The school bell rang at 4:00 but we usually stayed around until about 4:30.
We liked to spend time smoking, telling dumb jokes, and finding out where we were all going to be on the weekends.
Bradley and I were in the first floor men's room over by the large auditorium. He liked to change in this bathroom because it was out of the way and no one used it much.
It was Friday afternoon and I had agreed to drive Chelsea down to Kennedale. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it. I'd never even talked to her before. The car ride was likely to be pretty weird.
Source; Pixabay.com
"It's going to be cool man. You're going to love Chelsea."
Bradley was in the process of taking off his giant black concert shirt which read The Cure. Head on the Door. He was always going to concerts.
He pulled out a large brown can of Right Guard and began to spray it all over his body. The smell was acrid and unpleasant.
"Well, we'll give it a shot." I leaned against the back stall door trying in vain to light my last Newport.
I figured I'd have a good time. At the very least I'd get $30 out of it.
"Nah man, you're gonna love her. Just remember she's mine." he gave me a solemn glare.
"Damn dude. You are something else." I scoffed.
"I'm just saying, we're boys and all but she's pretty hot...... you've got to admit it."
I gave one last long hard drag before tossing the used cylinder in the fetid toilet water.
"C'mon, you're mom's probably here."
I put my hand on Bradley's shoulder and we walked towards the front of the school.
I waved to Bradley's mom and then went to join Elias and Mark. They were sitting on the edge of Mark's camaro drinking 40s in brown paper bags.
"Man you guys are nuts. You're in the school parking lot man."
"Yep. Screw 'em all. What's up for the weekend?"
I wouldn't be around, but I'd see them both on Monday.
Hopping in my gold Honda Civic hatchback, I headed home for a shower and to get bite to eat before heading out to pickup Bradley's girlfriend.
Source: Pixabay.com
I grabbed some cheap hair gel, L.A. Looks I think it was, and slicked my long hair all the way back. I didn't normally wear gel but I felt the need to be a little bit more spiffy than usual. I wore a black short sleeve shirt with a black long-sleeve button-down shirt over it, black jeans, high black boots, and several silver chains. I loved the glint of silver against the darkness of the black.
"Looking like a badass once again." I chuckled and headed out the door. I needed to hit the gas station.
Chelsea lived on Cucumber Lane. I wasn't exactly sure which house was hers, I just knew it was the orange brick one. Well, there were a lot of orange brick ones, so I slowly cruised down the street not knowing what to do. There was no such thing as a cell phone back then.
I went up and down her street maybe four times before I began to rethink my plan. It was probably about 6:30 and it was just getting dark. Suddenly she appeared at the side of my car.
"There you are!"
"Here I am!" I smiled sheepishly.
Her long brown hair was wrapped finely behind her ears like a beautiful mouse. She smelled like strawberries.
We took turns messing with the radio while we headed for the highway, but she made it clear that she needed to be in charge of it. I didn't care. Our tastes in music were similar anyway.
Chelsea talked a lot but didn't have much to say. She talked a lot about her brother. He played the clarinet. Was she in band too? Most of the conversation was about her brother and her father. She put her feet on the dashboard, which I thought was a bit weird and bit rude too. She continuously smoked one cigarette after the other, lighting the second cigarette from the ash of the first. That's not to say that she was a terrible person or anything like that. She was OK. I definitely felt a little bit disappointed in the way that she acted though, because the way she looked and the way she acted were on completely different planes of existence.
I suddenly realized I didn't know how to get there. Chelsea did though, which filled me with ease. The ride was uneventful. It was all loud music, cigarettes, and vapid conversations. Pretty soon we pulled down a dirt road and into the front of a white wooden house. I was surprised what a peaceful place Kennedale turned out to be. All the houses seemed like little tiny ranches, lined up one after the other. Pretty cool.
Before we got out of the car, Chelsea put on a fresh coat of bright red lipstick, smacked her lips, and gave me a big smile. Bradley came right out gave me the $30. It was nice to not have to ask for it.
Apparently his mom was never home despite the fact that she insisted on having him on the weekends. She had dropped him off and then went over to her boyfriend's house, so I didn't get to say hello to her. Bradley had the run of the place though and could do whatever he wanted. There were probably about 8 people already sitting on various different couches and chairs drinking beers and rum in the main room when we walked in. Girls and guys of all different creeds. Everyone was probably about 16 or 17 years old, with the oldest being around 20. There were no real adults here.
Source: Pixabay.com
One of Bradley's friends was having some kind of a football party at a house that was down the road. At the time I didn't follow football very closely, but a party is a party so I was on board. Everyone hopped in a multitude of different trucks, low riders, and jeeps. I followed them closely in my Honda Civic wishing I had decided to take a passenger. I hoped I didn't get lost.
I was surprised that the little white house had such a disproportionately gigantic backyard. You could have fit probably eight more houses back there. Walking in the front door, you could tell right away that everyone was drunk already. Loud, drunk, and obnoxious. There was a huge assortment of drinks in the kitchen that were already set up for anyone that wanted one. You could literally walk over to the table and grab a shot or a glass of whiskey. You could rest assured that nobody had drunk out of it because there was a rule in place. If you grabbed a drink you had to finish it. The owner of the house would put full drinks out but they had to be drank right away in one session. It was cool, I'd never seen anything like it.
In addition to these already set up drinks a bunch of people brought beer with them. I didn't bring any alcohol with me because I didn't think I was going to need any, and because I wasn't even 17 yet.
Music blared all through the house while football games played on multiple large TV screens. After a while we headed to the backyard. It was a pretty sloppy affair, for the most part. People were just peeing wherever, and then other people were also just laying down wherever, so plenty of people got other people's pee all over themselves.
Overall though, it was great. I was having more fun than a 17 year old probably should have and I had $30 in my pocket to boot.
The best part of the whole evening, though, was the redhead girl that Bradley kept trying to hook me up with. At 16 I'd kissed a couple of girls, but I hadn't gotten very far with anyone yet. This girl was completely out of my league. She talked with confidence to everyone at the party and was clearly extremely popular. She was about as good looking a girl any I'd ever seen. Her smile was the kind that poetry books were written about.
Source: pixabya.com
I wish I could tell you about all the cool things that I did and said, but the truth is she was probably only interested in me because she was a country girl and I was dressed very unusually, for her part of the world. The man in black with the the high black leather boots and the silver chains all over his body. The long hair slicked back made me look like a cross between a rocker and a gangster.
Nevertheless, I did my best to maintain a conversation with her. We sat in the back of some guy's truck together and drank beer after beer. I had never peed so much in my life. I put my arm around her and she whispered and laughed all night long. It was like something from a dream I had once. I was really having a blast.
Finally, around 2 in the morning, she told me that she needed to go home. I was kind of drunk and I wasn't really feeling like driving. Nevertheless, I felt like I had to stand up and do something so I offered to take her.
Her house was quite a ways off. I think it took us about 20 minutes to get there. On the way there I got pulled over by a rather rough looking police officer. I was not in a fighting mood. We were both pretty scared, as he approached with his little white pad. Apparently one of my tail lights was out. I don't know how he didn't smell the beer and alcohol on my breath but maybe he just didn't care. Maybe that's how things are out there, I don't know. Nevertheless, I felt fortunate to continue on my way.
I pulled up to her small sunken house, quickly dropped her off, and then drove away. Suddenly I wishing that I had got out of the car to at least try to give her a kiss. Oh well. I'd probably see her again. After about 10 minutes of driving around I realized that I had no idea where I was, so I made my way haphazardly back to her house. She was still standing in the front yard.
I slowly rolled down my window to ask her how to get back to the party, but she misinterpreted my act. Why was she still standing there, anyway? This red haired beauty then walked over my window, smiled real big, then leaned in to give me a kiss. It was great. It must have looked like I drove off, and then realized I needed to come back to give her a kiss. She didn't know I was lost. I just kissed her for awhile, and then she smiled and went inside her house. I drove off again not knowing where to go.
I never was able to find the party again.
I did, however, find the highway which I was able to take back to Bradley's house. Pulling up outside I realized his mom's car was actually there. I didn't want to walk inside at this late hour. I got out of my car and laid my weary head down on the roof. The night sky was very pretty and full of stars. Eventually I fell asleep and was awoken by the sounds of Bradley and Chelsea talking loudly.
"Hey man, thanks for coming. Chelsea says she's got to go now so I hopefully you can go ahead and take her home."
"What the heck man...... I thought we were staying all weekend?"
"Yeah me too, well.......we can do this again soon anyway."
I got out of the car and took a whiz right there in the Bradley's front yard in the broad daylight. That's the way things seemed to go around here. No one batted an eye.
Driving Chelsea home, I couldn't help but think about the red haired girl. I hadn't even asked her name. Damn. I was so green when it came to this kind of stuff.. Chelsea blabbed on and on about her brother and her mother and a lot of other things that I wasn't interested in. She was OK, but I found her a bit boring. She was very pretty, I'll give her that.
I dropped at the end of her street. She had told her mom she had gone camping with some of the girls in her class.
My mom didn't care so much if I drove up to Kennedale on the weekends.
She might have cared if she knew how alcohol was involved though.
Our first journey to Kennedale was an adventurous one but it was only the first of many. I hope you look forward to the next adventure coming soon.
Part one is here: https://steemit.com/life/@jeezzle/the-kennedale-adventures-1-the-beginning
