Short Story Inspired by "Palo Alto"

During the summer I read James Franco's book "Palo Alto,"  a collection of stories inspired by his youth of living in Palo Alto, California. The book was also adapted into a film directed by Gia Coppola, and Franco played one the characters he created in his novel. After reading all his stories, I was inspired to take a crack at writing my own "Franco style" story. So as follows, here is my short story:

Face the Facts

My life started spiraling out of control when John, Stewart, Frank and I were invited to April Sutter's house for her annual party bash.

April is the most popular girl at our high school. Everyone is always invited to her parties, but we all know the unwritten rule, that not everyone is welcome. Every year her parents go away on the same weekend to Las Vegas (they have a bit of a gambling problem) and so they leave April in charge of their tiny wiener dog Charles and their big beautiful home located on the outskirts of town. This year however, in hopes to mark my final year in high school I was going to get into that party, no matter the costs.

In my cold, damp and unfinished basement, that had recently become my bedroom for the past 2 years, and still piled with unpacked boxes, sat John, Stewart, Frank and myself. We had all sat down for a relaxing night of drinking the beer that John had stolen from his dad's backyard work shop.

“Guys you know what tonight is, right?”

“Awe come on Dan, don't start with this again.” Stewart said with a bit of a slur from guzzling down most of the beer that John had brought over.

John leaned over and smacked Stewart as he leaned in trying to reach for another beer.

“Come on, you guys aren't even listening. DO YOU KNOW WHAT NIGHT IT IS?”

Stewart and Frank both looked up. John kept his attention on Stewart as he tried to keep him away from the dying stock that consisted of only 2 beers.

“Tonight is April Sutter's party.”

“Dan we knowwwww.” John finally took his eyes of Stewart who was in the works of stealing his stolen beer. John no longer had a face of anger but a face of annoyance from having been reminded that such party was going on as they all sat on the brown carpeted floor.

“Well tonight boys, tonight were going.”

“And how do you think that's ever going to happen Dan?” Frank asked in an angry tone “We're losers...and just because we're invited doesn't mean we're welcome anywhere near that house.” As Frank said invited he formed his fingers into small quotations to enforce, what we already all knew and felt, but for some reason that night I just didn't seem to care or notice. I guess I thought we could do anything.

“Well Frank” I said “We are going to do exactly this...” John and Frank leaned in as I began to explain my plan. Stewart looked off, his eyes landing on a corner of my room where my few accomplishments in the form of a small selection of trophies I had won for math sat on a neat black shelf. Stewart lost his gaze on the trophies and leaned in almost falling face first into a crumpled chip bag in the middle of us.

“Stewart.” I snapped my fingers in front of his face. “Stewart? Hey man, can you hear me?”

Stewart looked up from his locked gaze on the crumpled chip bag on the floor.

I started again. “Hey Stewart.” This time he replied with a “Yes” and I knew I had his attention.

“Stewart, do you think you're well enough to drive? We're going to April's.”

John turned to me and looked me dead in the eye. “What are you thinking Dan. Now you're just being stupid.”

“I'm not being stupid, he's the only one that can drive out of the four of us”

“Do you honestly think he can drive right now” I was about to answer, but John continued “Give me your keys Stewart.” John put his hand out to a crumpled Stewart that was now laying beside the chip bag. Stewart dug into his pocket and pulled out a sliver key with a single shark key chain attached and slowly handed them over to John. John quickly snatched them out of his hand and before leaving for the stairs said “I'm driving.”

I raced up the stairs behind him as Frank helped Stewart up from the floor.

“What do you think your doing John?” I yelled from behind him.

“Dan does it even matter? He's drunk as F and he for sure can't drive. If you want to go, I'm driving, he's not.”

I shrugged and followed him to the car. John jumped into the driver's seat and I went around the car and sat beside him. Frank and Stewart climbed into the back of the car. John turned the key in the ignition and quickly pulled out of the drive way. We began flying down the darkly lit roads. I looked around the car and noticed how fast we were going, as each house quickly became a blur. I looked at the speedometer and saw that we were going well over 90 kilometres/hour. I began to feel a deep pit rising in my stomach.

“JOHN SLOW DOWN!” I yelled over the blaring car radio.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SLOW DOWN DAN. I THOUGHT YOU LIKED THIS.”

“WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT JOHN? THIS ISN'T PART OF THE PLAN!”

“DAN YOU REALLY DIDN'T HAVE A PLAN. ALL YOUR PLAN WAS TO WEAR THESE STUPID ANIMAL MASKS, SO WE COULD SNEAK IN WITHOUT ANYONE KNOWING IT WAS US. WELL LET ME TELL YOU, THAT'S A PRETTY STUPID PLAN.”

“MAN WHY ARE YOU EVEN MAD? YOU SAID THAT YOU LIKED THAT IDEA.”

“WHATEVER.”

“JOHN WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?”

“I'M MAD BECAUSE YOU'RE BEING SELFISH DAN. YOU'RE SELFISH. THE ONLY REASON YOU WANT TO GO TO THIS STUPID PARTY IS BECAUSE YOU'RE A LOSER. YOU'RE A LOSER THAT WANTS TO BE POPULAR. WELL GUESS WHAT, IT'S TOO LATE.”

A sudden ringing exploded into my ears and the car came to sudden halt. I looked around, there was blood everywhere.

John had been too busy yelling at me that he didn't notice the flashing red beacon that hung above us as we flew through, totaling Stewart's car and crushing himself and Stewart to a pulp.

I realize now how selfish I was. John was right, John was always right about me. I was a loser, I am a loser and you know what I have to face the facts, it's the truth.

 

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Side note: I realize my story is really quite dramatic, but this was something I found Franco did a lot of in the short stories he included in his novel. I thought I would try to capture the same essence I felt in his, in mine.

Any way, if you did take the time to read my whole story, I would love to hear what you think! Thanks and I hope you enjoyed reading.

-leelou