I come here to reminisce about when we’d steal lighters from the 7-11 and smoke cigarettes around the bend where the waste water meets the creek. How far up we dare to crawl, what we stepped in. Up a little further was the complex on the corner. It's been empty for nearly a decade.

Back to the 7-11, this time for SoBe, the one with the lizard we all share. Glass bottles floating in the pool, the radio blasting, Joey doing the macarena. He and Davis later worked the butcher counter across the street. Joey Sr. had all the games, but Michelle, Michelle, Michelle, will you please take us to the South Park movie?

We get kicked out in the first 20 minutes from the theater, no matter. Alex's older sister rents Fight Club. We stole her cigarettes. She was cute and the apartment smelled like cheese. No match for gold bond and dial-up, we were all thinking it.

Blake's dad made us do pushups on the tennis court. Boy was I scrawny. On his roof there were no war games, no comic books, no spiderman. One time we turned a skateboard into snowboard, that didn't work out too well. Not like flying off our bicycles to catch onto a low branch. At least mom made us wear helmets.

The new deck sits where Kendrick's apartment was and sprawls out into the old playground. The one we never did justice to, except when coming out of the tunnels, steamed hair and grass-stained. Why would we go anywhere else?