A Ride With Friends

by Miguel Taylor

maintained an A average. I couldn't seem to keep up my grades, but I didn't blame that on Charlie. I was just a procrastinator.

  Charlie and I got closer and were trying to decide what college we wanted to go to. We wanted to go somewhere in the Midwest to western region, maybe Illinois. Colin wanted to stay at home and go to a school here in North Carolina. Scott didn’t want to talk about college and he had a new habit.

  Charlie's dad dropped subtle hints around that he wanted at least one of his kids to go to his alma mater in Chicago. Seeing how Charlie's brothers Pete and Floyd were Carolina and Duke fans respectively it seemed his hopes rested in Charlie. I was so in love with her at the time I just wanted to follow her anywhere. I had been given the opportunity to visit colleges out west as a kid while my uncle was stationed in Oklahoma and Kansas. So the adventure of being far from home enticed me. Charlie said Chicago had some good programs in molecular studies in engineering that she was interested in. That was another thing I loved about Charlie, her brain. You couldn't tell by looking at her but she had a brain that could rival Einstein. Not that she looked stupid mind you, but she just didn't look like your stereotypical smart person. At least that's the way I saw her.

  “I can’t believe you smoke that stuff,” Colin said.

  “Safer than cigarettes,” he said inhaling, then slowly exhaling the smoke through his nose.

  Charlie felt he was just expressing himself and that we shouldn’t judge him. So I kept my mouth shut. Then it happened. Scott was hanging out with some of his new friends and got into trouble. He was riding in a stolen car. There were drugs involved. The stolen car was a major surprise to us, but we tried to be supportive of him. We tried to help him through it. We hung out with him everyday to let him know things hadn’t changed, that we were still his true friends. Well, eleventh grade started and we were still a team. We thought nothing could destroy our friendship.

  Lucky for Scott he hadn't turned sixteen yet so his punishment wasn't quite so severe, but the judge still made an example out of him. He also told Scott that he hoped he learned from this lesson and didn't repeat it. He sent him to juvenile detention. Being away from home and us changed him. He was only there for a month and a half, but you could tell it changed him. He wasn't quite the same old jovial Scott like he used to be, but we were still the best of friends and that's all that mattered.

  He showed a different side one day when Colin found himself on the list for the high school version of Meals on Wheels. Some bullies were serving up knuckle sandwiches in the locker room. He made the mistake of correcting some jocks, something about their confusion between Star Trek and Star Wars. By lunch time Colin had a black eye. We were sitting at lunch and Charlie was telling him ways to try and heal his eye. He had his back to Scott, who walked up and began patting Colin on the shoulder.

  He was smiling until he saw Colin’s eye. Then he wanted to know who did it. Colin told him, not thinking he was going to do anything about it. Scott blew out of that cafeteria like hurricane force winds. Even the three of us behind him couldn’t persuade him not to do anything. He found the first assailant out on the patio in front of the cafeteria. I don’t even know if the guy saw it coming. I wondered what he was thinking as the sidewalk came up to meet his face. Scott snatched him up and made him apologize to Colin before bludgeoning him some more. He threw the first bully down and set off in search of the second. He had an idea he'd find him in the student parking lot. He was right. There he was showing off his new car. The gawkers were gathered around looking at his overpriced sports car. Scott bowled through the crowd and crushed his quarry’s face and ego with one blow. The crowd stood flabbergasted as Scott beat and kicked one of the stars of the football team. A couple of guys grabbed him from behind and the bully got the upper hand. That is, until Colin and I jumped in and helped him out. Even Charlie jumped on a guy’s back. We only wanted to free Scott, but once free, the tiger pounced back on the guy. He kept beating him and telling him why he was kicking his ass. That he would get worse if he ever laid a finger on Colin again. Then he hoisted him up and hurled him into his new car’s windshield. The Assistant Principal Mr. MacNeil had finally come with the School Resource Officer to grab Scott. They put cuffs on him and led him away with his three loyal companions behind him. They stopped us at the office and said we had to wait outside. We could hear Principal Whitmore yelling at him, but we didn’t hear Scott’s responses. The bell rang for class, and Charlie had to force me to go. I looked for Scott in fourth period even though I knew he wouldn’t be there. It was the talk of the school by then; how Scott beat up Rick and Todd, and ran over the latter with his own brand new car. Rumors are wild. First it was running over Todd with the car, then they said he beat them both with a baseball bat, and my personal favorite: he only won the fight because he had a gun and he had pistol whipped them.

  After school I went straight to Scott’s house, but he wasn’t home yet. Charlie called me and after I told her where I was she came over with Colin in tow. When Scott finally did get home he said he was suspended for ten days and would have to try and make up the work when he got back. We said we would help him all we could.

  Colin did the most sensible thing and talked to Mr. Campbell our engineering teacher, and explained what happened and why. Mr. Campbell didn't condone Scott's actions, but he hated bullies and said he would personally get all of Scott’s assignments and make sure he could keep up with his classes. Scott did what he could to get through the work while he was suspended. When he did finally come back, he had a new reputation. He had been to juvenile detention the summer before for the joy riding incident. He'd been hauled off to jail and now had a court date. The girls seemed to flock to him more. I joked about it one day.

  “You would think that all these girls are nice, but it doesn't make me happy,” Scott said.

  “It doesn't really? You're living every guys dream,” I told him.

  “I wish I had what you and Charlie have. Charlie is the type of girl you search your whole life for, but may never find,” Scott said.

  “Yeah. I remember how Charlie saved me from Amanda the Brownie Scout in first grade when you and Colin ran and left me,” I said.

  “Yeah, sorry about that. Well, I told you Charlie never liked any of your girlfriends,” Scott said.

  “She's always been there for me. Charlie is the type of girl you dream about, except when I wake up she is still there,” I told him.

  “Yeah, if you don't mind waking up to red hair, pale skin and freckles,” he said jokingly.

  We finished eleventh grade by the skin of our teeth. Well, Scott and I did. Colin and Charlie were competing to be valedictorian. That summer we had more fun together than ever, even though it was just the four of us mostly. We went to a couple of concerts, some road trips, and an amusement park. We went to a No Doubt concert. It was awesome, just the four of us rocking out on the lawn to one of our favorite bands. The only bad thing was we were surrounded by the smokers. Scott didn't mind. It was right up his alley. After the concert we went to IHOP where Scott wanted to eat everything in sight. A couple of weeks later we went to King's Dominion. It was our first out of state trip. It took some convincing. Charlie's dad didn't want her to go. It was a good thing her aunt lived in Virginia. If not, the whole trip might not have happened. Scott and I wanted to ride all of the big roller coasters. The four of us got on the biggest one they had. The Intimidator 305. That was Colin's first and last coaster for the summer. He got sick as soon as he got off. After that we put rides on the back burner. So I tried my hand at the carnival games and twenty dollars later I won Charlie a giant Smurfette doll. After that the four of us only went on water rides together. They left the big rides to me and Scott. I personally enjoyed the tunnel of love with Charlie the most. That was the most fun we had had in a while.

  But all good things must come to an end, and a dark cloud rolled over the rest of our summer in the form of Tracy. Colin met Tracy when he was volunteer
ing at the day camp in town. Tracy was thin with mousy brown hair. She was almost six feet tall so she was slightly taller than Colin. She wore glasses and had this almost permanent scowl. I couldn't see what Colin saw in her, but he liked her and that was good enough for Charlie. So we added a fifth to our crew. We couldn’t officially add any of Scott’s girlfriends because they never stayed around long enough for anyone but Charlie to remember their names. I guess she was just thoughtful like that.

  But towards the end of the summer, it was the beginning of the end. Scott said he wasn’t going back to school. He was dropping out. His excuse was he just didn't want to go back. I was furious with him. I know I took it a lot worse than Colin or Charlie.

  “It's our last year of school together,” I argued.

  But he paid no attention.

  “I have supported everything you have done always, but I can't support this!” I told him.

  “I don't care! It's my decision and I am not going back to that stupid place, ever!”

  “You are going to regret this Scott!” I barked.

  Charlie tried to calm me down, and in my anger with him I turned on her as well. “We can't live