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It all started with a rather simple idea: get into the bar and see the meteor shower against the night sky and stay to light the fireworks after.
Then Ike was reminded of a few small hitches in that seemingly simple-minded plan of his.
The first was that they had no car to get to the party since his brother, who was visiting from his fancy Ivy League in Boston, took the car to the location a few hours earlier to help prepare. Karen didn’t drive and then Firkle refused to drive, quoting it to the fact that “ I’d never add to the carbon footprint ruining the earth and leaving it in smog. That’s so against my whole agenda.” before they’d quickly mumble that they were also scared to.
This left them with only the option to walk, it was not as if South Park had accessible public transportation in the first place. However, with such a small town that wasn’t the biggest wrench in the plan.
The second hitch however was the biggest; the fact that the party was being held at Jimbo and Ned’s dive bar near Stark Pond and they were all seventeen years old.
Though Ike could pass as a legal drinker with his height and stature, that led to the third hitch.
They lived and grew up in South Park which meant everyone knew every single person up and down in their sleep.
There was no way that any of them, even Firkle who had a rough school attendance and usually hung out more next to tree stumps than in a classroom or social environment, could make it past with a fake ID. Not to mention they all had older siblings or sibling figures that would be in attendance and would bust them out if they even managed to get past the security.
“But do you really think they’ll be that serious about that? What if we just explain that we’re going to watch with our siblings and we don’t want to get drunk!” Karen exclaimed as they all stumbled across the hedges claiming the land beside them.
“You know damn well enough that your brother is gonna make sure that it’s not just drinking happening at that party Karen,” Ike responded with a slight smirk brushed across his face.
Karen huffed, her cheeks puffing as she crossed her arms. “But we don’t want to drink right?” She whined.
“Drinking maybe not, but I wouldn’t deny myself to other things that could be available,” Firkle admitted with his hands buried deep in his black jacket’s pockets. Karen gawked and slightly hit his shoulder pad as Ike pointed at him and laughed in response.
“And this is why he’s the realist of our trio right there.”
Though the three of them couldn’t be more fundamentally different however due to more than one occasional invisible string involved, it always seemed like they were always somehow at the same places at the same time. Karen and Ike had always known each other from a distance due to their families being so close but it wasn’t until middle school they really knew how close their families inner friendships really ran down the pond.
Firkle had kept his distance and preferred the company of birds and only his fellow Goth family but middle school had taught him fast that children could be cruel and that your older sibling figures couldn’t always be there. When Ike had found him drawing alone with charcoal stained fingers at the edge of the school gates, the fellow hobby artist had taken a great deal of interest and began to spend his lunches over there.
Karen joined soon after, finding herself usually sticking to Ike for comfort regardless.
The three really became inseparable in high school, though they had different clubs and interests and acquaintances in their junior year; it always seemed to come back to just the three of them after school hours.
They’d been walking for what seemed like ages, in reality thirty minutes, when Karen noticed two figures in the nearby distance at Starks Pond. They both seemed familiar even in such illuminating darkness but the brunette knew one of the figures almost instantaneously.
“Craig!” She yelled, tugging on the two other boy’s sleeves as she almost raced down the pond.
The volume of the callout must’ve gotten Craig’s attention because the older man had only winced and looked all around before noticing the three teenagers coming near him in a drove.
“Oh dear god,” he muttered between himself and Christophe, who he had been bumping a cigarette off of.
“What the fuck are you three doing out?” Craig asked almost nonchalantly, as if he had expected to see their faces this late into the night. Ike only eyed the cigarette Christophe had taken a drag off of before pointing at it.
“Better question is can I have a hit of whatever you’re taking,” Ike grinned ear to ear, holding out an outstretched hand. The older Frenchman shrugged and began to hand over the cigarette before Craig slapped their hands away.
“Dude! He’s seventeen!” Craig scoffed.
Christophe tisked. “Oh please , you Americans and your strict moral code. I started to smoke when I was ten years old,” the Frenchman recalled.
“And look how functional you turned out,” Craig volleyed in response as Christophe took another long drag from his cigarette, puffing out the smoke towards the night sky. He passed it back to Craig as he got out another one from his box, lighting it ablaze.
“I took LSD when I was like five!” Ike added back with a groan, rolling his eyes and recounting that dreadful, dreadful day. “Besides, I would’ve had my vape pen here if my mom hadn’t found it in the kitchen.”
“Can I?” Firkle asked almost silently, pointing at Craig’s lone cigarette that was burning. The older man only handed it over without a word though Ike noticed, scoffing offended as ever.
“Oh what the fuck!” Ike yelled.
Christophe let out a low laugh. “Hypocritical, don't you think?”
“See the difference with this one is I know his sibling won’t stab me in the middle of the night while I sleep,” Craig added sternly, giving Ike a slight slant of the eyes, as if it’s his fault that his brother Kyle can be such a morale stickler.
Firkle took a single drag and gave it back to Craig who nodded in thanks before he looked at the three with a ping of curiosity.
“What are you guys even doing out here this late, isn’t it past your bedtime?”
“I am starting to feel quite tired honestly,” Karen mumbled with a chuckle, looking at Ike who only became impassioned on the reason they were even outside.
“No! We’re here on urgent business.”
Craig blinked twice before raising a hand to the younger boy. “Is your urgent business to sneak into the Meteor Shower party down at the bar? Let me tell you now, no way that’s happening. It’s pretty much Tolkien and Jimmy on stand by duty and there’s no way they’re not gonna recognise you three.”
“But why even make this party exclusive if all we want to do is watch the meteor shower!”
Craig became slightly defensive of the whole thing, recounting the last time a Meteor Shower had happened. “Because the last time this type of party happened you were all way too young to remember but people got shot and thought there was a cult inside Mackey’s house so I would say for once the precautions are necessary in this stupid town.”
Christophe’s eyes widened in astoot curiosity, stepping on the cigarette with the heel of his boot as he threw it to the grass. “When the fuck did this happen? Triste de l'avoir raté.”
Craig shivered in remembrance, turning to the taller French man. “Dude you don’t even know half of the crazy shit that’s happened in this town, South Park makes my time in college actually seem peaceful for once.”
“So it’s not because of the drinking and the drugs?” Ike asked, steering back the conversation topic to what it was before.
Craig slightly chuckled, looking off in the distance. “Who gives a shit about that, you think me and your siblings all weren’t pounding hard drugs at Tolkien’s house at your age?”
“See that just makes it even worse!”
“I’m shocked you’re not with my sister by the way,” Craig turned to Karen, pointing his cigarette at the younger girl who only gave a soft and surprised smile in response.
His sister Ruby was their age as well and though her and Karen were extremely close, Ruby seemed to constantly be doing her own thing and usually stayed out of most social events like tonight, preferring the company of her phone and a comfortable bed.
“Oh, she texted me earlier but she wasn’t interested in coming to the party so I’m just here with these two!” Karen acknowledged before Craig only could roll his eyes once more.
“Of course she’s just staying inside, typical behavior for her lazyass,” he fussed.
“I am planning to go to the party so I will help you all, reminds me of my youth days,” Christophe remarked as Ike whooped and cheered, causing the Frenchman to almost immediately regret that decision.
Craig only followed behind without a word, glad that Ike and Firkle had moved forward to be with Christophe so that they could easily bump off his cigarette. He soaked in each drag, trailing behind in silence before he noticed Karen quietly walking beside him.
She was a really sweet girl, all things considered. Craig never had a clue how a girl raised in that family and environment had turned out such a genuine human being. He had seen how much that environment had turned Kenny onto his worst habits and vices and somehow she was never affected by that. Perhaps it was just her overwhelmingly large heart or maybe it was because Kenny was that protective of a sibling.
Craig could call that piece of shit a lot of things but he could never say that he wasn’t a good older brother.
“I’m shocked you’re out and about for this idea, gotta admit,” Craig interjected quieter than usual as Karen only looked up at him with remorseful eyes. She carefully looked down at the floor.
“Oh well you know, best friends can get you to do stuff you never expected!” She smiled quietly before taking in the silence for a few more seconds. “I just wanted to say that…I…I am really sorry about what happened with my brother and I really appreciate that you’re being nice to me,” she professed, a clear nervousness in the tone of her speech.
Craig only gnawed the inside of his mouth for a moment. So she knew about the whole thing with her brother and his ex boyfriend? Great. Just great .
Regardless, he inhaled a breath of air, calming down from his inner emotional turmoil. “Karen, I may be a giant asshole but even I wouldn’t take my anger out on a little girl who had nothing to do with the situation.”
Karen frowned. She knew of what happened pretty lightly, mostly because she had been over at Ike’s house when Kenny had rushed home with Kyle, trailing after him when they had their giant argument.
The younger girl only remembered studying for their chemistry test right before Spring Break with Ike when the home door had been slammed with such vigor it almost shook the floor. Sometimes Kyle would have his fits of anger and emotions however when they had heard Kenny’s voice in the mix of the heat, they knew that this was something serious.
They had both been back to visit, as did most of the college students since they had a longer spring break period.
Karen tried not to pay attention to the sudden arguing, knowing it was none of her business but it was hard to block out any words when Kyle and Kenny had such loud, distinct voices.
“What do you think happened?” Ike had whispered quietly as a mouse before Karen shrugged, slightly concerned since she knew that Kyle and Kenny had…a strong friendship, if you could even call it a friendship at this point in their lives.
“I fucked up Kyle, I’m sorry! If I knew that you’d be so offended—”
“Offended?! You made out with your best friend’s boyfriend at Tolkien’s house, high or not, do you have any fucking decency? To me? To Craig? To anyone?!”
Ike and Karen had looked at each other mortified, their eyes meeting the second that bombshell was dropped.
“Oh don’t be so dramatic will you? They were already on a break for the fifth time!”
“And you think this sits right with me too? What the hell are we then?!”
“Judging by the fact you ignore me in public and feel ashamed to look at me anywhere else, clearly nothing, it was never anything!”
Ike had only turned to Karen, mouth agape before noticing how quickly the other girl was seemingly starting to get anxious tics and shake her hands. The taller man only sprung into action and closed his bedroom door fully before grabbing his headphones and putting them fully on Karen’s head, opening his laptop and putting on one of the many shows they liked to watch together.
“Let’s take a break for a bit,” Ike had said as he put in one of the earbuds for himself as Karen nodded and gave a thankful smile in return.
Karen shivered now, standing next to Craig and it had not been because of the cold. She recounted the memory with a certain kind of shame before she opened her mouth to speak.
“I know but still…”
Craig felt a genuine strain of remorse for the girl and only slightly tapped her shoulders for reassurance, not wanting to get into it more and not wanting her to spiral over something that didn’t even involve her in the first place.
“You’re fine kid.”
Karen gave a firm smile and nodded, looking ahead to Christophe and the other two teenagers who were, as expected, now passing around a cigarette.
Ike walked with a pep in his step, excited for the idea that they might actually get to have some fun for once and feel more rebellious than usual. He took a drag of the cigarette, inhaling a tad bit too long before he was thrown for a sea of coughs.
Firkle only hit his tongue and sighed. “And you so badly wanted that cigarette too.”
“I’m…I’m used to my vape,” Ike coughed in between words, covering his mouth with his arm.
Christophe made a disappointed noise, ruffling his own hair as he spoke. “Vapes are bullshit, real people smoke cigarettes and not that artificial fuckery.”
Ike only changed topics, noticing something odd about the Frenchman. “Why aren’t you with your boyfriend by the way?”
Christophe almost froze on the heel of his boot but continued to walk anyway, only staring ahead with slight confusion and annoyance in his voice. “My what ?”
“The blonde, English kid, he’s slightly shorter than you and has long hair—”
The Frenchman waved him off, stopping him in the middle of his sentence. “Yes, yes I assumed you meant Gregory but he is not my boyfriend ,” he corrected.
There was a single beat of silence.
“Ain’t no way,” Ike deadpanned.
Firkle was much more intrigued than he had been before as Christophe passed him the cigarette butt. “Really? I find gossip to be the biggest proof of posers in society and even I had heard many rumblings through the grapevine,” the teenager admitted.
Ike laughed. “Not even rumblings, my brother has fully complained about how much you two made out at high school parties,” Ike added with a snicker upon seeing the sudden disdain and flusteredness painted across Christophe’s expression.
“Your brother is a pain in the ass.”
“That he can be!” Ike agreed. “But so what happened, not together anymore?”
Firkle slapped the back of his head, Ike wincing and turning offended as the other dark-haired teen gave him a look that gave an expression like ‘ read the room’. Ike embarrassingly rubbed the back of his neck as they continued walking together.
“I mean, you don’t need to tell us obviously, just curious!” He added quickly.
The topic of Gregory and their relationship, or lack of one made the brunette quite sour. He lit another cigarette to distract himself from seething. “There is nothing interesting to tell. We were never together , I never wanted to be and that drove him crazy,” he admitted with a certain sadness glowing in his eyes.
“So he wanted a label and you didn’t?”
Christophe shrugged, taking an extra long drag on a new cigarette he had lit moments previous. “I suppose you can call it that.”
“I mean labels are just a forced expression made by society anyway to trap two people into further crippling financial or emotional damage for the sake of presenting a certain way.”
Christophe had no real response to the goth’s intense reply but Ike lightened the mood up slightly with his.
“Damn dude that’s tragic. My brother was convinced you guys would be married and overthrow every foreign government by the time you were like thirty.”
Christophe felt a smirk slightly pursing his lips at that grand statement. “Besides the marriage bit, the other thing can still happen. On ne sait jamais.”
Ike wished that he had been born in an actual French-Canadian province so he could’ve had more of an instinct to understand Christophe’s intense influxes of French but instead he got stuck being born in Ottawa and moving to South Park, Colorado.
He looked back to see Karen and Craig talking to one another in calm, quietness as they strayed slightly behind.
Firkle felt an arm suddenly sling around his arm as he looked over to see Ike dangling over his shoulder. “I’m gonna go see what Karen and Craig are up to, I’ll be right back,” he smiled widely before giving a firm squeeze and a wave goodbye.
“Okay,” he remarked in response, his expression and eyes slightly brightening as the Canadian left and skipped over to the other two. He turned back to Christophe who cocked a brow at him, holding out the cigarette for the younger boy to take.
“How long have you liked him?”
Firkle felt his entire foundation rock at that accusation. “Excuse me?”
Christophe smirked ear to ear, all to knowingly. “You heard me.”
“I do not…I mean…no way, as if ,” he stammered out. He rubbed down the fabric of his black jacket, getting any cigarette dust off of it. “I mean, it’s against my whole nature of existence to have romantic development for somebody. That’s the least hardcore thing I can think of.”
“You are in denial, I was the same when I was even younger than you,” he said confidently. “I am still the same honestly,” the brunette added quieter.
“ Besides , even if that was true,” he added with a bite in his voice. “—he’d never want to damage his reputation at our school with the idea of dating one, another guy and two, someone not sporty and popular like him. Let alone someone shrewd in all this dark shit like me.”
Ike was a pretty popular guy at their school, he was smart and got good grades but also he was in Basketball and in Track and Field, he was really good at it too. He constantly went to county competitions and won medals and got a ton of attention locally for it. It didn’t help that he was tall and had a good sense of style and a pretty face to boot. All the girls also thought the fact he was Canadian was super exotic and foreign which only added to his appeal.
The Frenchman adjusted his gloves.
“I think almost all of your town is very fucking gay first of all,” Christophe replied with such a seriousness that Firkle couldn’t even argue once he thought more than three seconds about it.
“And then, I do not think he would care about anything except making sure you were comfortable.”
“You act as if you know for sure about any of his feelings,” Firkle volleyed back.
“I do not know, I am not a fucking matchmaker but I do know what it is like to be in love with someone who is more outgoing and popular so to speak,” Christophe admitted openly.
“You loved him?”
“Quit changing topics,” Christophe snapped, cursing in French for a moment before he sighed thinking about Gregory and all the closure that was never seen there. “I…still do,” he admitted aloud, more to himself than anyone else. “I also still regret saying what I did and keeping the friendship over our real feelings. Consider what that means to you.”
Firkle nodded in silence, observing his expression before Christophe took another hit of his cigarette, relighting it.
“Or do not, I am not your fucking mother. Je déteste les enfants.”
The walk lasted another fifteen minutes before Ike gapped, grabbing Karen’s arm and pointing rapidly at the sight in front of them. “That’s the bar right?”
Christophe nodded, putting out his last cigarette for the night. “Oui, now we just have to think about how to get in without using the entrances.” He looked at the silver watch around his wrist, a Christmas gift from a certain someone. “We have an hour before the actual bullshit Meteor Shower starts.”
Ike sighed, looking at the other four people beside him. “Any good ideas?”
“There’s a basement level beneath the bar, I used to go there sometimes. The only thing is I don’t know how we’re going to get there since it’s only accessible through the window or underground,” Craig added.
Christophe gave a look around the perimeters before noticing something near the gate that made his face perk up. He slyly walked over and snatched the shovel that had been laying next to the hoses.
“Everybody get back,” Christophe instructed as he began to hit the shovel into the ground, Craig whined in annoyance.
“You seriously wanna dig a tunnel there?”
The Frenchman was almost offended that his talents were being doubted. “Oui, it will take me fifteen minutes max, just watch,” he replied as he scooped a giant hole from the ground for foundation.
Craig snapped his fingers in front of him. “Or, you and I could just watch for people outside by jumping that stupid fence and open the window lock for everyone else.”
Christophe threw the shovel on the ground, putting back on his black leather gloves with a hint of anger in his face. “That is so much less fucking fun.”
Craig looked to the teenagers before getting near them once more. “You three, stay near, and we’ll give a signal when it’s safe to jump, got it?”
They all nodded before Ike saluted comically.
“All clear boss.”
“ Fuck ,” Craig cringed. “Don’t call me that, I’m not that old!”
“My bad,” Ike held back a snicker before the two older men hopped or climbed the fence over. The three teenagers stood by the shaded area filled with large trees and bushes to slightly conceal themselves.
“This feels so rebellious, I feel more connected to my brother than ever before!” Karen joked, pushing her hair out from her face.
“Oh you poor, sweet summer child,” Firkle mumbled in response to this being her idea of rebelliousness .
“Karen is right, my brother used to get up to crazy shit all the time with his best friends, I feel like now I’m having my own version of that with the two people that matter most to me,” he hugged them both by the shoulder, taking them close as the two had completely opposite reactions.
“That is so sweet!”
“That is disgusting.”
Ike became dramatically offended, slightly pushing Firkle’s chest with a huff but his face and smile clearly showing that he was fooling around. “Oh shut it, you know you secretly like my antics, otherwise you wouldn’t be here,” he said with a hint of overconfidence.
The teenager shrugged it off, thrilled that the darkness of the hour hid the slight rosy color that painted his cheeks. “Maybe, but not as if I’m gonna admit that aloud to you.”
“One day, one day I’ll crack a genuine smile on your face I promise,” Ike swore up and down, still looking right at him.
“I dare you to try,” the other snipped.
“Are we making this a challenge? You should already know I’m very competitive.”
Karen watched the two with great interest, slightly raising a brow at their antics. What she had noticed was that with every sentence exchanged, it seemed that they became closer and closer distance wise and their expressions had become much more relaxed and teasing. She twirled a piece of hair between her fingers, looking back and forth between the two, clearly oblivious boys with a knowing smile plastered across her mouth.
“They totally don’t see what is happening right now like I do,” she thought to herself.
A whistle suddenly broke their trains of thought before they walked over to the fence, Craig giving a nod and an all clear.
“I’ll go first,” Firkle said before he went on his way over the fence, the height wasn’t too extreme and it was something Karen and Firkle probably could’ve scaled if they were as tall as Ike.
The other two were left alone briefly, Karen only tapping her hips with her hand as she looked at Ike with a newfound sense of wonder. “So, do you have something you wanna tell me?”
Ike was taken aback by this greatly.
“What?! No!”
Karen laughed sweetly. “Are you completely, totally sure?”
Ike looked on, confused as ever. “Yes!”
“Oh he’s completely just in denial,” Karen realised before she brushed the conversation off and put on a smile, outstretching a hand as it was her turn to climb. “Alrighty then, give me a knee?”
Ike nodded and hoisted her up before she got over the final ledge, the Canadian following quickly as was expected. It was empty outside, the loud talking and hollering and blaring music could still be heard from outside the walls though with absolute clarity.
“Everyone is inside, it is clear to go,” Christophe said as he leaned against the brick wall.
“Makes sense, shitty and cold weather outside anyway who the fuck would wanna do anything out here,” Craig muttered before he led them all to the window.
It was a rather awkward and low-placing window but that just meant it was easier to get through and open. “The drop is only a few feet and from what I know, it’s where they store everything so there should be boxes to make the fall even shorter.”
“I will go first,” Christophe shoved before the other man only shoved him back and around.
“Hell no, you’re gonna break it or some shit like that! I’m gonna go first and open it like a normal human being,” Craig snapped. The teenagers had observed that these two seemed to behave like children when they were together. It made sense, they had similar personality traits and were very quick to frustration.
“Fine! Puisque tu en sais tellement, espèce de merde.”
Craig ignored his cursing and slid open the latch, giving a thumbs up to the others before he slipped through the window, feet and knees first and with a soft thump made it to the floor.
“Made it!” He yelled from below before there was a sudden, out of character shriek from someone else whose voice was clearly not Craig.
“What the fuck! We're being ambushed!”
Christophe slid down next without trouble before he offered his hand politely to Karen who only smiled and took it, a slight yelp from the sudden steepness before Firkle and Ike were the last to make it down.
Ike stumbled down with a slight trip before he caught Firkle’s jacket fabric and steadied himself. “We made it!” He yelled happily before he turned fully and felt his stomach drop upon seeing not just the five of them in the basement but Eric, Wendy, Tolkien, Gregory and worst of all, his own brother.
His older brother’s face turned from explicit confusion to absolute riveting anger.
“ Ike!” Kyle spat out with that horrifyingly serious tone that he knew of his brother when he was about to be scolded to every continent and back.
“Oh I am so never gonna hear the end of this,” he whispered miserably to Karen and Firkle, scrunching his face in his hands as Karen looked just as guilty seeing her brother’s friends there, shyly toying with her fingertips.
Firkle simply leaned against the wall, knowing that he was the only one in the clear fully.
Their mission had been completed and successful! They were officially in the bar itself but was it about to be worth confronting his older brother about?
That was a question that had an obvious answer in it of itself.