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Wicked Road Page 3
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Page 3
“Sounds as if he shoved a raccoon down his throat,” Spike snickered while munching on a chicken strip, dipped in melted cheese, like a pig as always. Spike, with his old genre punk self, is the drummer to Mathew's band.
Ronnie looked at him with his brows furrowing. He got annoyed. He wasn't in the mood to joke. I rolled my eyes at all of them.
If people were to ask me about Jade and Spike's personalities, Jade is way nicer then Spike...and less naughty. But Spike was definitely the joker of the group.
Ronnie pushed towards me a bag of cough drops, offering me one. With a sigh, I took one and he followed my hand right after.
Then Mathew joined us with his lunch tray and a blue bag of chips. As he sat, Spike snatched his bag of chips. Mathew wrestled for it and in the end lost.
“So bro, what's the next game plan?” Spike asked him. He put the bag between his hands as he pulled it open and took a chip out, munched down, and began reaching for another. Jade reached his hand there but Spike slapped it away. Jade recoiled from the hard slap and winced in pain.
“Oww!” he almost shouted.
Spike gave him the evil glare saying, “Never touch my chips.”
“Butthole, that's Mathew's chips, fatty,” Jade argued. Spike isn't fat. He's actually thin as one of his own drum sticks.
“Damn. You're so greedy. You should share, you know.”
Spike didn't say anything except place a chip in his mouth while looking at Jade to make him jealous. He chewed slow and closed his eyes, savoring the taste. I saw his jaws working on chewing it up. He even smiled.
Jade scoffed, “Pffft. You gotta try harder than that, beautiful.”
Spike still didn't say anything. He just continued with his eating while having that bleak smile spread across his face.
“Anyway,” Mathew started, and continued. “Well, today I was thinking about practicing on this new song I wrote.”
“What's it called?” Jade asked him, curious.
“My messed up past,” Mathew answered with a tight, and what looked like a sarcastic smile, but he was serious. Actually, he looked a little too proud of himself.
Not one of us breathed for what felt like minutes.
Todd gave Matt “the note” his parents left him a couple of weeks back on his eighteenth birthday. Once he read it, he didn't come out of his room for what felt like weeks when it had only been six days. He didn't talk to anyone, didn't practice with the guys, and even ate alone in his room. Todd felt really sad for what he had done, but he only did it for what's best. Todd was relieved after Matt came out of his room, looking refreshed, and ate breakfast with us for the first time since he read that note. Matt even started to call Todd “dad” after that. Todd was so happy with tears in his eyes for Matt calling him that. We knew everything was okay then.
“Sounds like a messed up song already,” Spike told him, laughing.
He slapped the bag of chips against Jade's chest without looking at him. Jade jumped and took the bag. He looked in it, and found nothing left, as always. I don't get why he always gets fooled or why he checks if there's any left. I mean Spike is obviously a pig when it comes to food. He never leaves anything behind.
Jade looked at him and slapped the bag back right at the side of his bald head avoiding the Mohawk. That was a stupid move for him to do that, because Spike never liked anyone to touch his head.
He looked at Jade with menacing eyes. Jade smiled wide with closed eyes. Spike rolled his eyes at him, and looked as if saying, “God help me.”
Then, as his eyes head toward the front doors of the loud cafeteria, he spotted Tina Reese. Is she everywhere I go? Do I have to see her every day of my life? I wished she'd just disappear, just poof. I swear it'd make my life feel less problematic.
“Dude, check out the hots on Tina,” Spike spoke while checking her out.
And they never get sick and tired from staring at her, do they?! Dudes. I shook my head, rolled my eyes, and scoffed an “Ugh.”
“Hey,” Jade called, “did she get a nose job or somethin'? Cause her nose looks really different.”
“She got a nose job done?! Whaaat!” Mathew said with pulling on the 'what' word. “I didn't know that.”
Ronnie coughed with his head down on the table. Not even taking a glimpse of her. He despises her, because of what she does to me.
“Nobody knew of course,” I told them. I didn't know. Not like I’d care if I did.
And as she walked by with her girls at her sides, Jade, Mathew, and Spike were staring at her butt in amazement as if it were some kind of unique, found, and taken care of treasure.
“Puh-lease,” I told them with disgust. “She is totally out of you all's league. You waste your time staring at her butt when there are other pretty girls out there. Snobby, rich, and popular girls, like her, go for snobby, rich, and popular jocks. And are you guys’ jocks? No...You guys are weird.” I told them, in the end giving up.
Ronnie coughed sounding like he agreed with me except he ended up choking on his cough drop candy. I looked at him worriedly, while tapping his back lightly.
“Are you okay?” I asked him with worry.
He was gulping, and breathing in and out hard. His face became the color of cherry. He snatched my water bottle, and drank from it. After he drank most of it, he handed it back to me. Ew, gross, it had his germs on it now. I gave him another look.
“Uh, you can keep it actually. Consider it a gift.” I pushed it back in his hand. I didn't want to get sick.
He looked at it for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders. It's like he was saying, “Suit yourself, it's your loss.”
The boys turned to face each other and went back to eating as if I ruined their day dreams, metaphorically speaking. Most times I did ruin their dreams, but when they would have nightmares, I never ruined those. I would give them an evil, sinister smile, and let the nightmares take over.
Marylin, the Goth guitarist in Matt's band, isn't much of a social person. He was much less of a socialist than I was. He just comes and practices the riffs with the band, but never sits with us.
Every time when either one of them tried to start a conversation with him, he really didn’t like to keep the subject open. I barely opened up a subject with him. He gave me the creeps. It's not that because he's a Goth, I really didn't have anything against Goths. I love Goths! But because there's something else about him, something...wicked. This bad energy, bad vibe that always surrounded me every time I was around him or near him. But it could be I felt that way because I was just too scared of him.
He looked creepy, yeah. But he looked like a good guy, even though he was too quiet, silent, and mysterious.
Of course, he sits with his own type of people. Sometimes he sat alone. And when he would sit alone, I'd find him occupied in either drawing or writing in some notebook, or reading from some plain, old, black, tattered book. Now I was starting to sound stalker-ish… oh man.
Everyone in school had heard about that book. Well, I didn't know if it's true or not. It could’ve been a rumor. But people said that it's a book of witchcraft, black magic, and rituals. Although no one had enough courage to actually steal the ‘haunting’ book to show proof, at this point I think it's a lie. I mean the dude looks harmless. Maybe it's just the chills I get when I think about such a thing.
School ended for the day. Ronnie and I walked home under the dark gray clouds. He kept coughing every once in a while. Hearing him cough made me extra worried over him. He should've stayed home today. Why hasn’t he stayed home today, the butthole, I asked myself.
“Whoo-hoo!” some jocks shouted behind us ultimately for attention, and as they passed by us, they hollered, “Give us a freak show, freaks.” There were some jocks inside the red truck, and some outside in the back of it.
I shook my head. “Such jerks,” I muttered under my breath.
“Just ignore them.”
I turned to look at the now talking Ronnie in a “now he speaks” face.
Now he was talking. But back when I needed him in the cafeteria, his responses were just coughs, and almost choking to death. His voice did sound bad though, like a scratched up record.
I turned away from his face and looked ahead of where I was walking and as I did, I was about to trip, but Ronnie caught my arm just in time before I landed on the ground.
“Thanks,” I told him after I straightened up, my heart slowed its hammering pace after he let go of my arm.
“No problem. So, how was school this morning?” he asked me.
“It was okay, I guess.” I was not going to tell him my embarrassing moment that happened earlier. Besides, he’d feel sorry for me then and despise Tina just more, as always, and I didn't want that. It also made me feel like a complainer since I always complain to him about my problems whether it was about school, home, or life in general.
Ronnie cared about me a lot, just as I cared about him in a best friend way, and nothing more. I actually preferred things that way, and we both knew our limits. We had rules and guidelines to follow while being in the friend zone.
“Are you free to come over to my house today?” he asked me in that scratchy, rough voice. It sounded horrible. He coughed for the hundredth time.
I cringed. I don't want to get sick. I got sick from him once for being too close to him and I didn't go to school for a whole week. “Maybe not today. You need to rest.”
“Please. Come.”
Had he already forgotten the time I got sick from him? Maybe I should refresh his memory. “I got sick from you once last year, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember. I promise not to get near you like last time.” Oh yeah, he was that close last time. “Please. Just come.”
With that tone and the look on his face, I could not disagree. I frowned. “Oh, fine. But if you sleep, I'll leave.”
“Fine by me. I mean, you did that last time, and I survived.”
A smile was hidden behind my lips when the memory came back to me. He’d invited me over to his house to play video games with him. We played a racing car game against each other. Then we put on a movie and he immediately passed out. When half of the movie was over I left for home. But I did not leave without playing a prank on him.
I’d gone to their fridge, took some condiments, and snuck back upstairs. I combined all of them, spreading them all over his face, making it his beauty mask. I always pulled a prank on him. Only I didn't get why he never did it to me. It's like when I pulled a prank, he laughed about it with me, and didn't do anything in return to me. I never got why he wouldn't. I mean isn't revenge sometimes beautiful?
“Not to mention, the disgusting face mask,” he completed with a displeased face, shivering.
I busted out laughing. “You have to agree that that was hilarious.”
“Okay, yeah, I agree. It was pretty hilarious,” he smiled.
“Do I have to bring any snacks with me?”
“No. Just come empty-handed.”
“What's the movie flick, anyway?”
“It's a surprise. When you come over, you'll know then,” he said with a wide smile.
I chuckled. “Okay, now you're making me eager to come. What time should I come over?” I asked him.
“Any time.”
“Okay, I'll come at secret time, then, if Matt doesn't want me to record for them when they play today, or take pictures.”
I kicked a rock by my feet sending it to the other side of the road as thunder cracked across the sky, jolting me from the sound of it.
“Okay, secret time. Early but not too early. Just come before I go to work,” and he threw me a lovely, sweet smile, and I smiled back again.
“Hey Matt,” I called as I entered the garage with the band while they tuned up their gear.
“Yeah Don?” he said turning to me and taking out his microphone.
I looked at the other guys to see what they were doing. Spike was warming up his arms. Jade was tuning his bass while standing on his feet. Marylin was tuning his guitar while sitting down on a chair and looked like he was staring at me.
Maybe it was my imagination, but I swear, from behind his curtain of hair, it looked like his eyeballs were staring straight at me. I looked away quickly, my heart racing in fear, and my gut having that bad feeling again. He looked like he wanted to chew me up or something. Creepy.
“Are you going to need me today? Because Ron invited me over to his house to watch a movie.” My voice sounded kind of shaky after getting such a stare from Marylin.
He gave me a curious look. Like I had something to hide from him! I gave the same look back. He looked like he was trying to remember something. “I guess not. Just be back here by nine, okay.”
“Yeah, yeah. Later,” I told him placing the recorder down on a chair.
“Overprotective,” I muttered as a complaint, but with a small grin. Walking out of the garage I looked behind me at Marylin. He wasn't looking at me anymore, but concentrating on tuning his guitar.
My heart warmed at what Matt said. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but sometimes Mathew did exceed in his over protectiveness of me. Sometimes it was cute, sometimes it was annoying. Every time he did that though, it kind of made me feel as if he were my real brother. And that was a nice feeling to feel. I feel lucky.
I walked two houses down, crossed the street, and rang the doorbell. Yes, Ronnie lived that close. Not to my surprise, his mother opened the door. She loathes me. But I was raised to be nice to elders no matter how much they hated me.
“Oh, it's you,” she spat in a tone of disgust.
This is one of the reasons why I preferred Ronnie coming over to my house. Todd loved him. I hated being mistreated especially from an adult, a parent like her. She gave herself a bad impression, and people like her. She didn't really like the thought of me, who was into different things than her typical lifestyle of normality. I was into piercings, tattoos, weird hairstyles, heavy makeup, and head banging music. Even Ronnie is like me. I don't know how she has a right to talk when she should go look at herself in the mirror first.
I am who I am, and I love and accept the person I have turned into today. If this is how I should be, then no one should complain about it. No one can change it. She's going to have to accept the world whether she likes it or not just like I am.
Wow. The flaws we humans have.
Two can play the hate game, even though one of us had to be a bit furtive.
“Hi Mrs. Sykes. It's so nice to see you too. Ronnie invited me over to watch a movie, if you don't mind,” I spoke sarcastically beaming at her with my hands clasped looking all sweet – I hate being fake but I had to in this moment. It's not the first time it’d happened.
“He's –”
A voice cut her off. “Who is that at the door...Oh, why hello Donnie.”
I flashed a wider grin.
“Hello Mr. Sykes. Ronnie invited me over today to watch a movie. If you don't mind,” I repeated, but much more nicely to him, and more realistic, because he does have a nice personality. I have no idea how he got stuck with his wife in the first place. She's just so cruel, and heartless towards a girl like me.
“Why sure. He's up in his room. Although you might wanna stay away from him. He's got one of the worst colds this season.”
It's actually always the worst cold every season.
“Yeah, I know,” I told him as he let me enter their house.
I heard Mrs. Sykes actually grump. She really needed to go sort out her issues. I wasn't going to complain about it to myself this time because they were going out somewhere. Ronnie's father told me they were going to a fancy meeting with his art corporation boss.
As they went out their front door, I looked around their house. It wasn't really my first time entering Ronnie's home. I just never had the time to look around Ronnie's house to admire all the photos hung on the walls, and antiques that gave the house glimmering life. It always fascinated me, especially the art his father was into. He collected art from dif
ferent places, and gave them to his corporation so that they can sell them, or put them in a museum. The ones his dad kept were really amazing. This one picture that's colored black and white, makes a person get dizzy or feel like they're seeing too much, had one big swirl. From the top it's like a big opening, and then all the way to the bottom the opening decreases getting smaller into a point. That one fascinated me all the time.
Going up the stairs, I stopped at every photo of Ronnie growing up, from being a baby to now. I thought he looked really cute for a baby boy with blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. My heart squeezed in joy. If only he was a baby I'd squeeze him to death from his cuteness.
Continuing my way up the stairs though, I heard music. Guitar strings being struck. Was that an acoustic band playing from his Mp3 player or was that him?
This tune played in slow rhythms. I closed my eyes once it reached into my soul. It was deeply alluring to me. It sounded so soft, melodic, and perfect. It crushed my heart just from the sound of it, in a good way. It didn't sound like it was coming from his Mp3 player. I quickly headed to his room. And opening the door, forgetting to knock due to my huge suspense, found that he was the one playing the guitar. He had an electric one by the wall beside his stereo. I have seen his room more than ten times in my life, but I never knew that he would hide his guitars from me. That was just plain cruel of him to keep such a secret from me.
Was he afraid or something? What made him hide such a secret from me? It bothered me that he hid it. I'm his best friend forever! Didn't that make any sense to him?! I felt a twinge of pain twist inside me.
Mathew needed a guitarist back in freshmen year when he had opened auditions for his band, but now the space was unavailable. Why didn't he step forward to be in his band?
He was surprised to see me come early. I looked at him in utter horror, as if I caught him in bed with another girl. Which, for some reason I was glad that that did not happen. He stared at me for one second and then put down his classic guitar with his face returning to me composed as if nothing ever happened.