Just One More {Danny}

Rumor Hale

A puff of smoke rose into the air from my pursed lips, my lit cigerette glowing dark orange in the decending darkness of the night. I was walking down the street to The Hang Out, Kenzie walking beside me in her ridiculous platform heels every step she took a clack, clack that was started to drive me crazy. She was going on about some guy in one of the few classes she went to, gushing over something he had said to her. Kenzie was one of the few girls I could tolerate hanging out with, for a short period of time before her constant yapping and shoe clacking pushed me over the edge of a decent mood into a pissed off one. Kenzie was naiive, always looking to the bright side of things, honestly I didn't know what a girl like her was doing with us at The Hang Out, she was the exact opposite of us. Honestly I wasn't even sure why I hung out with her, or why I hung out with anybody really. Everyone let's you down when it really matters.

"And he was just so funny, I couldn't stop laughing." She said, oblivious to the fact that I'm not listening, haven't been listening since the moment she opened her mouth.

I don't even try nodding anymore, I just took another drag from my cigerette and exhaled looking up at the sky as the stars started to come out. Without Kenziebeing here I was already in a bad mood tonight, having had a big blow out with my mother not too long ago. Something about skipping school and never coming home, but tonight she had actually given the fight more then just her usually fake crying and 'why are you doing this to me?' speech, instead actually trying to block my path to the door and wearing a stern face that might add a couple of wrinkles to her face she would sob over later.

Not that I cared, I was just looking for an excuse to get drunk. Which was why I had gone to Kenzie's house, asked her if she wanted to go to The Hang Out with me, where I would get myself drunk then go back with her to her house and crash there. The perfect plan, well as perfect as it could get.

"And I'm just sitting there watching him leave and wondering does he like me?" Kenzie said then laughed a little, "I mean it's not like he's my type or anything but a girl can make exceptions, you know?"

"Mm," I said, hoping this would be enough as I threw my cigerette butt on the ground and squished it underneath my shoe.

"You know you shouldn't smoke so much, I heard that you get wrinkles faster if you do." Kenzie said watching me.

I smirked, like that's the worst thing that could happen from my smoking, "Oh well, " I said, "Guess I'll just look like an old lady by the time I'm thirty."

Kenzie lets it go, she knows she can't change my mind, "Anyway so after when I was supposed to be in math class I..." She said until I tuned her out. Why did girls have to talk so much? That's what I liked about guys, they were straight forward, too stupid or drunk to put together more than one sentence, if even that, and didn't care about whether you smoked or not.

I took another cigerette out from my back pocket, lit it and drew in a breath. We got to the part of the district where there used to be a mining company, everything left there like someone would come back for it in the morning when in reality this place had been abandoned for three years. The Hang Out was an old abandoned mine shaft. It was the perfect place to go if you didn't want to be nagged by your parents or needed a drink, a break, a hook up, anything really that wouldn't be accepted anywhere but in the dark abandonment of the old mine.

I held my cigerette in between my lips as I interupted Kenzie, "Got the flashlight?" She took it out of her bag without even drifting from whatever she had been talking about. I took it in my left hand and turned it on while holding my cigerette in the other, drawing our a stream of smoke.

When we got to the entrance to the mine shaft I could hear voices inside laughing and talking. I pointed the flashlight to the ground because the last thing I wanted was to get bitched at for blinding someone with it. We walked about ten feet in and there were people standing, sittting, passed out there. I turned off the flash light and got used to the dim yellow light inside that was overhead, flickering as always. This is what I loved the most about the mine, it was dark, never light enough to make out the faces around you, everyone anonymous.

"Hey Rumor, long time no see." A deep voice said in front of me. I squinted, barely making out a face. I didn't say anything, just waited for something I could use to identify whoever was talking to me. Then a hand reached out and curled around my waist, pulling me against them and I knew who it was. Peter. He was always finding excuses to put his hands all over me.

"Hands off Buddy." I said, pushing away, "Unless you want to get burned." I added holding up my cigerette for him to see it's orange glow.

"Always playing hard to get." He said, like he always did, God this guy was so predictable. I was pretty sure the guy was in love with me or something, probably because at one time or another I had gotten very drunk and decided to sleep with him. Apparently he had thought I liked him, poor guy.

"So where's the beer?" I asked taking in some smoke and breathing out at what I hoped was his face. He coughed a little, wiping his eyes and I smiled.

"Wally's got some over in the first tunnel last I saw." He replied, sputtering to get some clean air, but if he was going to insist on standing in front of me he wasn't going to get any.

I stepped around him, noticing that at some point Kenzie had gone off somewhere. Not that I cared, I always did my own thing at The Hang Out. I set the flashlight down by the entrance then went to look for a bottle of cheap beer, the night only just beginning.