Under His Skin

CHAPTER FOUR

Chapter 4

For my eighteenth birthday, I asked for a car. I told my parents I didn’t care what kind, I just wanted a car. That old expression, “be careful what you wish for” smacked me right in the face when they presented me with a brand new Buick Century Station Wagon. My dad worked for a used car lot and he got it at a great bargain. I should have been grateful to get a car, but it was embarrassing pulling up to school in that thing. Fortunately, there were only a few more weeks of high school remaining.

I pulled up to Petey’s house right at 8:30 and honked the horn.

“I’m coming chill man. The party’s not going anywhere!” He yelled out the front door.

He turned back to say something to someone inside. I fidgeted with the radio and when I looked up, he was in the car.

“Your precious Addie will still be there when we get there man.”

“f**k you Petey, it’s not all about Addie. I told you we are seniors and we’re graduating in a few weeks. I want to do something different.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever man. Come on, let’s go.”

Jeff’s family had a cabin off of Lake Erie that they used in the summer months. There were cars and people everywhere. I recognized most of the people I passed as we drove up to the house, but there were quite a few I didn’t. I figured they were lower classmen trying to make reputations for themselves with the upper classmen “in crowd” or they were from other schools.

I found a spot on the side of the house and parked. Petey immediately spotted Emily Parks, a junior, he’d been crushing on. He liked to talk smack about me and my crush on Addie, but Petey had it just as bad for Emily.

“Hey man, I’ll catch up with you,” Petey said as he jumped out of the wagon.

“Are you going to say something to her tonight?”

“Hey, we’re seniors and trying new things right? Maybe I will,” he smirked and walked off.

As I sat in the driver’s seat looking for some gum, a strange feeling hit me. I couldn’t figure out if it was good or bad, but I knew something major would happen at this party that would impact me in a major way.