RICHIE - CHAPTER FOURTEEN (Twitter Novel / Keitai Shosetsu)

the next day i start calling
everyone in my phone to see
whos around and who can
hang out

but nobody answers and idk
if theyre not off yet or busy
or whatever but after awhile

i go through my old stuff and
root out their like land lines
and call a few people that
way but

mostly i get their parents of
course cuz theyre the only
ones who still use land lines
basically

and the ones who answer are
pretty weird to me for the
most part which i can pretty
much understand

cuz probably the last they
heard of me was before i
went to fairview and the
whole gun thing but

i leave messages with them
for charlie and chris and dan
but i dont get anything back
and im starting

to get kind of bummed out
but i call gregs house and the
old answering machine picks
up and i try leaving this

really like fake-cheery
message and greg picks up
halfway through and im
super-psyched but his voice
is quiet

and weird like hes trying not
to be heard or something and
he just tells me to meet him
at the kwik fill later on which
is cool

so i go out and walk over and
hes hanging outside and its
awesome to see him and we
go in and buy red bulls

greg tries to buy smokes but
they card him which is
bizarre to me cuz im used to
fairview by now and like

drinking 40s and smoking
weed as if it wasnt anything
at all and greg asks me what
its like there and i tell him
that stuff

and he kind of cant believe
how awesome that sounds
and it makes me feel really
cool until

i think about what was all
going through my head the
other night about the lines
and the screens

but i dont tell greg any of that
stuff just how i broke into the
locked door with my id and
he thinks thats super-cool

and i feel pretty badass so i
tell him about richie and
stealing the truck which also
totally impresses him

but he thinks richie sounds
like a total dick which i guess
i can understand from the
way i described him

so i try to like explain why
hes cool to hang out with
sometimes but i dont think
greg totally buys it

and he talks a little about how
it seems like since i went to
fairview im actually getting
wasted a lot more and

doing like more illegal shit
rather than less but i say that
although it seems like that

the good part is that i totally
dont feel like bringing a gun
to school anymore and his
face gets weird

and we talk about that for a
little while and greg explains
that he didnt want his folks to
know we were

gonna hang out cuz they were
pretty freaked out by the gun
thing and a lot of the other
parents were too

especially after salinas and
stuff and thats probably why
the other guys werent calling
back or whatever

not cuz they didnt wanna
hang but cuz of their folks
and whatnot and im like i
guess i can understand

but its still me im still the
same dee dee and greg goes
-dee dee- all quizzical and i
forgot for a second but i

dont want to go into the
whole richie thing again so i
just go –forget it- and he
looks at me weird again

but drops it anyway and i just
ask him what hes been doing
and we start talking about
girls for awhile

and gregs dating this girl
nicole who i always thought
had great tits and hes like
yeah

but theyre actually kind of
floppy and almost too big and
i go totally serious -no such
thing- and he laughs

and it almost feels like before
for awhile and we keep
walking and he talks about
these world war 2 games

hes really into and anime and
shit and its okay but then i
notice where we are cuz
weve been walking

and i realize were at my old
school his school and i look
at it and greg kind of fades
out and i zone into this weird
thing

that i totally would never
think of normally but there
was this retarded girl there i
never knew her name

she was total special ed short
bus and the other guys used
to make fun of me cuz every
time shed see me in the
hallway

shed giggle and hide her face
and go –desmond- in this
weird high pitched retardy
voice and theyd all

imitate her and talk about
how she was my girlfriend
and id get super-pissed and
tell them all to fuck off

but i never did it like loud or
anything cuz she was just a
retard and i didnt want to
make her feel bad

you know i figured it was
hard enough to be retarded
and to have people making
fun of you all the time

and i realize as we walk by
the school that i was never
going back there

thered be no way theyd ever
let me go back there and i
would never see that retarded
girl again and i dont know
why

but it makes me like super-
sad to think of it and thats
just stupid shes just a retard
why would i care

but i do and it makes me
angry and sad at the same
time and i keep trying to
focus back on greg

and the shit that hes talking
about but i just cant get my
head around the fact

that some weird part of me
actually misses that retarded
girl and im angry and sad that
i dont know her name