Complications

Meet the Father

~Riley~

"Mom I'm home." I called walking through the door throwing my bag on the counter.

"Sweetie I need to speak with you. Come here please." She sounded worried.

I ran into her room "Mom, are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Nothing" she laughed "nothing is wrong."

"Oh okay good. so what did you want to talk about?"

I sat down in her bed and looked up at her "honey, I'm going to be leaving for the next few weeks."

"What why?" I asked concerned.

"My boss offered me that if I go on this trip and work really hard for a few weeks then he will pay me double what I'm getting now. We really need the money."

"How long are you gone for?"

"3 weeks. Not too long. Are you going to be okay if I leave you here by yourself?"

"Yeah."

"I told Mrs. Lede from next door to come and check on you once a week."

"What about food and money?"

"I transferred a few hundred onto your debit card, but don't go spending like crazy."

"Alright. Well, when do you leave?"

"Tomorrow night."

"Okay."

"So I decided that tonight we are going to get some pizza and ice cream and watch some movies! I want to spend some time with my little girl before I leave her for 3 weeks."

I went up and hugged her. "how about you finish packing and I'll do my homework and then we can do that."

"Sounds good to me."

I left her room and went to the kitchen. I grabbed my bag off the counter and went to go get started in homework. I noticed the Austin left his jacket here.

I walked over to his house praying his would be home. I knocked 3 times before the door slammed open.

"What the hell do you want?" I'm guessing Austin's father asked.

"I-I need to speak t-to Austin." I stammered.

He was making me nervous. He seemed very unstable and he held a beer bottle in his hand half empty.

"Well come on in."

I stepped inside and noticed that there were cans and bottles of beer littered everywhere. The TV was on but it had duck tape on the cords to hold it together, and a table and chair were knocked over on the floor.

"Austin get your lazy ass down here. You've got another one of your girlfriends here to see you." he yelled making me flinch.

He walked past me and into the living room. He laid back down on the couch and proceeded to watch some sort of sports channel.

I heard steps coming down the stairs and I turned around.

"Riley?" He looked scared.

"Goddamnit! Austin we need a new remote! This piece of shit is broken." his dad yelled from the couch. He threw his beer bottle at the door right past me in anger. I screamed and jumped.

"Austin?" I asked.

"Let's go somewhere else" he said calmly.

He took my hand and led me out the front door.

"You shouldn't have come here." he said as soon as the door closed behind us.

"Austin I'm sorry. I had no idea."

"I know...just its not safe." he seemed worried.

"Austin I'm fine. Really."

"Well what did you want?"

"Here." I gave him back his jacket.

"You came all the way over here just to give me my jacket back?"

"You make it sound like I came 20 miles. And no."

"Well then what else is there?"

"My mom just told me that she's leaving for 3 weeks for a business trip. So I've been thinking about what you said! And I'll do it."

"What are you talking about? Do what?"

"I'll have the party."