Pop - Ch.1



“I don’t think she’s coming back this time.”

“Yea, I don’t think so, either. It’s been three months,” replied my cousin Wes. We were sitting in the living room of our house. It had evidently been three months since my Aunt Karen said she was going to visit a friend ‘over the weekend.’
You’d think normally, that as adolescents who were technically dependent would have called the police, would have been frenzied with terror as our guardian disappeared and left us. But we didn’t make a single phone call. We kind of knew this day was coming.
My parents died in a car accident, which is what most Americans who die, die from unless it was heart disease or something similar to that. This happened when I was three, and really the only family I could go to was my aunt Karen. At the time she was nineteen, single, and trying to support my cousin Wes who was the same age as me. Being a teenager with a hopeless romantic heart, she somehow thought that she could take care of the both of us by herself. And I have to hand to her… she kind of did.
She suddenly earned a lot of money, and bought us this really nice house. When I was younger, Wes and I had no clue how she earned her money. But as we got older and she started disappearing, we kind of figured it out. Anyways…

“You know what we said we would do if she was gone this long. We’d go find HIM,” smirked Wes.

I smiled back.
“So, can we do it?”
“Absolutely.”

So you might be confused as to “him” is. Two words… Alekk Weston. Only the world’s most talented and beautiful singer/songwriter. Wes and I kind of adore him and his music.

It all started when we were little. At the time Alekk was a youngster like us, singing some catchy pop song that made all of the pre-teens and their moms fall in love with him. There was nooo way you would be able to pull Wes and I from the television set if Alekk were on the screen.
Eventually Alekk grew with his music as time went on, changing his style from pop to rock to some sort of indie rock that he does now. But with every change, he conquered. It seemed as though his competition retired and he only got better.

Anyways, Wes and I made this pact that if aunt Karen had disappeared for three months, we wouldn’t sit and wait for her anymore. We were almost adults as it was. If she was going to leave us, we were going to leave her with nothing to come back to. So we saved our money and decided we were going to catch a glimpse of Alekk at his beach house this summer.

Before we knew it, Wes and I were driving away from the place that was our home for seven years. We were leaving the town that neither of us had fit into, whether at school or even in the eyes of our own family. Rolling hills of grass and trees were to be traded for a beachfront view of rolling waves.

“I can tell you’re excited,” Wes said calmly. We had stopped for a quick break, but the break was long enough for me to see that he was already being affected by what we had done. We both knew this, both knew how it would feel. If Karen ever came back, she would come back to nothing. No clue would tell her that we would be halfway across the country. She wouldn’t know where to begin if finding us was what she really wanted to do. Wes felt guilty.

“Hey, we’ll be okay,” I reassured Wes. Corners of his mouth went up as we walked back to the car.

And several hours later, we were okay. We were there, standing across the street from Alekk Weston’s beachfront mansion.

“I can’t believe this is it.”

“His house is huge!”

“I can’t believe we made it Wes!”
He grabbed my wrist.

“You are going to have so much fun, Max.” Me?
“And you too, Wes,” I grinned.

“Nooo,” Wes sighed, pulling away from me.
“I should have told you sooner. I know it’s wrong.”
My mind was spinning. What could he have been talking about?

“Max, I know you need an explanation. That money we saved after my mom disappeared… I only saved enough for you. I’ve already found a job here, so I’ll still work to support us, but I’m going into the army this fall.”

“What? You’re not coming with me?” I was furious. Confused, more like it. This didn’t make any sense. I was scared. Wes was leaving me to this by myself. I needed him!

“No. I’m sorry, Max. You know this was always your thing. I’ll still be in town for the summer. You need to do this. You need to have fun. You deserve it.”

I lost it.

“Oh Wes! How am I going to do this without you?” I hugged him close. He was the only familiar person here. And I was being ripped apart from him.

“You were always more daring than I ever was,” winked Wes, “no go have fun.”

And with one last hug, he walked back to his car, started it up without me in it, and drove down the street until I couldn’t see him anymore. I was alone.

It looked as though nobody was home right now, so I walked around the small mansion, trying to find an open door and window. Bingo.

I was in the living room. Everything was so nice, so polished. It was so warm and inviting, yet modern and neat at the same time. I wondered if this was the touch of a highly skilled interior decorator or of Alekk Weston himself.

My eyes had adjusted to the warm temperature of the house and were now warning me that I had been awake too many hours. Not even bothering to try and find a bedroom, I walked over to the nearest couch before I felt myself falling asleep on a cloud.

END OF CH.1