should be a fairly decent trip for all of us."
A few AC/DC tapes and a Bon versus Brian argument later, we had found ourselves taking chances on a highway leading us to nowhere fast.
"Are you sure we were supposed to take exit 89A and not 89B?" I ask desperately looking for any kind of salvation in the form of inhabitants. "Because cause this looks like the beginning of a bad horror flick."
"I swear I read the sings right," says Josh, leaning over the front seat to get a better look of the road. "Here, pull over on the side and we'll look at the map again."
"Yeah, and that's when some psycho ax murder comes out of the trees and slays us to death," Alicia exclaims. I catch her eye in the rearview mirror and we exchange a laughing glance. We had watched too many horror movies together. A moment later a car passes us and I silently feel a rush of relief. I really need to watch more enlightening films, I think to myself.
"Okay, take this another mile or so and you should hit a sign for Chicago," Josh says.
Pulling back onto the road I hear the two get cozy in the back and I feel an old demon come back to me. For years it has always been Alicia and I. At age five, she was the first person that I sat with on the bus on our way to kindergarten together. Three years later, her house was the first house I had spent a full night at with out my parents. By sixth grade we had discovered the astonishments of the opposite sex, and later that year we had discovered the astonishment of her dad's stash of porn in the closet. We had been there for each other through the awkward stages of growing up, our first boyfriends, and through the tragic breakups of young love.
It was when eighth grade hit that everything seemed to go through a downward spiral. Romances started, rumors flew, and friends and good ole adolescence was lost. This is when her and Josh had met. Since then nothing has really been the same. Nor has it has ever really been just her and I. I love the kid and him and I are very close, but sometimes I wonder if she could ever detach herself from his side for five minutes to hold a decent conversation anymore.
"You still with us?"
"What?" I ask, being pulled out of my thoughts.
"Where the hell are we going anyways?" Josh asks.
"I don't know," I reply, "we never set our plans that far a head."
"Yeah, we ran like a bat out of hell just to get out of that town," Alicia pipes in with a laugh.
"Well, how about a road trip. We have a little over two weeks and whatever money we brought to stay at motels and shit," I say. "And whatever happens happens," I say with a smile as I look at the two in back.
"No strings attached," Alicia finishes as we look at each other and acknowledge our inside joke. If it was one thing that we managed to keep over the years, it was definitely our collection of wild fantasies that we dreamt about, but knew would never come true come hell or high water.
"Well, it's hittin' eleven guys. We gonna crash or ride it out?" I ask, looking for the next road sign.
"I say we get the next exit and grab a motel for the night and try to pull an all nighter tomorrow," Josh suddenly says.
I glance to the back and see them wrapped together as one and can see where their night is headed. And as long as it doesn't disrupt mine we'll be happy campers.
The next morning surprised me a bit when I awoke to find Alicia and Josh already awake and ready to go.
"Now, this is the first," I say in disbelief as I look to see it is only 6:30 AM.
"Well, we figured if we're going to the west coast we'd better get an early start," Alicia says excitedly.
"Now why in the hell would we want to go there?" I ask, feeling my heartbeat begin to rise and panic take over in my voice.
"Well, we have a little surprise in store for you," she continues on even more excited.
I sigh knowing where this is headed. "Does this surprise has anything to do with a certain person?" I ask.
"Maybe," she smiles.
"Well then it's a good thing there is about a one in a million chance I'll actually make it to his house now isn't there," I say with a smile.
"Come on Jen, I want to meet him."
"No," I simply state.
"Why?"
"Because there's nothing to meet."
"You were together for three years. I've talked to him and heard everything about him but have never met him. And God damnit I want to meet him," she breathlessly states.
I laugh and look around the room to find something to stare at. After a minute I look back at the two and can see them smirk, which in turn makes me smile. "I'll tell you what," I say exasperated, "If we happen to be in his area, then we might be able to take a little detour to go see him. But," I stop to point a finger at the two of them, "You two can not in anyway interfere so that we just happen to end up in that area. Understand?"
"Yes ma'am," states Josh. I can already see the wheels in their head turning.
What in the fuck did I get myself into?
We had spent the past two days driving and the most exciting thing we had seen was a corn field turn into a wheat field.
"Wow, I don't know how else I would have seen such fields," I say looking out the back window. "Maybe I could have looked out my kitchen window," I continue on sarcastically and slowly look over at Josh.
"True, but it's just that much better since we're with you to look at this corn," he says and smiles.
"Salvation comes in the form of a sign," I excitedly say as I sit up more. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad to see a California sign."
"Now where abouts do we head?" Josh asks as he climbs up front.
"From what I'm seeing, we take this up about a mile 'n a half and get on an expressway that takes us right up to the business loop," Alicia mumbles as she concentrates on getting the right directions.
I look at the passing traffic and think about the past couple months. They haven't been the greatest between school and work. Then you add in the fact that Reilly and I split and it barely even seems feasible. Everyone had always said that we were one of those couples that if we broke up, then no one could last. They were wrong. Everything wasn't exactly paradise for us, and from what I can see in the front seat, other people have lasted with out us being together.
We stop for lunch at a Ritzy Glitz truck stop just outside the Bay Area and gladly climb out of the car to get some fresh air.
"I don't know who the fucks idea it was to drive here, but the way I see it we just wasted two and a half days in a car staring at nothing when we could have flown and been here in four hours," Josh grumbles as we make our way inside.
"Well we wanted to stop at some sights along the way," Alicia explains.
"What like the corner of Nowhere and Rapistville?" Josh protests.
"Hey, it wasn't my fault her starter like to stick," I defend myself.
"But you have to admit that Yellowstone was pretty cool," Alicia states.
"Especially when we got to ride the camels at the zoo," I add in. "So was the fact that I got to stand in four places at once."
"Yeah, we can cross off those on our list to do before we die now," Alicia laughs.
"What like in a Walk to Remember, where after Mandy does all those things she suddenly dies?" I ask, "Because I really don't want to die right now."
"Maybe not right now, but in about thirty seconds you might," Josh mumbles, looking at the ground.
"What?" I ask looking at him and then opening the door to one of the diners inside.
It was then that I saw him. It was then I wished I would have took that ride offered by a guy who stopped to help us when we were broke down in Nebraska.
"Hey," was all he said.
"Shit," I mumbled under my breath as I closed my eyes. /Damn./
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