The Boys are Back in Town
A Grandma steps out her back door and calls, “Ethan, Katie! When are all these friends of yours coming over? I want to make them food!”
Two teenagers stand down the hill by a huge stack of firewood. “Whenever they freaking feel like it, Grandma!” Ethan screams. “Just make it now!”
Grandma amiably sidles back inside.
“Like, food doesn’t have to be a certain temperature,” he says more quietly.
“Yeah…” Katie says, eyes darting from Ethan, to where Grandma was, to the firewood. “Dang, man, I think everyone from school is going to be impressed with this bonfire you put together.”
“Yeah,” Ethan says. “I used pretty much all the gasoline in the shed. It’s going to be epic.”
“Super cool…” Katie says. “I just really like that we kept each other company through high school. I think we’re about to get a lot cooler with this bonfire and everything, but I just wanted to say, when things are different, and we have lots of different friends, I just wanted to let you know that it was really cool just being kind of a loser with you. I might even miss it!” She shrugs with extreme nonchalance. “One this bonfire goes off and everyone sees how badass we are, that’s kinda over.”
“Yeah, you’re right…” he says, nodding. “I guess you never know when you’re in the good old days until they’re over. I’m really going to miss it just me and you. And that’s over once this badass fire goes off at this party and everyone thinks we’re really cool. It’s out of my hands at this point! We’ll always be friends, but the boys are kinda over, you know?”
“Yeah…” Katie says. “Remember we used to ride our bikes up and down the culdesac and play ‘The Boys are Back in Town’ by Thin Lizzy? And we’d laugh because I’m not a boy, and we never left town. Those were our jokes! That was so funny how we didn’t care about society.”
“Yeah, and now we’re basically going to be the pharaohs of society.” He breathes out profoundly. “How do we even think about this? Like, I know that Jesus said that the weak inherit the Earth, but we’re about to become the king of kings. When I light this bad boy up, it’s basically Rockefeller center.”
“I love how you’re so good at integrating things we learn in school into conversation. I can’t wait for the cool kids to appreciate that about you.” Katie says. “Can you imagine not having time to play video games all day and eat Cheetos? We’ll probably have to toss a football or drink a beer or something.”
“I don’t want to imagine that!” Ethan says. He looks at the bonfire and then looks at Katie. “Should we tear down this Frankenstein monster before it can wreak havoc on our perfect lives?”
“Yeah…” Katie says. “I remember your book report of Frankenstein and think we should really learn from it. Let’s tear it all down and go back to being like Bonnie and Clyde.”
“Yeah, or the Wright Brothers or whatever.”
“Yeah…” Katie says. “This could really stunt our growth if we got too popular. I mean, we’re only 15.”
“I’m almost 16.”
“Yeah… We could, like, lose our edge and become like lame adults that like, sell things.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s tear it down.” Ethan steps forward.
“Wait,” Katie says. “I got an idea. Let’s light it up before anyone gets here.”
“Just for the boys.”
“Just for the boys,” Katie says. They clasp hands and do their secret handshake.
Inside the house, grandma is washing a potato in the sink and watching the kids out the window with a peaceful smile on her face. It turns to worry when a fireball erupts from the center of all the firewood. She drops the potato and hurries to the door. A moment later, two blackened teenagers burst in, screaming.
“Are you OK Ethan!” she shrieks.
“I think we’re OK, Mrs. Diesendorf!” Katie shouts.
“The boys are back in town!” says Ethan.
Originally published at https://www.tumblr.com on January 21, 2020.
