A Fire That Never Burns- Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Another Day In Paradise
I called after Ember trying to get her to stop her rumbling Harley. The thing was fast and, like all of us, wanted to get the fuck out of school. I sighed and looked at Ashley, who was standing beside me. He had started talking to a girl who was about 4'9 and looked like a freshman. Poor thing didn't know what she was getting into. I ran my hand through my hair and looked at my watch. Well, I would have just enough time to get to the hair dresser to get my new hair cut done, then off to get some food. Maybe the guys would like to come with me.
"Hey Ash, if you're not too busy with this one, would you like to go get some grub with me? I'll text Andy, Jake, and Jinxx to see if they want to go to." I pulled out my phone and started texting. Andy was a freshman this year. He had finally come up from middle school. We had been hanging for a while because we lived in the same neighborhood. Jake was a sophomore, he knew Andy from middle school and we started hanging out when Andy said he knew him. Ash was in my grade and we have been friends since he moved here a while ago with his family. Jinxx, Jinxx had just attracted all of us because he could play so many different instruments. He was a junior and a civil war geek…and honestly we probably wouldn't have hung out with him if it wasn't for his amazing instrument skills, but he turned out to be really awesome. He liked all the same things we did and more.
"Yea I'll go with you. I just gotta get home and drop off my shit. Jake asked for a ride home and Jinxx is probably going to tag along." I looked at Ash and raised an eyebrow.
"I thought he was getting his license this weekend?" I asked and Ash shook his head.
"While you were playing with Ember he said he failed his test. He was actually upset about it, he failed by one point and the ass hole wouldn't let him slide." I looked back at my phone to see Andy say he could come, but he had to be home before 9. I asked why and went onto Jake's text. Jake was all for the idea. Jinxx on the other hand put a big no in his reply. I sighed and dialed his number.
"Jinxx you are coming." Jinxx sighed and hung up the phone. A man of very few words he is. Yoda I am? Jinxx, Jake, and Andy showed up. Jinxx and Andy talking together and Jake looking off at a girl on the other side of the parking lot.
"Jake, you got a crush man?" I asked and Jake's eyes flicked straight to me. I could have sworn I saw the million different ways he wanted to kill me right now, but I chose to ignore it. I thumped Andy on the back and led him toward my car. "I'll drop you off, and then I need to head to the hair dresser. If you want, I could bring you along or you can catch a ride with someone else." Andy shook his head and we waved to Ash, Jake, and Jinxx as they all went to Ashley's car.
"Nah, I'll catch a ride with you. I don't mind sitting there while you flirt with your college aged hair dresser." Andy chuckled and I smiled.
"She is hot. Maybe she will say yes to dating me this time." Andy shook his head, threw his back pack in the back seat and hopped in the front seat of my car. I mimicked the same motions and slid into the driver's seat.
"She is more than hot dude, she is unattainable!" Andy put his booted feet onto my dash board and leaned back in his chair. It was a ritual of his, just like it was a ritual of mine to wipe the dirt off of it after he left my car. My hand went to the power window button and I put our windows down. Andy took out a cigarette and handed me one. I still had my cigarette from yesterday in the ash tray. I put the new one next to it and took the half smoked one. Andy would smoke three cigarettes before he went into his house. I would smoke a half of one. That's just how things were. Andy was a chimney, I on the other hand; I was like a candle that you blew out. I smoked for maybe a minute or so, and then stopped.
"Well, still I would like to have her on my arm at prom." Andy laughed and light up, while I turned over the engine. I shifted the car into reverse and looked behind me as I backed out of the parking spot. "You're gonna have to smoke your third cig on the way to the hair dresser, I have to get there and I don't have time to be sitting and smoking with you today. So just drop your shit and get back out here." I looked over to Andy and saw him nod, the smoke rolling from his mouth, out the window.
"What about Ember today? She was pretty fucking good on that guitar of hers." Andy murmured past the cig already in his mouth to take another drag.
"She was fucking awesome with that song. I wanted to tell her, but she was already gone by the time I got outside. She is fucking fast. Women, always on the run, can't sit back to take a breath." Andy shrugged and I looked over to him. I was beginning to think he knew a little more about Ember than he was letting on. "You like her?" I flicked the turn signal on. The light at the entrance to the school was a bitch sometimes. I backed up and pulled forward again, impatient for it to change.
"Nah man, she is cool and all, but I barely know anything about her. Jinxx would be the one to date her first before me. He is quiet just like her. I swear quiet people have some type of telepathy or something, they can talk mind to mind, or they have some secret society. You know it's always the quiet ones." Andy pointed to me using his cig and I whipped around the corner the second the light changed.
"Secret Society Andy? Is this another one of your weird ass ideas?" Andy took his feet off my dash to sit forward. Now he went into a lifelong story about quiet people he knew that could be potentially in this "quiet society." By the time we got to his house I was ready to toss him out the window myself. He pushed out the lighted end of his cigarette and tossed it into the ash tray where he saw the cigarette that he had just given me. I had the half smoked one in my hand.
"You used to smoke so much more." He said as he slid out from his seat.
"Yea I know. I'm the one who got you smoking in the first place!" I yelled out to him as he grabbed his back pack and closed my car door.
"You were a bad role model, I see that now!" Andy yelled back running up to his front door, up the steps, into the door and yelled into his parents. He was back with his wallet and pack of cigarettes. I knew the lighter was inside the pack.
"A bad role model am I?" I asked, backing out of his driveway. "I'm a bad role model, but you're the one with the half insane ideas." The hair dresser wasn't far from my house, and as I pulled into my drive way, I quickly threw my things inside the door, grabbed a piece of mail my mother left on the side table for me, and ran back out. My mom would be back from food shopping later. She would relax tonight with Dad, and I would stay out late with Ash. I made sure my fake ID was in my wallet before I slid back into the car. I tossed the letter to Andy, who moved his lit cigarette and grabbed it with his other hand.
"Watch it dude! You could have caught this thing on fire!"
"Just open it! I need to know what it is." Andy put his cig in between his lips and ripped the top of the letter off. Pulling out the piece of paper he began reading.
"Dear Christian Mora, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts school for Witchcraft and Wizardry! You're a wizard Christian!" I hit Andy with the back of my hand in the chest. His laughing stopped quickly and he coughed and looked back at the letter. "Dear Christian Mora, We have received your application and application fee to enter our school….blah blah blah….you're accepted to this school." I looked at Andy and he looked at me.
"Which school dude?!" I looked back at the road and pulled into the parking lot of the hair dresser.
"LA music Academy." I slammed on the breaks.
"Shit no way! Man you're fucking joking!" I grabbed the piece of paper from his hand and Andy yelped in pain. I ignored him as I read over the letter. There was the college's insignia at the top of the paper. I had got in.
"Shit man you gave me a paper cut!" I tossed a napkin at him and hit the steering wheel.
"Jesus fucking Christ! I got in! I got in!" I opened the car door and jumped out. The paper in one hand I did some kind of crazy looking running man before looking back into the car. "Andy get the fuck out! I got in!" Andy looked at me and glared. The napkin I had given him was almost filled with blood. The cut was pretty deep.
"I don't know if you noticed, but that isn't just paper, it's fucking card stalk and I just got a cut from that thank you!" I grabbed a few more napkins and reached into my glove box. I always kept bandaids for Andy. He was, let's just say, accident prone.
"Here, some bandaids. Come on!" I closed the glove compartment and, slipping the paper into my pocket, walked into the hair dresser.
"Chris!" Jenn said hugging me to her chest. I was taller than her, but today she had worn heals and I was already sitting in the chair. "Who is your little friend?" She asked. I looked at Andy who was still sour from the paper cut.
"That's Andy. He tagged along. We are going out to eat afterwards with the rest of the guys." I grabbed my phone and took a picture of my hair before she decided to wash it.
"Andy, you're cute." She said smiling over at him. Jenn was one year older than me. I had a crush on her since she went to our school. She had taken a cosmetology class when she had gotten out of high school.
"Hey back here sweetheart!" I pointed to myself and she giggled.
"Jealous, Mr. Mora?" She leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
"Yea, I am. You're my hair stylist, not his." Andy flipped me the bird and I laughed. "See, he is so young, and still so hostile." She pushed me back into the chair and started washing my hair. "You know I like it rough too." I winked at her before I closed my eyes to the onslaught of water that she sprayed my way.
"Stop it Chris. I bet he got all of his hostility from you. You weren't an angel when I left high school. You were outside skipping class every day; smoking and ¬being a fool with your friends." I laughed.
"Things change. People grow up, like me. I don't smoke as much and I have to be a good role model for little Andy here." Jenn laughed and continued to wash my hair.
"You my dear, have a sick sense of humor." Her hands worked through my hair and I felt the stress of the past few months washing down the drain.
"You have the magic touch Jenn." Her hands paused before she rinsed my hair out. Andy's phone began ringing as Jenn lifted my head out of the sink, and dried my hair with the towel.
"I gotta take this." Andy said and stepped out of the hair dressers. I was led to the chair and I sat down. Jenn combed out my hair and smiled at me in the mirror.
"I got accepted to LA Music Academy." I said as I watched her move around my head in the mirror.
"That's great Chris! You won't be far from here then!" I smiled and nodded.
"Yea, I was hoping that Ash gets accepted to a school in LA so that we can room together, but we would need another room mate or two." Jenn smiled back at me.
"I'm guessing that is an invitation?" She asked. I laughed.
"It's not uncommon for coed roommates." She nodded and looked at me in the mirror.
"Well, I'll think about it. You have a swing job, so it would be an on and off thing, you being able to pay rent." I laughed and shrugged.
"I'm hoping that this whole band thing kicks off." She nodded. "That's not the only thing."
"What else Chris?" I looked at her.
"Will you go out with me?" She paused. I waited, her eyes going to mine.
"How about we go on a couple dates first Chris. Then we can decide if we are going to be girlfriend and boyfriend." I nodded and she went back to cutting my hair.
"What about this Saturday. We can go out to a club."
"Sounds great."
My hair was newly cut, and it was time to meet up with the guys at this little restaurant down the street. We had never been there before and we heard the food was pretty good. Andy sadly had to go home. His mother needed him for something immediately. So, he had just caught a bus down the street. I had offered him a ride home, but he said he had to get there now, and I was going to be another half an hour. When I got to the restaurant I saw Ashley leaning on his car.
"Where is everyone?" I asked and Ashley pushed off of his car.
"Jinxx didn't come because his dad wanted to take him out to practice driving; he said he was going to make Jinxx try for his license again this weekend, so they didn't have much time. Jake got that girls number and he is going out with her tonight, so he has to get ready." I nodded. "Where's Andy?" Ashley asked looking around for our young friend.
"His mom needed him. He went home while I was still at the hair dresser." Ashley fixed his pant leg into his boot and I walked toward the diner. We were led to a seat and handed menus.
"Your waitress will be right with you. She is just getting off break, so please forgive any lateness, she has to catch up." The woman left and I looked over my menu.
"So, you said you had good news?" Ash asked looking over his own menu.
"I got accepted into LA Music Academy." I said and Ashley put down his menu.
"No way man!" He high fived me and I laughed.
"Way! Have you heard from any of the colleges that you applied to?" Ashley pulled out four letters.
"Yea, I got accepted to four different ones. I don't know which one I should go to though." He laid out the letters and I looked at them. All of them were awesome colleges.
"Well, you really wanted to go to the Art Institute. It's a good school and there is one in Los Angeles. I would go there. We can room together and you wouldn't have to drive far to get to classes."
"True, I can always take classes online for another college. Take two or three classes in school, and then one or two classes online. That would free me up for jam sessions and the ladies." Ashley flashed me a bright smile and I laughed.
"True man, true. Hey, let's talk about this after we get some food, I'm starving." We picked up our menus and I looked mine over.
"I think I'm just going to get the special." I said over my menu.
"Burger for me." Ash put his menu down and our waitress walked up to us.
"Hello what can I get you this evening? Today special is Chipotle burgers, chili fries and a large coke." She said. It was Ember. I looked up to her and Ashley did the same. "Hello Christian, hello Ashley."
"Hello Ember, I will have the special please and thank you. That was amazing bass playing today I was simply amazed." I said handing her my menu.
"Thank you Christian that means a lot to me." I saw the blush creeping up onto her face. She must not get many compliments.
"I will have a regular burger with everything and coke, plus fries." Ash finally ordered.
"Alright should be about 20 minutes." Ember was walking off to take our order to the kitchen when Ashley stopped her.
"He is right Ember that was some fucking kick ass bass playing I play myself and honestly I don't know any girl who can play as well as you. You kick ass babe." Ash only compliments people when he honestly thinks they need it. She was blushing a bright maroon red now.
"Thank you both that does mean a lot." She ran off to the kitchen. I looked over to Ash and he laughed.
"Well she is good, you can't deny it." I nodded and took my drink when Ember returned and placed them on the table. Ember ran off quick and quiet as a mouse.
"Her blush is cute." I said and Ash looked over to her as she took an order from someone else.
"You got a thing for her?" Ash prodded as he took a sip from his drink.
"She is just a really good bass player, speaking of having a thing for someone. I'm going out with Jenn this Saturday." Ash grinned his cheeky grin and we sat back to enjoy our meal. The other guys would find out later.
"Mom, Dad I'm home!" I yelled out into the house. My parents were probably still out on their date. My boots hit the carpet of my room and I kicked them off quickly. My homework still needed to be done, so I sat down at my desk and pulled out my text books from it. There wasn't much, maybe a half an hour worth of it. Good, then I can focus on drumming in the basement. I didn't get to the basement to drum though. With 10 problems left of calculus homework I was asleep on my desk.