My Summer of Firsts

Chapter 19 - An Old Friend

The next morning, drumming on the front door woke me from a fabulous dream where Elian and I were doing lots of things we'd yet to try. I hated the person, whoever they were. Disturbing my perfect fantasies.

The knocking continued, but I didn't bother getting out of bed. Mom was home, so she would get it. She yelled out, "Stevie, you've got company."

The only person I could imagine it being was Elian. I threw my covers aside and sat up on the edge of the bed, yawning.

My door burst open. I only saw the dark-skinned figure for a moment before they crashed into me, throwing me back against the mattress. In a blur of motion and confusion, I ended up in a headlock. "Submit or die, motherfucker."

My eyes widened at the sound of the voice. "Derek?" I was very confused, possibly by the lack of oxygen.

The arms released me.

I rubbed my neck, turning to face my oldest friend. He'd filled out since the last time I saw him. And he had a beard now. His mother was going to hate it, which made me love it.

"Dude!" He held his hands in front of his face, looking skyward. "Conceal your deal."

"What?"

"Your snake's out of the basket."

I looked down and immediately felt my face flush. "Shit!" I adjusted my boxers and jumped up to put on a pair of shorts to avoid any further wardrobe malfunctions.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

Derek peeked to make sure I was decent. Seeing that I was, he nodded. "I came to see you, dickhead." He scrunched his face. "Bad choice of words."

I laughed. "Not here in my room, dumbass." I pointed at the floor. "Here, in town."

Derek leaned back against the wall, stretching his legs out. He wiggled his feet, hanging over the edge of the bed. "My mom kept bitching about me coming home for the summer. She called me like five times a day. I figured if I gave her a couple weeks, she'd leave me alone for a while."

"Smart."

He shrugged. "I don't know about that. Now she gets to nag me in person."

I sat down on the foot of the bed, cross-legged. "She told me about all your amazing accomplishments."

"I'm sure she did." He sounded on the edge of bitterness.

"So, what else have you been up to? Besides being a star student and huge kiss-ass."

Derek got extremely excited. He jumped up on his knees and grabbed my shoulders. "I'm going on tour."

"What?"

"Yeah." Derek nodded. "See, I've been in this band, for like a six months, down in New Orleans, with my roommate and a couple friends. We were doing this gig at this little nightclub. There was this A&R rep there scouting new talent. He signed us and we're going on tour as an opening act."

"That's awesome!"

Derek bobbed his head. "Well, technically, we're opening for the opening act. I doubt there'll be much of a crowd. But hey, I'm going on tour!" He leapt to his feet with ease and bounced around the bed.

"Derek Hill!" Mom shouted from the living room. "If you don't stop jumping on that bed I'm going to call your mother and tell her about that night you came to my door wasted off your ass and threw up all over my good rug."

"Sorry, Momma B." Derek sat down. "Guess she still hears like a bat."

"When is the tour?" I asked. "Maybe I'll splurge a little and get a ticket." I could dip into my savings for one little ticket to support my friend.