bad times

I.

"And ever since the 1800s, there has been slavery in America." Mr. Jesperson droned on and on. He, also, had the most boring voice. I looked over at Ivy Lane. She was the prettiest girl in my eyes. She had the deepest blue eyes, and long, long black hair, almost down to her butt.

"Mr. Um... Vo-scar-reesen-sky?" I looked up, unaware that Mr. Jesperson was attempting to call on me.

"Voskresensky. Yes, sir?" I looked at him nervously,

"Stop, goggling at Miss Lane, and answer me this, when did the slaves try to stand up against us?" he said, sounding like Snape when testing Harry.

"Um, the sixties?" I wasn't sure, but I made a guess.

"Good, Vo-, young man." He gave me a devilish smile.

The bell rang and I felt relieved. The weekend was here at last. I started getting my things together. My best friend, Charlie Klebold, approached me. He had brown hair, parted in the middle, in the popular 90's bowl cut with curtained hair, curling around at his cheeks. He had big brown eyes, thick, long eyelashes, bushy dark eyebrows. His nose was long and pointy, and he had a great smile with straight white teeth. He smiled at me, anxious to get home. We didn't talk during this encounter, we didn't need to. We've known each other long enough, to be able to read facial expressions and body language like words. Once I got my things together, Charlie and I walked to our lockers. Charlie told me about the classes we didn't have together. He talked about normal things as we left, boring teachers, annoying students, etc. We hated walking home, but we always walked home together, since we were neighbors. Our neighbor across the street was our close friend, Alice Henderson, Alice had crimped blonde hair, reaching down to her chest, with bangs she was trying to grow out, bright blue eyes, dark, pretty eyelashes, prominent pink lips, light brown, perfectly shaped eyebrows. When we were going into high school, she got her braces off and was so excited for high school. She said she was going to be popular, and she was right. She pushed her bangs off to the side, wearing little bits of makeup, and lip gloss. She joined Ivy's group of friends, and became interested in drama and boys, specifically Charlie. Charlie had an interested in her, too. Charlie had quite a fear of showing this, though, I never knew why.

On the walk home, Charlie was excited because he had a new thing to use for making fun of me or embarrass me. He loved to make fun of me. He was always trying one up me, but I let him, I knew he was jealous, he had a right to be. I was always richer, older, taller, smarter, girls always had crushes on me, my father was still healthy, my mother was there for me when I needed her, but Charlie was better than me socially, he was outgoing, funny, and confident. He could walk up to anyone and make friends. I was jealous of this.

When we arrived home, the family maid, Maria, opened the door. She took our backpacks and put them on the shelf on the foyer. We thanked Maria, and headed upstairs to change out of our uniforms. Our blazers were shoved into our backpacks before we started walking home, our mothers didn't like this because it made them wrinkled, but we didn't care, September was hot in California. We took off our ties, and started unbuttoning our shirts. This was our normal Friday routine, whether we were at my house or his. We took off our shirts and left them on the floor. I looked up at him.

"What?" he smiled "I know, I'm very compelling."

I shook my head and chuckled "No, did you bring clothes?"

"Oh, um, no?" he smiled nervously,

I sighed, "I'll lend you a shirt for the walk to your house."

I handed him an old black shirt and grabbed a yellow and blue striped one for myself.

"This shirt is years old." he said, inspecting the shirt. I was a lot taller then Charlie, so my clothes would never fit him.

I grabbed a pair of black jeans and we faced away from each other, so that we could get dressed. We put on the shirts and headed downstairs, telling Maria we were getting Charlie's clothes from his house. We stepped into the warm September air, looking at the orange and red leaves on the trees. Charlie and I walked down the steps, and over to Charlie's house. He opened the door, we said hello their maid, Ann, she was a nice, frail, older woman, we headed down to the basement. We walked through the game room and into Charlie's room. His room was always messy because he didn't let Ann clean it. It made me wonder what was hiding, but at the same time it was probably something I would be more comfortable not knowing about. I sat on his bed and watched him pick out a pair of blue jeans with big holes in the knees. He looked at me and motioned me to turn around with his finger. I turned and faced the space poster he kept above where a headboard would be. When Charlie was younger, he used to love space, he wanted to be an astronaut, but he grew out of it.

"Okay," I heard him say and breathe out,

I turned around and saw him adjusting his boxers in his pants. He smiled at me, I smiled back,

"Let's... go see," I thought for a moment "what Alice is up to."

He agreed, so we left and crossed the street to Alice's.

"You bet I could get Alice in bed with me?" he smiled crudely at me

"Oh, you wish." I smiled "She'd never let you hit that."

"Watch me," he said with that special Charlie confidence,

"I'd rather not see that." I joked, as we walked up the porch steps

"You'd love it, just tellin' you." He smirked at me.

I knocked on the door, and a sad-looking black man opened the door. He wore an old, dirty butler suit, and a weak smile. This is John, the Henderson family servant.

"Hello, John." Charlie said with his bright smile to go along with his cheery tone.

"Hello, boys, here for Alice, I suppose?" He stated in a bland voice,

Yes, sir." said Charlie

John called up the stairs "Miss Alice, Mr. Voskresensky and Mr. Klebold are here for you."

Alice called back "Okay, hold on."

John walked back to us "Just a moment, boys."

A few minutes later Alice came down wearing high waisted blue short shorts with a big black belt, a black turtleneck tank top that ended right above her belly button, and black combat boots. Following behind her was... Ivy. I felt weird in all the wrong places. She was wear a Tori Amos shirt ( looking like she cut the bottom off it to make it a crop top), black short shorts, fishnet leggings, and an identical pair of black combat boots. I looked at Charlie, shocked their parents let them wear this. He smirked and nodded. They smiled at us when they reached the bottom of stairs.

Charlie smiled in a charming way, "Ready?"

Alice nodded happily. I kept looking at Ivy the entire way across the street, trying to figure how to talk to her. I held the door for everyone to act like a gentleman.

"Want to go upstairs?" I smiled anxiously,

"You're supposed to buy her dinner first!" Charlie declared, I could tell he was trying make the girls laugh.

Alice giggled, but Ivy only smiled. We went to my room. I had a full size bed, so we all sat on it. Charlie and I with our backs against the wall and the girls across from us. Alice was outgoing, so once we all sat down, she began to talk.

"So, I think none of us has had a first kiss. Tj, you?"

I shook my head, nerves shaking every part of me.

"Alright. Well, we are going to play seven minutes in heaven." She smiled at our shocked expressions.

This was it. I had absolutely no time to prepare. Of course, I could just not kiss her, but I had dreamed of the moment I could kiss Ivy Lane. I was going to make it good, whether if I was ready or not. I felt so nervous. What if I fuck it up or go too far by being too quick? What if she doesn't feel the same way? These thoughts ran though my head. She and Alice planned this. She wanted this. I reassured myself of this.

"Well, Charlie and I first, so that you two can get to know each other before you start frenching." She smiled with the same crude Charlie smile and pulled an excited Charlie into the walk in closest with her.