New Romantics | Chris Chambers

001-wanna see a dead body?

I had woken up this morning to a quiet household. My brother Ace was most likely hanging out with his friends and our father was probably sleeping on the couch, alcohol in hand. As for our mother, well she didn't hang around much. So I quietly got dressed and ready to go, heading out the door at 9.

When walking into town I could feel the summer heat already starting. Crossing the street and heading into the corner store, I greeted the guy at the cash and bought a magazine for 15 cents. On my way out of the store I saw my best friend Gordie also buying a magazine.

"Hey Gordie!" I called.

"Oh, hi Nancy" he replied "You coming to the treehouse today?"

"Yeah, I'll come" I smiled as I walked with Gordie to our hangout spot. Now usually the treehouse is for boys only but they had made an exception for me for what reason, I'm not sure. Gordie climb the ladder and did the secret knock. As he finished the trap door swung open and we were let into the wooden structure.

The treehouse was built from parts of a junkyard and was filled with empty bottles, cards and various other items. There were makeshift seats along the wall surrounding a table.

"Hey guys" I said sitting down next to the "leader" of the little gang, Chris Chambers, kid brother to Eyeball Chambers. He came from a bad family and everyone knew he'd turn out bad. Even Chris.

"Hi Nancy" Chris replied while dealing out the cards to Gordie and Teddy, the crazy one of the group. I took out my magazine; the latest Seventeen and relaxed while listening to my friends.

"Hey, how do you know a frenchman's been in your backyard?" Chris asked while smoking his cigarette.

"Hey, I'm French, ok" Teddy replied.

"Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant" Chris said finishing the joke. Chris, Gordie and I started laughing while Teddy was just glaring at us.

"Didn't I just say I was French?"

They continued on playing cards ignoring Teddy's remark.

"I knock" Teddy called. At this point it was just Teddy and Chris playing since Gordie lost and was now reading his magazine. I had finished mine and was leaning over to see Chris's cards.

"You four-eyed pile of shit!" Chris replied accusingly.

"That pile of shit has a thousand eyes" Teddy told him. I looked up into Chris's eyes as we both started to laugh.

"What? What's so funny? Come on, I've got thirty, what have you got?" Teddy asked.

Chris placed his cards down. "Sixteen" We both started laughing again.

"Go ahead, keep laughing" Teddy replied. Just then there was a knock on the treehouse door.

"That's not the secret knock" Gordie called not looking up from his magazine.

"I forgot the secret knock, let me in!" the voice cried from below. We all looked at each other and knew who it was.

"Vern" we said simultaneously causing me to chuckle. Chris moved the makeshift table and lifted the door for Vern to enter.

"Oh man, you guys are not gonna believe this. This is so boss. Oh man, wait'll you hear this, wait'll you hear this. You won't believe it. It's unbelievable. Let me catch my breath. I ran all the way from my house" This statement made the rest of the group think of a song so we all started singing Sorry (I ran all the way home).

"Come on, guys listen to me. Guys, come on! Okay forget it. I'll tell you nothing." Vern cried.

"Alright, guys, alright. What is it man?" Chris asked.

"Okay, great, you won't believe this sincerely." Vern said continuing to ramble. We interrupted again with our singing, making Vern upset.

"Screw you guys!" he said in a huff.

"What is it?" I asked feeling kind of bad.

"Can you guys camp out tonight? I mean if you tell your folks, we're gonna tent on my backfield?" Vern excitedly asked.

Gordie and Teddy agreed without much thought meanwhile I was deciding if I could. My dad might not notice I'm gone. So I agreed taking my chances and turned to Chris since he was the only one left to agree.

"I think so. My dad's kind of on a mean streak. You know, he's been drinking a lot lately." Chris said sighing. I knew how he felt. Ever since my mom left he had started drinking, a lot. Lots of yelling and things smashing but thank god nothing further.

"You got to man, sincerely! You won't believe this! Can you, Gordie?" Vern urged.

"Yeah, probably." Gordie replied causing me to hold in a laugh at Gordie's sarcasm.

"So what are you pissin' and moaning about, Verno?" Teddy asked annoyed.

"I knock." Chris announced abruptly.

"What! You liar, you ain't got no pat-hand. You didn't deal yourself no pat-hand!" Teddy cried.

"Make your draw, shitheap." Chris said while turning to smile at me. We stared at each other until our gaze was broken by Vern's question.

"You guys wanna go see a dead body?"

Word count: 857
Authors note: Hope you liked this chapter and that it's alright. I'll try to update as much as possible. Also please be nice I'm sort of new to writing and stuff so any constructive criticism is ok! Just don't be mean lol.