[Chresanto]
Everyone is currently sitting in my living room as Ride Along plays on my eighty-five inch SmartTV. Shiloh and Jazmyne are cuddled up on the love seat diagonal from the television while Dahlia and Chandler sit cuddled up on the other end of the sectional in front of the televison. Alyssa and I have claimed the part of the sectional that juts out furthest, almost doubling over as a bed.
I have my arm wrapped around her shoulder as she leans her head against my chest. Absentmindedly, I start to rub my hand up and down her arm, and she shivers.
"You cold?" I question, preparing to grab the throw blanket from the back of the couch. She shakes her head no, then I lean down and whisper in her ear, "Once everyone's gone, I'll teach you how to fight some more, okay?"
"Okay," she replies, her eyes on the TV screen. The movie has just recently begun, but I've seen it so many times that I don't need to see the screen to know what's going on.
I keep my eyes on Alyssa the entire time, smiling as I watch her laugh. Yeah, it sounds creepy that I'm watching her laugh, but it actually isn't. When she laughs, she looks free, almost as if she doesn't have a care in the world, and that's how I want her to feel... especially when she's with me.
"I'ma grab a beer," Shiloh states as he arises from his seat next to Jazmyne. "Anybody else want anything?"
"Bring me a beer," Chandler instructs. Myself and the girls decline his offer.
I only decline for two reasons. One, I've reached my alcohol limit for the month; yes, I set myself a limit as to how much alcohol I drink each month which coincides with reason number two. Reason number two, at the young age of eighteen and just a few months after Keeleigh went missing, I struggled with being an alcoholic. I had taken to alcohol to help ease the pain and guilt I felt for Keeleigh's disappearance. I still remember that night like it was yesterday.
* * *
Keeleigh and I were walking back to my house. Her adoptive parents, whom just so happened to be my aunt and uncle were away on a business trip, so Keeleigh was staying at my house for the last two weeks of school, which didn't really surprise me because she preferred to stay at my house anyway.
"Santo, wait up!" she screams, jogging to keep up with me as we leave the convenient store five blocks away from where I reside. I would have driven to the store, but my car was currently at the mechanic's because I hit a deer on my home from a pre-graduation party one night; no, I wasn't drinking.
"You the one who runs track, Leigh," I state, using her nickname. "You should be able to keep up."
