Chapter 1: Boy Crazy

CHAPTER 1: Rooftops & Romance

“High school sucks.”

I look over at Matt with raised eyebrows.  Seagulls squawk overhead. The air smells salty and fresh, blowing in from the crashing waves below. The blue tiles of the roof feel warm under my bare legs, which have tanned nicely from walking around this summer in nothing but short-shorts. The sun twinkles against the tips of each tile so I have to squint to look at him. He looks back at me.

“What? It does. It’s all just endless homework and boring, ancient teachers and the same old people you’ve been going to school with your whole life.” He thrusts his tan arms skywards dramatically. “Where are the hot female teachers-in-training? Where are the wild parties on Friday nights? Where are the trips to lake-houses with your homies and good times and laughter?”

I roll over onto my side and slip my fingers into his blonde hair, ruffling it. “Sorry it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, buddy. I totally get where you’re coming from.” It takes some effort to mould my face into the serious expression I want, imitating his. I sit bolt upright, almost toppling off the roof in the process and bring my arms into my sides, hands fisted, probably looking insanely stupid. “Where’s my perfect love story?” I cry passionately to the sea. “Where’s the unrealistically-placed flower garden on the school roof, where my boyfriend and I can waltz and sing our feelings to the high heavens? Where’s the random musical numbers and back-up dancers showing up out of nowhere whenever something big development occurs?”

“Huh? Ash, what are you talking about?”

I swing my head over to my best friend. My eyebrows are pulled together and my eyes widen. “Don’t you see, Matt? Is this too much to ask for? All I wanted was for everything to be great. I wanted an amazing high school life that I can look back on. Fabulous pools, fabulous splash, fabulous parties, even fabulous trash.”

Matt is starting to look at me funny. “Fabulous splash? What the-“

“I need a little fabulous, is that so wrong-?“

And that’s about how far I get before Matt’s face twists in disgust. I burst out in laughter.

“I cannot believe it took you that long to figure out!” I shriek at him through bouts of guffaws.

He crosses his arms and looks at me with exasperation. “No, not that High School Musical crap. God, can’t you ever be serious about anything?” He sighs, rubbing his temples. I come off my high immediately. Matt is usually the jokey one. I was expecting him to laugh along with me. We used to love those movies, back when we were kids. What’s gotten into him?

“Hey, I can be serious sometimes,” I mumble, embarrassed at my behaviour.

He doesn’t respond. His blue eyes are staring straight ahead at a white yacht sailing away in the distance. But his eyes don’t look focused, leading me to think he isn’t really looking at it. He looks deep in thought. The longer this silence continues, the more anxious I get. And who wouldn’t be when your male best friend who is best known for his goofiness in whatever situation without fail suddenly clams up and goes all deep and thoughtful on you?

I can’t take this anymore. Extending a finger, I poke him lightly in the shoulder to gauge his attention. His stare doesn’t waver. “What’s up with you, Green?” My voice sounds like a cross between impatience and mild desperation. “I haven’t seen you like this since, well, since Lola happened.”

He flinches at her name. I regret bringing her up in an instant. Lola was Matt’s long-time girlfriend up till the last day of sophomore year. They’d been dating about two years. Then one day he just showed up at my house while my parents were out, pacing through the house and cry-yelling at nothing. I was more shocked than anyone. Lola was a nice girl. You know, the kind you’d find in the front pew in church or tutoring someone in the library. She was shy and quiet and never really said much. In fact, her one flaw was her inability to accept her boyfriend being close friends with other girls, namely me. She despised me. I semi-despised her. But Matt was head-over-heels for her, and she was head-over-heels him, so I decided I’d remain hush-hush about her bitchiness to me when he wasn’t there.

Then she completely smashed my best friend’s heart and stepped on it.

I’ll never understand why people cheat on their partners. Why do they do that? Can’t people just be happy with whoever they’re with, because some people don’t even have that. Think of all the old men out there, sitting on benches in parks, eating homemade cheese sandwiches alone. Think of all the cat ladies who are feeding pigeons right now. If  you won’t be loyal for yourself and the unfortunate soul you’re dating or married to, do it for them. And if you can’t, grow some balls and break up.

“It would be our third-year anniversary today,” Matt mutters gloomily. He leans back against the roof and closes his eyes. “But it’s not that. I wasn’t lying when I said I’m over her. Lola was a bitch. But,” he shuffles onto his side so we’re face-to-face, “being cheated on really sucked. And I always thought that in high school I’d, I don’t know, have this great love life and a long-term girlfriend who I love and we’d go to college together and stuff. I thought Lola was that.” He shrugs one shoulder flippantly. “I guess I was wrong.”

If you are ever fortunate enough to find a male hopeless romantic in your lifetime, know that he is a blessing from the skies. You won’t ever find someone who will go that much out of their way to cheer you up if your love life goes sour. Memories of Matt baking me cookies out of a Jamie Oliver recipe spring to my mind, and several more. Matt spending his savings to get us concert tickets to my favourite band when he didn’t even like their music. Matt ranting at sappy scenes in The Vow with me when we went to see it in the cinema (god knows why) and getting kicked out, following yet another failed relationship of mine. Matt writing me a five-page essay on ‘why you’re too good for that douche anyways’. Matt, Matt, Matt. He’s so good at helping me recover from tragic relationships that sometimes I forget that he needs a bit of cheering up sometimes as well. He’s always been here for me no matter what. So now it’s time for me to be there for him.

I snort unattractively, grabbing his attention. “If you ask me, I’m glad it wasn’t. Meant to be, I mean. You deserve way better than her, kid. I never liked her.” As soon as the words are out I want to bang my head into a wall. This is how I planned to make him feel better? Way to go, Ash.

He looks at me, amused. Thank heavens for that. “I know you didn’t,” he smirks. “Can’t imagine why though.”

“You wanna know why?” I huff. “Well, for one...” I mentally grope for something. “She didn’t have good eyebrows.”

Matt’s shoot into his hairline. His grin widens. I almost pass out with relief.  And, he’s back. “What? You disliked my girlfriend because of her eyebrows?”

“Damn straight. Could you even call them ‘eyebrows’? They looked like a still shot of two thin, hairy sperms wriggling across her face.”

The sounds of Matt’s hearty laughter resonate through the air. I smile at his face, a picture of pure care-freeness and amusement. No way am I going to let a cheater like Lola ruin teenage love for him. When he comes down from his high, tears sparkle in his eyes.

“Oh, god, Ash. You are one evil MOFO,” he sighs, rubbing his eyes.

“You’re welcome.”

“But yeah, I did mean it,” he continues. His voice is even but still good-natured. “It would be nice if my soul mate would just drop out of the sky right now and land into my arms-“

“Are you sure about that? They don’t look very strong to me.” I squeeze his slim right bicep.  “She’d probably slip down the roof and fall to her death. You’d have to scrape her off my driveway-“

“And there she goes again,” he chuckles. Golden hair bounces from side to side as he shakes his head at me. He reminds me a lot of a golden retriever.

“Okay, okay.” I hold my hands up in surrender. A strong gust of air whips my black hair into my face. “Fine. But maybe you shouldn’t give up just yet. I mean, we have a whole year left. Maybe your grand meeting with your great, star-crossed lover is just around the corner. You never know.” I try to sound reassuring but end up sounding unsure to my own ears. Hard to convince someone of something you’re not sure of yourself. And I’ve always been sceptical when it comes to romance and soul mates and all that if-it’s-meant-to-be-it-will-be mumbo-jumbo. If there’s only one person in this world who you’re meant to be with, how the hell are you supposed to find them? And that whole theory contradicts with the way I have been going about my love life up till now: not really thinking it through and getting hurt later.

Matt laughs at me incredulously. He looks like he’s about to say something when a car beeping its horn sounds in my driveway. A sleek black Land Rover sits in front of my house. Matt’s mother’s head pops out of the window.

“Sadly, I have to go.” He begins to stand up and hops back into the house through the window in my attic bedroom. I follow after him, shutting the window behind me. We take the stairs two at a time and walk out of the front door. “Bye, Ash!” He calls out to me from the passenger seat of the car. “Tell me all about how your first week is later!”

“Yeah! Because you won’t be there to go through it with me, you bastard!” I shout back at him. As of Monday morning, we officially won’t be going to the same school anymore. My parents recently decided that it’s too much hassle to send my twin sister, Angel and I to two different schools, so it was best that I move. I didn’t protest. After all, Clearwater Prep is an amazing school and I’d be a fool to turn down my acceptance when hundreds of kids aren’t so fortunate. And I’m a lot better at adapting to new surroundingsthan Angel. I guess it’s my nomad-like way of going about anything social. I have a ton of friends. I’d talk to anyone in class. But I lack the tight clique other people have. All I’ve got is Matt and we were joined at the hip. Whereas Angel? She’d hate moving. She’d refuse to leave the popularity that ‘took like, forever to develop’ and have to start a new empire. So I guess that leaves it up to me.

“Why am I the bastard? You’re the one who’s leaving,” he laughs at me, waving enthusiastically. “Don’t worry! It’ll be fine. I’m sure you’ll find an equally hot, equally talented guy to take my place.” He winks at me one more time before his head disappears inside the car. The window rolls back up.

Mrs. Green still has her blonde head poking out from the window. She smiles warmly and waves when she sees me before pulling out of our large driveway. I look after their car until it’s no longer in sight, speeding off down the stretch of road that lines the beach.