Your Boyfriend Sucks
Chapter 2
By: Erynn*Alice
The night wore on and Chris and Kerri sat on the beach together and talked about music, 7-11, and the tour. Every word that came out of Chris’s mouth, Kerri noticed, was intertwined with such passion for whatever he was talking about. She had a feeling that he’d do anything for that band of his.
“What time is it?” Kerri asked, yawning. She figured it was pretty late. She usually stayed out late and went to shows and tried to hang out with Joel, but never past two in the morning and definitely never past midnight on the days when she had a class in the early morning.
Chris looked up at the sky. “Judging by the placement of the moon…” he started and then looked down quickly at his watch. “Four in the morning.”
Kerri buried her head in her hands. She had class in the morning before she went to say goodbye to Joel and the rest of the boys in some shady San Francisco parking lot three miles from her apartment. She needed to get home and get a little rest before the sun came up.
“I have to go find Adrienne. Good lord, I didn’t think it was this late.” She stood up from her indented spot in the sand. She stood in place for a moment and got her bearings. Slipping her shoes on, she looked around the beach for any sign of Adrienne.
Her blonde friend was nowhere to be found and neither was Benji or Joel. The only people left at the beach were a few roadies, two or three bouncing girls, and Billy.
Kerri couldn’t help but feel a little hurt that not only did her best friend ditch her at the beach, her boyfriend did as well. Adrienne had given her a ride to the party and Kerri knew that if things worked out well with Adrienne and Benji, that she could always catch a ride home with Joel. She never imagined Joel would leave without her or without even so much as saying goodbye.
Chris stood up and let his eyes roam the beach searching for the same people he knew Kerri was searching for. After a minute of looking for Kerri’s possible rides he looked down at her. She looked like she was going to burst into tears at any given moment.
“Hey,” Chris said, lightly putting his arm on her shoulder. “I’ll give you a ride home if you need one.”
Kerri nodded slowly, afraid that if she nodded faster she’d shake the tears from her eyes. “Thanks,” she whispered, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
They walked up from the surf to the bonfire where Billy sat, wrapped in his hoodie and rubbing at his eyes to try to fix his bleeding eyeliner that had shown the night’s longevity.
“I didn’t realize you guys were still here,” Billy said, standing up from the sand and dusting off the back of his pants. “I thought Joel took you home already, Kerri.”
Kerri shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself. “When did he leave?”
Billy thought about the question for a moment. “I’m not sure. Sometime after Adrienne and Benji left. Maybe an hour ago.”
Chris grunted a little and a laugh followed.
“What?” Billy asked.
“Nothing. Benji is just getting some ass tonight, that’s all.” Chris looked down at Kerri and sighed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, you know?”
She shrugged a bit. “That’s alright. Adrienne was sort of out for it as soon as she saw him tonight.”
“Well, I’m going to take Kerri home. Do you need a ride, Billy?”
Billy shook his head. “No, I’m going to stay here for awhile and then just head over to the busses with a few of the guys when its time.”
Chris and Kerri said their goodbyes to Billy and walked further up the beach to Chris’s car.
“Thanks for taking me home, Chris,” Kerri said again.
Chris let a long arm fall onto her shoulder. “No problem.” He pulled his keys out of the pocket of his hoodie and unlocked and opened the passenger side door for Kerri. Chris drove an old navy blue truck. A ’73 Chevy. His dad had helped him restore it for his high school graduation present and the truck had gotten him everywhere from 7-11 to California.
Kerri slid into the truck and watched Chris walk around the back of the truck. She reached over and lifted up the lock so he could get in. Chris stood outside for a moment and let his eyes shift from the door to Kerri slowly and a scene from “A Bronx Tale” flashed through his mind; it was the part where Sonny told Calogero to dump his girlfriend if she didn’t “reach over and lift up that button”. He smiled to himself, it was, after all, his favorite movie.
He opened the door and got in with a smile still plastered on his face. “Thanks,” he said with a laugh sort of running through the word. The engine started and Chris turned the heat up as high as it could go. Chris’s dad had a CD player installed in the truck when Chris decided to move out to San Francisco to be closer to the band. The changer held four CDs at a time and Chris always kept the same four CDs in there: “The Colour and the Shape” by the Foo Fighters, “In Utero” by Nirvana, “The Blind Leading the Naked” by the Violent Femmes, and “Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits” by the Ataris.
“So, where do you live?”
Kerri rambled off streets and Chris tried to listen, but all he could think of was the fact that she knew to lift up that button. He was amazed that something so tiny made such a difference in how he viewed the girl sitting next to him. He wasn’t in love with her or anything, but he did believe that she was definitely something special.