Man Down

Chapter Six. No Show and a Slumber Party

Chapter Six

No Show and a Slumber Party

It was dark, the sun had set 2 hours prior. Kristen, her mom, and her brother sat around the table with a board game set up in the middle. They had been waiting for her dad for over and hour, she watched the light on her mom’s face fade with every passing minute. Trouble was in paradise; Kristen could feel it. Her dad used to be so dotting on her mom, ever since the move he had been incredibly distant. Kristen would be lying if she said it wasn’t affecting her. Her feelings towards the move have become conflicting once again, just when she thought she could be happy here. Could the world not cut her a break? She kept telling herself that they would get through this, they had to.

With a sigh her mom got up and turned out the light, Kristen began tidying up the board game.

“No leave it.” Her mom began, “I want him to feel horrible.”

Kristen left it. She walked through the dark hallway to her room. It was only nine o’clock, she wasn’t ready for her night to be over. she went into her closet a pulled out a muted purple duffle bag. She packed it with a change of clothes and her makeup bag, she zipped it up and walked towards her mom’s room to tell her she was leaving. She creaked open the door and found her mother sleeping, her mother’s cheeks were smudged in mascara indicating she had been tired. A mixture of sadness and rage simmered in Kristen’s body. She knew just what to do. She quickly turned away and went straight for the fridge, the light inside filled the room as she opened the door. She grabbed her father’s six pack of beer and quickly made an exit from the house. Her mother was crying so to her, all bets were off. He made mom cry so now he doesn’t get to enjoy a drink when he gets home. Kristen walked down the dark street with the duffle bag over her shoulder and the six pack in her hand. She was wearing a black tank top and purple flannel pajama bottoms; her hair was up in a high messy bun, and she was wearing fuzzy cat slippers. She had reached Dawn’s house, she looked across the street to Sky’s house. All the lights were out, she could go wake him up. She already had her father’s six pack in her hand, why stop the path of self-destruction now? She ran across the street and as soon as she reached the door she rang the doorbell, she had not even given herself a moment to catch her breath fearing that her anxiety would stop her. She watched one of the lights turn on in one of the windows and remembered she had the beer in her hand. Maybe she should run and hide, what if his parents open the door? Just as she began to turn around to leave the door opened. Sky stood in the doorway, yawning and rubbing his eye, he broke the yawn when he saw Kristen on his steps. He stared at her with his eyebrow raised, he then took notice to the beer in her hand and the confused expression on his face grew more intense.

“Um, I’m going through some shit.” Kristen said as she raised the case of beer in the air.

He said nothing.

“I needed outta the house,” she began. “Thought we could move the sleepover to tonight?”

He still said nothing, he just smirked at her and grabbed his zip up hoodie that was hanging by the door. He flung it on, and they walked across the street to Dawn’s. sky opened the gate for Kristen, she walked up the steps and went to knock on the light pink door. Sky grabbed her arm and signaled for her to follow him towards the back of the bungalow. He lightly tapped the window, a light turned on in the room and a click signaled that the window was unlocked. Sky opened the window and began climbing through, clearly this happened often. Kristen followed behind sky, she stepped down on dawn’s bedroom floor. Dawn was sitting on her bed, she turned to look at Kristen and seemed confused.

“She wanted out of the house.” Chuckled Sky.

Dawn looked down at the beer in Kristen’s hand and smirked. She hoped out of her bed, slipped on her slippers and began brushing her hair. She put her glasses on and headed out of her room. She turned when Sky and Kristen didn’t follow behind her.

“Are you coming?” she asked.

“Where are we going?” Kristen responded.

“We have to go get patty,” dawn began. “She would kill me if we partied without her.”

They snuck through the dark house; snoring was coming from a room a little bit down the hall. The master bedroom, if it was set up the same as Kristen’s. Dawn grabbed a set of car keys out of the bowl by the front door and then tossed them to Sky. They all walked out of the house and got into a silver minivan. Sky pulled out of the driveway and headed down the street.

“So do you steal your mom’s car often?” Kristen asked, pleasantly surprised by Dawn’s rebellious side.

“Well, how else are we supposed to get around?” Dawn grinned.

They drove about fifteen minutes towards the other end of town. They pulled into the driveway of a small red brick house; it had a wooden staircase leading up to the front door that appeared to be hanging on for dear life. The door swung open, and Patty came running down the steps and to the car, Kristen could hear glass clanging around in her backpack with every step she took. She slid into the backseat next to Kristen, she didn’t seem surprised to see her. Dawn possibly filled her in via text message on their way to pick her up. They pulled back into the driveway; the exact way dawn’s mom had parked it. Dawn made patty enter through the window of her room due to her loud backpack. Kristen, Dawn, and Sky tip toed through the house and made it to her bedroom where Patty was waiting sitting on Dawn’s bed.

“Who brought the beer?” she asked

“I did” Kristen replied

Patty raised an eyebrow at her, she smirked.

“Just when I thought I couldn’t like you more.” Patty said throwing her arm around her.

Dawn turned off her bedroom light and turned on her desk lamp, they all sat cross legged in a circle on dawn’s bedroom floor. Kristen began passing around beers to everyone.

“So why the sudden urge to leave the house?” dawn asked taking a sip of the beer.

“I don’t know,” Kristen began “things have been weird at home, my dad ditched us tonight, so I copped his beers.”

“And why the sudden urge to knock on my door at 10 in the evening?” Sky winked at Kristen

“don’t flatter yourself” she responded, cheeks blushing.

Dawn and Patty gave each other knowing smiles.

Kristen began explaining how her father had become very absent since starting at his new job, how he had promised her mom that they would have a family game night that evening that he did not show up for, and how upset her mom had been.

“I just needed to leave.” Kristen finished.

“Wow I don’t blame you.” Patty said.

“And you sought for the comfort of your dear old Sky.” Sky joked.

Kristen couldn’t respond as she was taking a sip of the beer, all she could do is blush.

“Can you stop screwing around for once?” Patty snapped at Sky “her parents are probably going to get a divorce, it’s not funny.”

Kristen’s face fell, the room fell into an awkward silence.

“I just want to not think.” Kristen said finishing off her beer.

“Well, you’re going to need something stronger than that.” Patty laughing reaching for her bag.

She pulled out two large clear bottles, one appeared to be vodka and the other tequila.

“You want to forget? This will be your best friend.” She handed Kristen the bottle of tequila.

Kristen took the bottle, untwisted the cap and smelled the liquor. It smelled awful, the smell was strong and tickled her nose. She braced herself as she took the first sip, it burned the way down into her stomach. They each took turns taking sips from the bottle until it was almost empty, they laughed and danced to music that was almost too low to hear in fear of waking up dawn’s parents. It all became blurry, and before Kristen could realize what was happening, it was dark. She wasn’t thinking but she wasn’t present either. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.