Ghost Girl: All Grown Up

Chapter 11

Jayden

I cursed as I dug through my drawers trying to find a clean shirt. It was my laundry night and instead of doing it, there was a party to go to. Ugh! My extra clean shirt was at school, one I kept there for when football starts. The other ones were so dirty from the jobs we had this past weekend.

I don't own much clothes, and I would rather pack light in case I needed to leave this dump. The shirt I wore today was ok, but my jacket covered up the wrinkles. It was too fucking hot to wear a jacket, and I didn't want to wear one tonight.

I continued to look for something to wear, wishing I had more. I wished my home situation was normal, I wished that I could buy more for myself than staying on a tight budget. I have money but it's only for like emergency shit, and we have it hidden away in a fucking cheap safe near our spot.

Now I think about it, we really need to move that shit somewhere better. A tiny club house in the woods near an old park isn't a good place to store a few thousand dollars. We made it when we were younger, a small sanctuary that saved us from the evils of our households.

It wasn't always like that for me, I came from a very loving family, my mother was the joy, my little brother the love, my father the strength, and I was the peace. But all of that vanished in an instant when the accident happened. The back of my eyes began to burn with hurt and I quickly blinked to sooth them, refocusing on what I was doing.

After another minute, I gave up. I texted Rome to see if he had a spare since he was closer in build to me. I hated asking them for help most times, and it's been getting worse these past few months. I felt like a fucking charity case or some shit.

20 minutes later I was in Rome's room, scrolling through Facebook to see if there was more info on the new kids. I already changed my shirt and I was waiting on Rome to finish getting ready. Out of the three of us, he's the one that takes as long making himself pretty.

I mentally scoffed at him. Zeke texted me that he'll be outside in a minute. He was the only one that has a license and a car. Its not a nice car but decent enough to get us places and not looking too bummed.

"Yo, Z's gonna be out front, you ready?" I asked Rome as I got up and looked in the mirror one last time. My light brown eyes of my mother's reflected back at me, but before I could get dragged into the past Rome sprayed his cologne in my breathing space.

I waved away the smell and made sure I had my wallet and phone on me before walking out. We all live a couple houses down from each other in a rough neighborhood about 20 miles from the school. There's a trailer park across the train track that has it worse than us.

One day... one day we'll be able to leave this place and not look back. Rome closed and locked his bedroom door before following me out. Luckily his parents aren't here to yell at him for the bullshit they usually yell about.

I jumped in the back seat when I saw Z's '89 faded black Honda civic. The passenger front tire had it's donut, making it look a bit more ridiculous. Sometimes I wonder how donut tires can support the weight.

"Need to do laundry?" Z asked, noticing Rome's shirt on me. He's the only one who has v neck shirts, unlike me and Z. I grunted my answer as Rome closed the door behind him.

"We need to get a load done tomorrow, I'm running out too." Rome's own reply made me relax, atleast I won't be alone at the laundromat. Z nodded his head and pulled up his phone for the directions to the party.

I immediately got excited, and for some reason it was new. I didn't really care for parties, I usually grab a drink or two and watched quietly as everyone had fun. Sometimes find a quick hook-up, but other than that I listened to chatter, learned some secrets.

It wasn't as good as going to The Cage. That was where my fun was, the blood, sweat, and pain of fighting. It takes weeks to get on the board, and you had to be 18 years or older. But we had fake ID's for awhile now.

Z started to drive once we buckled up, his phone giving out the directions that led us towards Sunnyvale court. We continued to the end of the street that led up a slight hill, it was a further away from the other houses and cars littered the entire area.

This was our problem, always trying to find a parking space, at school, at games, sometimes at parties. It's starting to get on my nerves. We ended up parking and walking almost half a mile to a beautiful two story house.

"Holy shit" Rome breathe out when we got closer. The property had a picket fence around it and 2 big dudes at the gate where some students were in line. We watched as they got their phones scanned for invitation access.

We didnt say anything except agree with Rome and waited in line. You could feel the bass of the music, the cheers of everyone having a good time as lights beamed from behind the house, and even the smell of slight smoke of bbq had my stomach grumble. I couldn't wait to get in there.

"Bar codes please" the guy on the right asked as it was our turn.

"If any of you have medical conditions, please fill out this form in case of an accident. Your safety is our first concern. Which one of you is designated driver?" The guy on the left asked, and Z nodded to him. "You are not allowed to drink, other refreshments are served at the bar. You will show this band to the bartender, if you do decide to drink, ubers will be in service at 9:30 to the end of the party at no cost and your vehical will be safe to leave on the property."

The guy on the right spoke up again as they allowed us through, putting a band on Z's right wrist, "Please select a glow stick before going in and you enjoy the party."

"Thanks" Rome said grabbing a circle green glowstick and putting it around his neck. I looked at the table with 5 different colored glowsticks in plastic tubs, each had a sign labeled to them.

Green glowsticks were for 'single', blue was 'taken', yellow was 'one night stand', pink was 'lgbqt', and red was 'not intrested'. Damn, where was this idea when we started going to parties. Would have been a lot easier finding someone who just wanted a one night stand.

Z grabbed a green bracelet, and I followed suit with the green necklace, but this one had a smaller glowstick that was attached to a black string. I wanted to grab the yellow, then I thought about Starr and wondered what color she was wearing.

"Let's go, bet you I'll spot her first," Rome said excitedly and basically ran towards the front door.

Z shook his head with a smile and looked back at me, "let's go find our little Starr, I want to see how she reacts when we ruff her up a bit."

"Like we do the pests?" I asked, raising an brow. The pests were students who try to be tough and bully the weak, alot of jackasses who talked shit because they think they can.

With the hundreds of students here, we like to be one of the top groups you don't want to mess with. We didnt see ourselves as popular, but we do fear most.

"You think that's a good idea? They look like a tight bunch."

"I just want to know how tough she is, or if the brothers do all the work."

I didn't know what to say, but nodded anyway. He better not fuck up my chance with her.

"After you," I said and walked through the door. The sight before me made want to gape.

Now this was a party.