Friday, May 19th 2006

Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

3:29 PM

The sun sat perched at its highest point in the sky and its heat beat down on her bare shoulders as she walked home. Her hair, brighter than the sunshine and the vivid colour of burning fire, had escaped from its ponytail and was now flowing down her back in red waves.

Her breaths came fast and heavy and her heart was still hammering in her chest. She had been running for almost twenty minutes from a pack of dogs and she would be lying if she said she wasn't exhausted. She didn't know why she kept taking that shortcut. It just wasn't worth it with those dogs lying in wait. 

The first thing Junie noticed, upon entering her house and shutting the door behind her, was the abnormal silence.  Her house was never silent, silence was a stranger. It was always filled with either Audrey's loud cackling laughter, an eighties song blaring away or the incessant voices of Audrey arguing with another one of her male companions.

"Audrey?" She said tentatively stepping further into the hallway. "Audrey, Audrey are you there?"

Junie called her mother's name several times but the irritated quip she always gave in answer never came. She wasn't in the kitchen, living room or the back yard, and so she proceeded to look upstairs. She wasn't in her bedroom or Junie's.

Junie walked down the corridor and pushed open the door to the bathroom. She froze. Her brown eyes widened and fixed on her mother's motionless form.  She was lying on the marble floor, passed out and surrounded by dozens of bottles whiskey and vodka. For the first few seconds all Junie did was stare before she snapped out of stupor and rushed to her mother. 

"Mum!" She gasped she dropped to her knees beside her. Panic clawed at her as she shook Audrey by the shoulders and patted her cheek. She almost cried in relief when she saw her mother's eyelids slowly flutter open.  

Audrey let out a groan.

"Oh my God," Junie breathed, "Mum, what have I told you about drinking so much?"

Audrey brushed strands of red hair from her eyes and groaned once more. She blinked dazedly up at Junie and a grimace formed on her lips. She batted away Junie's offer of help and lazily pushed herself up into a sitting position.

Her fingers rubbed her temple in slow circles, "I have a blinding headache."

"What were you doing?" Junie asked.

Audrey glanced at her daughter and gave her a weak smile that only increased Junie's worries. "Nothing, just...got a bit carried away, I'm fine, love."

Audrey looked like the definition of awful. Dark circles painted her tired and bloodshot eyes. Junie noted that she had been wearing those grey sweatpants and tank top for three days now. After a few moments, Audrey stood up and walked over to the cupboard.

She pulled out a bottle of vodka and a packet of cigarettes before she promptly left the bathroom, leaving Junie to sit on the cold marble floor and process what had just occurred. She gulped and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

She couldn't stay here, she couldn't stay here as her mother drunk herself to death. Junie left the bathroom and entered her room. She found a spare scrunchy and pulled her back into its usual ponytail. Grabbing her skateboard, Junie hopped out of her house and headed to Dylan's house.  

4:11 PM

Junie pressed the doorbell and hoped he was in. Last time he had been at his grandmother's and she'd had to spend the three hours in the library in order to avoid going home. She could faintly hear the sound resonating throughout the house. She had not just travelled thirty-minutes on her skateboard in the sweltering heat for the fun of it.

When no answer came, Junie pressed the doorbell once more and sighing she glanced up at the cloudless sky. The door swung open and Junie's head snapped forward to see one of Dylan's older sisters stood before her. She was soaking wet and dressed in a floral pink bikini. Her long dark hair was drenched with water, causing it to stick to her shoulders and back.

Junie smiled, "Hi, Lena."

Pulling the lollipop out of her mouth with a short popping sound, Lena Mercer gave her a tight smile that disappeared as fast as it had appeared. She asked, "You want Dylan right?"

"Yes, is he in?"

Lena nodded. She opened the door wider and stepped aside. Junie quickly strode into the hallway of the house as Lena shut the door. She walked past her and staring up, she paused at the bottom of the staircase.  

"Dylan!" Lena suddenly bellowed, her shrill voice made Junie jolt in surprised, "Get your arse downstairs! Your mate's here to see you!"

It was only a few seconds later that the New Zealand native came bounding down the stairs. He skipped the last step and landed on the dark brown floorboards with a loud thud. Dylan glanced at his sister, frowning slightly, "Mum's gonna kill you, she said no swimming in the pool and you brought your boyfriend over again."

"Bite me," Lena snapped before turning around and sauntering into one of the many rooms in the hallway. Dylan's ocean coloured eyes found Junie's and an elated grin spread across his features.

"Happy birthday!" He shouted and threw his hands in the air, "You're thirteen today! Finally a teenager!"

"Don't remind me," Junie grumbled as she dropped her skateboard by the coat hanger. 

She was surprised when he suddenly rushed forward and grabbed a hold of her hand. He started pulling her up the staircase and grinned at her, "Come on, I've got this new game, its epic."

She didn't know whether it was by accident or whether he did it on purpose but when he lightly squeezed her hand, licks of fire danced joyously in her stomach. His hand was warm and soft in hers. 

She swallowed as she stared down at their joined hands and managed a shaky nod. "Okay."

Dylan and Junie reached his bedroom, she ignored the warm tingling sensation that lingered when he let go of her hand. Dylan shut the door and scurrying forward, he eagerly pointed to a large television that was mounted on the wall.

"Mum bought me a TV!" Dylan announced, his arms flying up in gleefully.

Junie stared at the plasma screen television, awed and astounded. She gasped, "But your thirteenth birthday was two months ago."

"Mum said if I got an A in my Geography exam, then she would buy me it," he beamed, "And look...she got me this as well."

Junie's eyes widened at the sight of the video game he was holding. "Hitman: Blood Money?" She spat, "But...that's not even out yet!"

"Dad's friends with the guy who created the game, so she got him to pull some strings," he grinned, "You wanna play?"

"Hell yes!" She said nodding eagerly.

As soon as Dylan switched on the PS2, the two friends began playing. Dylan really should not have been surprised to find that he was losing spectacularly to Junie. It had become the norm. He always lost every time they competed in these video games.

"Yes!" Junie cried. She had won yet another match. "Suck on that!"

Dylan huffed, "that was a fluke."

"Yeah," she replied with a scoff, "so were the other twenty times."

His eyes narrowed, "Rematch."

"Fine," Junie smirked as she settled back into the bean bag, "Prepare to get your arse kicked yet again, New Zealand."

8:05 PM

"Come here!" Junie shouted.

Dylan laughed as she chased after him. On their tenth rematch Dylan had shamefully resorted to kicking the control pad out of her grasp and subsequently caused Junie's player to be killed in the most gruesome manner. He had noticed the irritation and shock burning in her chocolate brown eyes and immediately started running. And for the past ten minutes Junie had been running after him. He was going to pay.

Dylan's twin sisters , Lena and Bethany were irritated beyond belief when the two friends came blundering through the living room and into the back garden. Junie leapt forward and reaching out, she grabbed Dylan by his shirt. They stumbled and both fell to the grassy ground. Junie instantly rolled on top of him and straddling his waist, she ruffled his dark hair and punched his arm.

8:23 PM

In the back garden, Junie and Dylan lay on the grass and stared up at the black sky. The evening air spun light and cool between them; it carried the comforting scent of lavenders and roses.

"Junie." Dylan said.

"Mm?"She hummed in response.

"What do you want to be when you're older?"

"An astronaut maybe," she answered and shrugged, "Something to do with space."

Dylan glanced at her as she looked up at the sky. She could hear the amusement in his tone as he said, "An astronaut?"

"I know it's bit farfetched but..." she paused, daydreaming for a second about being on a space station and staring down at the earth, "I would love to float like eighty thousand miles above the earth, it sounds crazy but...it seems like an easy life for me."

Dylan chuckled, "You're crazy."

"Aren't most astronauts?" She said, "What about you? What do you wanna do?"

"I want to work in music," he replied, "I'm getting better at the guitar and piano."

"I can imagine it now..." Junie turned to look at him, surprised to find that he was already looking at her. His blue, blue eyes locked on hers. When he was so close, her thoughts were scattered, jumbled things. "Um....ten years....ten years down the line, you'll be standing in a sold out concert dressed in leather and platform boots, rocking your guitar to one of your songs."

Dylan laughed and she didn't realise how lovely of sound it was until then. He crinkled his nose, "Not sure about the platform boots...but I like the leather."

"You're an idiot. All the legends of music wear platform boots."

"Hey!" He said, "Respect your elders."

"Please," she rolled her eyes, "You're only two months older than me."

"I'm still older," he countered.

They stared at each other for a moment the only sound coming from the chirping crickets and the tweeting birds.

"D'ya miss New Zealand?" She asked softly.

He shrugged, "Not really, I love Australia. It's not like I have anything to miss back in New Z. To be honest, I didn't have any friends."

"You didn't?"

He licked his lips and his blue eyes flitted away from her and up at the blackened sky, "No, you were my first friend."

Junie felt something twist in her chest and she suddenly had the urge to hug him and never let go. Dylan sat up and started rummaging through the pockets of jeans and pulled out some sort of jewellery piece. She sat up, so she could see what he had in the palm of his hand. It was a bracelet. A pretty bracelet that was made up of colourful little beads that spelt out her name.

"Here," he said grasping her hand and slipping it onto her wrist. He looked at her, smiling so heartwarmingly shy, "I made it myself, well, Bethany helped me since she's good at making stuff. Do...do you like it?"

Junie felt rather dazed for a long moment, her heart rate speeding up as she turned the bracelet around her wrist. She swallowed. The bracelet was so beautiful in its simplicity. The fact that it had her name on it added volumes to the brilliance of the gift.

"Junie?" He said looking at her with a worried expression.

Dylan was staring at her with big blue eyes. Sometimes, she thought they were just too blue to be real. Nobody's eyes could be so bright. It just was not possible and yet he was the proof that it was.

Things had been different lately. She wasn't sure whether it was good different or bad different, she just knew things were different. For example, in the past few months or so, Junie had been seeing Dylan in a different light. Lately, Junie couldn't stop noticing how exceptionally cute her best friend was.

The warm laugh, the goofy grin, the electric blue eyes, those were just a few things that she had began to adore about him. A few weeks ago during an English lesson, Junie had found herself gazing at Dylan for an abnormally long time and in that moment Junie had realised something. Somehow and somewhere along the line, Dylan had shifted from just Dylan to Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan times a million. Somehow and somewhere along this painful line they could life, Dylan could make her heart sing and transform hell into heaven and heaven into hell.

"Junie," Dylan said, yanking her back to reality.

She blinked, "Uh...sorry what?"

"Do you like it the bracelet?" He repeated

She nodded, "Yeah, God, yeah. It's brilliant! Thanks, New Zealand."

And he grinned in that way that made her heart jump in her chest, "Happy birthday Junie."

Days, weeks and months of denial all washed up in this moment. Juniper Theresa Bennett had a crush on Dylan Samuel Mercer. It was official, with middle names and everything.