Falling - On the Banks of Lake Saint Clare (Falling - Book One) (4 page)

Abbie
grabbed my hand, “Oh!
My mom is buying me a van for my birthday. How cool is that?”

Erica and I looked at each other, “Uh, what kind of van are we talking about? Cargo? Conversion? Soccer Mom?” I asked, worried that it would be like Erica’s Uncle Stan’s van with the rumored waterbed in the back. Erica’s mom always said, “
D
on’t go near it and if you do
,
hold your breath.” I was fifteen before I finally realized what she was talking about.

“It’s the dude next door. He is selling his.”

Erica kicked me under the table, “The one with the unicorn murals?”

“Aren’t those so realistic looking?”
Abbie
asked. “They look like real unicorns!”

“Unicorns aren’t real,” I smiled, watching the blue Mustang guy drive by for the tenth time. Another thing
we did every night we sat there
was count how many times he passed us.

“I think they are just extinct,” she said
.
“Is that ten?”

I nodded, having no desire to correct her. Apparently no one but me was dumbfounded by the unicorn conversation.

Abbie
was the worst driver ever. She couldn’t grasp the fact that it wasn’t a video racecar game. When at an intersection, she only looked to the left, never to the right. The entire time she drove, she brushed her hair
, put on her make-up
,
or looked in the mirror. We lived in a neighborhood that had
four
blocks. It was the perfect place for all of us to practice driving. I never understood why her mom let her drive around the neighborhood alone until I rode with her. Maybe she knew it was safer for her to stay clear of the car, but she also wasn’t getting to know that the more her daughter drove the more she sucked at driving. In the 4 months of
Abbie
’s practicing driving, she ran over 2 bicycles, hit a mailbox, sideswiped her dad’s pickup, and drove into four yards. Every trip ended with, “Not to
o
bad. Don’t tell Mom.”
 
             
It got so bad that we decided we weren’t going to ride with her anymore. It was too crazy. But I had no idea how serious Erica was at the promise.

One day I got a text that Erica had broken her foot.

I immediately called her back,” Where are you? Is this a joke?”

“Nope,” she said. I could tell she was holding back the tears. “I’m waiting to get a cast on.”

“For real?”

“Yep.
We were in Abbie’s yard
.
I did a back handspring and landed on a rock
.”

“Son of a bitch! So now you are going to be a cripple?”

“For at least 6 weeks. Get this.
Abbie
is so pissed at me
.
”

“Why?” I asked confused.

“I was lying on the ground and
Abbie
runs into the house to get the car keys to drive me home. I told her I would walk. But I couldn’t get up, so I crawled home.”

I started laughing, “You live two blocks over!”

“I cut through yards. I told her there was no way in hell I was going to get in that car.”

“Insane! And she’s mad at that?”

“
Furious! I told her that she sucked at driving. It wasn’t like I told her she was ugly or said something about her that she couldn’t correct in life. You would think she knew she sucked because she has flu
nked her driving test 6 times.”

“
Seven,” I corrected. “She’ll get over being mad.”

“What’s Mustang dudes name?”
Kaitlyn
asked. “Does anyone care or has anyone ever asked? We have watched him for 3 years and not once have we put a name to the face.”

“I like the mystery,” Erica added.

“Oh God, we are boring!” I stretched. “No wonder we don’t have boyfriends. We would put them in a coma.”

“Jennifer texted me wondering if you are still spending the weekend,” Erica asked, looking up from her phone. Ever since I can remember, Erica has called her parents by their first names. They never corrected her and they never seemed to care. People thought it was odd, but Erica thought it was cool and made her look mature. I didn’t know what to think, because I never put a lot of thought into Erica’s bazaar antics and life style. She was a “free spirit” she called herself.

Guys really liked Erica. She was a huge flirt, and the guys really ate it up. She
either claimed to be or chose to be
part
Italian and
spoke her mind about everything, using her being an Italian as an excuse
. I sometimes wondered if she had enough Italian in her to warrant the excuse, but chose not to question it. She did have the darker skin and straight dark black hair. I assumed she was part
Native American
, but heaven forbid ask her if that was a
possibility and burst her bubble.
I had so much fun with her. The biggest thing that annoyed me about Erica was her always trying to hook me up on a date. She was far from a matchmaker, more like keep this guy’s friend occupied so I can be alone with his friend.
I also wondered why Erica made herself so available to guys since she was pretty enough to be selective. But Erica was Erica and we all learned to accept her as is.
Erica was still a virgin, had done everything but actually
“
go
all the
way”, but
was
starting to act a little desperate to finally change that status.

“Yeah, I’d like to stay over if its okay,” I said. “I think my parents already left town.”

“She said its fine. Just making sure to get “your” food,” she said with a hint of resentment. “She won’t allow me to be a picky eater, but goes freako when it comes to you.”
             
“She doesn’t have to go freako.
I’ll eat what’s in your house.”

“No, No, we have to make our guest happy,” she winked. “Oh!” she shrilled, “There’s M
att
!”

Ma
tt
was so annoying. He thought he was a surfer
dude
when we lived in
Missouri
. I bet he had never even seen the ocean. He even had that stoned sounding surfer voice.

“M
att
!” Erica yelled, motioning him and his clone over.

He sauntered over to our table and sat in the booth behind us.

Erica started putting on the charm.

“Eleven,” I pointed out the window, trying to ignore the intruders.

“Come on, Alex,” Erica jumped up, trying to pull me out of the booth. “They want to walk to the ball park to hang out. Let’s go.”

“I really don’t want to. You are on crutches. That’s not a short distance.”

She leaned over to me, “Side bar.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing she wanted to go off to the side to discuss it further.

I got up and walked to the other side of the room
:
Erica hobbling after me.

“I can’t go with both guys. Lee needs someone to hang out with.”

“I don’t want to hang out with Lee. No desire to speak to him at all.”

“Please!”
S
he whined. “Please! Ma
tt
won’t go unless Lee goes.”

“Take
Kaitlyn
. She is talking to him. That’s more than what I would do.”

“You can be such a snob,” Erica said.

“I am not a snob. I don’t want to go hang out with a guy that I don’t know while you disappear to make out with his friend. I have done that a million times for you. They are starting to think that if his friend is getting action from you, I should be giving it, too.”

“And I love you for that,” she smiled and headed back to the table, leaving me wondering if she even understood what I was saying.

“
Kaitlyn
, you are going with us,” she ordered.

“Fine,”
Kaitlyn
said, “But we only have an hour before my mom picks me up.”

I watched as they walked out, shaking my head when I saw M
att
take her crutches away and start playing with them. As I was getting ready to get up to go get them for her he handed them back and they went on their way. I looked to the right and saw Michael’s car drive by. My heart started racing. He pulled into the only open spot in the parking lot
. I watched as he
and Derek climbed out of the car.

Abbie
was rambling on and on about how they better be back in 45 minutes or she will get grounded. She cannot be more than 5 minutes late or she gets grounded. I hear it every time we go out. She starts worrying an hour before her curfew and ten minutes before, she is in panic mode. She has never been grounded and not sure she will ever be, but she acts like she would get the torture chamber if she does.
The dreaded dungeon she always calls it.
I knew her mom was already asleep and never knew when she came home.

I watched Michael walk up to the counter to order. I glanced to the other side of the restaurant and saw Hailey Barnes. Erica always called her
‘
Miss Popularity
’
, no need to explain why. Everyone claimed to hate Hailey, but she always seemed to have a
posse
worshipping her. At least that was on the outside looking in, but I was pretty good at people watching, and loved studying how people acted. The way I see it,
Hailey
and her cronies used each other to be a group. All the girls Hailey was with have talked to me about hating her, but they still cling on.
They’re
‘teacher’s kids’ and her dad
dy’s
the Principal. They did what they wanted in school and no one said or did anything about it. Hailey made out and grinded with guys when she was at fifth grade dances, which gave us all ultimate entertainment. We were scared to even dance with guys at that age.

I always ignored Hailey. She meant nothing to me and I never worried what she thought of me. The only time I had to deal with her was during c
heer and then that was minimal.

There were three sets of girls in cheer. Hailey’s group, we called the jock groupies. They were the cheerleaders that did “everything and anything” for the jocks. We knew that to be true of Hailey because she never made it a secret. When we were fifteen, we heard her talking about three guys in one night. We had no clue what she was talking about for the longest time.

The brainiacs made up the second group. They were the studiers and involved in everything that had to do with academics. I liked those girls. They were quiet and sweet, but not a whole lot of personality that I ever noticed.

Then there were the four of us, Erica,
Abbie
,
Kaitlyn
, and me. The jock groupies hated us. I think it was only Hailey, but the other girls never stood up for us when she tried to bully us, which was pretty much every cheer practice.

Hailey had two bad habits that drove me insane. There was the common use of the word “literally” a habit that she shared with 50 percent of the girls at our school. Everything was literally
going to die
, literally starving and so on. The other was after almost every sentence she added “and stuff.” I remember the first time I heard it was at practice. She always tried to boss everyone around. “Okay girls, get in line, and stuff. We have a game on Friday night and stuff.”

“What stuff?” Erica asked.

“What?” Hailey looked at her confused.

“What stuff are we doing?”

“Shut up. That’s what we are doing.”

I smiled, knowing this was going to get good.

“Ok,” she continued, glaring at Erica for interrupting, “About the fund raiser and stuff.”

I looked at Erica, begging her with my eyes to comment. I could tell she was puzzled.

“Daddy, the principal,” as if we hadn’t been told a million times, “said that we can have the dance on Friday night at the middle school where we can make literally a ton of cash and stuff.”

“What stuff?” Erica asked again. “And I think it is impossible to raise literally a ton of cash. Do you realize just how much a ton of cash would be? I guess a ton of pennies would be possible, but I tell you one thing,” she snapped her fingers, “I am not rolling a ton of pennies. Telling you right now, Hailey, that is literally not happening.”

“Erica, I don’t know what shit you are trying to pull but I am so fed up with you and your childish friends that I am on the verge of literally getting you kicked off the squad and stuff.”

“Good luck with that,” she laughed. “And why are you acting all leader and stuff? Alex is in charge of the squad, not you.”

There was an immediate silence. Pardon the cliché but you literally could hear a pin drop, and stuff.