Emo Boy

Chapter 2

We all got ready at Tasha's house. I decided to wear the blue top I bought that day and some jeans and sneakers. I left my hair straight and put on some light makeup with some sparkly eyeshadow.

"The boys are here!" says Tasha looking at her phone while sitting on her bed. She decided to wear a long sleeve black crop top with black jeans.

"Chels are you ready yet?" I yelled into the bathroom where Chelsea was curling her hair. She opens the bathroom door and I get a waft of the strong perfume she sprayed on herself. She is wearing a bright pink tube top with jeans and brown boots.

"Yea let's go," Chelsea said. We all took a selfie together in the mirror and posted it on our social media first.

We walked out Tasha's front door to hear Trevor's black, new, pickup truck blasting music in the driveway.

"Heyyy" the boys all yell to us while sticking their heads out of the car. Trevor was driving, Connor sat in the front seat and Nolan and Sean were sitting in the back. Nolan and Sean have both been in our friend group forever as well.

"Get in the back." says Connor to Nolan and Sean as he climbs out of the front seat and holds the back door open for us. When I see Connor I think back to the chat I had with the girls earlier in the day. He is so tall now. So much taller than he used to be. He is wearing blue jeans and his red letterman jacket, looking like the strong football player that he is. He smiles at us.

"O cmon Connor we are all friends here we can squeeze!" Sean complains as he proceeds to step out of the car, ruffling his long brown hair.

"No way the girls need space dude. Be nice to the ladies" Connor replies and winks at me.

Sean and Nolan grumpily get out of the car and climb in the back of the truck. The girls and I get into the car one by one. Connor closes the door behind me and I smile slightly at him, feeling slightly nervous.

"Hi Chels" Trevor says turning around and smiling at Chelsea.

"Hiiii" Chelsea says shyly. Tasha, Connor and I laugh. I open the back window so that the boys in the back of the truck can hear the music after I hear them yelling about it.

"Love you Sarah!" Sean jokingly says to me. He and Nolan laugh.

---

We all drive together to the bonfire which is only 5 minutes away from where our high school is. We listen to music and sing on the way. As we drive the air gets cooler as the windows are open and we can hear the bugs chirping through the end of summer air.

As we drive up to the bonfire, Trevor parks next to some other cars pulled up on the grass and everyone rushes to get out of the car. The bonfire is blazing and huge and we can hear the murmur of the party. From a far, we can see kids everywhere and some football players are already doing kegstands. The music is blasting. I am standing outside the car by myself when I feel a hand on my back.

"Hey Sarah can I get you a drink?" Connor asks. I can feel his huge warm hand on the skin showing on my back.

"Yea sure" I say warily. We walk as a group all to where the keg is, closer to the raging bonfire. The other football players come up and hug me and the boys.

"Hi Sarah!" Some girls from the cheer squad come up and say hi. Connor hands me, Chelsea, and Tasha beers while the girls all chat.

"Cheers!" We all yell and hold up our cups together, laughing and smiling as we then bring our cups to our mouths and chug the lukewarm beer down.

A bunch of us walk over closer to the bonfire where a lot of kids are hanging out around the fire. I sit down with Tasha and some girls on a huge log and we all chat together.

Connor sits next to me. I look at him and his grown up face. I can see the stublle starting to form.

"So Sarah, how have you been doing?" Connor says drinking his beer from his red solo cup and starting to lean into me.

"Good I guess," I say and smile back. "Been working on a ton of college applications."

"Of course you have. Always the smartest girl I know." He smiles and drifts off looking at the fire. The feeling of nervousness hits me again. I don't think I am ready for what I think is coming.

You know I've been meaning to talk to you about something..." Connor starts off still not looking at me in the eyes.

Ugh no. I am not ready. I don't know how I feel. Please stop! I think. I start chugging my beer back.

After my no response, he continues "It's just that, this year I feel like we have gotten closer..." He starts to look at me and I feel his eyes look at my cheeks, my hair, and then down to my hands holding my cup.

I decide it's better to interrupt now than have to deal with it later. "Look Connor I don't know what you're going to say yet but before you do..."

"Connor bro!" someone yells and grabs Connor and starts talking to him. He gets up from the bench smiling at his friends. He looks back at me for a second before I take my chance to leave. Connor has never been one to not tell his feelings or opinions about something. At least, with me he always has. I don't think I want to ruin that just yet.

As I make my escape I decide to go wander over the keg again to grab some more beer. I will probably have to avoid Connor the whole night I think.

As I walk over to the keg, I look over to see who is there. Surrounded by a bunch of guys is Alex.

Alex. We have all known Alex since the first grade when he moved to town. We even used to be friends once before he started getting all goth on us. Us meaning my current friend group. Every time I see Alex now I think back to how funny it was that we were all friends. We could not have been more different.

"Yo Alex! You got some stuff with you?" One of the guys surrounding Alex says as I walk closer. Well, now what I know what the conversation is about I am not surprised as usual. Alex has become known for being the resident drug dealer and is probably the only reason people still end up talking to him. I cringe as I watch the guys surrounding him huddle around.

As they chat in low voices, the guys disappear with their colored t-shirt and or letterman jackets. They open up the crowd to the one black doom standing which is Alex.

I look at him and admire his features as I pour the beer from the keg into my cup. The thing about Alex was that even with all the black he wore he couldn't hide his natural features. He was beautiful.

Sharp jaw, tall, and the bluest eyes you would ever see. They were more pronounced with the black eyeliner he liked to wear around them now. I remember in the 8th grade when he started putting it on. That was when the friend group fell apart.

Alex ruffled his black hair that almost fell into his eyes. I watched the tattoo he got when we were juniors on his right arm under his black t-shirt. He wore bracelets now too and was that a lip piercing?

God, he has changed so much I couldn't help but think.

That was when the beer started overflowing my cup and I stumbled back so it wouldn't keep spilling.

I heard a deep laugh.

"Don't even know how to use a keg, Sarah. I always knew you were a goody-two-shoes." I looked up to see Alex now looking at me with that stupid smirk he always made.

"Yea like it's better to be selling drugs," I said to him snarkily. Alex always brought out an anger in me that I never had with any of my friends. I'm not sure if it was just his attitude or something else.

"O come on Sarah! Don't be so mean." His smirked continued as he rolled out each word slowly and mockingly. Even when we were little he liked to mock me.

Alex and I didn't talk much. When we would see each other at parties or sometimes if we accidentally bumped into each other we would exchange words like this. But in general, Alex kept to his new group of friends who were all stoners or goths, and I kept to the friends that I trusted and have always had.

But instead of Alex walking off this time as he usually did, or someone coming to talk to me and pull me away, no one interrupted us this time.