A small town like ours was often pretty boring. We usually just hung out and walked up down patrolling the streets of our neighborhood as every gang should.
"Whatcha' kids up to?" Pete said catching up to Erik and I who were shuffling our white sneakers through the street with our hands shoved in our jacket pockets.
"Nothin legal," I replied with a grin and my head half-cocked tryin' to look tough.
"That's what I like to hear," Pete said with a wink while also grabbing my head to give me a noogie.
Everyone did this to me all the time. I would always just put up with it, but to be honest, it irritated the hell out of me. I knew everyone meant well and being only thirteen I was the kid brother of the group, so I usually just went along with it. Pete ain't much older than me though, I couldn't understand why he's gotta treat me like I'm five? I laughed a little and shrugged it off. We continued to stroll down the street, each with our hands shoved deep into our pockets, shuffling our feet against the pavement, and our shoulders slouched over like a bunch of dirty rough, tuff lookin' thugs.
The cool morning air felt nice. There was a slight breeze and the sun was shining. Hangin' with your best buds and chillin' was a beautiful way for a guy to spend a Saturday.
"Erik? Pete asked, "When your gonna clean up that old house y'all are livin' in?"
"Oh ya know, Erick replied with half of a laugh, "When my old man gets his lazy self around to it." We all had a good laugh as we neared the intersection of the street where the vacant lot was.
Erik's house was quite literally just a stone's throw away. I know this because Erik picked up a smooth sided rock, and said, "Y'all think I can make this over the roof of my house?"
"Probably," I answered, not wanting to bet against Erik.
"Y'all couldn't even hit the broadside of a barn if it came up behind ya and smacked ya in the rear end," Pete said while gripping his stomach and throwing his head back with a chuckle.
"Ya know what, Pete continued, "I'll buy ya half of a pack of smokes and a beer if you make that throw."
"Oh, you're so on dog," Erik replied back.
He stepped backwards, whipped his arm back into a throwing position, and gripped the smooth faced stone so tightly you could see the sweat on his hand. He then lurched forward, launching his arm past his head, chucking the rock towards his house.
Instead of the rock flying up and over and right past the house as planned, it went straight through the open window of the kitchen. We could hear his mom shriek as something made of glass had been shattered. He nearly scared the living daylights out of her.
She ran outside only to see us already turned around and running through the lot and into the next yard.
"Erik! She screamed. "If that was you or your friends you're grounded for a month young man!"
She stood outside on the porch screaming more and more punishments every second. The impressive thing was that she never seemed to stop and take a breath. It's as if the anger and raged just kept pouring out non stop.
The punishments kept getting more and more creative and severe as she went on. I think she even at some point yelled something like, "I'll string you up by your undergarments to a ceiling fan and flip the switch to high." Or something along those lines. I would make a safe bet that she was dead serious about that too.
After a few blocks of running we stopped to catch our breath. We could no longer here Erik's mom screaming out punishments at the top of her lungs.
"Well," Erick started to speak. "She seems to have calmed down. She hasn't yelled anything for a couple of minutes. I guess should head home and face the consequences." He laughed a little. "Honestly, she don't really care. She just likes to scream at things. She screams at the mailman for putting the mail in the mailbox "upside down." Don't worry, I ain't got nothin' to worry about."
"Well listen Erik," I said, "If you need a place to stay for a while ya know my doors always open."
"Thanks man, but really, I'll be fine. I just may not see y'all for a few days."
"Let us know as soon as you get out of prison," Pete said as he winked at him.
After a few minutes Pete and I headed back over to the vacant lot. Sally was laying on the grass listening to music, and probably sleeping. Pete quietly snuck up behind her and snapped the headphones on her head.
"What the hell!" She yelled as she jumped up.
Pete snickered, "Sorry, Sal. Ya know me, I couldn't help myself little sis."
She wasn't actually his sister, but Pete being the youngest of one and basically having no parents, treated us all like family.
"It's fine," Sally replied. "I'm just tense, anyone got a cigarette." She looked around on the ground in hopes to find the butt of one at the very least.
"I don't have any Sal." I replied
"Here ya go," Pete handed her one after taking the pack out of his shirt sleeve.
"Thanks, I guess that sorta makes up for you being a jerk," She said with a laugh.
I sat down on the grass leaning against the tree that was behind where Sally had been lying down with her eyes closed when Pete had snuck up on her.
I started ripping up pieces of grass and rubbing them between my hands. I don't know why I did nervous ticks like that when I was bored.
"Man is there anything fun to do in this stupid town," Pete groaned as he also was so bored that he was peeling pieces of bark off of the tree.
"Y'all wanna head to the record store with me? Sally asked. "My little brat of a brother Conner broke my Blink CD. I reckon he snapped it in half on purpose."
"Sure I ain't got nowhere to be," I replied.
"What the hell, better than screwing off 'round here," Pete said.
We got up and headed down to the record store in the main part of town. It was about a ten minute walk or so from the lot which was on the entire other side town if that gives you an idea of just how small this town actually was. On our way there, Pete started harassing some kids from the school across town. I don't know what they were doing around here. Probably bored the same as us. Their town is even smaller and more boring. I had been in that town one summer working for my brother Jason on his construction crew.
The little brats cussed us out so Pete pushed up his sleeves and yelled, "Ya chumps wanna fight or something, cause we'd kick your butts!"
"You bet we will!" They yelled back to Pete's surprise.
"Fine then, Pete yelled as we crossed the street to the record store. "Meet us at the vacant lot of the Junkyard at 3 this afternoon, and don't ya stupid little punk ass wannabies be late!"
They knew exactly where the vacant lot was in our town. Because of the ghost legend that I mentioned earlier, our lot was pretty well known around here and other surrounding towns. Sometimes we'd get bored teenagers drive by late at night to see if the ghost legend was true or not. Of course nobody actually believed it, but it made for something to do in this dinky lil' town.
"What are you doing?" I spoke up aggressively, after having been mostly quiet almost the whole walk down.
"Relax kid, they aint gonna show, and if they do we'll beat the piss out of 'em.
"Whatever," I said as we walked through the door stepping foot into the record store.
Sally was already ahead of us hunting for her Blink-182 record.
"Hey boys, the store clerk said as we entered the building behind Sally. "Oh, sorry Sally," the Clerk apologized. "I didn't see who you were under the ball cap."
"It's fine, she said with a sigh. "I get it all the time."
"Maybe if you didn't dress like such a tomboy and actually tried to show off some of your feminine charm people wouldn't mistake you for one of the guys," Pete teased her.
"Maybe if you didn't act like such an ass all the time I wouldn't do this," Sally punched him real hard in the gut, almost knocking him backwards off of his feet. He clenched his gut, with his shoulders hunched, caught his balance and laughed. "You hit like a guuurl." He teased again. She promptly ignored him as she usually does and then resumed browsing through the CDs in the record store. Their bantering was always in good fun, no one ever actually means what they say in our group.
"Y'all ready to go?" She said, holding up the Blink-182 Enema of the State album. The record had been out for a hot minute, but Sally was in love with it. She was really into oldie type music from the 90s. I think mostly because of her big sis' who she hadn't seen in several years. At least not since she had gotten knocked up by some dbag and fled across the country from her parents.
"I can't believe that they had it," she said.
"I still don't understand what you see in them Sal," I said with a slight laugh.
"Don't hate, she said. "They're one of my favs and Tom DeLonge is so friggin cool."
"No he's not, I replied. "He's gay and super crazy, but whateves."
I was kidding of course we all dug most of Sal's music. We just always gave her a hard time about it cause she listened to weird alternative stuff from like five years ago.
"You should try and listen to some music from this decade lil' sis."
Sally ignored the both of us as she proceeded to pay for the CD.
"Aight, let's get hella outta this place," Pete whispered after Sally handed the cash to the store clerk.
"What'd you do?" Sally glared at him.
"Let's just get out of here, quickly please," he said again. "Now...ish," as Pete shoved us out the door with one hand while holding his jacket closed with the other. "Let's run," Pete said as he took off down the sidewalk. We followed him as we heard someone yell, "Hey stop!"
I whipped my head around and saw the store clerk shouting at us from the doorway.
While still looking behind me and running I shouted ahead at Pete, "What the hell did you do man?"
"Watch where you're going!" Sally yelled at me as she grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the way of wiping out and planting my face straight into a telephone pole.
"Thanks," I said while still sprinting to catch up with Pete.
"Dumby," Sally answered, shaking her head and laughing.
We finally caught up with Pete who was now just casually strolling down the sidewalk whistling a toon. I was hunched over with my hands on my knees and my tongue hanging out of my mouth panting like a dog. I was about ready to puke.
"Oh come on Jonah, you're not that outta shape," Sally said sarcastically. The truth is, I was out of shape and starting to get a little chubby too.
"What'd you steal this time Pete?" I asked.
"Just wait 'til we get back to the lot and I'll show ya.
"Give it here!" Sally demanded, as she snatched it out from under his jacket.
She stared at it for a hot minute and then glared at Pete and as she tossed it over her head to the ground behind her.
"Don't do that! Give it back!" Pete exclaimed as he ran over and picked it up off the ground. Then stuffed it back into his jacket.
"What was it?" I asked.
"Nothin' of your concern kid, I'll tell you when...," Pete was answering quickly as Sally interrupted, "It's a playboy magazine."
"Well give it here!" I said quickly.
Sally shook her head and just put on her headphones as she walked briskly ahead of us. She often tried to ignore our childishness. Even though she was only a year older than me, she likes to act like she was some adult a lot of the time. We teased her more because of it, but honestly it kept our group from getting into too much trouble. We started to head back to the vacant lot where we figured we would just chill for a bit, until the big "fight" that Pete had gotten us involved in.
"Yo Pete can I bum a smoke off ya?"
"Sure kid, but ya owe me, cause that's like your fourth or fifth one today. I'm all for smokin' cancer into your lungs, but geez kid, you gotta lay off a bit." He laughed as he said it, half joking.
"Yea whatever!" I replied. You smoke almost two packs a day."
"Yes, but I'm older than you." Pete said in his usual persuasive and charming tone. I knew better than to argue with him. He was one of those people that no matter what the argument was over you always had to agree with him. Not because he made any sense or anything, but because he just had a way with his words that could win over anybody.
As we approached the lot Pete and I ran ahead racing each other to the big tree that Sally had been lying next to this morning. She was still a ways behind us with her headphones on. Sally wasn't paying any attention except to cover her face to keep from blushing when Pete tried showing off. As he was running he tried jumping vertically onto the old picnic table near the tree. He landed successfully on top of the table, turned around and winked at both Sally and I, but immediately lost his balance and fell backwards onto the ground.
"Need a hand" I ran over to him, stretching out my hand to help him up.
"Thanks kid."
"You alright."
"Yea I'm all good dog." He laughed.
By this time Sally had caught up to us, but decided to sit underneath the tree with her headphones around now her neck blaring her new CD.