So I am officially a high school graduate. Yesterday I went to the school and got my diploma, it was a sad feeling at first because I wouldn't be able to graduate with my friends that I have known since kindergarten. Just being able to get my diploma was a big and huge accomplishment!
Now it's party time.
*****
My mom was making my favorite food, meatloaf, mashed potatoes with chicken gravy, caesar salad, and for dessert a homemade cheesecake. My mom said that everybody was getting here at five-thirty, so I still had to do my hair and makeup.
"Hey Casey you're mom wants to know where the cheese grater is at?"
"It should be in the dishwasher still."
My dad closed the door behind him and I plugged in my straightner and waited for it to heat up. I looked through my makeup to see what colors I could use with my red dress. I decided white and black eyeshadow, and black eyeliner; I hovered my hand over the straightner and felt the heat. I turned on my small bluetooth speaker and connected my phone and put on Oasis. I brushed my hair out and sectioned it, I got pieces and started to straighten my hair. As I was doing my hair it was getting hot so I went to my big window and as I opened it and looked straight the guy who lives in the house in back was looking at me.
"Can I help you?"
He just stared at me and it was freaking me out a little bit. I just stared back at him and examined his shirtless body, tattoos covering his arms and chest.
"What's your name cutie?"
"Excuse me?" I said to him.
He looked down and chuckled, then looked back up.
"Your name sweetheart."
"Do you just call any girl that you have never met before cutie and sweetheart?"
"Only the hot ones."
Holy. This guy was... I can't even explain. I leaned against the window seal, forgetting that I was wearing a revealing dress and noting that my boobs were being pushed up by leaning against the window seal, I didn't realize that he kept looking at my face then at my boobs.
"Next time sweetheart." I said sarcastically.
I leaned back and closed my shear curtains. Continuing to do my hair, all I could hear is " sweetheart," " sweetheart," " sweetheart. " I didn't bother to go back to the window, so I just kept doing my hair and I turned up the music a little bit to drain out his annoyance.
I took the last strands of hair and I was finished. I started on my makeup, putting on mascara then my eyeshadow, and then the eyeliner, no wings tonight. The music was still playing but I had lowered it a little because I couldn't hear that guy anymore. It started to get a little cold so I walked over to the window moved the shear curtains and I closed my window, I looked to see if that guy was still there but he wasn't. I turned my speaker off and dimmed my light in my room, then walked out and closed the door behind me. As I was walking down the stairs I could hear laughing from at least four or five people, one of them being my mom.
I walked into the living room and seen people I have never met before, meaning they were probably my mom and dad's friends, and two girls that looked about my age.
"There's the graduate." My dad said.
"My oh my she looks just like you Holly."
I smiled and I walked closer to everybody.
"Casey this is Valeska and her daughter Ramona."
"It's nice to meet you Casey, your mother has told me so much about you. I can't get over how much you look like your mother, strong genes." My mother's friend said.
"Ramona don't be rude."
"It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too." I said back.
I gave them both a smile and my mom introduced me to her other friends.
"This is Irene and Kevin and their daughter Marcella."
"It's nice to meet you."
They smiled at me and I smiled back. I finally sat down on the other couch next to my dad who was drinking a Heineken beer.
"Kev did you call Nathan to see if he was on his way?"
"Five times and no answer."
I was examining everybody in the room, my mom and her friends were drinking white wine, my dad and Kevin were drinking beer, and Ramona and Marcella had soda cans in their hands.
"Well he's probably driving."
"Or having an argument with his daughter, like usual."
Kevin took a drink of his beer and as if it was supposed to happen the doorbell rang.
My dad got up from the couch and went to go answer the door. I heard talking and people walking towards the living room.
"What took you so long?"
"Lully over here was still getting ready after I said to be ready by four-thirty."
"Dad it takes time and patience."
"Well learn how to put that face on a little faster."
"Oh gee thanks dad."
My mom got up and walked towards them.
"You finally made it little brother."
She hugged Nathan and he hugged back.
"Haven't heard that in a month."
Everybody laughed, I'm guessing it's an inside joke that they all have had since high school.
"Tallulah this is your Aunt Holly and Uncle Dax."
She both gave them a hug and smiled.
"He never stopped talking about you two and always telling me that he was friends with seniors and he was apart of the "cool crowd."
"I never said that."
"Beer?" My dad asked.
"Yeah, so where is the graduate?"
I stood up and walked over to him.
"Case this is Nathan and his daughter Tallulah."
"Nice to meet you both."
"It's nice to meet you."
"Congrats." Tallulah said looking at me with a small smile.
"Thank you."
"Casey why don't you and the girls get to know each other."
My mom smiled at me and I looked at Ramona, Marcella, and Tallulah.
"We can go up to my room."
The girls got up and followed me upstairs. I was thinking, what if we don't get along, or maybe they'll think that I'm just some new girl trying to intrude on there close bond as friends.
"So are you seventeen or eighteen?" Marcella asked me.
"I'm eighteen."
Ramona was the next one to ask the question."When did you turn eighteen?"
"In March."
We made it to my room, I opened the door and let the girls go in first.
"How do you like it so far?" Marcella asked as we all walked into my room.
"It's nice and quiet."
"Oh honey trust me, at night it's like Las Vegas. Basically all families are having parties even if they have work in the morning, or high schoolers going to Auburn to the lake to do whatever the hell the do." Tallulah said as she scanned my room with her eyes.
"You can sit down wherever you want."
Ramona sat on the floor against my bed, Tallulah was wandering around my room looking at my vinyls and pictures, and Marcella sat on my seat to my vanity. I didn't know how to start a good conversation that could keep us all talking to each other.
"So what other things go on around here?" I asked them all.
"Well the people are super nice and like maybe every month there will be a block party either in one of the neighborhoods or in the city, plus everybody knows everybody because it's a small town. And since everyone knows each other there will also be like barbecues at someone's house or pool parties or even a game night." Ramona said.
"So like everybody knows everyone's business?" I asked furrowing my brows.
"Not really but they just like to talk." Marcella said.
"There's a few "older plastics" here." Ramona rolled her eyes as she made a mean girls reference.
"They are like the mean girls of older women." Marcella said verifying.
I laughed at that, typical moms.
"They just like to talk behind everybody's back and start trouble and the daughters are the same way." I could tell Ramona didn't like "plastics."
"I don't understand what gets girls to do that? Just talk and make up things, like are they supposed to act their age or are they ten year olds?" I said.
"But there are some good and positive things about Homewood, for instance Maureen's Diner is the best place to get food my mom told me that, that place has been around since nineteen fifty-two." Marcella said with a smile
"I've been there, they have really good soup." Wow Casey, that's all you can say is that they have good soup?
"Even though just ffifteen minutes away is like the mall and all of the other good things, it's nice to be around a place that all of our parents grew up in." Ramona said as she looked through her phone.
"And if you're tired of hearing people talk about partying and want peace and quiet go to Sonic Booms, it may sound like a place where everybody is loud and all of that, but it's the opposite of that, it's like a library but way more alive with slow music playing and books and a lot of other things, Tallulah goes there all the time." Marcella said as she looked over at Talullah.
I looked over at Tallulah and she had a few records in her hands.
"I only go there when I'm tired of hearing mini barbies talk about their sex lives and how Phoenix Wells is fantastic in bed; I'm tired of hearing that shit." Tallulah said as she placed the records back in there place.
"Don't mind her she's the opposite of certain girls in school." Marcella said.
"So how old are you guys?" I asked them all.
"I just turned seventeen a week ago." Marcella said with a smile on her face.
"Happy belated birthday." I said back.
"Thank you."
"I turned eighteen in February." Ramona said looking up from her phone.
"That's cool you're birthday is before mine, I was born in March." I said trying to keep the somewhat birthday conversation going.
"Happy belated birthday to you." Ramona said to me.
"You too. So how are the other people around here?"
Ramona and Marcella looked at me with a questioning look.
"Like the guys and girls around here, like what are their attitudes and personalities?" I explained.
"Oh! Well with the girls it's like fifty fifty, but it's odd how mostly all of the red heads in this town are mean and a few blondes. But other than that the girls are nice." Marcella explained a little more.
"And basically there is every type of guy here with a label." Ramona said as she put her phone away.
"Meaning?" I asked hoping she would go into more detail.
"You have your sweet guys, sporty guys, douchebags, family guys, whipped guys." She explained as she counted the different guys on her fingers.
"Adventurous Indiana Jones, the cryers, musicians, singers..." Marcella said as she counted more on her fingers.
"Yeah big selection here." Ramona said.
"I can tell." I said back.
"But they could all have multiple labels." Marcella explained.
"Good to know." I said.
I looked over at Tallulah and she was sitting on the floor looking through my photo albums, I looked closely and it was my senior scrapbook that my friends put together for me.
"That was back in California." I said as I looked a little closer at the picture.
Ramona and Marcella looked at Tallulah.
"Lu put her stuff back." Marcella said to her as she got up and walked over to her.
"I'm just looking." Tallulah responded.
"Sorry she's a curious cat." Ramona said apologizing.
"It's fine." I said
"What were the guys like in California?" Tallulah asked me.
"Um..." I said trying to think.
"Lu!" Marcella exclaimed.
"Did you have a boyfriend?" Tallulah asked.
"Sorry for her rudness." Ramona said to me.
"It's fine. And to answer your questions, there were some decent guys and no I didn't." I responded back to her.
"Did you have a girlfriend?" Tallulah asked.
"Tallulah!" Ramona yelled looking at her.
I guess Ramona was over Tallulah asking questions.
"What I'm just asking her questions, is that so wrong?" Tallulah said as she looked away from Ramona and back at me.
"I didn't have a girlfriend." I said.
"Don't ask anything else okay." Marcella said.
Tallulah hesitated and then she asked me some more questions, " have you ever been arrested?," "do you have a criminal record?," "do you drink?," "do you smoke," "do you party?"
All the questions were ridiculous, but I guess she is trying to make sure that I am a good person, honestly I have never committed a crime in my life.
"She's clean Tallulah, are you done interrogating?" Marcella asked her.
"Good or bad?" Tallulah asked me.
"What do you mean?" I asked her as I furrowed my brows.
"Just answer." She said.
"Good." I said quickly.
"Then you have nothing to worry about." She said.
"Nothing to worry about? What are you talking about?" I asked her.
"You didn't tell her?" Tallulah asked the girls as she looked at the both of them.
"Tell me what?" I asked hoping to get an answer quickly.
Marcella and Ramona stayed quiet for a few seconds.
"Look if we didn't tell you then maybe you would've figured this out on your own and would stay away." Ramona said as she turned towards me.
"From what?" I asked puzzled.
"More like who?" Marcella said.
They were starting to freak me out. Was there some weird crazy people in this town that would do something if you tried to bother them?
"Okay you guys are starting to freak me out." I said to them.
Then they started to laugh a little.
"Don't worry it's nothing scary. You know like we said every guy has a label here, especially Justin Bieber." Ramona said.
"And what is his label?" I asked curiously.
"Bad boy slash criminal. Just trust us when we say that he is not the type of guy you would want to bring home to your parents. He committed his first crime when he was thirteen." Tallulah said.
'What did he do?"
"He stole a car and led the cops on a speed chase."
"How do you know that?" I asked Tallulah.
"My dad's a cop."
"Okay So he's a bad person for stealing a car?" I questioned.
"No, it's everything else that he has done." Tallulah said.
"And that would be?" I asked her.
"Alright my dad has told me everything about him because I'm nosey, all through Junior High and High School he was getting into trouble... stealing, vandalizing, doing drugs, and drinking. When I was in the eighth grade he was a Senior, and I remember my dad took me with him for a ride along, you know just small simple things going on... then my dad gets a call saying that there was some teenagers outside of a gas station selling something from a backpack." Tallulah said, telling the story.
"Hurry with the damn story!" Ramona said rushing her to get to the good part.
"Anyways it was Justin with his friends selling ecstasy and some drug that I guess was going around called marble. So he's been to juvy I think fifteen times, has been under house arrest twice, and I think on probation three times." Tallulah said finishing up.
"So he's like the most talked about person here?" I asked, I mean I'm pretty sure every town throughout the US has that type of guy.
"Yes, but of course no one wants their daughters around him because of everything he has done. He lives around here." Tallulah said.
"But why doesn't anybody give the poor guy a chance?" Marcella said with sympathy in her voice.
"He's a criminal Marcella! He could still be doing drugs and getting into trouble." Ramona said.
"But he is so..." Marcella started to say.
"Don't you dare say it." Ramona snapped back.
"Shut up Ramona, you know it's the truth." Tallulah said looking at Ramona.
"What is?" I asked because now I wanted to know.
"That he is fine as hell." Tallulah said.
"Mmm and all of those tattoos, that cross he has on his chest and his hair." Marcella said as she bit her bottom lip just thinking about him.
"And that body." Tallulah said as she finally closed the photo album she had been looking through.
"You guys are crazy." Ramona said with a look of disappointment on her face.
"That's why I asked if you liked good or bad." Tallulah said.
It was a lot to take in, but he can't honestly be that bad. I started to think about what Marcella said, he has a tattoo on his chest of a cross.
Then it hit me.
The house behind me, the guy with so many tattoos, an amazing body.
Justin Bieber.