That Year Read online

cars. Steve and I get out of the car and open the door into her house. The deafening music startles me as I enter. The smell of alcohol is everywhere. In the center of the living room people are dancing. Others are talking in groups throughout the house with red cups in their hands. I see Kayla drinking a can of beer in her kitchen. She spots me and heads toward me with another unopened can of beer in her hand. She hands the unopened can of beer to me. I never once drank beer in my life. But I take it from her hand like I know what I’m doing. I open, pour a gulp in my mouth, and freeze and finally gulp what I took down. I cough. She laughs. “First time drinking,” she asks. She is wearing white pair of short shorts and short sleeve pink shirt that shows her tan lower back and stomach up to her belly button. I look at her long tan legs, while I take another sip. “I was trying to hide that from you, too obvious,” I ask. She bites down on her lower lip and dances to the beat of the music pounding against my ear. She turns around and grinds her ass against me. I’m usually not one for dancing but something about the combination of a hot girl grinding her ass against me and beer make me. We dance for, oh I don’t know because I kept drinking and drinking.

  I open my eyes. I shield them from the sunlight shining brightly into the room. I notice that I’m lying down on pink colored sheets. I turn to my side. Kayla is completely naked on her stomach next to me. At first I was confused to how I got here as I thought I was in my home, in my bed. I slide out of the blanket and out of the bed slowly, so I don’t wake Kayla up. I’m finally out; I pick up and put on my clothes lying on the floor. “Pa-pa-pancakes,” Kayla says in her sleep. “Yeah, yeah pancakes,” I say and head out of her room to find the bathroom. Bodies are scattered everywhere, some just waking up confused to where they are, others are holding their heads in pain. I fumble my way through the sleeping bodies lying on the floor and make my way to the bathroom. I close the bathroom door behind me. I turn around and jump slightly as I didn’t notice someone sleeping next to the toilet bowl. I go up to him, and gently shake his body. There is an empty clear zip lock bag on the bathroom floor next to him. Written on it in black marker, reads X’er, JF. I shake him again in an attempt to wake him up, but he doesn’t respond. I turn his lifeless body around on his back. His eyes are open and expressionless. He is dead. Instantly, I reach for my cell phone in my pocket and dial 9-1-1.

  7

  “And you sure the bag had X’er and JF written on it,” Leo asks rubbing his hand through his hair. “Yes I’m sure that’s what was written.” Leo is going over his speech notes while we wait behind the auditorium stage while Bruce Sneel delivers his to the student body. I watch as Bruce delivers his speech. He is wearing a black buttoned down that isn’t buttoned all the way, exposing his hairy chest with a gold medallion around his neck. He is not like Leo with his instant likeability, there is something about him that doesn’t seem right. Leo did tell me he is in the pocket of Joey Fontane and his gang. The vast, dimly lit auditorium fills with forced applause as Bruce concludes his speech. Bruce nudges me as he passes. I watch him exit through the backstage exit doors not even bothering to stay around for Leo’s speech. Leo crosses the stage, steps up to the podium, head high, showing no fear.

  “Today, my fellow classmates is a great day. A new year is upon us, and with a new year comes a new beginning. This school like the world outside these walls does not belong to the corrupt but to the righteous. This school belongs to each and every one of us, as we bond with others making lifelong friends, experiencing, finding out whom we truly are, so when we leave this school behind and enter the world out there we are prepared. We get up every morning, we learn, we grow. That’s the underlying purpose for why we are all here in this school together. But my fellow students, there is dark cloud hanging above us all. Out of fear we have given the keys to this school to the corrupt and the evil that walk through our hallways. I stand here today telling you there is nothing to fear as we confront this darkness together. Together we will bring a stop to the corrupt. Together and only together we accomplish this. Together.”

  Applause that is louder than the forced applause after Bruce’s speech ring throughout the vast auditorium. Others stand up, clap and whistle. I feel uplifted and applaud along with them. Leo heads toward me. “Follow me,” he tells me. I follow him around paths that despite two months at the school I do not recognize. This doesn’t surprise me. The school is massive and a world of its own. Also my classes are all in one general area of the school.

  After so many left turns, right turns, flights of stairs I lose all sense of direction. The hallways become more isolated, another part of the school long forgotten. Students are scattered in a torn apart hallway we turn in. Some are chewing on some substance; others are shooting a powdery substance up their nose. “Who are these people,” I ask Leo. “Some of these people are lab rats for drugs that Joey Fontane and his gang distribute through this school, some of these test subjects are transfer and foreign students that saw no other path, but to help the very one that put them in the position they were in to begin with. Others are junkies that will do anything for a quick high.” “What exactly are they testing?” “Powerful addictive drugs that will make anyone a buyer for a long, long time,” Leo answers. I nearly trip over pieces of missing tile. These people look so helpless, trapped inside their own bodies, crying out for help. I notice a fellow student with a colorful mohawk through the center of his head, with blood shot eyes protecting whatever he is holding in his hand.

  “This is depressing,” I comment. “It’s why we need to change things around here. Yeah I could just forget that this evil and corruptness exist, but I can’t. I can’t live in my fake little world and pretend everything around me is okay when it’s not,” says Leo. “I know,” I say as we head back to the part of the school that hasn’t been forgotten.

  8

  I walk along the path full of colorful fallen leaves on a brisk fall afternoon day. I enter the shaking bar. It’s crowded, so I sit at the first available booth I spot. A waitress comes to take my order. “A bacon cheese burger and chocolate shake,” I say. Scanning the crowd I see Victoria on the opposite side of the room sitting with another man. I stare watching her movements, her beauty. I notice she is not drinking her usual chocolate shake. It looks like one of the more exotic flavor shakes. I miss her so much. Maybe I should say hi to her. What’s the harm in saying hi to someone I have known for a while. I notice her laugh at something the guy sitting with her says and decide against it. My food comes. I continue watching her while I eat.

  Eventually, I see her leave without the guy. I get up from my booth and decide to go meet the guy she was sitting with. “Mind if I sit,” I ask quietly. “Nah bro go ahead, what’s up,” he says while I sit down in the seat across from him in the booth. “That girl I saw you with, she’s pretty cute,” I say. “Not the best piece of ass, but you take what you can. She’s a freshman too,” he says. “What does that mean,” I ask curiously. He laughs, gets up from his seat. “You know,” he says getting money out of his wallet. No I don’t but I nod my head to go along with it. “Nice meeting you man,” he say’s while he heads for the exit leaving me alone in the booth.

  I walk back home in the dark, cool, fall night. It feels peaceful outside. The calm before winter I think. Though I moved on, I have not truly moved on from Victoria. I only move on because it’s impossible to just stay still. The calendar flips to a new month reminding me that the world around me moves on. But me myself I have not. Victoria is a part of me that I cannot detach from. When I think of detaching myself and simply try forgetting about her, a deep sadness overwhelms me and I cannot. So moved on from Victoria, I have not. I feel like I never will.

  It’s the beginning of the week; November is on the horizon and the winner of the Student Body President will be announced. Leo represents a positive change for the school while Bruce represents the very corrupt we hope to defeat. Mrs. Snow walks into the classroom for the start of class.

 
Principal Burns storms into the classroom, startling me in the process. He surveys the classroom. He walks toward an unsuspecting kid, and demand he hands over his cell phone. “Why,” the kid asks. Principal Burns paces up and down the classroom, rubbing his chin. “Cell phones are NOT to be used during classes,” he shouts. “I wasn’t using my cell phone,” the kid says angrily. Principal Burns places his hand out in another attempt to get the kid to hand over his cell phone. The kid sighs and eventually gives up his cell phone. Principal Burns exits in faster than normal speed, slamming the classroom door behind him.

  Mrs. Snow asks I stay as the rest of the class gathers their belongings for next period. Kayla smiles at me as she leaves the classroom, fixing her hair with her free hand not occupied with books.

  “He doesn’t appreciate me,” Mrs. Snow starts before I could sit in the chair I place near her desk. I sit there shaking my head in disapproval. “You don’t have to be afraid to get out of this relationship if you’re unhappy.” She bites down on her lower lip and slides her hand slowly up my leg. “Tell me