Osbourne Road

[This is a sort-of sequel to a story I wrote in December 2014 with my friend Janet. I'll get around to posting that later this week. Please note: I know the timeline is squiffy.]

Years later, both of them had kicked their habits. Trevin Paul and Shona Rosenberg had both recovered from their past traumas and, after a fashion, had finally grown up. Now they were neighbors in the same sub-development, which was called Oakhaven. The street they shared was called Osbourne Road. Trevin would annoy Shona, even all these years later, with jokes about being the prince of darkness and biting the heads off of live bats. She would only roll her eyes in response. Though there was one notable year in which they did go to San Diego Comic-Con cosplaying as Ozzy and Sharon. 

Trevin had married a nice girl named Molly and together, they had a daughter. Their little girl would grow up to become the future roommate of Isabella Lei, but for right now, that’s neither here nor there. They named their daughter Anita. Putting his checkered past behind him, Trevin had become a professor at CCBC. Molly was a photojournalist who was on the staff at Launch2020 and was making waves. Her future was bright. 

Shona had settled down with a nice boy named Benjamin. Together, they had one son: Isaac. Isaac would end up becoming Henry’s literary protege, and the evil genius behind turning "The Underneath" from a graphic novel into a lucrative screenplay after first creating a first-person-shooter video game called The Devil’s Handshake, which was in turn based on the music of Headless Juggernaut, his favorite band. For our purposes, that’s beside the point. 

Growing up as next-door neighbors, you might think that Anita and Isaac were meant to be lovers. Their stars were not meant to align that way, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Shona died of breast cancer when Anita was 11, and that turned her world upside down. Trevin and Molly basically adopted Isaac. Benjamin wasted away with grief after the loss of his beloved wife. His fury against God led him to renounce his faith, and even though he had never been the most pious Jew, he had been steadfast in his beliefs since adolescence. Regardless, he made plans to move to Israel to start over. This basically meant that he left his neighbors to care for his son, who was left lost and adrift, confused by the sudden rift that had appeared between himself and his father. 

Twist and Shout

Anita and Isaac would spend their days hanging out - listening to Headless Juggernaut, playing air hockey against each other in the basement, and binge-watching corny movies. They would even sometimes try to make their own short films for YouTube, but it was mainly just them goofing off and being stupid kids, like dancing to Post Malone or making fun of Limp Bizkit. One thing that helped them bond, though, was a shared love of pro wrestling. As ridiculous as it was, it was something that helped Isaac cope with the death of his mom and his dad abandoning him. For them, watching WrestleMania - or pretty much any other wrestling show, for that matter - was like a religious experience. That was their version of church.

For her part, Anita was crushed by the death of her hero, Chester Bennington. It had been so many years later, and she had never fully gotten over it. She regretted not being able to see them live before everything changed. When she heard that Chester’s widow had gotten engaged again, it was with a mixture of wistfulness, pride, and happiness. All in all, it was a peculiar slurry of emotions that she wouldn’t have been able to process without Isaac’s help. His solution was to introduce her to Third Eye Blind. How she had never listened to them before, he would never understand, not until the last time they met and held hands as they left the world together. 

It was easy to have delusions of grandeur when Stephen Jenkins was your spirit animal. 

Screaming in the Blind

When they got a bit older, Isaac worked up the guts to ask Anita out. He had tried asking other girls out at school, like Chelsea, or Ramona, but none of them held a candle to Anita. It was a bit awkward at first since they had basically lived as brother and sister for years and years. Still, it was something low key. He wanted to take her to Jaden’s Steak and Sushi, but this time, as more than friends. 

It was here that both of them found out that they had certain gifts. Whether it was making a fork tap dance across the table or the ice in a water glass change colors, they didn’t know what it was. Sure, they whispered about it being magic, but that theory went out the window when they walked back outside. They could hear colors and smell sounds. Pigeons flying overhead would miss them if they decided that where the couple stood were standing was a fine place to poo. Everything had subtitles, whether they wanted it to or not.

When the rains came, Isaac was all the umbrella Shona needed. They were going to a Third Eye Blind concert that night, the first time they’d see the band together live. Plus, there was a special treat for them. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver fame was going to guest on a performance. 3eb would be playing their 1999 album Blue in full to celebrate its 20 year anniversary. In return, Stephan had promised to help sing some songs from The Shouting Matches, Justin’s side project that wasn’t as well known as Bon Iver. Of course, there was a duet on Skinny Love, which opened the show.  Anita sang along while staring at Isaac the whole time. Isaac returned the favor during Anything. 

Then they both danced wildly to Wounded, drawing from their lips a long, drawn-out hallelujah.