Ripped [TO BE PUBLISHED 2016]

26

It's late when I get home. Dusk was long faded, not far off from me. I stumble into the house, slobbering drunk and happy. I turn the lights on. I don't think anybody is home. Or maybe I do, but I'm not really sure. I'm thinking at all, mostly.

My mother sits at the kitchen table, sipping on a dark glass of wine. Across from her is a dark haired man. She's laughing slightly. I can hear it as soon as I step through the doorway. That is, until she sees me.

She gasps, a hand over her mouth. Her nameless date turns towards me, head tilted sideways.

"You didn't tell me you had a daughter," he says simply. Never mind the fact that I'm stumbling my way through consciousness.

"Oh my God, Aspen. Are you drunk?"

"I was a while ago. Now I think I'm something else," I say, my words running together. I laugh, my hollow voice filling the room. She, apparently, is not amused.

"What has gotten into you?" Her voice is high and loud. She sounds like she's on the verge of a mental breakdown. Funny.

"What has gotten into me?" I scream. I let out a hysterical sound that can't be deciphered as a laugh or a cry. "What has gotten into me? Wow, you finally noticed, did you? After, what, three years of hardly looking at me? Of hardly talking to me? For God's sake, you've been running around fucking guys for a living and you're the one asking what's gotten into me? That's funny."

Her face is blurry. I don't see her reaction. Can't tell if she's upset or heartbroken. Do I even care? Not likely. I haven't cared about anything in a long time.

I collapse on the stairs and fall asleep.

I wake up in the morning tucked under the covers in my own bed.