Click here to read the next story... Tripping By Lorena Smith   The music blares from the open windows of the car. It is summer and we are all 16 and acting like it. “Well, get in…” There are two boys in the car. The one is blonde and wearing a black mesh shirt over tight Levis. He has a cross dangling off one ear lobe and a wicked smile. He looks like George Michael. At least he is trying hard to. The other one is not quite illuminated from the light of the streetlight and all I can pick up is the Hang Ten logo on his shirt and a Coke in the cupholder. I guess he hasn’t read the latest taste tests. People prefer Pepsi. Now that someone has actually stopped to give us a ride, we all hesitate. We have stood here for about an hour with our thumbs in the wind. We were about to call it a night for which I, at least, was enormously grateful. I had no desire to hop into a car with people I didn’t know to travel 60 miles to hear some concert we probably weren’t going to get into. And here we were, almost, almost out of this adventure that was going to have me in enormous trouble with my parents and this silly old car stops by. I twirl my black plastic earrings and swear softly under my breath. I can’t bow out because I don’t want to seem like a wimp. Our theme for the summer is “Wild women do—and they don’t regret it.” I’m not sure I’m that wild. And I’m sure I’m going to regret it. Madeline snaps her gum and puffs up her hair. “Is my mascara running?” She actually has so much eye makeup on that I can’t tell if anything is running in her face. Is there supposed to be a blue streak across her cheek? I don’t know so I keep quiet. I am the newest member in this gang of four and I’m not about to jeopardize anything. Linda tugs at her sweatshirt, which has the neck ripped out. Then she tugs at her leg warmers. I wish she’d stop tugging at everything. She’s making me nervous. “Well, let’s go—what the hell is everyone waiting for?” Anna is the most timid of the three that I had become friends with and she stutters a little. ‘Well you know, we don’t know them. And we’re going far. And what if…?” We hear the car start up again while we are talking and the music starts blaring.             Madeline throws herself at the door before they have a chance to drive off. “Hi—yes we’ll go” The guy who had hitherto been in the dark leans forward and I feel my heart skip. Oh heavens. It’s him. He is gorgeous. “I’m Jim; this is Bob.” I mumble something and slip into the back seat of the car behind the driver’s seat. Anna tumbles after me, still mumbling and catching her enormous pink fluorescent hair ribbon in the door. She always seems to be dropping bits and pieces around her. I notice that only one of her socks still has a pom pom on it. Madleiene, the most outgoing and the author of tonight’s adventure squishes herself in the front seat with the guys. I knew she was going to. I see her smile at Jim and feel my heart sink. This is going to suck. “Ladies. Onward. And what can my associate and I play for you today?” I stare out the window. I am tired of this already. I can tell how the evening will end. We will get there, won’t get in the concert. Linda will cry about Mike; Anna will be sick with worry that her parents will find out she has been hitchhiking and Madeliene will make out with Jim who looks like that guy from AHA. Or else she will pick a fight with both of them and we’ll be stuck all night trying to find a ride home.   “Take on me… take me on.”   Yeah buddy. Take me on. But I know that won’t happen. I recognized him from school and knew that Madeliene had too. He was an upperclassman and on the football team. She was by far the more aggressive of us and I was used to not getting what I wanted when it came to attention from boys.   “Why don’t they … do what they say… say what they mean… one thing leads to another…”   I mouth the words. The Fixx. I love this song. The road flashes by and the streetlights throw shadows across the white divider lines. I glance up. A look in the back mirror. A flash between our eyes. I stare back. He’s mouthing the words too and I feel a chill. He smiles slightly and I blush and look down. I glance at Madeliene and feel a chill of a different sort. Whatever. I look outside again.             We’re finally here. I knew it. We can’t get in. It’s in a large outdoor park, but the chain link fence is miles high and we have no tickets.             “Come on, quietly and hurry everyone. We have about five minutes to get there.” We run along the fence and I wonder if anyone knows where we’re going. We’re in a dark part now but I can see the flashlight from a security guard playing along the fence. One of Jim’s friends is waiting. “Come on!! Come on… For god’s sake… faster.” Bob is the first one to wiggle through the tiny opening underneath the fence. I can feel my heart beating. I think I’m going to be sick. He hauls Madeline and Linda through and then Anna. The security guard is almost on top of us. Anna gets stuck and the friend and Bob are both tugging at her. I feel the light catch my face just as she is yanked loose with a yelp. I turn to the guard. “What are you doing young lady? Go buy a ticket like everyone else. Now get the hell out of here before I arrest you.” I glance back over the fence and see the retreating back of Madeline holding Bob’s hand and tripping in her Madonna mini skirt. Great. Now what? I guess I’ll have to call my Dad and be grounded for the rest of my life. I turn to walk back to the parking lot and feel someone catch my hand. It is Jim. He smiles. “We can listen to music in the car while we wait for them,” he says.             So all night we listen to music in his car. Mostly hard rock. Poison and Europe and Scorpion. We talk and talk. We listen to guitar riffs and argue if Joey Tempest or Brett Michaels has better hair. We stop talking to listen to the Scorpions sing Winds of Change and talk a little about the Berlin Wall coming down and how strange that is.             We talk and talk until I see the others coming back. The concert is over. It is midnight. It will be past two when we get home. Only three hours past curfew.             The night didn’t end the way I thought it would. My parents didn’t catch me sneaking in through the window. Jim and I remain friends to this day. We often meet at social functions or business meetings.             Recently I ran into him and out of the blue he said, “Remember that day with the concert? In my car listening to music? I really wanted to kiss you that night.” “Why didn’t you?” I asked. He smiled. “I guess I just didn’t hear the right song.” I smile as I head for my house and my kids and my husband. Sweet memories. The final countdown and Aha. Too much hairspray and teenage hormones. I open my door and hear Barney singing “I love you… you love me… we’re a happy family…” How happy I am that this time the right song is playing.   © Copyright, Lorena Smith   Click here to visit Lorena’s page.   Click here to read the next story...