Mosh Pit

Feel that? Feel the bass pulse though you feel the bodies against you. Feel your mind blown by speakers sized bigger than you. Now once you feel your caves jiggle and chest thump against the bass close your eyes. You’ll be scared to because of the people all around you but try it. Let your ears absorb every sound let your body thump…thump…thump…thuSHOVE.
         I bolt my eyes open as I feel someone crash into me that is common but annoying especially when I was so close to feeling. To feeling the music and the crowd all pulsing together on beat like a heart. It was another night at ACE. A concert venue located in Downtown Manhattan.
         Before it was a concert venue ACE was a factory of some sorts some say it was textiles or shoes. Me personally I don’t care about the past of ACE just the now and the future of it. After the factory when out of business it became a place where illegal deals went down and a place where illegal gambling was held. So that is now it got its name after all of the gambling and the ace of cards. After the cops busted the place to keep it clean they sold it cheap to a man named Marling. He turned it into a concert hall. He took off the second floor so it has high ceilings good for lights and concerts. The third floor is still there it is where concerts are booked and business is done. No one has ever really met Marling supposedly he just collects the money from the place and lives in Florida. But I don’t know about the business I just don’t what it to go out of business.
         From the outside it may still look like an old factory but inside it is a concert venue. When you walk in you are in middle with the stage off to one side it is about waist high with graffiti art all over it.  The concession stand (where everything is overpriced) there is a corner nook that goes to the bathrooms. On the right corner of the stage is a door that is hidden it opens to a waiting room from that room there is also another door the leads to an alley to the back of the venue. In that room I smoked pot with band members made out with a girls who’s face I can’t remember let alone name.
         Other than its history ACE is also important to the locals here. I know it is important to me. ACE is where I saw my first concert, where kissed a girl for the first time where I get the feeling and where teenage misfits escape to. ACE is where I first held a girl’s hand and moshed for the first and last time.  Before going out me and my friends always meet up at ACE. It is in the center of everything the school my parent’s office building. I know just about everyone here the bouncers, the sound/light people most of the regular bands that play too.                                                                       
           It is a Tuesday night and yea, I am at ACE a concert on a Tuesday night so what. The scene is mostly punk and techno with electroinca. So that means people are jumping and moshing into each other. It isn’t my scene it is my home. I know I must look out of place against the neon shoes and belts and highlights. But this is ACE I will always feel at ease. The second band is just ending and another local band is playing before the headlining band plays is. Should I translate that for you? Headlining means the main band, the band that everyone is there to see (well mostly) and opening means the not-so-famous bands and locals bands that perform before the main band to gain a audience and to put themselves out there. 
         The third band just finished setting up and they are now going into their first number. It is pretty good with a great drummer and upbeat lyrics. This of course gets the crowd jumping. Song after songs is played and the third band steps down and a guy named Chase a lead singer from the previous band introduces the next/main band. And just like all the other nights and on queue the crowd goes wild. The main band jumps on stage and the lead singers screeches in to the mic “You Guys Ready for a Fucking Show!” and the crowd went wild with neon highlights flying. They broke into their first songs mostly featuring synthesizers. This isn’t my genre of music but it is ACE so I say I don’t get the feeling as much but I say because it is ACE. The concert ends around 11. I just walk out of the venue without asking for signature or buying a EP from the bands that performed. 
         It is a pretty warm night for Manhattan in May. I only have on my hoddie but I feel warm. Seeing as I have no curfew I have no desire to go home just yet. I wonder around the neighborhood of closed stores and dark windows. But I am not scared. I never understood a few of walking at night. Whatever happens at night can also happen in the day. Oh but they say you can’t see as well but come on be smart. Don’t walk into dark alleys don’t follow people. I wonder to a park where I see a few skaters hangout by some concrete steps. One voice upswings all the others. It is Dom Hikie. A rather large skateboarder compared to others but good none the less. I grin and walk over knowing I won’t get shit if I go and don’t know some people. I walk over and Dom immediately recognizes me. “Yo Josh!” he says as he slams into my thin frame for a hug (a bro-hug to be exact)          
         “Where you been man? Living over at ACE? Huh?” he says as he takes a step back to his skateboard. Grinning like a goof at me.
         “Yea you know…” I trail off looking at the other guys sitting. All decked out looking like guys from a Skateboarding ad. They give me a look over from under their caps or beanies.  Realizing I am not a threat they lose interest.
         “So who was playing tonight?” he says as he perfectly lands a double kick-flip.
         “Some scene band that uses too much synthesizer.” I reply
         “Ahhh that shit.” I always liked Dom he had such a great personality and made friends quickly. He was also great with respect. I don’t think anyone ever crossed him. But then again there aren’t many things you can crossing with Dom. He doesn’t do drugs, doesn’t drink or isn’t that promiscuous. He has had one girlfriend for like 2 years and she is gorgeous (if I were him I would be afraid to leave her alone) but he probably has that trust thing going on. His grades are good and he is also great at skateboarding. Plus he also has that goofy grin of his that can nuke anyone to the core.
         I sat down on ground and began watching the skaters do tricks. Skidding and jumping over the steps and handrails. Off to the side some metal music was playing from the guys that plugged speakers into his mp3. It was therapeutic to watch them all jumping leaving the ground for a few seconds like all terrestrial problems gone just for those few moments and soar.  I liked hearing the sound of the wheels against the concrete too. Lulling me to a placid state there in the park watching skateboarders under the lights of lamp posts. It wasn’t until 1:30 when people began to leave and I got up and stretched not realizing how stiff I was. Dom came over to me sweaty but grinning and slapping hands bye with the other guys.
         “Ready to go?” he asked kicking up his skateboard.
         “Sure.” I say walking in step with him. We both are quite listening to the city. Cars still screeching and honking the subway chugging under our feet.
         Another great thing about Dom he didn’t always have to talk you could just be silent with him. I know too many people that can’t deal with silence so they fill it up with shit. Pointless infested brain melting shit. After walking two blocks a homeless guy walks over to us cup shaking in hand I toss in some coins. But Dom just walks past him and goes into the convince store behind him. I see the guy behind the counter stiffen up at the sight of Dom. He gets two water bottles and walks out to the homeless guy and gives him one. The homeless guy was speechless. He was so use to getting change or some cash not a water bottle. Dom says “you’re welcome” and keeps walking. I stall a few seconds as I ingest the events that I witnessed. I jog to catch up with Dom and just look at him. He catches my eye and says “What? I wanted to be direct” and grins that goofy grin of his. We get to the end of the block and I have to turn into the next block while he has to keep walking straight.
         He turns to me and pulls me into another bro hug and tells me to peace out. I reply the same way and turn and walk to home. I get to my house and walk around to the back. My mom freaks out too much I walk in though the front door. She thinks someone is going to rob the house. But that reasoning never made sense to me. If someone was going to rob any house they wouldn’t use the front door.  But I don’t care the back door suites me just as fine and opens up the kitchen where I raid the fridge and pantry for something to munch on. I carry a tube of Pringles and Pepsi upstairs to my room I walk to my parent’s room to see mom sitting up reading some papers in the king sized bed. She looks great for her age but lately she has been looking older than ever since she is always working. In bed she has her glasses hanging around her nose and she is dressed in her pajamas and robe. I walk into the room and see that the TV is also on CNN but very low volume (or maybe my hearing is blow from that concert)
         “Hey honey.” She says as she takes off her glasses and runs her fingers through her short cut dark blonde hair. 
         “Where’s dad?” I ask noticing the bed is empty next to mom.
         “He had to fly out to Beijing. How are you doing? How was your day?”
         I sit on the corner of the bed closet to the door. “Fine, I hang out with Dom.”
         “Oh Dom, he is such a great boy.” Another thing about Dom parents love him.
         I pop open the Pringles and hold it open to her signaling for her to take some. She shakes her head no. She puts her glasses back on and ruffles her papers. I get up and go at the door I say “Goodnight mom.”
         She looks up at me “Goodnight Josh.” then looks back down. She smiles satisfied. I love my parents but I wish we were closer I don’t remember it always being like this. I remember when mom and dad were home before the sun went down and they really knew stuff us. By us I mean me and my brother Hayden and my sister Audrey. Audrey is two years older than me and Hayden is four years older. Hayden is in his last year at Penn State and Audrey is a sophomore in USC. Even though Hayden wrestled with me and won and Audrey and me had battles for the bathroom during mornings I miss them the house feels so empty. 
         I walk into my room walls covered with posters of bands mostly of System of Down and Pearl Jam. I don’t like those tacky posters of bands and girls it’s all just so tasteless. CD cases and DVD scatter the floor along with my XBOX and Wii all tangled over the floor of my bed.  But over all I try and keep clean. I learned that the hard way sometimes when I had to find something and could never because my room was too messy.  I walk over to my computer and power it up. While the computer loads I also turn on the TV. I flip thought the news and land on some rerun of Fear Factor. Once my computer is on I check my e-mail mostly consisting of stuff from colleges and sales from some online store that I gave my e-mail to. I log into some other sites and check out bands and listen to some new songs while downloading stuff into my iTunes.  Around 3:00 AM mom walks in.
         “Hey honey I am going to bed and you better too. Turn that down a bit too.” She said looking at the TV and my computer. “Goodnight you better be able to get up tomorrow.”  She said as she walked over and kissed the top of my head.
         “Sure mom night.” I said while I turned off the TV and lowered my computer.
         I put my computer on hibernate as I climb into bed in my boxers.
         “Josh, Wake up!” Shouted mom as she open the blinds to my room while turning on the TV and blasting the volume.
         I groaned and rolled over to see her standing in the doorway holding the remote. I pulled the blankets over my head and dismissed her. Until I heard the devil of television, mom had changed the channel to Disney. Some half-assed-Prozac-popping- zit-free tweens were complaining about how unfair life is and how the popular kids get everything. I pulled my head out from under the pillow and glared at my mom. She held the remote and walked out of the room.
         “It’ll be waiting for you in the shower.” She said over her shoulder. Damn she knew how to get to me. I would simply turn off the TV if I could but how my TV is build into the wall and bookshelf around it I can’t get to any of the buttons so I try and overcome the torture.  I couldn’t bear to listen to their overly high-prepubescent-voices I stormed out of my room and into the bathroom. Seeing as this was my destination I might as well make the best of it, I got ready. I got out of the shower and walked back to my room before I even entered I changed the channel. To cartoon network I look for some clean clothes and lucky there was a new clean pile on the floor of my closet. I put on a t-shirt and some slightly skinny jeans and a front zip sweater my skater shoes and my wallet and chain. I know chains aren’t “in” or look bad or don’t fit the rest of my style but I feel naked without it.  I grabbed my phone and a pen and go downstairs to the kitchen. Mom is sitting at the kitchen island eating whole wheat toast while reading the Wall Street Journal. 
         “Good Morning.” She says without even looking up. I drag myself over to the stainless steel refrigerator and drink orange juice straight from the carton fully knowing that mom would hate this. “But it worked didn’t it?” She said giving me a sly smile. I drank the rest of the orange juice and threw away the carton. “Bye mom” I said smiling while walking to the backdoor.
         “Wait do you need some money? Lunch? Movies?” she was pulling out some twenties from her wallet.
         “Sure mom I always need money.” She gave me two twenties and kissed the top of my head and said “I Love you.”
         I was already out site but I still heard it so when I walked past the kitchen window I shouted “I love you too”
         I was walking when I got a text from Dom “you going to school? Or too tired?” I texted him back “mom woke me up see you at the hs”
         I walked past ACE to school around I saw a lot of flyers from the band that played last night and all of the doors were wide open. Bright morning sunshine reaching into the venue it seems a lot smaller with light inside. Inside men were sweeping the floors and sounds guys were checking stuff and wires were being wound. I keep walking before I get to school I stop by a deli for a Pepsi and a bagel. I sit off to the side eating and watching students pour in some in cars or walking or some emerging from the subway. I finished off my bagel but I was in no rush to get inside. So I just said taking slow small sips from my Pepsi. Just as I brought the Pepsi to my mouth and opened my lips for another sip someone pushed me from the back. Causing me to choke and spill Pepsi on my pants. I stood up and whirled around ready to punch someone but I turned around and it was Alex with Dom. Alex is just a funny friend who has no tact. He says just about anything with no reguard on where he is or with whom.  But one day he’ll learn hopefully. He does shit a person his size should not be doing and I say this because this size is an issue. I am pretty decent sized I am about 5’8 and Dom is 6 foot but Alex he is 4’8.
“I told him not to.” Said Dom standing on his skateboard.
“But you know I don’t listen” Said Alex dodging my punch then jogging to the down the steps.
“Come one you can get back at him later.” He said slugging an arm around me.
“Hey do we have anything due?” I asked him.
         He looked at me and slowly shook his head in shame. While saying tisk tisk. He took off and unzipped his backpack then pulled out his notebook for me to copy. I just took out my pen and took another piece of paper from him.  Alex came back and also took a piece of paper from Dom and began to copy. Half way down the page he said “Hold on what class is this for it doesn’t look familiar?”
         “It is for Pre Calculus.” Said Dom a smile pulling at his face.
         “What! I am not in no Pre Cal. Shit! I copied all of this for nothing.” Said Alex me and Dom just laughed. He took the paper and crumpled it up and made a shot for it in to trash can on the side of the curb. I finished copying and walked into school with Dom and Alex more like just Dom Alex was keeping a healthy distance from me. I go to P.S 44 one of the public schools in downtown.
         Mom use to send me to one of the prep schools uptown but I couldn’t deal with the people. Yea some of them were great but all of them were so arrogant. The girls there were especially annoying. They were like living mannequins with attached pre-programmed voice boxes. They also taught a whole lot of useless shit. Like shit so useless flies would not want it. All of those guys in polos with logos and neatly pressed kakis. It was so unreal like they were living in a fairy world. So I got out. I still keep in touch with some of the people like Benji short for Benjamin Edmond. He is a computer genius. He prints out fake report card with A’s on them for kids to show to their parents for some extra cash. He doesn’t really need the money since he comes from money but it is always nice. He also managed to hack the school net wet work a few times. But he lost joy in that. They there is Brigham Van Barnaby but he is known as BeeV. This is one guy you want to know. He is wickedly smart but also so funny. But lately I head he is attached to his pipe and has found a new love in Cannabis. There are a few others but not really worth mentioning.
         P.S. 44 is just your typical Manhattan high school. Kids dread walking in but are running out. I sat through another day while not once using any upper brain power. I just let my body go into auto-pilot sitting and standing and walking from class to class. Braking for lunch and gym the second favorite parts of my day next to leaving. I know people say these are the best years of your life but they don’t happen in high school well not for me. I just become a drone in high school and just try and pull through and get decent grades to keep mom off my back and the option of college open. I finish off the day with history I thought I was going to get some sleep but as I sit down I realize I am well rested for sleeping most the day in previous classes. As I turn my head and look out the window to the busy streets dumped in yellow from the cabs across the street from the school crossing a corner I see a girl walking. She didn’t look familiar. With her long tendrils of sun-kissed brown hair curling around her face spilling down her back. She was wearing a hippie style skirt reflecting ever color as it blew in the Manhattan wind hugging her calves. For a top she was just wearing a plain white V-neck t-shirt exposing and teasing you with peaks of cleavage. All of this hugging her thin frame as she looked left, right then left again and crossed the street and walked around the corner of the school out of my sight.  Probably some private school prep girl. They sometimes wonder downtown to seem edgy or cool. As I brought my attention back to class I saw the people were closing their books and walking out of class. My body went back on to auto-pilot and carried me back to my locker where I meet up with Alex. He was in a rush to get out of the school. Supposedly he and some other guys planted a timed stink bomb in the girl’s locker room. I emptied out my hands and dumped everything in to my locker. Around me girls and guys made plans and students rushed to there after school activities. I walked out side and was greeted by the warm spring air. Over at the corner I saw Alex along with some other guys laughing. I walked over to them in the group was Alex the smallest of them all then, Jared a bit of a pinhead if you ask me along with Carlos a smooth taking kid. Carlos was pretty cool but he lied to regularly for my preference. He would just lie about shit that doesn’t even matter. Like this one time a girl at an ice cream stand asked him what his favorite flavor was and he said chocolate and I personally know that he doesn’t like chocolate ice cream. So I asked him later why he lied and he said why not.
         “Dude did you see their faces? When they were running out.”  Laughed Jared.
         “Man, Sheila was screaming for no reason. Shit that girl was loud.” Said Alex
         “Guys you have to had seen Amie in that white under shirt tee. Damn that was nice.” Said Carlos high fiving Alex.