Pus Junkies

—5—

Kip attempted to cook eggs that morning, but he burned them. He tossed the yellow and brown mess into the sink, spun the disposal.

“You wanna run by the Grease Shack on the way to school today?” Kip said to Zak who was just walking in after smoking his morning cigarette. “I’ll buy.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Kip had woken up in a good mood. He expected to wake up depressed, missing his mother, but that wasn’t it at all. He felt invigorated, full of energy.

He felt like a different person, a new man.

They ate breakfast tacos as they made their way to school, the cheesy eggs and sausage hitting the spot just right. Once they parked, Zak turned to face Kip.

“You know what tomorrow is, Kip?”

“Um… Tuesday?”

“No. Well yeah, but… It’s Senior Skip Day. Look, I know what you’re going to—”

“I’m in.” Kip knew Zak was going to bring it back up eventually, and he had already decided to go along with it. It was time for a change. Besides, Kip knew that even if any of his teachers decided to spring a pop quiz or something that day, Kip could always tell them he was sick. Not a single one of them would have suspected him of skipping class, even on Senior Skip Day.

“Are you serious?” Zak had his hands together like he was praying, and his face was full of teeth as he grinned.

“Yeah, screw it. It’s just one day, right? And besides… if Gwe… if my girl is there like you say she might be, then it would be worth it. I’ll talk to her, maybe ask her out or something.” Even making that statement felt awkward, and Kip knew that when it came down to it, if Gwendolyn was there, he probably wouldn’t go through with it. In fact, he knew he wouldn’t.

“That’s what I’m talking about. Hell yes!” Zak looked ready to grab hold of Kip’s shoulder, but he stopped, pulled his hand back. “You won’t regret it, Kip. I promise. This is gonna be one hell of a party.”

“Can I ask you something though?”

“Okay.”

“What about Chuck? Don’t you think he’s gonna be there?”

Zak just smirked. “You leave that asshole to me. Don’t even worry about it.”

Kip just nodded. “What do you think about maybe going to that movie tonight? You know… since we didn’t go Friday night?”

“Whatever you want, cousin. Sounds good.”

The day went by fast, and with no incident. There was the usual name calling, some shoving, but nothing out of the ordinary for Kip. His heart nearly stopped and his skin nearly bubbled right off his back when he saw Chuck walking down the hall toward him, but as they passed each other, Chuck didn’t so much as glance his way.

Holy shit, is this really happening? Did Zak scare Chuck so bad that he won’t even look at me anymore?

When the day was over, he met Zak back at the car. They made a quick stop back home, just to change clothes. Zak let Kip borrow a shirt since the only ones Kip owned all had either superheroes or movie monsters printed on them, and even though they were going to see a horror flick, Zak wouldn’t let him wear one.

“You don’t know who we’ll see out there. What if your girl is there? Don’t you wanna look good for her?”

Kip went along with it, even though he felt stupid. But the night went great. They didn’t run into any girls, unless they counted the girl at the ticket counter who was overweight and looked like she had some kind of mental retardation.

Kip was glad though. He didn’t really want to run into Gwendolyn, or any girls from school. If that happened, Zak’s attention would be on them instead of him. But the two of them were the only ones in the theater except for one guy sitting way in the corner.

The movie was great, even better on the big screen. Zak said he loved it—Kip knew he would. Plenty of blood and gore and naked boobies. What’s not to love? They had shared a bucket of popcorn, drowning in liquid butter, and each had a box of Junior Mints.

Afterward, they stopped back at the Grease Shack for burgers and fries. Even though Kip wasn’t hungry, he ordered some food anyway, nibbled at it absently. Zak finished his off, wiped his greasy hands over his thighs, then pulled out his pack of cigarettes.

“Can I have one of those?” Kip said. He balled up the half burger that was left and tossed it into the trash.

“What… a cigarette?” Zak laughed, but handed him one. Lit it for him. “You know how to smoke one of those?”

Kip didn’t answer, just puffed on it, then started choking. He shook his head as he tried to catch his breath.

“Look,” Zak said, and inhaled gently, the cherry glowing bright orange. He let the smoke flow out of his nostrils. “Don’t suck on it so hard.”

The cigarette tasted awful, but Kip kept taking small puffs, didn’t choke again.

“Look at you, cousin. Really letting loose, huh? You were so upset when your mom left, I thought this week was gonna be a nightmare, you know?”

“I was upset. I don’t know… she’s the only friend I ever had. I’ve never been away from her for more than a day. But now that she’s gone, it’s like… I feel different.”

“Different how?”

“I don’t know. Just different. I want to try things. I’m sick of being… me. The Toad.” Kip stared at his reflection in the side mirror. “Remember that episode of Seinfeld when George decided to do everything opposite of what he would normally do? And then everything starts going really well for him?”

“Um… no. Don’t watch much TV these days.”

“Oh. Well, that’s what I want to do. Maybe things will get better if I do.”

“Well, don’t stop being you. Never stop being you, Kip. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun, right?”

“Yeah. I want to have some fun.”

They finished their cigarettes, catching glances from the other kids coming and going from the Grease Shack. All kids from school. Kip could tell that most of them didn’t know Kip and Zak were cousins, couldn’t figure out why a guy like Zak would be hanging out with someone like Toad.

That’s right. We’re family. We’re best friends.

Kip couldn’t wait for tomorrow. It would be a new day. Tomorrow, he wouldn’t be Toad. Things would be different from now on, he just knew it.