So we are taking a trip down memory lane AGAIN. I have been looking at some of my past works recently, and stumbled upon this draft I wrote called, "Ex-Best Friends". You can probably assume that this was about a group of four "ex-best friends" who accidentally find themselves locked in a basement together. Because of this, the four of them reconnect and recount the story of their friendship and their downfall. It was something personal for me, and based off of a lot of short tales from my life put together into one fictional meta-text.
At this point in the story, the four main characters, Ryan, Jackie, Cassandra, and Veronica, are just being accidentally locked in Cassandra's basement at her birthday party. After the downfall, Ryan and Cassandra remained close friends, and Jackie and Veronica stayed close. Outside, a storm has been brewing, but we are about to bring the storm inside.
Ryan and I were organizing some of the gifts in my bedroom when all the lights decided to go out at once.One moment, I could see all the brightly colored bags around me, and then the next, all I could see were dark shapes on a dark canvas.
“What the hell?” I asked out loud. I instantly grabbed my phone as I needed some sort of flashlight.I flicked it on, and a beam of light came out from the back of my phone.I could not see my entire surroundings, but I could focus at least some light on the room ahead of me.
“It is the storm,” Ryan answered as he turned his flashlight on as well. “Should we check the generator in the basement?”Did I even have a generator in my basement?I mean, I assumed that there was.Wasn’t that something that everyone else had in their house?
“Yeah,” I said as I walked past him to get through the door. Outside my room, the party had not stopped. Through the loud voices of the crowd, no one had realized that all the music stopped. They noticed the lights turning off, but they probably just assumed that it was for dramatic effect. It was easy for Ryan and I to push through them. Except, the games of beer pong had escalated to the use of cell phone flashlights, which made it seem even more intense. Looks like I was not the only one who thought to use her flashlight on her phone.With that being said, and with the party still being in full swing, getting through there was a bit of a mess, but Ryan and I eventually did it.
The kitchen was pretty empty, except for the few couples who found a romantic setting in the old pots and pans.Wow, I couldn’t get anyone on my birthday, but a few random couple could find each other in the sensual setting of my kitchen.I tried to ignore them by focusing myself completely on the destination at hand, and within seconds I reached it.
Oddly enough, the usually cold doorknob felt warm to the touch, as if it had been touched before. I decided to shrug that off, as I was in a house filled with drunks teens and someone probably just held onto the doorknob for support. I pulled it open, and Ryan flashed his flashlight on the stairs below.
In the living room, we could hear loud music being blasted again. But the power had not gone back on.What the hell?
“Those idiots are probably playing music on their phones now,” Ryan said. I questioned how they were able to get their music to sound so loud, but some moron probably brought a speaker with them.I wondered how I was even able to question that. Of course, someone had brought a speaker.
Without anymore questioning, I began to walk down the stairs. Usually, I would hear the creak of the stairs and nothing more. But there was another sound. It was faint as a mouse whispering, but it was there. My curiosity got the best of me, and I ran down the rest of the stairs.Was there a couple already in my basement? Oh no. No one was about to have sexy time in my dark basement.
My feet landed on the dusty basement floor in a hurry, and I shone my flashlight around the room. It did not take long to find the source of the noise.Down there, a tan, curly-haired girl stood with her pale, straight-haired friend. Jackie and Veronica stood together in the basement, seemingly in a conversation that we had walked into.
SLAM! Something made a noise so loud that the two of them jumped. Ryan, who was behind me and still on the staircase, looked up to the source of the noise.
“Someone closed the door,” he said. A nervous tone plagued his voice. He ran up the dark stairs, and through the loud music that blared from upstairs, we could hear him attempt to open it multiple times. Bang! Bang! Bang! He pounded on the door three times, and we could hear no response. Within a minute, Ryan returned downstairs. “Someone locked us in.”
I turned, and Jackie and Veronica’s faces became nervous. There mouths were subtly open, and their eyes wide. But why were they down there in the first place?I assumed that they were not having sexy time with each other.
“Why are you two here?” I asked them. Veronica instantly looked at Jackie to explain. Veronica was never one for logical explanations. But then again, Jackie was not always the biggest fan of logic either.Together, they were a duo of illogical magic.
“There was a mix up, and I thought I saw Veronica going down here,” Jackie explained, “So I followed her to ask what she was doing. But it turns out that she was following me, and I was just seeing something.” She did not sound so confident with her last words. Her voice began to trail off and faded away into a soft nothingness.
“Sounds convincing,” Ryan remarked. He folded his arms and strut his way off the staircase and toward them.His stance was strong and determined, as if he was ready to interrogate the two of them. “We just came down to check the generator.” Ryan shot a look at me, which reminded me that I had to check the generator.
But that was the problem. I had no idea what the generator was. I just knew that we had one. I could not even tell the difference among the many odd things in my basement. I was kind of hoping Ryan would somehow know what had to be done.
“Ryan,” I said, “I don’t know what the generator is.” Ryan’s eyes burned into my soul with a fire that only he could ignite.I still did not
“Just great,” he said, “Can you text Raymond or Alyssa? Maybe they know.” I already knew the answer. No one could do that.
“There is no service down here,” I answered, “And with the power being off, the wi-fi is off.” Ryan’s fire could have engulfed the entire basement by then.He was completely ready for a roast.
“This is perfect,” he said. “The four of us trapped in the basement while a party is going on upstairs. I cannot wait until your parents walk in on this and we won’t even know.” I tried to take a deep breath in.
“Everything is going to be fine,” I replied, “The storm will pass and maybe everything will come back on. Then I can text Raymond to at least get us out.” Ryan sighed, and flung himself onto one of the old couches that was messily placed in the basement. I did the same, as I thought I would be more nervous standing up.
Meanwhile, Veronica and Jackie stood together. Their bodies were so close together as if leaving one another meant that something wrong would happen. But none of them made the move to sit on the other two seater couch.
“Sit down,” I calmly said as the music in the background began to fade into the back of my mind. “We might be here for a while, so you might as well be comfortable.” Veronica and Jackie shared a glance of decision, and the two of them both migrated to the couch opposite of Ryan and I.
For a moment, I was brought back to freshmen year. I saw the four of us hanging out in my house and just spending an entire night laughing and playing cards and watching movies. But the four of us could barely look at each other. Time changes you, but I never realized how much it would.
Veronica and Jackie began to cling to every article of clothing on them. They slowly got closer and closer, as if they could generate more body heat. Everything was silent. Of course, nothing was silent, as the music upstairs was incredibly loud, but we had trained our ears to block it out by then.
“Remember Together on Our Own?” Ryan asked. His voice pierced the air without warning, as none of us expected anyone to speak.
“Yeah,” Veronica awkwardly replied. She kept her head down, and her voice remained quiet. “You wrote it sophomore year.”
“That was the apartment story, right?” Jackie asked. I could see Ryan nod through the combined lights of our cell phone flashlights. “I liked that one,” she added.
“That was a great time,” I silently said. I could feel the three of them begin to look at me, so I faced them. After months of avoiding their glances, I was tired of it. I was tired of the uncertainty of not knowing why everything happened. I was tired of acting like they did not mean anything to me. “I miss it.”
“So do I,” Veronica replied.
“Same,” Ryan said, to which Jackie nodded. Part of me felt better than all of them agreed. It made me feel more open to conversation. It felt as if the room got warmer, and everything felt a little better. Not completely, but it was getting there.
“Why did things have to end?” I asked.I almost regretted asking such a sentimental question in that moment, but all the while, I did not.
“Sara,” Veronica almost instantly replied as if she knew the question before I had even asked it. “Things happened, of course. But Sara was the main cause.” Veronica quickly drew back from her moment of outward expression.
“It is so weird to think that we did not even know Sara in the beginning,” Jackie added as the conversation began to gain its flow. “It started with the four of us in freshmen year.”
Two years ago we were the closest of friends.
Two years ago was when our story began.
