Knock On My Window, Chapter 1

  I opened my eyes to the sun streaking through my mahogany lined window.

The first day of summer. Yes!

I got up and stretched, cracking my back. I slouched over to my mirror. The digital clock said 8:07 am. I yawned, picking up my wire brush. It ran through my hair like a spoon through a cup of coco.

~Ring~

I grabbed the phone, set it to speakerphone, and set it on my dresser.
“Hello?” I questioned.

“Aphy!” My friend squealed through the receiver.

“Hey there Ems.” I sighed.

“My cousin’s having a summer party this Saturday, wanna come?”

Do I wanna come?

“Sure,” I said. “Is it alright with your cousin if I come?”

“Definitely.”

“Alright, this should be fun.”

“Sweet, we can go to the mall tomorrow and pick out dresses! See you in the food court at 1!”

“Alright I…wait, dresses? You know I don’t-“ I was cut off by the dial tone.

My friend and her bad habits.

Dresses? I don’t do fancy parties.

I sighed, setting my small red phone on its hook and proceeded to get dressed. I put on a bronzy colored Panic! At The Disco shirt with random blue paintbrushes scattered all over the fabric, my favorite pair of tight, faded jeans with holes in the knees, and a pair of blue converse. I scribbled a line of midnight blue eyeliner on my lower eyelid, brushed on some mascara, and patted on some light blue eye shadow and almost invisible lip-gloss.

My hair was in the usual style: short, to my ears, with two longer strands on the sides going to my chin. The end of my left side swept bang, along with random strands of hair were dyed neon orange.

Yes, I was a glorious sight to behold.

Today was one of those days where I felt like looking good for no reason. I had them every once in a while. I mean, who doesn’t?

I left my room, went down the hall, and yelled to my mom.

“Outside!” I sang melodically. She hummed in consent and I stepped out the door.

I lived on the end of a dead-end dirt road. The only people my age on the street were my brother, my best friend Tyler, and this extremely stuck-up snob named Kelsey and her two cronies, Jess and Claire. They were 3 extremely popular, extremely bitchy girls, who always seemed to be around to make fun of me when I was feeling good about myself. Plus, Kelsey had the biggest crush on my brother.

Gag.

My brother dresses like me, band t-shirts and girl pants. Every girl in school adored him. He and I hung out all the time. His name is Kalib.

I headed out to the other side of the dead end circle, and knocked on the door of Tyler’s house. He opened the door and smiled at me a wide, toothy grin.

Tyler dressed like my brother, who dressed like me. So technically, he dressed like me. Who didn’t want to dress like me?

This day, he was wearing a red and blue AFI shirt with the same pair of jeans on that I was wearing. His hair was black down to his ears, the tips dyed bright red. He had one snake bite on the right side of his lower lip, and hi had his pale red contacts in.

He looked pretty sweet.

“Hello sir.” I said, curtseying. “How are you this fine day?”

“I am quite well,” He said. “But it seems that you are wearing my pants.”

“No, I believe it is you that is wearing my pants.” I put my hands on my hips.

“Don’t be jealous, I know I look better in them than you,” He teased. We laughed, and I lightly punched his shoulder.

“Happy first day of summer.” He said, hugging me with one arm.

“Wanna go for a walk through the woods to Anthony’s?” I asked.

“Definitely.” He replied, slipping on his red and green converse. We walked behind his house and into the woods.

Tyler’s woods connected to the woods in the back of Anthony’s house. It was about a mile’s walk.

Anthony was another of our good friends. He dressed in brand name clothes from American Eagle and Abercrombie and Fitch and those places, but he loved to hang with me and my buds. He had short, spiked, dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes.

“What should we do once we get to Anthony’s?” Tyler asked, walking across a fallen log like a tight rope.

“We could get pizza.” I suggested, reaching into my back pocket and pulling out a $20 bill.

“Sweet, we’ll get the usual?” He asked.

“Yup, large with everything but olives on it.”

“You know me too well.” He smiled. He pulled a big, red marker out of his pocket. He wrote ’20 for Aphy’ on his hand, then put the marker back into his pocket.

“You don’t owe me $20.” I sighed.

“Aphelia Lowell Carter!” He yelled. I cringed.

I hated my full name.

“You pay every time!” He started again. “You will let me repay you!”

“You don’t have to, I-“

“I’m paying you back!” He yelled, running ahead.

“Damn you Tyler!” I yelled, running after him.


We stalked out of Anthony’s woods like ninja.

I mean, who doesn’t want to be a ninja?

We climbed up to the back porch, and looked in through the sliding glass door. There was Anthony, sitting on his couch, watching TV Tyler made faces through the glass, making my giggle. When Anthony noticed, he smirked, starting for the door. Tyler and I ran in the opposite direction. Before we could make it to the edge of the woods, Anthony tackled up to the ground. We laughed as we rolled in the grass.

“Good to see you too.” I said. He stood up, helping Tyler and I to our feet.

“Wanna go for pizza?” Tyler asked.

“Of course!” He replied. We walked around his house, down his driveway, and headed for the pizza place. Emily, my best girl friend, was the owner of the pizza shoppe.

Well, technically, it was her uncles, but it that really the point?

Well, anyway, we went there almost every time we started a break as a celebration. It was a tradition of ours.

One of our many, crazy traditions.

When we got there, it wasn’t nearly as busy as it usually was. We took our usual seats, the corner of the bar with the swiveling bar stools. Emily’s uncle Carl noticed s right away and came over.

“Well hello there guys!” He said cheerily. “The usual celebration pizza?”

“Yup!” Tyler smiled.

“Coming right up!” He said, heading into the back.

“We’ll have to hang out so much this summer!” I said.

“Definitely.” Anthony said. “But right now I have to use the bathroom.”

“Going to primp?” Tyler teased.

“You know it.” Anthony said sarcastically back. He headed off the to bathroom.

“Hangin’ with your queer friend Tyler again I see.” I heard the sickening voice of Kelsey Leslie behind me. I turned to see her, Claire and Jess standing behind us.

“Why don’t you ask your mom how queer I was last night, ho!” Tyler came back. He was always clever with insults. Kelsey scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“Whatever.” She said. Tyler fell out of his chair, holding his chest.

“Oh my god!” He yelled over-dramatically. “My heart feels like it’s burning!” I laughed as her stood up, scratching the back of his head and taking a bow.

“Go back to the trailer park you emo losers!” She said acidicly. I stood up, my fist pulled back, about to punch. Tyler pulled my hand down.

“She’s not worth it.” He said, glaring. “Plus, you wouldn’t want to get slut all over your hand.” Kelsey growled.

“How dare you!” She said.

“Could I intervene?” Anthony’s voice came from the side.  I looked over to see him leaning against the counter, eyebrows raised.

“Oh Anthony! It’s a good thing you came!” Kelsey pleaded helplessly. “Aphelia and Tyler here were harassing me, Can you help?”

“Sure, I’ll help.” He said. He faced Kelsey, picking up a glass of water off the counter. “You’re a stuck-up bimbo, and your boobs are fake.” He poured his water all over her head. She shrieked, mouth agape.

“What are you doing?!” She yelled.

“You asked me to help.” He replied. “You never asked me to be on your side.”

That moment made my day.

“Ugh!” Kelsey screamed. She stomped out, Claire and Jess following close behind.

“I kneeled down in front of Anthony, lowering my head.

“I am not worthy.” I said in praise.

“You may be seated.” He said, becoming me. We all sat down, Emily’s uncle arriving as we did so.

“Here’s your pizza.” He said, placing it in front of us. We each picked up a slice, holding them together in a toast.

“Here’s to a wonderful summer!” Tyler said. We all yelled cheers, taking a bite of our pizza.

This was gonna be a great summer.