After Dark

Ten

Liam wakes up and the first thing he realizes is that he's in an unfamiliar place. He blinks and slowly sits up. Right, Ember's house is where he was last night and fell asleep.

He scans the living room. He's on one end of the couch, probably had slept curled in a ball, with a blanket over him. On the other end is Paige who's peacefully sleeping and has another blanket thrown over her.

Izzy and Ember are on the sofa wrapped up in each other and there's a blankets loosely spread over their legs. Chris is asleep in the chair. There's no blanket over him and he's spread out over the propped up armchair.

Liam looks over to the kitchen and sighs with relief when he sees someone standing there. It's Iris and she appears to be cooking. He gets up and walks over slowly. "Good morning."

The woman looks up in surprise before smiling brightly. "Well good morning to you too Liam." She looks over at the clock. "It's only eight, you must be an early riser. I'm afraid the rest of the kids will probably be asleep until at least nine."

Liam nods a little. He's not sure what to do now. He feels so awkward being in someone else's house, especially with everyone his age asleep.

"Wanna sit down and talk to me? I make decent company, or at least I like to believe so." She has a kind smile and so he smiles back a little and nods. She motions to the table and he goes over to sit down while she continues to cook.

"I must warn you, I may not be the best at making conversation." He starts.

"That's alright. I was real socially awkward until I started college." Iris waves him off. "So, how'd you and Ember become friends? You seem like polar opposites, but I guess her and Paige are too. She's just good at attracting those people I guess."

Liam slowly nods. "I guess. I talked to Paige first, we had classes together freshman year. I guess Ember knew we talked because she started talking to me too whenever she saw me around. Then I guess I just got roped into their group."

Iris hums a little. She's making pancakes, at this point Liam has figured that out. They smell really good too.

"You're from a well off family, aren't you?" She asks with interest. There's no judgement in her voice and that makes him nod a little.

"My family has a lot of money, yes."

"What's that like?" She raises her eyebrows.

Liam shrugs. He doesn't quite know how to answer that. It's what his life has always been. "It's got its pros and cons."

"I can imagine. Any life must have those, I guess."

"Yeah." Liam nods a little some more.

He thinks about what Paige and Ember have with their lives. To him, it seems like everything he could want. Close knit family, at least in some way. Paige is extremely close with her mother and Liam has seen enough of Ember's family's dynamic to know they all get along great. A comfortable home environment, they like coming home every day after school.

Of course, he knows it's not all that simple. There's some down sides. Paige has to work to help out with her mom, it's just the two of them so money is tight. Then Ember, he knows everything isn't the greatest with her either.

He also knows to them, he probably has a pretty great life too. He's got a credit card with tons of money on it. He's got a huge house he gets to live in. He never has to worry about working to make money. To them, that all probably sounds great.

He does hope that they see some of the signs he's given them. It's not as wonderful as it seems. It's not just some big fancy dream.

"What do you think of the little group of hooligans?" Iris asks again. She looks over at the living room and all the sleeping teenagers. "They're kinda crazy, aren't they?"