November Rain

Everyone has their own story. Their own pain, joy, love and hate. Things they’ve seen or heard or even done. Trials that either will kill you or make you stronger. This is not a high school story were the plot is if we are going to the prom or not. It’s not about how cool the quarterback is. Hell, I never knew who the quarterback was anyway. This is a story about what high school is really about, and what us teenagers have to go through just to survive. My name is Joe Black. Please sit back and let me share my story with you.

It all starts back in August of 1997. My friends and I from high school are having one last party before school starts. We live in Provo, Utah. We all go to the same high school, and have known each other for awhile.

We like to party behind Utah lake because there aren’t that many cops that go back there. We had a big bon fire blazing and Bill was standing by it trying to make it bigger. Bill was a pretty big guy at about 6'2 and 200 pounds. A real dirty bastard. He never went anywhere without his leather jacket. His clothes had oil and grease on them. He didn’t care much for taking care of his hair either. He loved to shit talk and tell stories that never really happened. If you stood within five feet of the boy, you could get a "second hand high". Sad, but true.

Then there were Smurf and Coon. They were walking around trying to find more fire wood for us. Everyone thought that they were brothers. They both had long brown hair and they always had it cut the same way. They both dressed like they were from the hood. Smurf wear a Notre Dame coat and hat. He loved the color blue, that was one of the reasons we called him Smurf. But the easiest way to tell them apart was their height. Coon was about a good 5'8, and poor Smurf was about 5'5, if that. You always saw those two together.

Now my oldest and best friend was and always will be Grady. Big, tall, blonde, blue eyed, and a dumb ass. That is the best way to describe him. We have been through hell and back with each other. There is nothing I don’t know about him, and he knows the same about me. We didn’t have heart-to-heart talks, so it isn’t because of that, it’s because he’s always around, and he won’t go away. But its all good because I love him like a brother.

Then there is me, Joe Black. I’m 5'9 about 140 pounds. So I’m kind of a small guy. I have brown eyes and brown hair. I was only seventeen at the time, but I already had a beard. I liked to cut it in a goatee. I liked to piss the kids off at school, so I would either put little barrettes in my goatee or I would twist it, and make it look like horns. People said I looked I like Satan when I did that. I thought it looked cool, but the girls hated it. I had three earrings in my ears. One on each ear lobe, and one on top of my left ear. I liked to wear big pants and shirts that had rock bands on them.

Grady and I were talking. Having a couple of drinks. Laughing and kind of pissed that summer is already over.