The Boy Next Door

"What's this?"

I look up to Jack, who's just dropped a plastic case onto my table. The bell has just rung, I was just about to get ready to leave

"I told you I was gonna make you a mixtape." He answers

I reach for the cassette, with a writing that says 'Jack's Ultimate Guide to Punk Rock'

I giggle, "Thanks. I'll listen to it once I get home."

"Listen to it now, with me. I wanna see your reaction." He pulls a chair and sits next to me. He puts in the cassette to a walkman he's brought, offering one bud of his earphone

"It's from the same band, Green Day. It's kinda different from their usual songs, but I figured you'd like it." He explains

True, I love this song. It's not like the other songs we'd listened last night, this one is acoustic. The lyrics are so deep and meaningful which fits perfectly with the sound of the guitar.

"Well?" He tilts his head

I answer, "I love it! What's it called?"

"Time of Your Life. One of the first songs I learned, it's not that hard. It's the picking that matters, we might as well learn it tonight." He says

"Seriously? I don't think I could though, it sounds hard." I raise an eyebrow

"You still remember those chords I taught you a few nights ago?" He asks

I nod, "Yeah, they're definitely much easier to memorize than math formulas."

"Then you're all set. It's a pretty easy song to practice picking, you'll get the hang of it in no time. Tonight? At 8?" He offers

"Sure, if you don't mind." I say

"Hey, I'm the one who offered. I'll order pizza. We can hangout afterwards, you know. If you want to."

I nod, "Of course I want to. I'll see you tonight? I gotta get going now, sorry. Travis is waiting outside, he's taking me home."

"Travis? Isn't his house the other way round from yours? Why don't you go with Alex, he always goes straight home." He asks

"Duh, you know me and Alex. I'd rather walk a couple miles home everyday than spending 15 minutes in a car with him." I roll my eyes

"I feel ya. Alright, see you tonight!"

I say goodbye to him and head to the parking lot. Travis and I drive straight home, he drops me infront of my house.

I throw my bag on the floor and something falls out of the unzipped bag. It's the mixtape from Jack. I reach for it and put it in the player. Songs through songs, I keep listening to it while doing my math homework.

So this is what punk is. It's all about having fun and upbeat. No regrets, living life to the fullest and hanging out with friends.

Despite the loud music and stuff going on, my eyes get heavier. The songs are like lullabies to my ears. Out of my concious mind, I drop my pencil to the ground as I drift into a deep sleep.

---------------

I am woken up by the sound of my phone ringing. With a groan, I reach for my phone to stop the alarm. I set an alarm at 7 p.m everyday, just a reminder in case I haven't studied or done my homework. It's a habit that keeps me organized.

After finishing the homework from where I'd left it, I get up from my bed to get ready for the lesson with Jack.

It's only 7.50 when I'm ready to leave the house, like the last time I'd gone there.

Jack stands up from the porch to greet me, "Of course, always 10 minutes early to everything."

"Hey, atleast I don't keep people waiting." I grin

We head inside where the others have clearly made a wreck out of the living room. Unlike last time, where they had been down in the basement. I greet Zack and Rian, who manage to pause the game to greet me back which I think is very sweet of them to do because I know guys don't just pause games for small things. Alex even stops his writing for 3 seconds to look up and gives a nod at me.

"We got the house to ourselves, Alex's parents are out of town. It's better here than downstairs, we can keep an eye on the door whenever the pizza guy's here." Jack explains

"Wow, you guys. I don't know how long it took you to make this big of a mess and I clearly don't wanna know how long it's gonna take to clean this up." I laugh

"Finally someone with a common sense! If we're ever getting a tour bus there's no way it's gonna be this messy!" Rian says

Zack throws a pillow at him, "Of course, Mr. OCD."

I take a seat on the sofa beside Jack, who already has his guitar on his lap. "Ready for the lesson?"

"So what are we learning tonight?" I ask

"Guitar."

"Dang, I thought we were learning how to fly an airplane." I say sarcastically

He laughs, "You and your sarcastic comments. By the way, have you heard the rest of my mixtape?"

I nod. "I loved it. But Time of Your Life's gotta be my favourite of them all. And the 4th track? I don't know what it's called, When I Come Around isn't it?"

"I see you're into Green Day. Let's try Time of Your Life, it's quite easy." Jack says

"Duh, easy for you to say." I frown

"I'm serious! It starts with a G. Do you still remember the finger placement?"

I nod and put my fingers on the strings. Jack leans forward to correct it, "It's not wrong, but for this one you need to put your pinky finger there also." He brings my pinky finger to the lowest string, third fret.

"Pluck the top string with your thumb, and then the third string using your index finger.." He slowly instructs

I follow as he says, "Ehh like this?"

"You're killing it! Now.."

He continues to teach me. I struggle here and there because I'm still not used to the strumming pattern and plucking. But Jack patiently guides and showers me with compliments which I assume he's doing just to make me feel better for trying

After a while, we finally decide to take a break since my fingers are burning. The pizza guy arrives 5 minutes later with 2 deluxe cheese pizzas and 1 pepperoni pizza. What are we waiting for? We quickly stop everything we're doing and rush to get our hands on the still warm pizzas
.
"Damn, if it isn't the best food in the world." Rian bites into one

"No one's complaining on this one." Zack agrees

"What have you been busy working on, Alex?" I casually ask. He's left his circle of territory that's scattered with papers to take a pizza break too

He shrugs, "Math homework."

Call me bad for being shocked, but I don't think he's ever submitted any homework given since as long as I can remember. "Well, how's it going?" I try to sound nice

"I gave up after reading the questions."

Okay..

"Can you pass me the ketchup bottle?" Zack asks to Alex, who's the nearest to the table

"Dude, you're eating ketchup with pizza not pizza with ketchup."

Zack squirts some more ketchup onto his pizza, "Everything's better with ketchup."

"Zack and his unhealthy obsession with ketchup." Rian shakes his head

"You're like my brother, he loves ketchup." I say

"You have a brother? How come I've never seen him." Alex asks

"Yeah, but he's in college now." I respond. No more information about him, I don't feel like telling him the truth behind my family.

"Nice work you did back there, by the way. If you keep up that good work, I'm afraid you'll beat Jack in no time!" Zack compliments, which successfully makes me blush

"I don't know if you mean that but thank you. And if you meant that sarcastically, still, thank you." I put my hands up

"I swear I wasn't lying! I think you're a natural." He continues

"Thanks, Zack." I smile

We end up just hanging out and eating pizza. I never thought I'd say this but they're really fun to be with, despite the bad blood we'd started off with. Alex gets back to whatever he is writing -- Not math homework obviously, but he laughs along with us from time to time whenever someone cracks a joke. It is just after midnight when Jack finally walks me back home.

"Well, so I ended up going to school anyway, drunk. And then I entered Mr. Howard's class shirtless because my shirt was soaked, holding a dead clown fish screaming 'DON'T BOTHER FINDING NEMO! HE'S DEAD! I FOUND HIM DROWNING IN THE AQUARIUM!'. Oh, memories."

"I can't believe you did that! I'd kill to see you actually do that." I laugh in response to his story
Jack smiles proudly, "Yep, I was then sent to the principal by Mr. Howard. I think I threw the fish at his face too, tbh. No big deal. I got suspended for 3 weeks, that was it. But I try not to come to school drunk again until now."

"I'm surprised you didn't get expelled." I chuckle

"Me too. I was lucky, I guess." He says. We've reached the front step of my house. My mom's locked the door a few hours earlier, so I fish my key from my pocket to unlock the door.
"Thank you, for the lesson. And the pizzas too." I say

"Don't mention it. It was fun having you with us. Also, don't forget the song we've learned." He smiles

I nod, "I promise I'll practice the song again."

"I'll see you around, I guess?" He scratches the back of his head. Is he.. Nervous?

"Yeah. See you around, Jack."

I turn the knob, but as I'm just about to get in, I'm stopped by Jack calling my name once again.

"Gail?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you wanna go out sometime?"

Notes

Did you see that coming?

Also funny story, during lunch at school my friends challenged me to get drunk and come back to school for math class. So I did and I ended up crying in the bathroom for 15 minutes because apparently drunk me is scared of numbers. True story.

**Legal drinking age in Belgium is 16 years old and you literally can find alcohol anywhere here so cheers vive la belgique!!

Share me your drunk stories it'd be hilarious.