Samantha

Haunting Memories

“Hello? Earth to zack. Are you even listening to me? It’s a miracle you can’t hear me, considering those giant ears of  yours, must have originated from an alien planet.”

I was jolted out of my thoughts suddenly, as Justin’s voice began to register.

“I’m sorry, you mind repeating that one more time?”

Justin sighed heavily.

“Now you listen to me. If I knew that, was what it was going to take to get your attention, I would’ve started insulting you a lot sooner.”

I touched my left ear absently. “My ears are quite normal thank you.”

“You do realize that’s exactly the kind of thing people with abnormally huge ears always say right?”

I gave him an ostentatious stare, before hearing Erec clear his throat.

“How about we put all of the jokes aside, for a moment. Zack, your ears are perfectly normal sized. Justin’s just teasing, since he finally managed to get a reaction out of you.”

“Thank you, for pointing that out Erec, even though I suspected as much already,” I replied in a noncommittal tone, and leaned back into my chair.

“Anyway, let’s go back to our previous conversation. I was talking about going to the party tonight,” said Justin. “It’s going to be—”

“Let me just stop you right there. What Party?” I asked in confusion.

“You seriously don’t know a single thing about it, do you?” Erec started.

I shrugged. “Am I supposed to?”

“Hell yeah,” shouted Justin. His sudden outburst earned us a couple of glances from our fellow students, and I rolled my eyes. “It’s been the talk of the school all day. Josh higgins’s no-holds barred free for all.”

“Somehow that name doesn’t really ignite a lot of excitement within me,” I replied dryly.

“Don’t tell me you forgot,” Justin exclaimed. “Jeez, I know you said you were fine, but seriously, get your head out of the clouds man.”

I laughed despite myself as the realisation of what he was talking about started to set in. Joshua Higgins was the school’s football star and was throwing a party at his house to commemorate the team’s recent string of victories. It was actually true, that the whole school was talking about it. There were even flyers. I just didn’t take notice because I was once again caught up in reminiscing about a certain someone . . .

“So?” Justin asked

“So what?”

      “Are you guys coming or not?”

I looked at Erec, with a flicker of uncertainty. Erec and I weren’t very similar, when it came to things like hobbies or questionable relationships—okay, maybe that’s just me—but we both loved our privacy and quite. I couldn’t imagine him enjoying a party full of loud and annoying teenagers anymore, than I could picture myself doing it. I knew he’d be on my side regarding this topic.