Man Down

Chapter Five. A Week In

Chapter Five

A Week In

Kristen and her family were finally getting used to their new way of life. Kristen, despite her best efforts against it, made some friends. They had even exchanged numbers. She had warmed up to the house and began missing home less and less, which had made her feel incredibly guilty. Things seemed to start to settle.

It was Monday morning, the beginning of the second week of school. Kristen sat at the table with her mom and her little brother eating donuts and coffee her mom had ordered. Kristen’s father has been working crazy hours and she could tell it was really affecting her mom. He was gone before she woke and didn’t get home until after she was asleep. Kristen’s mother was used to spending lots of time with her father. The environment of the house seemed to have a grey cloud hovering over it, concentrated anywhere her mom was. Kristen’s phone vibrated suddenly; dawn was outside waiting for Kristen so they could walk to school together.

“dawn’s here, bye mom.” Kristen said grabbing her bookbag off the back of the chair.

Her mom went to respond but Kristen was gone in seconds. She was glad Kristen had made some friends and was finally adjusting to the new life they had made for themselves.

Kristen ran out of the house in a flash, shutting the door behind her. She turned to face dawn but was surprised to see sky standing next to her. Kristen’s heart dropped into her stomach, the butterflies building inside her.

“Surprised to see you here,” Kristen began “doesn’t Elise usually drive you to school?”

“he’s in the doghouse.” Dawn chuckled.

They began walking down the sidewalk, dawn in between Kristen and sky.

“What did you do?” Kristen couldn’t help but smirk.

“I fell asleep last night on our video chat.” Sky mumbled with his head down.

Kristen’s smirk fell that seemed a little juvenile she thought. They continued to walk along; dawn spoke about wanting to plan a slumber party in the coming weeks. Kristen kept making glances to sky. His head was down, and a sullen expression filled his face. Kristen couldn’t help but feel bad for him. She gave dawn a nudge signaling to ask if he was ok, dawn shook her head in agreement.

“Sky, do you want to join our slumber party?” dawn asked

That was not what Kristen meant, she shot dawn a look. Kristen had a crush on this boy, this taken boy. She definitely didn’t want to sleep near him, her most vulnerable state. Dawn shrugged her shoulders as if to say she didn’t know. Sky shot his head up and raised his eyebrow at them.

“You want me to go to your slumber party?” asked sky.

“Yeah, why not?” dawn responded.

“isn’t that a chicks only kinda thing?”

“It can be co-ed.” Dawn shrugged.

Kristen was still too stunned to get a word into the conversation. What could she do? Be a b***h and tell him he can’t come? She locked eyes with sky, he smirked. She blushed.

“I guess I can go.” He replied.

They finally reached the school, the sun peering over the top of the building. Students were already being dropped off by their parents, and buses were pulling in. as they walked up the sidewalk to the front doors Kristen looked over and saw Elise’s car parked in one of the first parking spots. Kristen had no reason to not like her, but she felt she had to be loyal to dawn and patty. She wasn’t ready for friends and didn’t expect to adjust so quickly, but she really felt she clicked with these girls. They continued on into the school, passed through the large main hallway, and took a right into the locker area. Sky spotted Elise and left the group, dawn and Kristen continued towards their lockers. The first bell rang signaling the students to begin heading to their classes. Kristen walked into Mr. Delaney’s class with dawn and took her usual seat in the back of the class. Shortly after taking their seats sky and Elise walked in with interlaced hands. They make up fast Kristen thought. She watched them make their way to their seats, sky moved his desk closer to hers. He was overcompensating for the previous night; she was such a drama queen. Kristen’s face lit up when patty entered the classroom. She was the last one to enter the classroom, this seemed to be a pattern for her. Her bright red hair was still soaked from the shower she probably rushed to take; her jet-black liner contrasted well with her vibrant blue eyes. She threw herself into her seat and plopped her binder on the desk in front of her. Mr. Delaney’s class was incredibly boring Kristen had come to learn, but he apparently lightened up as the day went on. He was not a morning person and Kristen was unlucky enough to be that first morning class.

Today’s lunch looked completely unappealing, the lunch ladies plopped spoon fills of mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, a piece of bread, and a greyish mush. Kristen could not make out what it could be, it appeared to have some kind of meat in it. Maybe stew? It certainly didn’t smell like it. Kristen was used to eating her mother’s questionable looking food, but this was next level. Clearly the food in the cafeteria was very hit or miss. She sat at the same round table as everyday with dawn and patty. They had been discussing the slumber party plans.

“What about this weekend?” dawn asked patty.

“That works.” Patty replied.

“I can’t this weekend, my mom wants to spend family time together since my dad has been working really late hours.” Kristen chimed in.

Patty gave her a puzzled look.

“Really?” she began raising an eyebrow at Kristen “I just saw your dad last night picking up food from bull’s.”

“what’s bulls?” Kristen asked.

“it’s a diner here in town.”

“Oh, what time was that around?” Kristen asked curiously.

“Um, it must have been around 6:30.”

That’s strange, Kristen’s father didn’t come home until around ten in the evening. Maybe he was just picking up dinner for at work.

“that’s ok!” exclaimed dawn “next weekend it is!”

Kristen and patty nodded their heads in agreement.

“what’s next weekend?” asked sky setting down his tray.

“The slumber party!” exclaimed dawn

“Oh ok, yeah I’ll be there.”

He began stuffing his face with the grey sludge, boys will eat anything Kristen thought.

“You?” patty scoffed. “Queen b***h Elise is letting you sleep out with a bunch of girls?”

Sky gave her a disapproving look.

“Well, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” He began “besides, me and dawn had tons of sleepovers growing up.”

Maybe Elise would be ok with dawn and patty, but how would she feel about Kristen? Kristen had an unnerving feeling about the slumber party. Kristen needed to turn these feelings off for sky. She wanted to remain in this friend group and couldn’t do that with these feelings she had for him. These sleepovers may be a regular thing that the friends did, and she couldn’t make them stop inviting sky. He definitely had more sonority over her.