Phren-Dolus

Chapter 1

MARK:

It's Saturday, I love Saturdays, well except for the hangover from last night, we didn't go to a party or anything this time, we just sat in Sami's basement and played Wii and drank. Last night was grandma Aranya's poker night. His parents don't mind as long as we only drink in the basement and know our limits and when we walk up the stairs to go to bed they make us drink a shit ton of water.

My friends Sami and Ian, and my girlfriend Sasha are walking to the store, dont know what we'll get but we need something for dinner. I don't want to just eat junk food again, I want vegetables or some shit idk.

Our parents all know each other, so on weekends as long as no one is grounded we hangout, even if we have chores we do them together. Sami and Ian were walking behind me and Sasha, talking about the order ingredients on a sandwich. Me and Sasha were arguing if you'd get the wobbles going down this hill.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a house's door burst open. I wasn't surprised at first this is a pretty shitty neighborhood and it sucks we gotta walk through it. Then a burly drunk man burst through the door dragging a short, skinny boy behind him by the hair. Oh my God, I know that guy. That's Danny. The guy- no shut up. Danny held his head after he was tossed to the ground. We had stopped walking and I just noticed.

What the hell is going on? Is that Danny's dad? What did he do? Did he even do anything? Probably not, Danny's a pretty chill dude, he keeps to himself in class and just draws and does his work. I hate that I know that. Should we call the cops? or would they just say this is their business?

I regret not doing anything, I'll be thinking about that when I can't sleep at night for awhile. We ended up just walking on by.

DANNY:

I didn't do the dishes in time, god damn it why didn't I? That's why my dad's dragging me out of the front door by my hair, throwing me on the lawn and spraying me with the hose.

"Since you apparently don't know how to wash anything I'll show you!!"

I was already crying and will probably get me in more trouble later, that's when he sprayed me in the face with the flat setting causing me to choke on the water and cry more. This was fine and this was normal but what made everything not fine, was the 4 teenagers that I knew went to my school walking by on the other side of the road. Oh god. Mark was one of them, he's seen me before, but I don't want this to be the first memorable thing about me, that I can't do my chores on time.

Dad didn't stop when he saw them and neither did they, they eventually kept walking, although they did start talking and looked concerned, fuck.

I've had a crush on Mark since last year's party to start off summer. He was drunk, I shouldn't have been, dad beat the shit out of me for it without worry of someone noticing, it's not like I was allowed out during summer anyway.

Mark told me I was pretty and kissed me in an empty hallway, kissing isn't the right word, we made out, hard for like 10 minutes before his friend Ian called for him. I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember, plus now he has a girlfriend anyway. She's really pretty and well not exactly nice but he seems to like her, they've been dating for 2 months now, not only that but I don't think he likes boys.

Wait. Omg. I have more important things to be worrying about than 'boy trouble'. Dad went back inside to sit on the couch and drink the rest of the case. That's all he does on the weekend. I was left in the yard shivering. Yeah, I'd be fine if it was summer, but no, it's late fall, it's 60 fucking degrees out. I know he doesn't want me to get sick because then who would cook and do the chores? Why couldn't he just smack me or something? Why'd he have to make this public?

I made my way back inside taking off my pants and jacket, and walking to the bathroom to dry off then to dry my clothes. This is just great, more to do.

Monday

DANNY:

Today dad works from 7pm - 5am. He's building something out of town, right now they get to tear apart the ground, it's probably another grocery store. But anyways that means I get to go out tonight and as long as I do the laundry he won't care or ever know.

But right now, I have to get ready for school. It doesn't matter what I wear, just as long as I don't stand out, then I won't get picked on. Baggy jeans and my hoodie again, I guess.

I get to school 5 minutes before the bell rings, I like to get the pumpkin spice bars from the cafeteria, call me a 40 year old white woman but they're my favorite.

School was boring but that was normal, I only got a few pencils thrown at me today. I got some homework, yk lame shit. Lunch was also the same. I sat out in the grass field, bugs kept trying to eat my sandwich before me.

I got home and barely made it up the stairs before dad yelled for me. "Dan!"
"What?!" I yelled back trying not to sound rude. "When I yell for you, you come to me little boy!" He was sitting on the couch, some might call him lazy but I wouldn't, he works a lot and works hard. He deserves to sit around when he's home.

"Yes dad?" I take my position standing next to him and facing him 2 feet away like I was taught. "I want spaghetti tonight, with fried brussel sprouts" yes, awesome, that's easy to cook and one of my favorites, me and dad have similar tastes. "Yes sir." He turns, actually acknowledging me. "And make sure you get your homework and the laundry done tonight. Get me a beer." "Yes sir"

Holy shit that 1066 words, that was like way easier than I thought it would be, I really hope you enjoyed that, I'm not really good at starting stories, also Danny doesn't really see a problem with how he's being treated, he gets mad and annoying when he's hurt but that's about it. He'll realize later on but for rn this is his normal.