The night after I went for a run with Will, I was in my room on my laptop when there was a knock on my door. It was a Saturday night so I was kind of surprised since I kind of figured that these guys were the kind of guys who went out on weekends.
When I opened the door and Will was standing there, I offered him a shy smile but I didn’t let him in my room, which is something that I’ve learned not to do because these people don’t have a problem with going through my things even if I was right there. “Hey, what’s up?” I wondered, subtly appreciating the nicely fitted t-shirt that he was wearing.
“Andy’s college buddies are throwing a party down at this field and it’s going to be kind of huge. Think you might want to go?” He wondered, leaning against the doorframe.
“A college party?” I echoed with raised eyebrows, fixing my tank top because I knew that it was a tight-fitting tank top that showed a lot of cleavage but it was really snug and comfortable so I liked to wear it around my room, where I wasn’t supposed to have any company. It’s not like I noticed Will looking or anything, I just automatically felt self-conscious about it. “Wow, that’s a bit out of my league. Thanks anyway though. Have fun.”
“Okay, suit yourself. It’s going to be really fun though and it’d be even better if you came with us,” Will told me with a somewhat pleading look.
“I appreciate that, although I’m sure that’s not true,” I chuckled. “I barely even like high school parties though, I don’t think I could handle a college one. Parties with alcohol involved are just nothing but trouble.”
“Who said anything about alcohol?” He refuted.
“I’m making a safe assumption,” I told him. “Honestly, I’m fine just staying here and reading a book or something. You go have fun though.”
“Okay, fine,” He sighed, finally resigning to letting me stay at the house instead of going to that party. When I was home with my mom and she’d have a gross boyfriend or somebody over that I didn’t like (Including Gerard and the guys that she’d cheat on Gerard with), I’d leave and go to a party because it was almost always on a weekend and almost always at night.
The high school parties near my house were pretty hardcore with different drugs and alcohol and everything but I never did any of it, I just went to the parties to get away from my house. My bedroom was right next to my mothers and the walls are thin so I wouldn’t have gotten any sleep at my house anyway. I’d dance with the boys, I’d let them kiss me even though I wasn’t so sure that I wanted them to kiss me. I guess growing up with a mother who taught me that sex was completely okay and normal, even if it was with people that you didn’t like or didn’t even know, then it just made it feel okay.
It didn’t make me feel better, to kiss boys like that, it just didn’t feel wrong either and so I never stopped them but I never let it go too far either.
Anyway, parties didn’t hold that many good memories for me so I didn’t feel like reliving that part of my life again.
I just read a book and listened to some music for a while until I turned out the lights and went to sleep.
~*~*
In the morning at breakfast, Andy and Will were incredibly grumpy and barely even awake at all. Carter was too but I wasn’t sure if that was because he was hungover like Andy and Will or if that was just how he was, grumpy all of the time. Tommy was the only older boy who didn’t seem like he’d gone 60 hours without any sleep.
“I bet you guys had a blast last night,” Tommy spoke, his voice noticeably louder than it usually was and it was obvious that he was just trying to annoy his hungover brothers.
“I’m going to punch you in your throat,” Will threatened his older brother, who only laughed at the half-minded threat.
“You do know that underage drinking is illegal, right?” Mr. Fisher added to the conversation. “Are you even trying to hide this from me at all?”
“We didn’t drive,” Andy muttered, his palm holding his head as he nibbled on a piece of burnt toast. “We know that you don’t care as long as we don’t drink and drive.”
“And if you get arrested, I’m not bailing you out,” Mr. Fisher reminded them. “I’m just going to go to the jail and laugh at you through the bars.”
“Oh, I want to go!” Alijah shouted, raising his hand in the air and making both Andy and Will cringe at the sheer volume of his seven year old voice. “That sounds like fun!”
“Alijah,” Will hissed. “Shut up.”
“Don’t talk to your brother like that,” Mr. Fisher scolded. “Don’t take your hangover out on your brother.”
Will didn’t respond.
“Anyway, did you go to the party, Maddie?” Mr. Fisher asked me, getting the attention off of his hungover sons.
“No, I stayed here,” I assured him after swallowing the bite of my bagel that I was chewing.
“Well, that’s good. I guess your mother wouldn’t like it if I told her that I let you go to a college party,” He chuckled to himself.
“I’m sure she wouldn’t care,” I told him with a small smile. “She had parties at our house all of the time.”
“Really?” He said, sounding very surprised.
“Yeah,” I respond honestly. I didn’t tell him that those parties weren’t very fun for me at all because her guy friends were very pedophilic and would always try to grab me until I had to lock myself in the bathroom (my bedroom didn’t have a lock on the door) and I had to sleep in the tub until they were all gone. I had gotten so accustom to these ‘parties’ that I began to hide pillows and blankets in the back of our linen closet with a book to read. “She’s a pretty laid back person.”
“Right, I know that. I just didn’t realize that she was that laid back,” He explained.
I opened my mouth to respond to him but before I could utter a word, Andy’s loud snore from across the table interrupted me. Everybody looked over at Andy, who was now sleeping and using his half-eaten toast as a pillow.
“Somebody had a rough night,” Tommy laughed a little bit. “Should somebody wake him up?”
“I will,” I said quickly- probably a little bit too quickly- but when Tommy said that, I just got such a good idea on how I could get Andy back for all of the pranks that he’d pulled on me. He was defenseless now so I had to attack. “I just need some duct tape.”
“This sounds like a brilliant plan,” He stood up from the table and went into the kitchen where there was a drawer that he pulled open and grabbed a roll of silver duct tape from that drawer. “I want to see how this goes.”
“I’m looking away,” Mr. Fisher told me as he stood up from the table and put his dishes in the sink. “I’m taking the boys to the office for a little while.”
With Ace and Alijah following him out of the room, all three of them completely disappeared before I put my plan into action.
“How are you feeling, Carter?” I asked as I stood up from my chair at the table and pulled off a long piece of the silver duct tape.
“I didn’t go to the party either, so I’m just fine,” He told me, standing up and walking over to Andy’s snoring body with Tommy but Will just stayed put in his chair. I’m sure that was because he was half asleep too but fighting not to go back to sleep to avoid Andy’s fate. Of course, I wouldn’t do this to Will though because he isn’t a douche bag like Andy is.
I taped Andy’s hands together on his lap and then his ankles before getting Tommy and Carter to lug Andy’s body the short distance to the boat that was floating in the water at the small dock on the lake. They carried their brother to the boat as I went into the shed that was near the house and found exactly what I was looking for- a life preserver.
Just to be safe, I looped the preserver around Andy’s waist and tucked it up under his arms just in case he flipped the boat.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Tommy laughed. “When he wakes up, I had nothing to do with this.”
“Yeah, me neither, I was just an innocent bystander,” Carter added, looming over the boat to see if I would actually go through with this plan, which I would.
“Wimps,” I teased them just before I cupped some of the lake water in my hands and splashed it over Andy’s face, causing him to jerk awake. I held the edge of the boat to make sure that his sudden state of alarm didn’t tip it over and I waited for him to understand what was going on.
“What the hell-“ He cut himself off, trying to move his hands and feet before his eyes landed on me and then he closed his eyes and groaned. “Okay, very funny, now let me out.”
“Oh, you think this was the prank?” I wondered with raised eyebrows. “Puh-lease. I don’t do anything half-assed. Have a nice trip.”
Before he could say anything else, I pushed the boat with as much force as I could muster and then I watched as it slowly sailed toward the center of the lake.
Andy started shouting a long list of profanities that made me grateful that Alijah and Ace weren’t there and it made me feel proud of myself for finally getting him back. I had to do something to show him- and everybody else, really- that they couldn’t just mess with me and get away with it. I had to stand up for myself.
After a long fit of laughter, I asked Tommy to watch Andy, just to make sure that he didn’t fall and drown since his hands and feet were taped, so that I could go back into the house for a minute. He had the life preserver but I just wanted to be cautious that he didn’t actually get hurt.
I went inside and got changed into a bikini and I brought out a few towels so that I could go rescue Andy. I figured that leaving him out there for ten minutes got the message across just fine, so when I returned to the lake, Tommy and Carter went back inside- probably to hide from Andy because they were wimps.
I put my hair in a ponytail and then jumped into the lake from the dock and started to swim out to Andy. In this summer morning, the water felt cool but not too cold and it was a nice swim so I didn’t mind having to go get Andy from this situation. When I got to the boat, I peered over the edge to see Andy glaring back at me.
“This isn’t funny,” He told me.
“Really?” I wondered sarcastically. “You should see it from this view point because I think that it’s hilarious.”
“Well, it took you long enough to get out here,” He mumbled grumpily. “I’ve been waiting forever.”
“Oh, you don’t have to wait up on me like that,” I teased him, loving the fact that I finally got him back for splashing me with water and throwing me in the lake and treating me like I was a little girl who wouldn’t fight back. I finally showed him.
“I’ll admit that I underestimated you,” He admitted with a long sigh. “Now get this off of me.”
“Happy to help,” I chirped tauntingly as I reached forward and ripped off the duct tape from his wrists. I made the tape on his ankles more complicatedly wrapped so that I had time to swim away before he could chase after me. So once the tape was off of his wrists, I kicked off of the boat and started swimming back to the dock where I pulled myself up onto the panels of wood, grabbed the towels that I had laid out in the grass, and dried off for a minute before running into the house. From the kitchen window, I looked out to see Andy still struggling with the tape on his ankles which kind of made me laugh a little bit.
Wrapping a towel around my body and one in my hair, I hurried up the stairs and into my room where I locked the door for my own safety.