To start this story from the beginning, click here.

“If you say so.” Steve looks very doubtful, wearing a kind of half frown. He can be an airhead sometimes. I turn back to my photo. Jerry and Sean sit behind Stacy, giving her bunny ears. That was when they thought it would be cool to have blue hair and write band names on their arms. Tattoos they called them. Sometimes they thought it was awesome to walk around with straws in their noses, but luckily they hadn’t done that in the picture. They were constantly together, doing whatever the other did, almost identical. But Jerry had a more adorable face.

“Yes I do say so,” I mumble, my mind turning back to the conversation at hand. “I can’t believe our parents never caught on, even though the bush got all beat up. I also can’t believe none of us ever got hurt. I mean there were pricklers and all, but it was just too much fun to notice.”

“It was all about the euphoria of the music,” he agrees.

 ~~~

So, I knew right away that I wanted to use this picture. I think it might have been this page of the Bleach booklet that gave us the whole crowdsurfing idea. Or at least it inspired the idea that the euphoria of music could make you feel good flinging yourself into things–bushes, drumsets, same diff, right?–and might make you a little invincible. Which, by the way, was a completely valid and sound inference to make. Just for the record.

~EJ

Next installment: Where Did All the Little Kid Go?

To start this story from the beginning, click here.

“Hey, was she the one who suggested the crowdsurfing thing?”

I turn to look at Steve, my train of thought interrupted. “Huh? I’ve never crowdsurfed in my life. I barely even go to shows anymore.”

“The bushes…”

“Oh!” Giggles erupt from my mouth. “That was so much fun! We’d wait until we could see through the front window that Mom and Dad were watching TV, and then we’d jump into the bushes and pretend we were surfing a crowd. What a zany idea that was. Remember that one time we all jumped together?”

“Not really.”

“Well it happened.”

~~~

And here, the autobiographical in this fiction becomes obvious. Especially if you’ve read Warding Off Eclipses with Sex and Music. Yeah, I really used to do this “crowdsurfing.” Some people’s kids, I tell ya.

~EJ

Next Installment: Sweet Euphoria

To start this story from the beginning, click here.

On impulse I get up and walk to the table in the far back corner. It’s covered in old puzzle pieces, love letters, a few books and some dust. Digging through the memories, I pull out a photo. There we are, the seven of us, immortalized in our youthful bliss and trauma. The picture was taken by my parents; they always thought we were such a “cute” bunch of friends.

First I study May, short and spunky with short red hair, sitting as close as she possibly can to Brad, the tallest and oldest of the bunch, wearing a leather jacket and spiked hair. It’s obvious he’s trying to sit apart from the group. He always was too cool to smile for the camera, I think, seeing his calculated look of nonchalance.

Most noticeable in the picture is Stacy, wearing a black band shirt, dyed black hair and an expression that conveys her superiority and her need for attention. She was an enigma to say the least, always in everyone’s face. But we loved her for that. She told it like it was.

~~~

Another quick installment from a story from late 1999.

~EJ

Next installment: Crowdsurfing

To start this story from the beginning, click here.

Steve’s smile widens to a grin. “And that first night, we played all the songs with dirty words and the door was closed so we didn’t have to censor anything.”

“Oh yeah!” I exclaim. “What rebels we were! Somehow I just don’t get the same pleasure out being able to play nasty songs in my dorm room.” Steve laughs. “And then they made us keep one of the big overhead door open every time. The parental trust was overwhelming. They were paranoid and they didn’t even know that Jerry and I were supposedly going out.”

“God, you always did steal all my friends away from me, didn’t you?” he asks.

“Sure, but it wasn’t my fault they all thought I was cooler than you.” I punch him playfully. “Anyway that is what you get for having a twin sister.”

“I guess so. Besides, it went both ways.”

“Yeah, man, Stacy was my best friend until the time she came over and met you. She never bothered to hang out with me after that.”

Steve grins. “Yeah, I know, but it’s not my fault she thought I was cooler than you.”

“Whatever,” I reply.

~~~

Another installment of the last short story I wrote during my first semester freshman year of college. Early shit, yo.

Next installment: I’ve Got Pictures on My Mind

~EJ