Young Adult / The Holidays

The Holidays had been great. Most of it anyway. I was a bit depressed at the Bach in Oamaru but I guess no electricity will do that to you. All I had was books, which ran out, and my Walkman, filled with emotional songs, which just seemed to make everything worse. Then there was the New Years party. The first time I’d gotten drunk to the point of memory loss. It was kind of scary since I didn’t know anyone there. Well, except for Nicola but she hardly counted, I hadn’t seen her since two Christmases ago when we last came to Gemmels. She had changed, though she probably thought I had too.  I would have only been 12 the last time I saw her.  I would’ve been just a kid. Anyway, in the morning came the assumptions about the night before. I still don’t know exactly what happened that night, I think I do but people don’t always tell the truth.
Christchurch on the way book and forth was good for shopping, it was a break from thinking about my ex anyway. I knew we’d get back together though; it was just a matter of time. We could use the lessons we learnt from the first time to make it better. The first time was terrible; we were barely even friends, let alone a couple. All our friends hated it; they thought we didn’t suit each other and were too different. I don’t think they could see past the difference in the colour of our skin. Underneath that we had a lot in common. My friend Rochelle just thought I was too good for him. Apparently, I was too pretty and I could do better. But I knew that it was more than just a contest to get the hottest boyfriend. I knew Whetu wasn’t exactly the hottest guy around but I was still attracted to him, and he had a good personality, which is more than I could say for the type of guys Rochelle liked.
I went with Rochelle to Waimarama for a week as soon as I got back from seeing my dad in Wellington. The first two days we were there were great. We spent them sunbathing, playing beach volleyball, walking down the beach and being hit on by guys. At night we would sit on these two chairs outside the beach house her parents rented out and talked about the day. We talked about people from school, Whetu especially. I went along with the jokes, telling stories of the things Whetu and my friend Crystal did. We made up songs about everyone we hated, I knew it was stupid and not like me but I went along with it.
“There was a guy his name was Whetu
She had an afro
Some thought he was a bro
But many thought he was chick
His boyfriends name is Smystal Crystal
She has green hair
She’s the size of a polar bear,” We sang into the night. Inventing stories about how the two of them were now girlfriend and boyfriend. But it was a mystery as to who was the boyfriend and who was the girlfriend. Or were they gay? It was true that Whetu did have quite a feminine quality, but in way I liked that about him, and Crystal was quite manly.  I didn’t really hate Whetu and Crystal; I guess I was just mad at them. For the next two nights it rained, restricting our activities. I didn’t really mind staying inside playing board games with Rochelle’s family but Rochelle hated it and made us go for long walks when it was still wet.
I had been friends with Rochelle since I was 5, when we first moved to Hawkes Bay. We’d always been friends. When we were in primary school she was very much the leader of me, but then in year 8 I got put into a different class than her. I had to make new friends; eventually I started hanging out with my new friends at lunchtime too. But things were never bitter between Rochelle and me, even when we weren’t close we would still say hi if we saw each other. I do think she’s shallow, slightly racist, and a tryhard but I can’t help but like her, I think we’ll always be friends. But my new friends weren’t as demanding or manipulative as her and I became their leader, really we were all the leaders but what I guess I’m trying to say is that I became much more confident and stopped caring what other people thought. But Rochelle and I always remained friends, it just that I didn’t let her mess me around anymore.
One evening Rochelle and I went down to the beach. A green motorbike was racing up and down the beach.
‘Oh my god! That’s the guy!’ Rochelle said as we started walking out into the sea, the dark silhouette of Bare Island above us.
‘What guy? I asked jumping back playfully as a powerful wave crashed into us. I was wearing my orange dress over my bikini and I wasn’t worried about getting it wet.
‘I saw him the day before you got here, he kept riding past our house, he’s really hot’ she explained. I couldn’t get a proper look at him as he sped past but I smiled at her boredly.
‘Oh ok’ I replied.
The motorbike stopped beside a huge hole. A group of guys were sitting in the hole. They had dug out a huge hole and carved seats into them. They seemed to be very protective of this hole, not wanting anyone their hard work. Rochelle and I turned around and started walking down the beach. My dress was making me shiver so I pulled it of and placed it on the sand. Five minutes later we were walking back past the hole.
‘I wanna sit in it’ I announced.  We walked over.
‘Nice hole’ we said. ‘Can we sit it?’
‘Don’t break it’ was the reply.
We walked down the little steps they had made and sat in the two empty seats. We started comparing contacts. ‘Do you know so and so?’ The conversation turned embarrassing when it got to discussing my past boyfriends, some of whom they knew and they didn’t have the best reputation. I was sitting next to a guy called Ben, he was slightly chubby yet also kinda cute in a strange way. Later the motorbike guy, who was named George and some others, came in. We spent about half an hour talking to them and then we went back to the beach house. I had to listen to hours of Rochelle going on and on about George and how much he was staring at her, it was quite pathetic, the kind of thing you do when your 8. She then added as an afterthought.
‘Ben so likes you!’
‘You think?’ I smiled, faking ignorance. I was surprised I was attracted to somebody other than Whetu; Ben was just a little crush though.
‘Yea, he was giving you the smile you know the smile you give someone you like and he wasn’t always looking you in the eye if you know what I mean…’ she explained. I laughed and then she continued with George. This continued all night and I believe she fell asleep mid sentence.
The next day was also spent in THE HOLE talking to George, Ben and the others. That evening Rochelle and I were sitting under the veranda on our chairs again, talking about George again. When Rochelle gets an idea in her head, like liking a guy, or being mad at someone she just goes on about it and doesn’t stop.
‘I’m just going to go to the toilet’ she said as she walked inside. I nodded; I waited looking out across the park, towards the ocean in the distance. Suddenly, I felt a sharp noise against the roof as if something had hit it. The noise unsettled me but I told myself it was nothing and kept waiting. It happened again, several times. Hurry up Rochelle, I thought. Rochelle came out after what seemed an eternity.
‘Sorry I took so long, Mum ambushed me’ I nodded and Rochelle sat down. Something hit the roof again.
‘What was that?’
Rochelle ran inside and came back carrying a large yellow torch. We shone it out towards the park, searching for whoever was out there. I saw somebody quickly run past, thinking they were hidden in the dark. But then they were gone. Then a rock fell just in front of us and another one to the side of me. Well, I knew what was hitting the roof. Then 5 minutes later, we could see them hiding behind a large tree. We went out into the middle of the park, in the open part. I didn’t feel like this but I followed her.
‘I know you’re there’ said Rochelle. Suddenly a quad bike raced past, I jumped back. Then George ran out from down the side of Rochelles beachouse. They were all running about everywhere, chasing after us. We ran. Then something hit my shoulder and there was water and on the ground a broken red water balloon. We kept running away from them. But then they came up to us ‘Truce’ they said. They only had 3 water balloons. Ok we said talking to them for a while before they ran off on their quad bike again, coming back to ambush us with more water balloons. We were running around until we saw two figures lying beneath a tree, it was George and Ben. We lay down beside them. Rochelle started poking George. ‘Guess I found you’ she said. 5 minutes later I saw a flashing light.
‘Rochelle…’ I said, thinking somebody else was coming with more water bombs but as the person got closer I realised it was Rochelles dad!
‘Rochelle, its your dad’ I said.
‘What?’ Rochelle sat up abruptly