Video Game Girlfriend

Chapter 5

Walking through the front door, I head straight for the kitchen. I down two glasses of water straight away before filling a third with some O.J. I hadn’t stopped to get any water or anything after P.E. before heading home. I just wanted to grab a snack and go bury myself in  my bed. I walk over to the pantry and shuffle through it, searching for something to ease my rumbling stomach until dinner time. I finally settle on a bag of popcorn and take it over to the microwave to begin popping. As I wait for that to finish I replay the events of today over in my head. Embarrassment and anger build inside me the more I think about it. Not only did Alexa embarrass me in front of my life long crush, but also for the whole school and for Vanessa, who I’m sure up until now kind of liked me as a person. As soon as she gets home she’s in for a world of hurt.

The microwave dings, I grab the steaming bag and take it along with my drink into my room, shutting the door behind me. I place the Juice onto my dresser before tossing my backpack onto the ground beside my bed. I hop in my bed, kicking off my shoes onto the floor, pulling out my phone, and opening the bag of popcorn. The buttery scent hits my nose and my stomach growls in return. I shovel a handful into my mouth, before opening my phone to snap chat. I scan through people's stories, only really paying attention to the ones my friends posted. I get to Haileys and I pause, staring at the photo in horror. It’s a picture of me, asleep in 5th period with drool running out of my mouth. The caption on the photo reads “Such a Dreamboat” followed by a heart eyes emoticon and a barf faced one too. Anger shoots through me and I toss my phone across the room, instantly regretting it as I watch it smack into the far wall and fall onto the floor. I get up, expecting the worst as I pick my phone up off the carpet. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see the screen isn’t shattered. Just then I hear the front door open, and the familiar sound of my sister bustling through the doorway.

My fury returns as swiftly as it left, I storm to my bedroom door, swinging it open, before stomping down the hallway to the front of the house. I get to the entryway to see Alexa slumping her bags onto and around the table.

“Hey Blair, do you mind grabbing me something to eat real fast, I need to pee something awful.” She said nonchalantly. This pissed me off even more, the fact that what she had done didn’t even faze her.

“What’s your problem?” I shout at her, my blood boiling in my veins, I could feel my face turning red. She turned to look at me, startlement across her face.

“Excuse me?” She starts, “I think the real question here is what’s your problem?” She retorts, I can tell I’ve pissed her off. Good, I think, she deserves it after the crap she pulled today.

“You can’t be that daft, you know exactly what you did. Hell, everyone in the whole school knows exactly what you did at this point.” Realization dawns on her face.

“Oh, you mean this morning with Hailey? Dude you knew it was gonna come out eventually, almost everyone already knew anyways, now she does too.” She said with a smirk. I’ve never wanted to hit a girl so bad before in my life. 

“You're supposed to be my sister Lex, I’m supposed to be able to trust you to not go off and spill all my secrets to anyone who will listen. I can’t believe you’d do this to me man.” My anger quickly turning into hurtful disappointment. I sigh and shake my head. “Whatever, just forget it, my life is ruined now and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” I turn and start walking back to my room. 

“Look Blair, I’m sorry alright? I didn’t mean for it to get around to everyone, and I shouldn’t have to Hailey in the first place. It was just supposed to be a joke, and I didn’t want you to embarrass me by hanging around us to see her.” 

“I get it, just try not to go around spilling any more of my secrets okay?” I say, not turning to look at her.

“Okay.” I hear her reply. I continue walking to my room, once inside I shut the door behind me and slump into it with my back. I slowly slide down until I’m sitting on the ground, I lean my head back until it’s resting against my door as well and close my eyes. I would trade anything for today to be a Friday instead of Wednesday so I didn’t have to go to school tomorrow. That would give me two days for the rumor to dissipate and new ones to start circulating. Unfortunately it isn’t a Friday though, and I do have school tomorrow, so all I can do is hope and pray that almost everyone has forgotten by the time I wake up in the morning. 

I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling for what feels like hours, slowly snacking on the popcorn I had made earlier. I have decided that I’m just going to keep my head down tomorrow, not that I didn’t do that most days anyway, but even more so tomorrow. I sit up in bed as I hear the front door bang open. Dad’s home, I think as I hear him make his way to the living room, running into the dining chairs as he does so. I sigh and press my palms onto my eyes, rubbing them. I hate days that I don’t have work, it means I have to babysit dad until mom gets home and finishes cooking dinner. Alexa refuses to do it, and if I don’t do it either, there’s a good chance something will either be broken, or something will be covered in piss or throw up. Why does he have to drink so much, I mean it’s a Wednesday for God’s sake. I get out of bed, and walk to my dresser, wanting to change into something more comfortable before I have to go deal with all that. As I’m doing so though, I hear footsteps leaving Alexa’s room.

“I got it today, It’s the least I can do.” She says peeking into my room and giving me a small smile. I nod at her, relieved that I don’t have to deal with him for another day.

‘Thank’s.” I say, “If you need anything just holler, he can be a handful at times.” I remind her. Even if she is gonna be dealing with the blunt end of our father, I’m still gonna keep an ear out for her. Make sure if he gets too out of control I can be there in a second.

“I know, and I will.” She replies, turning towards the living room, and shutting my door behind her. I shuffle back to my bed and plop back onto my mattress. A few minutes later, the front door opens again, and I hear mom placing her keys and purse on the table before walking into the kitchen to start dinner. She’s always going that woman, never stopping even for a second until everything is done for the day.

I don’t leave my room until I smell food wafting in from the kitchen. My stomach rumbles in anticipation as I slip out of bed and head towards the smell. As I pass though the living room I see Dad passed out on the floor, snoring louder than a dump truck. Lex is parked in the recliner right behind him, scrolling through the channels on the television. I’m glad he’s passed out, it’s easier to handle him that way. I continue walking and make my way into the kitchen. I see my mom hard at work making what looks to be taco meat. She's frying the tortillas in one pan while browning the meat in the other. I walk up behind her and loop an arm around her side, squeezing her quickly before letting go.

“Oh, hey Blair, I didn’t know you were off today. I figured with Alexa in there with dad that that meant you would be at work.” She said, looking over at me and smiling. 

“Nope, no work today, Lex just owes me from earlier.” I say, walking over to the open bag of cheese on the counter. I grab a finger full and toss it in my mouth.

“Owes you for what?” mom asks, her eyebrow arched in a curious look. 

“Nothing,” I say, “Just something silly.” I answer. Not wanting to give away too much information, and get Lex in trouble.

“Okay if you say so.” She says, looking back towards her pans. I walk back out of the kitchen into the living room, sitting down on the sofa. I stare at the T.V. for a few minutes, watching some cooking show that Lex has turned on. Not too long after, mom calls for dinner. Lex nudges dad a few times with her foot, trying to wake him up. If it was up to us, we’d just let him sleep the rest of the night, however if he wakes up sometime in the middle of the night or the next morning, and we didn’t wake him for supper, we'll have hell to pay. 

His snoring stops abruptly as he wakes up. He looks around and wipes the drool from his mouth. That must be where I get it from, I think to myself, cringing. I mosey into the kitchen and grab a stack of plates out of the cabinet, one for each of us, and take the top one over to the stove to start making my plate. Not many people know this, but I’m actually a really picky eater. I think there are only like thirty things on this planet that I’ll actually eat, and most of them include fried food. I do like tacos though, I only put meat and occasionally cheese on them, but it’s better than nothing. 

After I finish eating I head back to my room. After the long day I had, I’m ready to just hit the hay. I don’t even bother looking at the math homework we got today, opting to just do it in the morning before I get to my math class. I turn off the light and shut the door in my room before diving under my comforter. I pull my phone out of my pocket and plug it in, shoving it under my pillow once I see the little lightning bolt in the top right hand corner. I lay back onto my pillow and stare at my ceiling, awaiting the darkness to take over. As I finally begin drifting off, I see something move out of the corner of my eye outside my window. But, believing it to be nothing more than my half sleep ridden mind I ignore it and allow myself to fall into a deep slumber.