With or Without You.

Part Four

 We pulled into a shady looking side street. Neon lights read Ben's. I followed behind Collin into the dark lit bar looking restaurant, oddly there was no one above what looked like mid-twenties. Collin pulled a 20 out of his jacket pocket. "Why don't you grab something to eat? Oh and can you grab me a beer?" He said.

 "Uhm," I nodded and headed to the bar.

"What can I get you Miss?" Said a tall dark haired young man with bright blue eyes.

"A beer and a Dr. Pepper please." I said setting the 20 on the bar. He nodded and turned to the icebox, he set the drinks on the bar. “Thank you,” I gave a small smile and went to find Collin. “I didn’t know what kind of beer, so..” I handed him the beer.

“This’ll do. Thanks Spence.” He said hitting the cap on the table popping it off.

“Collin, is this her then? The poor daughter your slut mom trapped in with her flavor of the week?” said an obviously drunken man with beer in hand and his boots on the table. Collin let out a laugh and through back a gulp of beer.

“What did you say about my mother Rick?” He stood slamming his beer on the table.

“Nothing man, relax.” Rick said taking another drink. I could see in his eyes he didn’t intend on relaxing. Collin pushed the table out of his way the bottle of beer toppling and crashed onto the floor. Scared I hid left and hid in the bathroom. As I sat beside the door I could hear them thrash around the bar and what must be the owner yelling. A hard several knocks came against the door, “Spence! Come on! We need to leave.” Collin yelled. As we made our way out to the car I didn’t have the courage to ask for his keys even seeing how drunk he was. “Here.” Collin threw his keys at me standing at the passenger’s side. I breathed a sigh of relief. We pulled into the drive way after a silent drive. “I’m sorry about that back there you know. It’s not your fault not any of it.” I sat quietly and nodded.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Margret whispered in a harsh voice. “It’s one thing for you to be out all time of the night getting wasted and in all kinds of trouble but now you’re putting Spencer in harm’s way to?” She said. Collin stayed quiet and shook his head as he passed her up the stairs to his room. “Are you alright Spencer?” Margret asked pushing back my hair, I don’t know if I really looked that shaken up or this was all a part of her act.

 “Where’s my father?” I asked. Margret looked shocked.

“He went out looking for you, I’ll give him a call tell him to come on home.” She said shaking her head in disbelief as she walked into the kitchen.

“You know, he was just taking me to get food. He really cares about you it’s just hard for him to deal with all of this.” I said and walked away up to my room.