Falling For You | c.s.

||Chapter Nine||

||Chapter Nine||

--Jazmine's POV--

Once we got home, it had gotten fairly late, since my house was a bit far from the hospital. I was ready to crash. My head was pounding, and I was unreasonably tired. My mom had asked me if I was hungry, but for some reason, food didn't sound good to me then. In the end, I just decided to go up to my room and take a nap, knowing I wouldn't be able to keep myself awake for much longer.  

It was a good 2 hours before I woke up again. The sun had now set, and my stomach finally growled. It was way past dinnertime, but I didn't care. I made my way down to the kitchen, noticing the room's eerie silence. When I opened the fridge, I was met with a barren cave, with literally nothing but a jar of pickles and a bottle of ketchup. I slammed it shut in anger, my stomach growling. When was my mom going to have enough money to go grocery shopping? When would we have enough money for anything, really?

The pantry had some crackers left in it so I took out a handful and shoved them in my mouth. I also grabbed a pickle out of the fridge and hoped that would be enough to fill me up. It didn't.

My parents were already asleep, and I wasn't tired anymore, so I decided to go for a walk around outside and maybe grab a snack from the gas station. I wrapped my sweater around myself, slipped on my Converse, and headed out the front door quietly with my purse in hand, making sure my father didn't hear me. Why I suddenly decided to go on a midnight stroll, I have no idea. I guess I'm stupid like that. I probably should've known better, considering I lived in a not-so-nice area in town, but I did it anyways.

I was making my way to the gas station, needing more than just some crackers to tie me over, and thinking about the events of the past few days. How had my life gone from it's normal, boring routine to a cluster-fuck of all kinds of bullshit so quickly? I couldn't wrap my mind around most of the things that had happened. What was I supposed to do?

Once I was at the gas station, I went inside and got some things to eat: a turkey sandwich, hot Cheetos, and a lemonade. When I got to the register, I realized how quiet the place was, and that I was the only one there. The lady at the register flashed me a smile, but I dodged it and looked away like the weird asshole I am. Awkward. The lady gave me a funny look, but continued to scan my items. "That'll be $8.23 please."

As I was handing her the money, I heard the bell ring, indicating someone had just walked into the gas station. I didn't pay much attention to it, and just proceeded to hand the lady my money in exact change, then began to grab my items. After managing to give the lady a courteous nod, I turned and ran right smack into something- no, someone. I looked up to see Dallas, and my entire face burned red, "s-sorry," I muttered, not knowing what to say.

"Jazmine!" he shouted. His eyes looked hazy and he was slouched a bit. Was something wrong with him? "Fancy bumping into you here," he slurred.

He was drunk. I knew the signs all too well, being around my father and all. What the fuck was he doing drunk at a gas station in the middle of the night? I gave him a dirty look and started to walk away, whispering, "I can't believe you" to myself as I sped past him. He's only 18 and should know better than to be drunk in such a public place.

"Baby, c'mon!" He whined, following me out of the store. He hadn't even grabbed anything to buy. It was as if he knew I would be there, so he came in and pretended he was going to buy something just to bother me. I continued to walk faster. "Don't be like this," he grabbed my shoulder and I flung around, shoving him.