~ Welcome to Quills ~

This one is for James, Mill and Ash, you guys ****ing rule!

“I’m not really sure why we thought our lives were as good as they could be. I s’pose it could have a lot to do with the fun we were having at the time. The more time we’d spend at all them houses with the music cranking, the booze flowing and the girls stunning, the more fun we’d end up having and the more stories we’d end up with.” The young man explained. He had a confident look on his face which made the interviewer feel angry.
“So are you going to tell us all the stories?” The interviewer asked, finally getting over the initial anger caused by the young man’s attitude. He pulled out a tape recorder and pressed the record button.
“Well that’s the point of this whole interview innit?” The younger man replied with a large grin on his face.
“Okay, why not state your name?”
“Stephen Terrel. Named after my great grandfather. Never met him but apparently he was killed in world war two.“
“I see...”
“How about we get on with the telling of my story? It’s why I’m hear innit?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea...”
“Well where am I going to start from?” Stephen interrupted again. It was obvious by his face that he had a lot to say and he was dying to get it out.
“Well, let’s start at the beginning, tell me about your friends.” The interviewer glared at Stephen awaiting a response which he only had to wait a few seconds for.

“Alright, if it’s what you need to hear then I’ll start there. But I’ll tell ya how I met them first. It all started on a hot summer night in a small town not too far out from Melbourne called Lara. I was pissed off cause my girl had just left me. It was pretty much the usual thing for fourteen year old guys in Lara, a few months in a relationship without sex. That will always lead to problems, I can promise you that. Lara’s not the best place for the youth anyway. It’s a bore, nothing there is worth doing.

Anyway, as I said it was a hot night. The day that had just ended was the hottest day I think the world has ever been melted by. It was ridiculous! The kind of night you wish you could go to Antarctica just to avoid the warmth of the next day. Completely ****ty night to follow a completely ****ty day. The sky was clear and there was no wind at all.
The pool was close but that didn’t stop us. We climbed over the fence, we didn’t care if we got caught. To us it was worth the trouble just to have a swim at night time. Looking back on the times I swear it’s a miracle none of us drowned due to some of the crap that went on while we were there. If there wasn’t a fight there before we arrived, we’d make one. We’d be throwing people into the pool, jumping on top of each other and holding the nerds’ heads underwater till they started to pass out. We were crazy as hell but nobody was going to stop us.
It was the first time that I climbed over that fence that hot summer day when I was fourteen. As I said my girl and I had just broken up so I was pretty mad. I just wanted to cool off and take it easy. I didn’t have a lot of friends at the time, come to think of it I didn’t have anyone. As soon as I lost my girlfriend I lost the only person that I had to talk to up to that point. I wasn’t looking for love that night, I wasn’t looking for a friend and I wasn’t looking for a fight. I never would have imagined that I would have got all three in that one night.
I jumped in the pool and started to swim. I heard heaps of people talking quietly about me while I was swimming but I was used to that. I wasn’t a cool kid even slightly, I was picked on a hell of a lot. I had grown so used to it that it was pretty much normal for me to get talked about. I ended up looking at the positives and thinking that ‘at least they are noticing me’ and crap like that. I know now how stupid that is but at the time it all seemed fair enough. A kid will do anything to feel happy, that’s just my way of coping.
I knew only a few of the people there but they all seemed to know me. From the youngest kid who was probably about ten yearsold to the oldest who was most likely late twenties or early thirties. It was a little scary at first but of course eventually my stupid brain told myself that it was cool to be talked about.
I’d been swimming for a little while and I decided it was time for me to have a rest. It was a refreshing swim but I forgot the fact that everybody hated me and that I was likely to be mauled just for resting somewhere someone else was about to walk. I sat down on the grounds and just watched all the people in the pool. They were all happy. I couldn’t take my eyes off a few couples, they made me feel really depressed. Being dumped earlier had taken it’s toll. I wasn’t in the mood to see these happy couples but I couldn’t help but watch them. Apparently I wasn’t the only lonely person there.

A teenage girl came over to me and sat down next to me. I was in complete shock that somebody actually bothered to come over to me. There’s always the feeling inside that the person coming up to talk to you is really only doing it cuz they want more dirt on you, so that they can pay you out about more things. It eventually becomes a normal thing and you play along for whatever reason. Of course, as you probably guessed, my reason was that I was getting noticed.
‘They all say you’re a loser... Why?’ she asked me. I wondered for a while if she was serious. But after I stared into her eyes and examined her facial expression I knew she was serious. She wasn’t tall and she was very skinny. She had hair that went down to her ass that was naturally blonde but she had dyed some parts of it black. She was very good looking, without a doubt a lot better looking than my ex girlfriend. Mean of me to say it but I’m here to tell the truth, so Kelly, if your out there, you really never were anything special.
‘I just don’t talk much, and probably cause I don’t make friends easily...’ I replied. I didn’t know whether or not she would consider that a fair enough reason but I honestly didn’t care.
‘I know how you feel, how old are you?’
‘Fourteen, how about you?’
‘Fifteen, turning sixteen soon. Anyway more to the point, come meet all my friends. They didn’t hear about you before tonight so they’d be cool with meeting you. They are always looking for more people to join their group’
I wasn’t going to decline an offer like that. If I was any smarter I would have been out, chances pointed to a set up gang bashing. I may have been wrong but it was a risk that was probably not worth taking.
But when I think about it, even if I knew what I was in for I would have accepted and followed. It would have seemed so awesome to me back then, popularity, sex, booze and brawls. Looking back though I almost wish I had stayed out. Almost.
Anyway, I followed her around. I didn’t even know this girls name and I’m following her simply because she came up and spoke to me. Pretty pathetic. She led me to a small group of people that was full of teenagers, except for one guy who looked like he was past his prime.”

“Did you find out their names at that point?” The interviewer cut in. Stephen paused for a few seconds, his face showed that he was angry that he was interrupted while he was trying to tell a story.
“Shut up and I’ll tell you what happened. It’s a story you idiot, my story. I’m not gonna let you change the way I tell it, I want it to tell my story the way I want people to hear it...” Stephen exploded.
“My apologies, carry on...”
“Good. Now where was I? Ah yes! This girl led me to a small group of people, all teenagers except one who looked at least thirty years old. They were sitting on the ground in a sort of circle and they were just talking about some party they went to. I stood there next to this random girl for a short amount of time without saying a word. All the people stared at me and it was a **** feeling. Kind of like a three on one match in the wrestling you see on tv, it’s unfair and it sucks to see someone get beat down like that. But just like the wrestling match, it’s fake and it won’t kill you.
Finally the girl spoke.
‘Guys this is the loser everyone’s talking about. The one Jeremy said he was gonna kill if he didn’t leave the pool soon.’ She said loudly. I had no idea someone wanted to beat me down, it was at this stage that I figured one of the guys in front of me was names Jeremy and was about to kill me.
The entire group nodded and laughed a little and just kept looking at me. The older man stood up and walked over to me.