There he was. Leaning against the post in solitude, watching our softball game. Nick. I was temporarily distracted by his glory that the ball cuffed me on the head. As I stood there rubbing the already forming bump, I saw his shoulders shake in a chuckle. He brought his cigarette to his lips and slowly sucked the tip. He saw me looking and raised his pierced eyebrow. I turned away in time for the ball to once again strike my head; this time, my face.

“ Alice, would you pay attention instead of gawking at that stoner?” Coach asked me. “ Oh, jeez, now your nose is bleeding. Go to the god dammed nurse.” He waved me away and I whipped my tongue out at him. He growled and I leisurely walked to the door. I wiped my nose on my sleeve, only to have it smear all over my face. I gave Nick a triumphant, but reclusive grin and continued on up the steps. He dropped his cigarette and ground it with his foot, the very motion making me ripple. I continued to walk up the steps in what I hoped was a determined walk, but stumbled halfway. I tumbled down the stairs and landed at the bottom, right at his feet. I pretended not to know that, and started to get up, sweating immensely. I felt a slight breeze against my back and saw a hand appear before my face. I tried not to grin as I grabbed it and held it tightly. I looked up and saw the face of my coach, leering at me.

“ You’re so clumsy. So damn clumsy.” He helped me up and I yanked my arm away.

“ Don’t touch me!” I screamed at him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the game stop, the ball in the air, and it was flying towards Nick. Without thinking I ran towards him. He saw me, but was unaware of what was about to happen. I jumped up and snatched the ball just inches from his face, but landed on him and we toppled over. I heard cheering from the field, as our team made a few homeruns, securing that fact that we won. I suddenly realized that I was on top of Nick. I scrambled off of him, but he just lay there like he was dead. I shook him a bit but he didn’t move.

“Go get the nurse.” Coach screamed at me. “ You killed the guy!”

I looked at Nicks limp body once more then trying to hold back tears, attempted to get up. But there was something holding me down. His hand! He was clutching my gym shorts.

“ Coach!” I moaned sardonically. “ I feel sick!” I pretended to gag.

“ Janet, go get the nurse for the love of god!” he screamed at some random girl. “ Everybody back away. Go back to the field.” He said, but no one listened. They all wanted to see the dead guy and the stupid girl who killed him. Eventually, Coach had to walk them to the field. Meanwhile, the real God, Nick, and I, were alone.

“ W- what’s you’re name?”

“ Satisfaction.” I said and he looked at me quizzically. “ Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.” I finished.

“ No thanks. I just want to know your name.” He sniffed, and tugged at his hat.

“ I- uh... name is... see...um.”

“ Huh?” his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“ A-a-a-Alice. My name be- is Alice.”

“ Oh. I’m N-”

“ Nick. I know who you are.”

“ Yeah, well. Everyone does. Now, I’m only gonna say this once. Get your ass off me Alice.”

“ Oh! Sorry!” I leaped off him, and bit my lip. He sat up and massaged his back. His leather jacket was covered with dust, and his hat had grass on it.

“ I know who you are.” He said quietly.

“ I thought you didn’t.” I beamed at him and waited for him to continue.

“ You’re Johnny’s girl.”

“ Johnny? He’s my friend, I would hardly consider him my boy.”

“ Think twice.” He scooted back and sat daintily on the grass, away from me. He got up and dusted his rump, which happens to be the finest butt in all of history. While I drooled over him, I hadn’t realized that the nurse had come with a wheel chair. Nick inched away from us and the nurse gently touched my shoulder. I shrugged her away and got up. I was going to have a word with Johnny.

***

   “ What did he mean, Johnny’s girl?”

“ Don’t give a shit about Nick.”

“ But he said-”

“ I said don’t listen to him Al. You’re my friend. If anything, that’s what he meant.” Johnny zipped his sleeve on his leather jacket. Ziiip. Ziiip. Ziiip.

“ Can you stop that?” I asked him quietly. Ziiip.

“ What?” He asked dumbly. Ziiip, ziiip, ziiip!

I yanked the zipper and pulled it off its track.

“ What the hell, Alice? Now I don’t have a zipper.” Johnny tried to glare at me, but ended up laughing. Kevin and Faith joined us and we settled down.

   Faith used to be a really good friend of mine, until she started going out with Kevin. He was one of them, one of their gang, the ones that we were supposed to date, but he was the worst of them all. Lying, deceiving, cheating, and getting high are a few of his pastimes and I quite frankly didn’t like him at all. Faith paid his bad reputation no mind for she only went for looks, which by me, is pretty dumb. He’s no looker, but Nick...

   I quickly canned the table to check if anyone had seen me drooling. I wiped my mouth and got up to get some food. Johnny immediately followed me, not wanting to be left alone with the make-out monarchs. We headed towards the food line pushing each other and shoving, until he pushed me too hard and I smack into some guy. I looked up at the kid and it turned out to be Arthur. One of the gang.

“ Hey Arthur.” Johnny called out and a few kids snickered. Arthur shot them death glares and they shut up. “ How’s it going? Did you pay for the car?”

“ No man. I’m not getting a fucking car. Shit, I have no money.”

“ Then why are you in the lunch line perchance?” I queried.

“ I'm on the fucking fee waiver. I don’t even like this shit.” He pointed at something that appeared to be green meatloaf.

“ I'm not having the meat special.” I said, clutching my stomach. “ I got an ailment from last weeks special, and that wasn’t even green.” I looked at the meat and started to get sick again. “ Lets just get pizza.” I told them. They both shrugged and we walked to the pizza line.

“ Friday is so fucking boring. I don’t get why these kids get all excited about it.” Arthur said indignantly. “ I could shit on Friday.”

“ Arthur, you are a never ending source of foul language.” Johnny told him respectively. I nodded and smiled. Arthur shrugged again and picked up a slice of pizza.

“ Hey!” Called out Johnny. “ You’re not supposed to eat it until you pay, you thief!”

The whole lunch line turned around and we bolted, leaving Arthur in his own misery.

“ Hey alice?”

“ What?” I asked, shaken out of another daydream of Nick.

“ Wanna come over today?”

“ Yeah sure. I got nothing else to do.” I paused. “ Will Nick be there?”

“ No...Why would he be there? I’d like to hang out with you alone sometime without a bunch of people around.”

“ Oh.” I said gently, secretly loathing him for not inviting Nick. I grabbed an apple off the nearest kid’s tray and bit into it. The sweet taste filled my mouth as I scanned the cafeteria for someone I would actually enjoy hanging out with. I spotted Faith and Kevin making out at our table, and Arthur glaring at them. I felt an arm drape around my shoulder and I sneered.

“ Johnny. How many timed do I have to tell you not to touch me.”

“ It’s in a friendly way. Friends grope each other.” I turned to him and he grinned. It wasn’t like Johnny was bad looking; in fact, he was almost as good looking as Nick, but I just didn’t like him like that. I was deeply attracted to Nick. There was something always telling me that being with Johnny was wrong. And of course, there was always my brain telling me that being with Nick was right. Since fifth grade.

“ Oh my god! Alice!” I heard an irritating voice call my name. By the sound of it, I knew it was another prep.

“ What?” I said, aggravated, to the face of the ugly prep. She was practically bouncing around.

“ Harley asked me out!”

I recognized her, and I sure as hell knew Harley. The weirdest kid of the gang, he was the one with the long hair.

“ So?”

“ I'm one of you!” She squealed. “ I knew it! I knew he liked me!”

“ Right. I’m just gonna-”

“ NO! You have to teach me what to wear and what music to listen to.”

“ What music do you listen to?”

“ Rap?”

“ Fuck it.” I said and turned heel. I wouldn’t see her again. They always try to avoid me after they’ve been rejected. Unwritten prep rule or something.

   After school, I went home and attempted to do my homework, but the computer distracted me, by sending telepathic signals to sign online. So I went online and saw that Nick was online. I would never talk to him, but there was something I really enjoyed about seeing his screen name. It made me feel all connected knowing the two of us were online at the same time; two different people in this one big world. I stayed online until he signed off and then proceeded to check my various emails. Porn. Porn. Credit card. Porn. Porn. Johnny?

I opened the email from Johnny. All it showed was a link to something. I clicked on the link and it took me to a website. It took its time loading so I had time to fix myself something to eat. My mom wasn’t going to get home until late. She likes spending her time at the bar. I came back to the computer, and saw that the website had been his band’s biography. He apparently just updated it. I read it and closed the site, and deleted the email. I checked my buddy list. Nick signed on again while I was gone. I beamed at the screen name, willing it to instant message me. Nothing. I tried again, but this time I heard the doorbell. I signed offline and ran downstairs to get it.

“ Hey Al. Can you come out and play?” Johnny asked with a smile playing about his lips. I shook my head at him.

“ Why don’t you come over here? Since you’re here already.” I asked him sweetly.

“ Sure, sure. I’m not needed at home anyhow. My mom is mad at me again. She caught me smoking.”

“ I thought you stopped.”

“ Well, I needed to start up again. I was getting fat.” He smirked at me and made me look down at myself.

“ I’m fat. Maybe I should start smoking.” I said sarcastically, knowing I barely weighed the amount of a paper clip. Johnny poked my stomach and nodded.

“ Look at all that fat. Alice, jeez, you cow.”

“ Any other girl, and she would’ve slapped you in the face Johnny.” I told him. He smiled again and flopped onto my couch.

“ Where’s your room.” He asked, plainly curious.

“ I don’t have one. My mom said I couldn’t have a room because all I’ll do is take random boys up to it and do teenager-ish things.” I said, trying not to laugh.

“ Really?” He asked, his eyes getting wide in interest.

“ Yeah. You know, ‘cause I’m such a sex freak.” This was probably not the best thing to say to a guy while we were alone at my house, but I was having too much fun to stop.

“ I raped this guy one time, at the side of the house and my mom caught me. I guess the guy didn’t get pregnant so I didn’t need to worry about that.”

“ Al, stop, really. Now I know you’re kidding.” He patted the seat next to me and I plopped down on it.

“ I have a room, but it’s messy and I don’t want you in it.”

“ What if Nick was here?” He asked sarcastically, but I heard a bit of envy in his voice.

“ If Nick was here I’d shriek and hide in that messy room of mine, vowing never to come out.”

Johnny chuckled halfheartedly. I looked around to make sure that the house was clean and I bit my lip. If Nick was here, I don’t know what I would do, I thought. Probably I would try to talk to him, knowing my urges would eventually force me to eat him alive. I had a weird taste in my mouth now. I wanted to kiss Nick so badly. The last time I went out with someone was about half a year ago, and he was one of the gang. He was a senior and now was off in college. The reason I dated him was, well he like me and also, he was actually smart. I needed that in a guy, cause the rest of them were plain dumb. Besides Nick. But I could never muster up the courage to talk to Nick, so I settled for Dominic. But he had to go away, leaving the gang, the school, and me. Now see, when I say gang, I don’t mean like a I-hate-other-gangs-shooting-violence-ghetto-gang. I mean, the group of loner/loser/pothead/ reject guys. They all form a group, and the girl version is where I'm from. Currently the guy gang consists of: Johnny, Nick, Arthur, Kevin, and Harley. The girl gang, known as the Impossibles to other guys, is made up of: Faith, Brody, Georgia and me, Alice. So there is one less girl and when Dominic was still with the guys, there was a major shortage of girls. But the point is, I think my lips are getting chapped from no kissing. I licked them.

“ Al?” Johnny whispered softly, bringing my focus back to him.

“ What?”

“ Can I kiss you? I mean, I know we’re friends but, I’d really, really like to.” He said with an odd expression in his eyes.

“ Johnny I have a really weird feeling about this.” I said, pushing his face away. Just then, my mom came home and started yelling at me for not putting my shoes away.

“ Hey mom.” I said dully. “ This is Johnny.”

She stared at him. She didn’t say anything, just stared at him. I was about to nudge her, when she snapped to her senses and finally greeted him. Johnny meekly shook her hand and said he had to go.

“ Bye Johnny.”

“ Bye Alice, and her mom.” And he was out the door. I shrugged and turned back to my mom.

“ Just so you know, he’s not my new boyfriend.”

“ I know, you told me about him before. But Alice, I need to tell you something.”

“ Yes mom?” I said, sounding all snotty.

“ He looks exactly like your father.”