So Co |
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The sound of the razor itself was enough of an awakening call to what was to come in just a few months. I was squatting plantation style leaning against the off white colored wall behind Prid's apartment building. Nish and Matt were taking turns with the razor on Iso's head, both laughing and joking about his pretty boy hair falling to the floor. There was a sadness I saw in my friend's face, one that I had known from kindergarten; one that I had looked at across the wrestling mat in practice, at dual meets, talking about girls, wrestling stories. I had seen his face in happiness and in tears, I wondered what exactly was going through his mind. He was set to leave tomorrow night on a plane to the Air Force Academy, and it was only mid July. He wasn't gonna be able to make it to half of our grad parties.
Kyu had a nosebleed, no more Kleenex, so he instead kept on wiping his nose with his right hand, and rubbed the blood on the wall. Sid silly mongoose cruised with me eyeing the bottle that I had brought for this occasion. "You like pound or what Kano?" he asked me. I picked at the plastic seal, and twisted the cap. We were passing a bottle of so co around, each of us taking swigs, wincing at the bitter taste masked with the taste of old fruit punch syrup, the kind at Oroku picnics, boy scout court of honors, soccer games. We all kept making sure that Iso got as much as he wanted, as in many ways it was his night, his last time with his bros, his last taste of high school. A while back I had found it in the cupboard of my family's kitchen, a simple little flask, hidden behind the rice noodles and Sapporo ichiban. Me and Rick mixed it with guava juice and strawberry slurpee and got fucking ripped off it. We both agreed that we should get another bottle of it and save it for after we grad, pound em with all our buds. I had thought about it several times during high school, the so co bottle lying in my closet in my trumpet case, I had pictured a bunch of us boiz standing around a campfire or something after graduation, at the end of summer, taking a swig and reflecting, passing the bottle along to the next. Here 3 years later I was doing just what we had planned, sitting with my best buds, my crew, CCC boiz what not, at 1:00AM on a hot summer Hawaiian night, in the parking lot behind Prid's apartment giving Iso a shaved farewell. But Rick wasn't there. I thought for an instance of what was to become of all of us, where would we all come a year from this night? Iso decided that he would keep some of his hair for good luck. I didn't check to see if he was for real or what. We went to Zippys and got some grinds, I fell asleep in Nish's car even though he was pumping the booty bass sounds so loud you couldn't hear him and Matt talking in the front. I don't remember what I dreamt about, probably school, probably college, reflections and expectations of my new life ahead of me. Or maybe I had another dream about Shelly, since she had been on my mind all summer. I closed my eyes and awoke thousands of miles away, in a mad city, a mad towne, a mad world. |