Temper

5

I'm standing in the bathroom drying my hair with a towel. My eyes trail down to my body and all I can see is a big discolored patch of flesh covering the left side of my torso. I run my fingers through my tangled hair, I have taken two showers and I still feel dirty. I have scrubbed my skin until it has become red and raw. The tips of my fingers wrinkled and the skin on the bottom of my feet match them. Kie knocked on the door an hour ago and let me know her and pope were here. I throw on a black shirt and a pair of ripped jeans. I look at myself in the mirror which isn't fogged up because John b's water heater sucks ass.

I stare back at my reflection tired, beaten down, ugly, fat,disappointing, dirty, greedy, selfish, sensitive, filth- "Rylee come on" the sound of JJ's voice booms along with the sound of knocking on the door. I pull the door open seeing JJ standing in my way. I push past him and walk towards kie. I engulf her in a hug and rest my head on her shoulder feeling my eyes burn. I'm not a very touchy person, I don't usually hug people but I needed this. She wraps her arms around my waist while rubbing my back putting pressure on my ribcage that is now throbbing again.

Rylee is hugging kie which is weird. She doesn't like people touching her at all. I look at John b with furrowed eyebrows him, pope and kie all three have the same confused expression on their face. "Where were you? we waited forever at the wreck and you didn't show up" I say pulling my tie off. Which Is mandatory work attire. She pulls away from kie and smooths out her shirt. Her eyes are a little glossy and I can't tell if it's because she's high or she's about to cry. I assume it's the first one because we never really see Ry cry.

I pull my button up over my head and grab my old shirt off the bar stool that has the sleeves cut out of it. "I was sent home early so I just walked" she says shrugging her shoulders and falling backwards onto the pull-out. "Nope get up come on we have a kegger to get to" pope says grabbing her hand and trying to pull her up. She groans trying to pull him down onto the bed instead of getting up. Kie is still standing in the same spot staring at her confused.

I walk into the kitchen and grab a beer from the fridge and turn to see kie standing on the other side of the table. "My dad doesn't just send people home" she says swiping the beer out of my hand. "So, what are you getting at?" I wisper as I grab myself another beer. "You need to ask her what happened. Find out why she's acting like that." She says turning away from me. "Why me?" I ask following her back into the living room. "Because she finds it easy to talk to you for some reason" she says snarling her nose at me. I open my beer tossing the lid onto the table.

Rylee is still laying on the bed staring up at the ceiling, it looks like pope gave up on trying to get her up. I walk over to her and pat her inner thigh getting her attention "come on get up we gotta go buttercup" she reaches her arm up asking for help.

I pull her up without any struggle. She squints her eyes closed not letting go of my hand yet. "You good?" I ask. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine" she says nodding her head and letting go of my hand. She walks out the door following the group to the van. I pocket my julu and head out after her. We load into the van kie sitting up front me, pope and rylee are in the back while John b drives.

The van backs away from the house and rolls towards the bone yard. Rylee rests her head in my lap laying on her back with her eyes closed. I grab a strand of her damp hair twisting it around my finger. While resting my hand that is holding my beer on her stomach. She blindly feels for my hand holding my beer opening her eyes when she doesn't find it. "I wanna drink" she whines looking up at me. She trys to lean up to look for it but I pull the strand of hair causing many unladylike words to spew out of her mouth and a "Leave her alone JJ" from kie.

I hold the beer over her head showing her where it is "is this what you want?" I ask taking a sip. She groans in frustration reaching for it but I pull it away. "Give it to me" she wimpers reaching over her head. "No, catch it." I say. "What?" She questions looking at the bottle not reaching for it anymore. "Open your mouth and catch it" I say smirking. "OK" she says smiling up at me she scoots down so she is laying flat. Her mouth opens and her head is tilted back. I hold the bottle a decent height above her mouth.

The liquid drizzles from the bottle into her mouth as it makes a splashing sound. Her mouth starts to slowly close giving no room for the beer to enter. I grab her chin and pull her mouth open farther as she starts to giggle. "JJ she's going to drowned" pope says watching the whole thing from across the van. Gurgling sounds from the back of her throat as I stop pouring the beer. Laughing at the way she is struggling to keep the beer in her mouth. Her giggling turns into a full fit of laughter making her cough, beer seeps out the corners of her mouth, she tilts her head back laughing sending beer up her face and towards her eyes. She squints her eyes closed sitting up quickly causing beer to spill out of her nose and mouth.

She coughs wiping her face with her arm and blinking away the beer from her eyes."you fucking asshole you were just going to let him drowned me!" She says kicking pope in the shin. "Hey, that hurt and I wasn't the one pouring the beer he was" pope shouts rubbing his shin. She slaps me in the chest grabbing the beer from my hand and taking an actual drink. I laugh at her blood shot eyes caused from the alcohol she couldn't hold in her mouth. Causing a chain reaction of laughs throughout the van. Including her even if she was trying not to.