degenerate - bja

12

october 7, 1989
cooper's pov

HOMECOMING NIGHT. i was spending the first homecoming a guy ever asked me to at my house eating hostess cupcakes and listening to the smiths. no phone, no date, no homecoming. but i mean, i had no dress prepared anyway. and from what i've heard, you never really spend dances with your date, just huddled in a group with your friends.

i looked at the clock; 7:32

everyone was probably drinking that shitty punch and dancing to come on eileen by now. i think maybe i drifted off because the last time i checked the time it was about 5 o'clock.

once again, i must have dozed off because my record was skipping and there was a soft rapping at my window. first and foremost i took off the record and put it away. across the room, at my window again, there was a series if continuous like, taps, thumps even. a harder one came, and usually i would've ignored it. cause when i was younger i would stay up late and watch those ghost hunting and urban legend shows, so whenever there were any bumps in the night, i just hid under the covers. something told me though, that this wasn't some ghost.

as i got closer to the window, i could see that it was little pebbles being thrown. when i opened the window, a rock was mid-air, and wizzed past the side of my head and landed in my room. "god- jesus." i muttered, looking down below.

a mop of black hair twirled around to look at me, and the owner being no other than billie. he waved up at me with the purest smile, despite obviously being annoying.

"hey, what- what are you doing here?" i asked, trying to sound the least irritated. i wondered how he had known my address for a second, but remembered it came up once in math.

"just uh, y'know, stopping by."

"can i ask why you were throwing rocks when my room is on the first floor?"

he huffed. "to make it more interesting, i guess. can i come in? its cold out here." 

i signaled for him to wait and put my ear up against my door. it was silent so i could make a good guess that my mom had fallen asleep. he was leaning against the window sill, and i beckoned for him to come inside. "please be quiet." i whispered. "i'm already up to my neck in shit."

he attempted to slip through my window, one leg in, the other hanging out into the front yard. "jeez, cooper. i never- would've expected that- coming home high would've- caused you so much trouble." he managed between grunts.

"not everyone has parents that literally don't care about them." he was fully in my room now, and was looking around.

"hey my parents care! well, at least my mom does." he had found my vinyl collection. "do you mind?" he asked, pointing towards the stack of records as if to say "can i look through them?"

i nodded. "so why aren't you at homecoming? i thought you were going."

"i went, yeah. but if we're being like, real, i guess, i fucking hate dances. like prom, homecoming, winter ball" he mocked in fussy accent. "it's just fucking corny, y'know? i faked away from mike and tre cause i said i drank earlier and the punch was giving me a headache."

"hm. thats smart. and i agree. if we're being really honest, i never wanted to go to homecoming in the first place." i admitted.

he laughed a little. "wow, we haven't even drank yet and you're already admitting things to me." he patted his back pockets, it looked like he was searching for something. "shit." he looked out of my window and down onto the grass. he reached down in attempts to grab something, and almost fell out.