When the Sun Goes Down

~2~

"Are you seriously kidding me?!" My mother screams as the police car drives away from our house.

"What?" I ask.

"This is the third time this month you've had to have someone bring you home!" She looks at me pissed. She hates it when I get drunk. Ever since my dad died in a car crash with his drunk best friend my mother has never allowed alcohol anywhere near her or me. I followed in my father's footsteps and started to drink. I don't do it often, but when I do I don't stop. I keep drinking and drinking until what happened tonight.

"Whatever." I say and walk upstairs.

I slam my bedroom door shut behind me, pissed, and lock it. I sit down on my bed and slowly drift off into a deepslumber.

●

The next morning I wake up sick. I run to the bathroom and start puking in the toliet. I hold my hair back as I hurl.

Downstairs I hear my mother and Aunt Jen having their usual morning coffee. My aunt Jen is my father's sister and a locally famous author. She wrote a series about mermaids and the middle-schoolers here think it's all the rage.

I walk downstairs, kiss mom goodbye, and say bye to Aunt Jen. I shut the door behind me as I walk down the driveway. When I reach my neighbor's house, I walk over and throw up in his trash can. I don't feel bad about it because our neighbors have never really liked me and my mom. I don't know why.

○

When I reach Blake's house, his Dad's girlfriend's car sits in the driveway. It's akward when she's there because Blake's dad is like fifty and Lisa is in her twenties. She's really annoying too. She always talks in this high, squeaky voice and is overly peppy.

As soon as I walk in the door she giggles like a teenaged girl and says, "Hi, Kevin!" in her annoying, squeaky, high voice.

"Hi." I reply. I walk over to the stairs, trying to forget the image of her and Blake's dad flirting.

I turn down the hall and into Blake's bedroom. "Hey, can I puke here?" I ask.

"Sure. I know how much your mom hates this kind of stuff." he says as I head in the huge bathroom on the side of his room.

"Thanks." I say and walk in. I look at his computer as I pass and see him working on his manuscript he's writing. He's into the whole writing thing like Aunt Jen.

●

When I was done puking my guts out I went over and laid down next to him on his bed. I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

I admired the Harry Potter, The Hobbit, The Hunger Games, and the Divergent posters hanging on his walls. He's into the fantasy things like me.

"So, how's life?" He says, putting his laptop away.

"I'm hungover. I can't stop puking! How do you think?" I ask.

"Ok then." He says and turns towards the TV. "Hey, I went to see Macie eariler."

"And?" I ask.

"And, she's not doing so well. She lost a lot of blood. And her neck looked kind of infected. It had two swollen holes on the side of it. It kind of looked like..." Blake trails off.

"Like what?" I ask.

"Oh, nothing." He returns.

"Come on tell me!" I say.

"You'll think I'm crazy!"

"Tell me!"

"It almost looked like a... a vampire bite." Blake mutters.

I giggle. "C'mon man!" I say, "There's no such thing as vampires!"

"See, I told you you'd laugh!" Blake says and switches the channel.

"Sorry, it just sounds a little ridiculous." I say as I watch the TV.

"Well, she was found in the dark, drained of blood, with two holes in the side of her neck. You tell me a more reasonable answer." Blake spits.

"Werewolf?" I ask and chuckle.

"Seriously?!"

"Sorry, sorry! Let's just forget about it for know and pray that Macie will live." I say. My words trigger another mouth-full of vomit. I run to the bathroom and shut the door.

○

Today at school, I run into the gay guy. For some reason he thinks we're friends.

"Hey, Kevin!" Ben says as he was over to me.

"Hi, Ben." I say gloomily. I don't have anything against gay people, I just can't stand Ben.

"So, what happened the other night with Macie?" He asks.

I start to reply but am interrupted by the sight of Blake. "Hey, listen. There's Blake. Talk to you later."

"Ok, see ya!" Ben says and skips away.

"Thank God." I say as I walk up to Blake.

"Look." He says and points to the new girl.

"What?" I ask.

"You see Sondra?"

"Yes."

"I think she's the one who drained Macie's blood."