A little bit of writing

So yesterday, I said I would post some writing. Below is the 85th draft of the first chapter of the novel I've been writing since I was in 6th grade. Some form of this story has existed in my head/in countless notebooks since I was 12 or 13. This version contains a large amount of swearing, just so you know. I'd like to know what ya'll think. :)

From the Center of Our Universe (I may be changing this)


“Let’s get fucked up and die,” Rio sang horribly off key from atop his grey beast of a car, a Buick Century he rather sarcastically called “The Pearl,” not because of its boat-like shape and driving style. He just thought calling it “The Diamond” was overdoing it.


“I’m speaking figuratively of course!” I joined, from the hood. We were sixteen, but we could smell seventeen from that mid-September day. Both our birthdays were at the end of October. Nothing could stop us from living the lives we wanted then, Rio especially. We were carefree and innocent, as carefree and innocent as any high school junior could be. He spun onto his stomach and stared down the windshield at me, an almost full moon reflected off it into his face, making it hard to see his eyes.

“Like the last time I committed suicide,” he whispered.

“Social suicide,” Motion City Soundtrack finished. Rio never said that particular lyric. I didn’t understand why, it was one of the thousands of little quirks that Rio had.

I stared into his crayon green eyes, unblinking as the song continued, a sly smirk growing across this face. I’d fallen in love with that smirk in the summer before our seventh grade year. I don’t remember exactly why I remember the date, but I knew that at some point it would be of critical importance.

I had every detail of his smile memorized; the gap where his older brother, Harper, had punched out one of his eyeteeth peeked out at me. I giggled and spread out over the hood of his car. We listened in silence to the rest of the song. The best part was the beginning; there was no point in singing the rest of it. When it ended, and the sound of crickets was the only thing making noise around us, I felt Rio climb in through the driver’s window of The Pearl.

There was something oddly peaceful about our lake at night. The way the floodlights on the backside of the school, across the mirror black water lit up the middle school playground, making it glow almost heavenly. It was almost as if the chain link fence was covered in glitter at night. The moon even made a nearly perfect reflection into the lake, slightly distorted, but nearly perfect.

“Teagan,” Rio called from the driver’s seat. “It’s nearly ten, I should get you home. Your mom may change her mind about Layla’s party if I’m late getting you back again.”

“Fuck it, River,” I yelled, disturbing the peacefulness of the croaking frogs and crickets.

No one ever called Rio by his given name, not even his parents. He liked to pretend that he’d given himself his nickname because someone that dressed like him, in a beat up and burned jean jacket, with jeans cuffed to meet the high top of his red Chuck Taylor All Stars, didn’t have a “pansy” name like River. Being “Rio” was his slap in the face of society and self-fulfilling prophecies. His name wasn’t going to dictate the rest of his life.

Honestly, the story he made up was a lot more interesting than his mom’s mild insanity. His mom had named him after River Phoenix, but apparently, it’s bad luck to name your child after someone who dies of a drug overdose. She figured it would lead to a similar fate for him. Giving him the Spanish equivalent was the best thing she could think of, because calling him by his middle name, Gregory, would be excessively complicated, a lot of paperwork to file with the school district, or something.

The driver’s door of The Pearl slowly opened, making a rusty sound. I don’t really think rust actually makes a noise, but that’s what I thought of when that door opened, rust rubbing on rust. Rio climbed onto the hood next to me. “The lake does look quite pretty tonight,” he said

“It’s the moon. It’s always makes everything look more amazing.” I answered as his arm came to rest around my shoulder. My stomach did that sickening I-have-a-crush-on-him-but-shhhh back flip it always did when Rio got too close to me. “I’ll just tell my mom that we were on our way back and my phone was on silent so I didn’t know she called. She can’t get too upset being five minutes late on a Friday night.”

“If you say so,” I heard his voice through his crocked smile. “She’s just looking out for you, you know, being out at night with the dangerous Davenport boy. You never know what kind of shenanigans I’ll get you involved in.”

I placed my head against his chest, letting the knot in my stomach tighten. “It’s not like I haven’t been hanging out with you every day since we were five. I mean, she should get by now that you’re not going to kill me.”

“Parents are hard to convince sometimes,” he said in a way that made me believe that there was nothing Rio didn’t know, like he’d lived a thousand past lives. “Maybe in another twelve years she’ll start to trust me.”

“Maybe, you can never tell with Rebecca, though. How long has she been pissed at your mom now?”

“Like twenty years,” Rio laughed. “Old cheerleading rivalries die hard in Kurtwood.”

I heard my cell phone vibrate on the passenger’s seat of The Pearl, then turned Rio’s arm to see the time: 10:02. A deep sigh escaped my lungs.

“If you don’t answer that, your mom’s going to send a search party out for you,” he said taking his arm back and sliding off the car. I rolled my eyes, as I slid off the opposite side.

My mom had always been strict about rules: home by eight on school nights, ten on weekends, call even if you’re going to be ten seconds late. It was ridiculous. My sister never had to deal with the crap my parents did to me. I’d never done anything that would lead her to distrust me, but then again I was best friends with the middle Davenport boy.

“Just drive, Rio. We’ll be back before she calls again.”

“If she tries to murder me with a spoon for kidnapping you, I hope you’ll jump in front of me.”

“I always do.”

I turned to watch him as he drove. It was painfully obvious how I felt about him, yet he seemed to ignore it. I guess he didn’t want anything to change, in a way I didn’t really want it to change either. It would have messed up our whole relationship. I mean, we’d been friends since preschool. I couldn’t go around playing with relationship that runs deep like that. We were friends before boys and girls were even supposed to like each other. But there is always something that draws the messed-up kids together. Not that we were actually messed up when we were five, but I think, subconsciously we knew our families would drive both of us completely insane.

Rio slid The Pearl seamlessly around the sharp curve and into my driveway.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” I whispered, opening the door. “Layla’s birthday party is a little bit more important than whatever my mom’s going to make me do. I’ll escape.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, Teag,” Rio warned, as I closed the rusty door. I stood by our never used basketball hoop as he backed out of the driveway, watching the headlights as they slowly moved down my body and out into the road, turned, and illuminated the trees and rocks across the street.

____

If you would like to read more I have it posted online here: http://www.webook.com/project/From-the-Center-of-Our-Universe-1

AND THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY
Today is awesome because I'm one chapter closer to actually finishing a complete draft of "Universe," and I actually like it. :)

Books read 36
Currently between books.