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No school, no homework, no tests, no teachers, only hanging out with your best friend all day. Right...except for the last thing. Egg went to some camp for metalheads like him, although he asked me whether I wanna tag along with him, I’m afraid I’d have come home with a hearing impairment---so I had to turn down his invitation. This was just ‘brilliant’...two weeks on my own. My family doesn’t count. I love them, but I planned to hang out with someone around my age to have actual fun with. The fact that I was a newcomer in Angelus didn’t help either. Egg told me about a new horror movie I should watch, he said it’s sick, so even though I wasn’t fond of the genre as I had nothing better to do eventually I headed downtown to the video shop.
As I was wandering along the rows my eyes stopped on the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I was tempted to buy it, but as my pocket money was only enough for one film I walked on and headed to the horror section. There it was, ‘See No Evil’, the cover picture itself gave me the creeps already, but since I didn’t want to listen to Egg’s teasing that I was a chicken I picked up the DVD from the front then headed to the counter.
“Can I see your ID for that, mate?”
My eyes widened at the older boy as I just slipped the DVD onto the counter. I already saw myself taken into the station by the Sarge, spending my life behind bars for attempting to buy a film which wasn’t meant for me.
“Mate?”
The boy’s voice brought me back to reality from my vivid imagination and even though I knew I was 12, way below the film’s classification I nervously dug into my bermuda short’s pocket and slipped my ID in front of the boy.
“Lachlan Robert Louis Stevenson Leonard...well...that’s something, but this is MA 15+, if you’d really want it, for an extra dollar I can give it to you, but it’s rated for that age for a reason.”
Pheew...this was a close one, but this boy was actually pretty chill about it, and didn’t even mock me about my long name, nor about my age, although as I looked at the cover again I shook my head and looked up at the taller boy.
“I...to be honest with you I didn’t even want to buy it in the first place, my friend kind of pushed the idea…”
“It’s rubbish if you ask me, but I hear the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie is great, I haven’t had the chance to watch it yet.”
“Wow! Can you see into my head? I--I was actually thinking about buying that one!”
I smiled as the boy chuckled about my comment, and I slipped my ID back into my pocket, then once I picked up the DVD I put it back in its place and returned with the mentioned adventure film.
“So, isn’t your friend gonna be pissed about you bringing this movie instead to watch?” The boy in the purple shirt asked as he took my money and put the receipt along with the film into a plastic bag for me.
“Nah, he is at a camp, I’m on my own during the holiday..gonna watch it alone.” My voice ended up sounding pretty sad which I didn’t want but the other’s kind manner made it easier to open up like that.
“Aha---listen, my shift ends at noon, if you want we could watch it together.”
“Would you really?! That would be so awesome!” I was giddy and felt a bit ashamed about it, but as the older boy snickered, I didn’t feel that bad about my reaction.
*
Out of all the days mum decided to do a big house-cleaning and that left me to the job of feeding Blob, she preferred to chew on the lino, but naturally we tried to give her proper baby food as well. Only this time all the content came right back landing on my t-shirt and face. Yuck! I was already late but this just slowed me down even more, I had to take a shower and change my clothes. Good one Lockie, way to start a new friendship!
I felt utterly ashamed for ringing the doorbell, being 30 minutes late! I was so nervous as soon as the door opened I just blurted out the excuses, so Dim wouldn’t be mad at me, at least not too much.
“Sorry! I would have made it in time! But mum asked me to feed Blob and then the food disagreed with her, so she threw it all up on me. I hope you’re not angry with me. Umm by the way, Blob is my little sister.”
“That sounds pretty rough...well come on in.”
“Hey! Is that you?!” I rushed inside and ran my eyes on the framed picture. It was Dim on a jet ski! And he was on his own, that meant he must be at least sixteen. Wicked. I always wanted to go on a ride on one of those but according to Sarge it was something too dangerous and we couldn’t afford it. However since I had my surfboard I let go of the idea but now that I saw the photo the old feelings came back to the surface.
“Yeah, I got it for my birthday, it came with the ute.”
“What? You have a car too? That’s … that’s awesome! Can...Can I see them?”
For us Leonards birthdays were never focused on the gifts nor on its price nor quantity, we valued the day we spent together, enjoying mum’s more or less edible cakes. Such values were nice and decent but I was twelve and even if I was raised a different way hearing all the things Dim got for his birthday made me wish that I could get such cool and expensive gifts as well. I felt a negative feeling rising in me but I suppressed the envy in me, knowing well it’d do no good at all, neither to me nor to my forming friendship with Dim.
The white ute looked so cool, and the jet ski attached to the rear just made me speechless. Dim lifted me up so I could actually touch the vehicle’s side. While he was amused about my reaction I liked that he showed it all to me.
The movie was awesome, Dim had home-made pop-corn and coke so we had something to eat while watching the movie. Later as we headed out to the back garden I picked up a branch from the ground holding it out towards him.
“Brace yourself. I’m Lockie, the greatest pirate on Earth!”
The look Dim gave me was familiar...too familiar. The exact same look I gave my little brother whenever he did something too childish, what I found ridiculous. I was just about to drop the piece of wood in complete embarrassment when Dim picked one up as well and hit my twig with his. It drew a chuckle out of me and we began to playfully fight with each other.
“In the name of the Australian Navy, surrender!” Dim shouted at me while he tried to stay serious.
I loved how Dim got himself into the role, and I just then realized I actually missed having a big brother. Being the oldest sibling came with several responsibilities, but with Dim it was different, it somehow felt comforting to hang out with an older boy.
“Never!”
We played for a little while more and it all ended when I slipped on a rock and fell back on the grass, Dim pointing the end of his twig at my chest. Instead of feeling any disappointment I just snickered and told him that he won.
Later on we climbed up onto the roof of his house and watched the ocean from there.
“Have you moved here lately?” I asked after I shooed a few mozzies away.
“No. I live in Crescent Bay. I’m here for the summer, this place is my grandparents’. The job at the video store is temporary.”
“Oh..” This was not the answer I was expecting to hear. Apparently the distance between our hometowns was about 2 days driving. “That’s pretty far from here.”
“Yeah, I reckon. On my way here I had to stop once to catch some z’s.”
I rested my chin on my knees and just watched the sun slowly setting down in the distance. I remained silent, because I didn’t like the new information I got to know from Dim. Although I smiled aside at him as he ruffled my hair.
“I’ll be here for a few weeks though, and if your folks would be okay with it I’d take you for a ride on my jet ski, now how does that sound?”
I thought Dim couldn’t grow any more in my eyes, but he was being so nice.
“I’d love that! I hope Sarge will comply.”
“Sarge?” There was a confused look on his face and I knew why.
“My dad...we call him Sarge. He’s a police officer.”
“A cop? Uh I'd rather watch my back then.”
“Nah...he’s cool. Don’t worry, Dim...and you’re my friend so...you’re good!” Maybe calling him a friend was a bit too much. What if he’d just point at me and laugh for minutes, mocking me for being so dumb to think someone as cool as him would want to be my friend, but instead he just smiled. “I wish there were more people like you at my high school. You know quite a few boys make a sport out of bullying me.”
“...this is sadly the case in every school, there aren’t any schools without at least one bully….what do they do? Sorry---I probably shouldn’t ask.” I doubted that Dim was one who would ever get bullied by anyone, because he was cool, handsome, rich and super nice, but yeah sadly he was right.
“It’s fine...they just pick me up, dip my head in the toilet or cover me in vegemite….that sort of stuff.”
“Jeez, that’s horrible Lockie. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah…” We suddenly went silent and just looked ahead of us. In a way I felt guilty for ruining the mood but even if we were just watching the beach in silence it felt nice to hang out with a boy who was friendly with me like that.
*
Dim eventually drove me home and I felt it right to invite him in so my family could get to know him, although I was a bit worried what would they think, they got along just right. I had no idea how but I ended up listening to Dim talking about him doing graffiti and he offered to decorate the wall of our house. I didn’t know mum and the Sarge would actually approve of graffiti but to be honest our house looked pretty depressing so some colours would have improved it for sure!
*
The thing is, I missed Egg, but hanging out with Dim was so much fun that sometimes I even forgot about my classmate. Was it something bad? Was that selfish of me? But I reckoned Egg must have made new friends at the camp, so that made me feel better, also the fact that we were riding the waves at 70 mph! Surfing was still my number one activity but jet skiing was awesome! Dim was a pro, so I felt totally safe with him behind me riding the jet. We were out on the ocean for hours and we only stopped because we became really hungry. I thought we’d eat something home made either at my house or at Dim’s, but when he drove us down to the city and we ate at Macca’s I became absolutely speechless. Was I dreaming all of this?! Thankfully I wasn’t, and after the delicious meal we drove back to our place.
*
Using graffiti wasn’t as easy as I thought it’d be but Dim was a great teacher. We had lots of fun while decorating the walls of the house. I may have started it but we ended up graffitiing each others t-shirts, let’s just say mum didn’t think it was as funny as we thought so. But she was really pleased with the end result of how our house looked. It was so colorful, the Sarge said it was like a hippie shack.
*
I knew the day would come eventually. The day when Dim would have to pack up and go back home. We went for one last walk downtown together just having our ice creams but the walk didn’t end up like I had imagined it to. There came Boof and his gang right towards us.
“Bum.” I cussed under my nose but Dim heard it and he was just about to ask what was wrong when my bullies blocked our way.
“Hey loser!” Boof tore my ice cream out of my hand then smashed it at the front of my t-shirt…’great’. I assumed now came the part when Dim would eventually realize what a loser I was indeed and he’d laugh along with the others, but that wasn’t what happened.
“Got a problem mate? Did you and your minions escape from daycare?” Dim’s comeback was brave and awesome at the same time. No-one was laughing and Boof went absolutely silent staring up confused at Dim. “If you’re going to act like a turd, go lay on the yard.” Now that drew out some snickering from Boof’s friends but Dim gave them a look. “Stupidity isn’t a crime, so you’re free to go guys, for now.”
WOW! Just WOW! I thanked God that Dim was older, smarter, wittier and way taller than any of my bullies. My bullies looked so intimidated and they just scrammed off.
“My...God! Dim you are the best!” I chuckled with some tears in my eyes as I watched those idiots hurrying away. “They..they were those bullies.”
“I guessed. Let’s hope they won’t cause you any more trouble, or at least will leave you alone for a while.”
“I owe you...this was epic!” I smiled up at Dim, although my smile soon faded away as I had to think about what was about to happen in a few hours.
*
I was standing next to the white ute not really saying anything, although I had many thoughts in my mind, the words just didn’t come.
“Don’t be moping around buccaneer, we had one hell of a summer!”
“We sure did.” I eventually smiled up at Dim but I sighed when he hugged me. Don’t cry, don’t cry! Big boys don’t cry! But I couldn’t help it and I sniffled as I was hugging Dim.
I looked away quickly once he pulled back so he wouldn’t see my tears, but he crouched down to be in eye level with me and gently ruffled my blonde locks.
“I’m gonna send you a postcard from Crescent Bay, alright? And you gotta send me one too. Tell me about your family, about that mean Old Squasher, your surfing...Promise?”
“Promise.” I sniffled and wiped away my tears then watched as Dim got inside his car. I was waving to him even when I haven’t even seen his ute anymore.
Later on as I was laying on my surfboard I realized what I learned during this vacation was that one of the hardest things in life was to watch a friend walk out of your life, maybe for good.