Promises of Him

Chapter 5: Past-2022

It was March and finally starting to warm up a little. It's Texas so It's already warm but the winter was brutal this year. It got down to 17 degrees, it barely gets that cold in Pennsylvania. I laid on the bed watching a movie while Blake worked out in the garage. I wanted to work out with him, but he doesn't like people watching him work out, that's why he won't go to the gym and prefers to punch a punching bag in the garage. I checked the time, he's been in the garage for over an hour, he never works out for more than an hour. I pause my movie and get out of bed, walking downstairs. The living room and kitchen were empty but the lights were on and so was the tv. That's not a surprise, they're the type of family to keep all of their lights and tv on when they leave the house. My grandparents make me turn the lights off whenever I leave a room.

"Blake?" I call out. Nothing. I take a right and walk down the hallway which leads to the dogs room, the front door and the garage. As I get closer to the door, I hear voices coming from the garage but I can't make out what they're saying. I inch closer, putting my ear against the door. I know I shouldn't be listening in, but I'm nosy.

"Her nan's sick, she should be with her." I hear Laura say. I hear a sigh and another voice.

"She just has a cold, she doesn't need to go home because her nan has a cold." Blake replies.

"Blake, you got fired from your job. It's been two weeks and you haven't even began looking for another job. Kat doesn't have a job, things need to change or Kat has to move out." I back away from the door and walk back upstairs to our room. I lay back down on the bed, with a sigh, I grab my laptop and open indeed. I look through, applying to some, before I see Blake walking in. I click off and back to the movie, before I look up at him.

"Hey." I greet, forcing a smile. He smiles back. "How was working out?" I ask.

"Good." He replies, laying down on his stomach and opening Tik Tok.

"Is everything okay?" I ask. He nods.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be?" I shrug, laying down on my stomach next to him. I link my arm with his and rest my head on his shoulder, watching his Tik Tok fyp with him.

–

A couple weeks later, I still haven't heard back from any of the jobs I applied to and Blake still hasn't applied anywhere. Me and his mom have both brought it up to him but he just brushes it off and says he'll look later. I could tell his mom was getting frustrated at him. I started doing freelance writing and editing to make some extra money for us, but it's not enough. I got paranoid that I'd get kicked out over Blake not getting a new job so I talked to Laura and told her I'd start paying rent if needed but she said we'd talk about it once Blake gets a new job.

I wake up to a bunch of shuffling around the room. My eyes flutter open and I see Blake holding a shirt and walking around the room, looking like he's looking for something.

"What are you looking for?" I ask, wiping my eyes.

"My black playboy shorts." He replies.

"In the laundry room, I washed them last night." I say, he nods and walks out of the room and returns a minute later, changed. "Where are you going?" I ask.

"The lake."

"Can I come?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Bryan's taking me." Of course. Since he lost his job, he's been hanging out with Bryan a lot more. He was out last night at the lake fishing until 2am, I got bored because no one else was home, not even Dalton, so I cleaned and did laundry. I don't think I've left this house since I met my new friend Briee a month ago.