Makin' Bad Decisions

Behind the scenes of best buds soaring to high heights for Valentine's Day

“Alright, boys, are you ready?,” Graham hollered at his friends as his stern voice reverberates through the narrow hallways of their two-story home.

The poorly-carpeted floorboards creak as the boys race down the stairs screaming “Let’s go, boys!,” and “I’m ready, boys!,” while quickly scrambling to throw on their jackets and shoes before running out the door.

Johnny moves the fastest of the bunch. He is thin like a boy with shaggy dark hair that nearly covers his eyes, which sport thick black rectangular frames.

Johnny jumps to sit on the wooden railing of the stairwell and slides down with ease. His tied-up-laced running sneakers smack the ground and stick the landing lighting up his grin from ear to ear.

On his back is a sweatshirt that reads “Don’t be so meme,” paired with salmon khakis. His style blends his early Jesuit-prep school days with his relaxed Yu-Gi-Oh! and Reddit-filled lifestyle in college.

He goes by Johnny to his friends, and John to his colleagues and professors.

In a hushed, but serious tone, he says, “I’m ready.”

The other boys, Mike and Eli, pull themselves together while Graham waits for the boys at the door.

“Cmon, boys. Let’s get going!,” Graham says loudly again in a slightly-irritated tone.

Mike and Eli immediately run over to the door nearly tripping over one another.

“Are y’all ready?,” Mike said calmly yet slightly out of breath.

“Yes,” all the boys replied in sync.

Graham pushes open the doors letting the rest of the boys run over to his car, while he locks their front door.

Graham is tall and broad with curly blonde hair covered by a black beanie reducing its volume. His go-to outfit is dark blue jeans, a band t-shirt and a dark brown leather jacket with a white fur interior. Tonight, he is wearing a Glass Animals t-shirt.

After turning the key to lock the door knob, he pushes the unlock button on his car keys and lets the boys inside.

“Jesus, it’s freezing!,” Eli complained. “Can you turn up the heat–”

“It’s chill, dude, I got it,” Graham said while reaching for the knob before Eli could even finish his sentence.

The boys were all shivering.

“Alright, boys, it’s time for some tunes,” Graham said with a grin while plugging in his android into the AUX cord.

The volume was so loud that the car bumped up and down to the beats of The Strokes’ new song “Bad Decisions.”

Still shaking from the freezing wind, the boys' faces light up and all their heads nodded in symphony.

The engine revs up as Graham reverses out of the parking lot and leaves campus to hit the road. The group cruzes down the hilly landscape of the town racing to get to the movie theater before their movie begins. It was approaching 7 p.m., which was when the movie would begin, and the drive was 20 minutes away.

“Dude, this is so fucking good!,” Mike belts while nodding his head and shuffling his hands as if he was DJing at a college house party.

Mike is a musician. He plays violin to please his parents, but also puts together Soundcloud remixes in his spare time.

Mike is big and intimidating in size, but his voice is rather soothing. He wears thin circular-framed glasses similar to Harry Potter paired with a bright mustard yellow sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers.

The group chimes in as they begin to nail down the chorus, since it is the only song they listened to on the drive,

“[Chorus]

Oh, makin' bad decisions/

Oh, makin' bad decisions/

Making bad decisions for you/

Oh, makin' bad decisions/

Uh-oh, makin' bad decisions/

Makin' bad decisions for you/”

Graham’s speed begins to slow down as he approaches the movie theater parking lot. Once he pulls into the spot, he quickly yanks out the keys and the loud music abruptly stops.

“Ok, boys, let’s go!,” he says excitedly while jumping out of his seat and slamming the car door shut.

Graham and Eli quickly walk to the entrance as Mike lags behind at a slow pace, with Johnny already at the entrance having run over like Naruto.

“One ticket for ‘Showtimes for Sonic the Hedgehog’ please!,” John asks the man behind the ticket booth.

“Alright, son, that’ll be $10.50,” the ticket man says. John immediately slides the cash through the glass window, and in return the ticket man hands him the movie slip.

“Alright, there you go, son. Enjoy!,” the ticket man says.

“Thanks,” John mumbles while quickly turning his head because he can hear the rest of the boys approaching.

John stands awkwardly looking at his phone, while the rest of the boys purchase their tickets.

All the boys grew up with the Sonic the Hedgehog series and felt it was appropriate to see the movie on a day meant to stir up feelings of infatuation: February 14. More commonly known as Valentines Day.

All the boys were single, except for Graham, who’s girlfriend of three years, Kera, was studying in Los Angeles for the semester.

The boys one-by-one stand next to Johnny after receiving their tickets with Graham being the last to join.

“Alright, here we go boys!,” Graham says.

The group skips the popcorn and candy and head straight over to the theater. All of them run in, except Graham, who stops at the door and takes out his cellphone.

His thumbs glide over the keys typing, “We just got to the theater. Happy Valentines Day, babe,” and then puts the phone in his back pocket and meets up with the boys.

“How are we doing, boys?,” Graham asks as he sits down next to them.

“Good!,” they all reply while giggling.

“Boys, are you feeling it?,” Johnny asks.

“Yeah, boy, I’m feeling it,” Mike replies, and they all chuckle some more.

The room moves as if the boys' heads were still nodding to The Strokes’ new song.

“Yeah,” Graham giggles as the room goes black. “I think my brownie just kicked in, too.”

(Photo credit: Sinitta Leunen/Unsplash)