Ryan Dunphy Creative Writing Assignment

Lost Footsteps
Standing 6 feet 8 inches tall and doofy as a clown, Mike had always found it tough to fit through the door way let alone fit in at school. With long arms that resembled pool noodles and a face that only a mother could love, he never really felt like he belonged. Ever since a young age Mike tried really hard to impress the guys but often times was clumsy and wound up making a fool of himself.
His tall stature naturally gave him an advantage physically, which drew him to sports. Mike was particularly attracted to basketball, not just because of his height advantage but because when he played with friends and teams were picked he always got picked first, so tall that he could just get all the rebounds.
Fitting in for Mikey meant the world to him, if he could have taken a class titled, How to be cool 101, Mikey would be the first kid in class every day. Mikey ‘s parents recognized how much their son was struggling socially so they offered to go meet with a therapist that they had known from a family friend. It wasn’t a topic of conversation at all for Mikey however as he said, “Are you kidding Ma, If someone finds out that I talk to some lady about my problems, their gonna think I’m a freak!”. Not wanting to make their son upset Mikey’s parents decided to drop the issue as it probably wasn’t that big of deal and like they said “he was sure to get through it on his own”.
The summer after Mikey’s junior year of high school, it was set in his mind to be the best one on record. He had past his road test a month earlier and his parents very generously let him have the old van. Not very good on gas mileage but it would do. Mike was pumped, for the first time in his life he was going to be able to do whatever he wanted. No more waiting around for mom to give him a ride, no more riding his bike anywhere, he was free.
10th grade year Mike became interested in girls because he felt like he was the only guy without a girlfriend. Mike wanted a girlfriend not to talk to someone, he didn’t want a girlfriend for sexual pleasure, although he wouldn’t mind, his main reason for wanting a girlfriend was because “everyone else had one”.
About mid-way through summer after 10th grade Mikey’s “best-friend”, Tyler, told him that his dad was going to let him have the beach house out east for a whole week and that he could have some friends over. “Finally”, Mike said, “We gotta make this the most epic week of our lives man!!” It took a minute for the idea of having a house out on the beach with no one around to tell him what to do to sink in. When it finally did Mikey realized there would be other people besides him and Tyler going and it made him nervous. “Who else would Ty invite?” Mike was really good friends with Tyler but he didn’t like his friends. Tyler’s friends were the type of kids that made fun of Mike all the time; they were all football players and got lots of girls. He was jealous of them.
Despite the fact that Mike was unsure of who was going to be there, he went home and decided to ask his parent if he could go. “Mom this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, all my “friends” will be there!!” his mother replied, “I don’t know sweetheart, I want you to have fun but it’s all the way out east and I haven’t seen you all week.” Mikey thought about what she said and quickly said back “Really? The past few days I’ve helped you with the lawn and we went out to eat at Outback 3 days ago.” Mikey’s mother, reluctantly said “Alright you can go, just please promise me you will give a call if anything happens… and don’t get to crazy with the partying.... and make sure you stay with the group if you go wandering off.” Mikey replied with a chuckle and said “Thanks mom!! Love you, of course I wouldn’t stray from the group.”
The day came and Mikey, who had his bags packed for 2 weeks, tossed his stuff in the back of Tyler’s truck and the two of them headed out to the Hamptons for the week. “Are you ready broo!!”, said Tyler “Yea dude are you kidding I couldn’t be more pumped!” Mikey said back, but you could tell that something was wrong by the way he moved when he said it, Tyler didn’t think much of it and the two continued on their way to the house.
When they arrived at the house all the boys were already there and though it was only 10 am they were already starting to drink. Mikey knew that there would be alcohol and probably weed but it was okay in his mind he would just go with the flow as he always did. So Mikey took his bag from the truck and placed it in a room that had been empty and went back to the porch where everyone was hanging out to say what’s up. “Yoooo, how’s it going guys!!”, “Ayeee look its noodle arms!” , one of the boys kidded, “Hey be nice to the old tree won’t you Joey”, another said. Mikey was so used to this kind of talk by now he just tuned it out.
As the day passed the boys got drunker and drunker, Mikey, though he was a big boy, was a lightweight so the 8 beers he had by the time 4 pm rolled around were heavily influencing his thoughts and he was starting to feel anxious. Timing couldn’t have been any better because all the boys started to get bored of their bear pong games and decided that they wanted to go for a walk a smoke a doobie.
Mikey all though he wasn’t invited decided he would tag along with the boys and try and blend in the best he could.
They started walking down a trail and one of the boys, Shawn, lit the joint and started toking on it. Mikey so amazed by the social situation going on around him didn’t even realize he was standing too left of Shawn, so technically he would be next in rotation to hit the joint. After 3 long pulls of the doob, Shawn passed it to his left and said “here you go man you ever smoke purple kush before”, Mikey, a little intoxicated still from the beers and not wanting to sound like a sissy said “Yea of course dude I practically breath the stuff!”.
Mikey may have gotten himself in to deep but he didn’t care all that matter was that the other kids though he was cool and that he was with the group. As long as he had someone to follow he wasn’t going to be worried about where he was going or where the group was going, he was just going to keep walking.
A little while passed and the joint grew smaller and smaller, Mikey found himself getting really dizzy. Mikey didn’t really ever smoke week nor did he like to, it made him extremely paranoid and anxious and though he always felt like he was being judged, he felt judged 10 times more than he ever had before at that very moment.
As Mike’s head spun and his thoughts raced one of the boys noticed the strange faces and the awkward way in which Mike was walking. “Guys look, I think it’s an alien trying to communicate with us!!” all the boys laughed including Travis, another boy said “who is this guy, who invited him?” Mike feeling the pressure of the moment and the eyes of 17 year old boys digging a pit into his soul, he felt trapped and immovable, if there was a devil he was in control of the moment right at that second because right then and right there Mikey didn’t care about anything or anyone he just wanted to fall on the ground and die.
Mike turned around and looked at the ground he and his friends had just walked across. Even though the trails landscape had twists and turn Mikey could see every single one their foot prints in the sand and he could see that he hadn’t made not a single one. He had walked so tightly the group of boys that his feet sunk into the shallow depressions of all these other boys’ feet.
At that moment Mikey decided that he just wanted to run, he just wanted to step he wanted to leave a mark.
The boys now staring at Mikey with eyes as sharp as knives seemed like they hinged on his next move, what would he do, what would he say. Nothing, Mikey just look around at the boys, looked down at his feet and sprinted. He didn’t know where he was going, he didn’t follow the trail, he just ran and stepped and made footprints becoming more and more of a man with every step.