Chapter 1

BAM! POW! CRUNCH! Did I get your attention yet? Well if I didn’t, that was the sounds of what it could have been like for my friend William if he was hitting something. Instead of it was him getting a goal, throwing his fist in the air in excitement and eating a potato chip all in a row.

“That’s bullsh*t! You only got that goal because my control’s all dusty and sh*t,” my other friend, Liam, yells. He wasn’t too well tonight with his gaming skill. We originally were going to play my new music game all night until William pulled out this new FIFA game he got yesterday.

“Maybe you should learn to play soccer then if you don’t want to SUCK,” Will taunts. Then he takes the ball from Liam again soon after they continue playing.

Liam was about to get into a fight with Will from what I saw. Instead he just continued yelling at the screen. Will would snicker as he did so.

Next to them were two other boys getting into a serious argument. I’d hate to have to tell you this, but it’s important for everyone that I put this down.

“I think we should all go get strawberry ice cream,” Brett stated.

“But everyone loves chocolate. So, we should go get chocolate ice cream,” Vincent retorts. Didn’t I tell you this was an important argument? Don’t read ahead past this! “Not all of us like strawberry ice cream anyways.”

“Says the one who hasn’t even touch strawberry ice cream! Maybe if you tried it, then you would understand why someone would eat it.” They started glaring at each other and bumping into each other soon after. I stayed out of it since I wasn’t the arguing type.

If I wanted to get in the middle of their talk, I couldn’t. My body was on the other side of the room from them and all their attention was focused on each other, no one else.

“We should leave those two be,” my final friend here, Eric, said to me. “They’ll stop at a stalemate soon enough if we stay out of it.” He tightened his arms around me. I was currently laying on top of him on a small blow up mattress we had in here.

“I know. We would side with Vincent though, right,” I ask. Eric chuckled into my ear for only us to hear.

“I’m going to side with Brett on this one. I could use something different from my vanilla choice for once,” he answered. I elbowed him backwards in his side playfully. It would be bad if he got hurt before football started this season.

Liam and Will’s game ended with a score of 6-1 for Will’s 5^th win today. Liam was throwing a fit in the hallway up and down. My neighbors were probably getting annoyed of all his yelling by now. Will was laughing his head off watching him.

Eric quickly grabbed their controllers and handed player one to me. He knew exactly what I wanted to do after watching Will beat everyone in this room. No one else played what I turned on, but they were all learning.

“What will we be starting with today, Master Jack,” Eric whispered in my ear. It sent a shiver down my back and a fit of giggles from the way he said it.

“Well, Sir Eric, I was thinking today we would warm up with “High School Days” and go harder and harder from there,” I answered back. I could feel him smiling in the back of my head.

Brett and Vincent finally stopped arguing about the important event planned tonight. I didn’t get to hear what they stopped at, but their gaze was towards the TV now. Liam and Will were still out in the hallway laughing or yelling.

Before I could start playing the song, a crash came from outside the room. Immediately I jumped up with Eric still attached to me. Vincent and Brett followed the noise to the other side of the hallway. Eric and I followed behind them.

Through a door that divided the hallway between the two sides of this house was Liam being held back by Brett and Vincent punching Will or the wall behind him. The only one making noise was Liam breathing heavily with anger. I swear, there was fire coming from his head.

The hallway grew quiet again when Liam finally calmed down. The walls where we were being old and could probably fall apart completely if hit with enough force. Will came over our way and hid behind Eric.

Brett and Vincent let go of Liam finally and moved away. “It’s okay, Will,” Liam said. “I was just getting out of control. No hard feelings, right,” he asked. He looked our way. Will nodded his head in agreement and ran over to Liam.

“You still suck at soccer though,” Will mocked. Then he ran down the stairs that led to my neighbors.

“You little,” Liam yelled before running after him. Brett and Vincent followed to make sure he didn’t hurt Will. Eric followed them to watch whatever was going to happen.

“UGH,” I yelled. We weren’t supposed to be here really. The floor we were on had no heat installed and one of the room was covered in lead paint. Also, my dad didn’t rent an apartment on this side of the house.

I followed Eric just like he was doing with the others. I glanced out the window to see Will on the ground pinned down by Liam laughing away. Then the door to the apartment I was in front of opened. A girl my age was in the doorway.

“You shouldn’t be so loud if you’re going to use these stairs. People actually lived here in case you forgot,” she scolded me. I rubbed the back of my neck, embarrassed that she was the one telling me this.

“I know. My friends just suddenly ran over this way. I tell them not to but, who listens to rules like that,” I laughed hesitantly. She didn’t seem amused by my joke. I looked back outside and saw everyone joking around with each other. I smiled a little until she got my attention again.

“Make sure the next time you tell them, it gets through their heads,” she ordered before almost slamming the door. I caught it and opened it back up.

“We’re actually going out to get some ice cream. Do you care to join us,” I asked before she thought about forcefully shutting the door on me. My effort seemed futile since she pushed me and then slammed the door anyways

Eric came up the stairs with an extra friend I forgot about. “Are you coming or should we leave without you,” Eric asks. I shake my head and follow the two down the stairs. Everyone separates into Eric’s car and Brett’s car. I went with Eric and our new friend this time.

“How have things been, Cory? Lana and Lucas still alive down there,” I ask. Eric pulls out of the driveway and towards Terence Street. The ice cream shop wasn’t far from the apartment thankfully for us. It was getting late and everything was closing in half an hour.

“Lucas is still without an eye,” he answered. That shut me up for the rest of the car ride. He knew I didn’t like talking about how Lucas had an empty eye socket. It creeped me out just remembering what I saw that day they came home.

Eric pulled in quickly into a parking space and ran out to the door. This place had a policy where if the door is open a little before or as they are closing, they will serve whoever is in the party coming in. I didn’t see Brett’s car in the parking lot as Cory and I walked over.

Eric stood against the door, holding it open, for Cory and I. he wrapped an arm around my next as I walked passed him. He almost knocked me over with how strong he is. “What can I get for you today,” the woman at the counter asked us loudly.

“We’re still thinking. Also, the rest of our group should be here soon,” Eric replied. She nodded and walked over to the where all the cups and cones were.

“I take it you’ll all be getting the same size,” she asked a little lower this time. I nodded this time.

“Large cup with a cone,” I said. Brett hated when one of us got a cone and entered his car still eating whatever flavor we got. This usually caused there to be less yelling in our future.

On the counter the woman stood behind was a stack of all the large cups they had left. Then she grabbed a couple cones at a time and placed them in the cups. The four of us waited a couple minutes for the others to finally arrive.

Cory was getting impatient by now and so was the woman. Eric looked at his phone a lot while we waited. Apparently, Liam was giving horrible directions for a “faster” way of getting here.

“I’ll take Rocky Road with a chocolate chip cookie and that cone,” Eric finally said breaking the silence. The woman went right to work and scooped up giant portions of rocky road. She got annoyed when he persisted on the chocolate chip cookie part.

Cory went over to the counter and said the thing he wanted. I’ve never heard of Hokey Pokey for an ice cream flavor before I can say honestly. He seemed to really enjoy it though when she scooped it up and handed him the cup.

I asked for my usual Chocolate ice cream with hot fudge covering the top. It slid down to the rim of the cup slowly as she poured more of it on. I took the cup from her and began eating it with my mouth. Eric and Cory looked at me like I was a psycho when I lifted my head away.

“You okay there,” Eric asked. We both started laughing loudly as he showed me my face through his phone camera. Cory was trying to maintain his composure in front of the woman but was doing too good. He couldn’t look at me face to face like this.

I watched as William, Vincent, and Brett all ran inside as fast as they could. Behind them was an angry Liam ready to rip open a new hole in anyone who got in his way.

“No running inside,” the woman yelled at them. The three of them crashed into the counter as if it was base. Liam slammed open the door and took one step forward. His face changed from angry to blank as he entered.

He scanned over the entire shop slowly. Then he noticed my face. To make our group not sound like a bunch of children, they all laughed excessively at the child I was being. But since we’re all basically a bunch of children, they were either on the floor or taking pictures while laughing loud enough for the house across the street to hear us.

The woman working stood there with her arms crossed really annoyed for the 10 minutes they did this. Cory joined us this time taking pictures for his siblings to see how childish I was.

Once everyone stopped, Brett’s group ordered whatever ice cream they wanted. Brett got Strawberry like he argued with Vincent about earlier. Liam got Tutti Frutti, whatever the hell that was. Vincent got Chocolate like me but with sprinkles all over. Will tried to order Rum and Raisin until the lady stopped him mid order. They didn’t have it nor was she going to sell it to him. With that noted, he just got Cookie Dough.

The seven of us walked out of the shop after paying for our order and giving a tip for putting up with our behavior. I finished before everyone else like I did. For some reason, I like to eat ice cream as fast as I can whenever I get some. Eric laugh at me when I got a horrible brain freeze.

Brett’s car had his passenger and back door open with their group sitting inside. Eric’s had the driver and back door open with Cory leaning against his seat. Eric had me in his lap while he maneuvered his spoon around me.

“Do you go to the same school as us,” Vincent asked Cory. My friends never met him or any of my neighbors before. The only time one of them met them was this summer when Eric and I had a fire in the driveway.

“Yeah, I do. We’ve never had any classes before I guess,” Cory answered. He didn’t sound happy to be here now that one of us wasn’t making a fool of ourselves. I felt kind of bad that he looked like that.

Everyone finished their ice cream and got into the vehicle they came here in. Cory got dragged in with Liam and William which was the only difference. Eric and I got to be alone this time.

It was awkward for the first couple streets he turned onto. He broke the silence again with the one question swirling through my mind. “So what are we exactly?” I wish I could answer that for him, but I had no idea what was going on between us as well.

“Ever since that night after the go karting event, you haven’t said anything about it,” he said. It sounded angry until I realized he was sad. I know what was going to come next if I didn’t say anything and that wouldn’t be fun for either of us.

I grew the courage to speak just in time before he started speaking again. “I don’t know what we are. It probably won’t happen again if that is what you are trying to hint at.”

Eric then pulled the car over. He turned the car off and we sat there silently. I waited for him to say something back about how it wasn’t going to happen again and he would stop pressing me about it. That didn’t happen.

I heard the click of his seatbelt and the zip of it retreating up. “Why does it only have to be that one time,” he asked me. Before I answered he jumped on top of me. The thrill of what he wanted almost got to me again. I couldn’t do that though. His girlfriend will hate my guts when she finds out for the first time. If there’s a second time, I’m screwed.

“Because unless you want to come out and lose our friends, along with Lola, we can’t do those things. And it might lead to me breaking my deal with dad if it gets too out of hand,” I said. He understood what I meant and went back into his seat. The rest of our ride was quiet until we got home. Liam basically ripped me through the seatbelt and into his arms once we stopped.

“Why didn’t you tell us about Cory, Jack,” he asked. His voice was full of laughter and anger at the same time making me giggle. “Are we just too embarrassing for you to be seen with?”

I was being cradled by the third best lacrosse player at school. Why was he doing this to me? “Because you never asked to meet any of my neighbors. If you really wanted to, you could have asked me a long time ago,” I said trying to see if he would let me go if I did.

Instead I was carried all the way into the kitchen and dropped on the table. Then Liam climbed onto the table and crawled towards my face. The entire time I was giggling. He had the biggest smile I’ve seen on him.

“Next time you meet new people who have even a sliver of a chance at meeting us later, you invite them with us the next time you can,” he ordered.

Dad came in from the living room. He had his shirt unbuttoned and pants halfway rolled up his leg. How did he manage that?

“Is the world working right or is Liam on my table,” dad asked out loud. Liam immediately got off and left the apartment. I could see my dad was bothered by something that wasn’t Liam.

“What’s wrong,” I asked. Dad sat in one of the three chairs we had in the kitchen. I got off the table and sat on the opposite side. He was holding his hair in his hands ready to rip whatever strands he had. “Is it work? Because I can get a job,”

“No, it’s not work. And no, you don’t need to get a job. I have to keep my end of the deal as well,” he interrupted. “It’s this woman I was with last week. She wants to go out again tonight.”

“You can’t just satisfy her again,” I ask. He gave me one of his ‘you’re joking, right’ looks. I couldn’t figure out why going on another date was a bad thing.

“Tomorrow’s your first day of school for the year. I can’t have you up all night because I want to have fun,” he answered. It was as if he was trying to control the need he has for women. I’ve fallen asleep in the middle of one of his ‘acts’ before so it wasn’t an issue.

“It’s fine, dad. I want you to be happy every day. Plus, your noises in the bedroom sometimes put me to sleep when it gets late.” I reached over and grabbed his hands away from his head. I tried channeling all the happiness I had into him, but I’m not a witch sadly. Life would be cooler if I was though.

Back upstairs, Liam was getting angry at the robot game song opening. None of us have been able to complete this no matter how many times we retry.

“Where’s Cory,” I asked them.

“He decided to go home once we got here. We weren’t too much for him, were we,” Brett asked. I shrugged my shoulders and sat in my chair next to Eric. Liam was throwing a fit in the other chair next to me.

Will snatched the controller from Liam before he had a chance to break it… again. He selected his song from the list of songs I bought. This game was split into two packs and I only got one of them at the moment.

We all have a song that we play the most when we get together. For Will, it was a song about flying to the moon or something. I can’t read Japanese. Liam’s song was a song called “Colorful and Sexy” which is the only reason why he picked it since he has trouble playing it. Brett took an easy song called “39” or “Thank You.” Vincent chose a hard one that he played on the harder difficulty. His song was called “On the Rocks.” Eric picked a song that reminds me of things that show the world destroyed. That song was called “Common World Domination.” I had to wait for my song since it was in the second pack. For now, I had a song called “Master of Puppets.”

When it was my turn, dad came in with a bottle of some sort of alcoholic beverage and plastic cups in his hands. Vincent made a joke about earlier when Will tried to order Rum and Raisin ice cream. Liam got him good though with a hard punch to the arm.

“Don’t tell me you got drunk in the last half hour,” I pleaded. Dad tended to drink without telling me and end up a mess soon after I talk to him. Nothing I knew could explain what caused him to act like this.

“Of course you would think that,” he started. “I’m actually here to congratulate you on another whole year like every other year. He started pouring most of a cup and handing them to each of us.

Liam and Will both took theirs’ a little too fast I thought. They were struggling not to just down the content in the cup as fast as they could and ask for me.

“You came up here to drink with us because of that,” I asked. We would drink together every now and then. Dad just didn’t let me drink as much as him so nothing bad happened. Every decision like that is made for the deal to be kept.

I took the last cup from dad and stared into the liquid. It swirled around as I swung the cup in circles slowly. Some of the alcohol almost spilled out as I spun.

“To Jack! To another year of staying clean,” dad yelled. We all raised our cups over our heads as if to cheers. The guys all yelled “to Jack” as they raised their cups. Dad chuckled as my cheeks grew red.

I quickly finished my drink and placed the empty cup on the ground next to me. Dad sat on a pile of blankets I kept up here for all the beds that can fit in here.

“So this is the game you had all the trouble getting because it isn’t sold here,” Dad said out loud. I could tell he was saying it to himself trying not to be heard.

I wasn’t a fast enough button presser to hit most of the notes without my second thumb. Everyone watched me with my 110% concentration face. This was one of those songs I couldn’t do with only part of my attention to the game. None of us had a clue about what this song was talking about. Altogether we just thought it was about people being puppets for specific people.

Dad got up and left after I finished the song. It was getting late and we all had to get up early in the morning. Eric grabbed my hand and tangled his fingers around mine. I wanted to take them away, but neither of the other guys noticed us.

Will stood up and stretched his arms into the slanted ceiling. “OW!” he exclaimed in pain. “I think I’m ready to sleep. Just thinking about tomorrow makes me tired.” After he let out a loud yawn towards us.

“Yeah. But football starts tomorrow as well,” Brett said standing up. Him and Vincent both shoulder bumped hard thinking about it. Eric joined them since he also did football.

“And this year I’m going to make Varsity soccer both seasons!” Will jumped up with excitement of actually having a chance at making Varsity. Liam caught him at one point and twirled him into a bridal carry.

I dragged my big mattress across the room till it was in the middle and threw it down. Eric stopped messing around with the brothers and helped me fix up our bed. Vincent and Brett grabbed the other mattresses from the room next door and covered the floor with them. Liam and Will made those beds with the blankets I didn’t use from the pile.

“Actually try to get some sleep tonight guys. Most of us have tryouts tomorrow,” I ordered. They all grunted and turned off the light. Eric snuggled up behind me and wrapped himself around me.