classic rock and other things we weren't supposed to be into

chapter one

Life is made up of moments. Some may be irrelevant while others define who we are as a person. My defining moment started where most story's end, senior prom.

I had run to the girls bathroom by the gym, feeling sick from the punch I drank minutes before. Throwing up the contents of a full glass of spiked punch, I slumped down beside the toilet. My back slid down the stall wall and my hand flew to my forehead. The bathroom was dark, as I had forgotten to turn the light on, the only illumination came from the window where a full moon cast it's glow.

"Dad's going to kill me." I whispered under my breath.

A sniffle suddenly pulled me from my self pity. My ears pricked up at the sound and I found myself shakily standing. Once out of the safety of the stall, I knocked hesitantly on the locked one beside me.

More sniffling ensued, followed by a broken sounding, "Carley, I'm fine."

"Uhm, it's not Carley..." I said timidly.

Shuffling sounded behind the door, followed by the jingling of the metal lock being slid open. The door was slowly pulled open and a scrawny brunette with a piercing gaze peered out at me.

Her thick eyebrows furrowed and the jeweled stud above her lip raised as she said, "Who the hell are you?"

I was startled by this and stuttered out, "I'm-I'm K. We have Bio together? We've lived across the street from each other since kindergarten?"

Her eyebrows slackened as recognition dawned on her. Her gaze fell to her feet as she opened the door wider and stepped out of the stall, brushing past me. Her hands found one of the four porcelain sinks in front of the long mirror.

She swiped at the running mascara blotching her pale skin gray beneath her eyes as she said, "Yeah, I-I remember you. Sorry."

I approached her timidly and leant my back against the sinks as I asked, "So... why are you crying?"

Her dark brown eyes found mine and I was quick to backtrack, "You don't have to tell me, I just figured you might need someone to, I don't know, talk to?"

She looked at me, measured my soul on a golden scale for what felt like hours but in reality was about two seconds before her lip quirked up in a small smile. My eyes fell down to the blood red lipstick staining her lips to the sparkling diamond stud centimeters above them and back to her eyes as she looked away from me.

"Is K really your name?" She asked as she stared her reflection down.

I nodded, suddenly not trusting my voice around this girl I had technically grown up with from afar. We lived two parallel lives on opposite sides of the spectrums. She liked cars, cigarettes, and the color black whereas I preferred reading, movie nights with my dad and my Uncle Sam, and the color blue. She was meant for attention, her demeanor demanded it just as much as her cool attitude did. She was Halins High Schools resident bad influence. I was simply K Grigory, Halins High Schools resident ghost.

Her eyes found mine in the mirror just as she finished fixing herself up, "Well, K, I have never wanted to get out of a place more than this High School and you're right, I really do need someone I can talk to right now if you want to come with me?"

"Uh, sure!" I said with slight enthusiasm. In all honesty, I had been trying to find an excuse to leave the prom since I got here. Dad had made it a point to make me go this year, date or not, because of my absence at last years prom. He swore I would regret missing it. At the time I didn't realize how right he was.

She smiled in the mirror before turning completely away from it, her dark green spaghetti strap dress swayed with her. One of her long legs poked out of the slit running down the side of it as she walked past me.

I followed after her, gathering the light pink material of my off the shoulder dress in both of my hands so I wouldn't step on it.

She waited for me to walk beside her before she said, "I really like your dress, by the way."

I smiled at her in thanks, letting the material fall from my grasp. We continued to walk together in a comfortable silence down the hallway, past the gym where we should have been enjoying the last good memory we would ever make at Halins High, past the blaring music and blinding strobe lights.

The parking lot stood before us and the lights of a black mustang came to life a few yards away. As she opened the drivers side door, I hesitated.

She glanced from me to the school and back before asking, "Ready?"

I looked at her and didn't reply, simply opening the door and sitting inside.

Looking back on it now, this question was more of a warning given to me by some higher being. That night was the beginning of everything and for the first time in a long time, I had never been so happy to get into a car and drive.