The Only One

Grounded

My eyes peered open at the sound of the wind rustling outside the open window. I stared at the roof for quite some time, avoiding that anything else existed. I adjusted my position and turned to Jess, who was still of course, sleeping like a baby. I laughed to myself before glancing at the open window, curtains blowing in sync with it. I slowly got out of bed and shut the window. I looked back at my bed where Jess was nearly shivering. I laid back down beside him and covered him back up, to which he smiled and fell completely asleep again. I grabbed my phone my parents gave me for emergency and began playing my favorite game, Color Switch. My house doesn't have cable or wifi so I couldn't use Twitter or Ask until we got to school. "School!" and I instantly leaped out of bed, forgetting it was nothing but an average Wednesday today. I got dressed and then woke Jess. "Jess, Jess.. Wake up!" I shook him rather violently, but he didn't seem to notice. His eyes opened slightly at the sound of my pressing voice. "We got school" I whispered. Jess sat up and looked around, then back at me. I smiled, patting him on the leg and then walking downstairs. "Morning, Mom!" I smiled, grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl. "Hey, Leslie!" she smiled. Jess trotted downstairs not long after me and my mom greeted him with a warm smile. "Hey Jess, would you like something to eat?" she asked. My dad must've explained to her what had happened last night, she seemed to be the least bit alarmed that Jess had stayed over. Jess looked unsure, as if he felt he was in some sort of trap. "Jess?" I waved my hand across his face. He looked at me with a sudden expression. "Do you want something to eat?" I repeated my mom's question. "Oh, um sure" he said, sitting down in the chair next to me. My mom passed him a plate of pancakes and the syrup container before walking upstairs. "You don't have chores in the morning?" he asked as if it were some sort of dream. "No, of course not. I only have chores on weekends, which is really only cleaning my bedroom" I explained. Jess stared at me with shock and disbelief. "What?" I asked simply, biting into my banana. "You don't have to do anything around here?" he rephrased the question. I shook my head no before taking a sip of my orange juice. "Man, I wish I had that kind of life" Jess sighed. I smiled weakly with empathy before deciding to change the topic. "We'd better get you home so you can get changed and stuff" I suggested. "Oh, I didn't even realize" Jess said looking down at himself, still in my pajamas. "Come on" I said grabbing my red sweater from the hangers and opening the door. We slipped on our shoes and ran out. We ran all the way up the road to Jess' house. "Alright, so I'll see you in a few minutes. I'll make sure the bus doesn't leave without you" I told Jess when we reached the doorstep. "No Leslie, I don't want to go in there alone, they'll kill me. But they won't if you're there" Jess explained. I sighed. "But I don't wanna get in trouble" I complained. "I didn't even ask to leave last night" Jess added. I sighed, "alright, I'll come."

And with that we stepped inside the creaky door leading to the laundry room and then into the kitchen where the family was sitting in their normal seats, quietly eating breakfast when all eyes were suddenly glued on us. "Where in god's name have you been?" Jess' dad asked rudely. "I-I was just with Leslie--" he was clearly scared and didn't know what to say. "We were just hanging out, we decided to run together this morning" I smiled. I felt so damned guilty for lying to his parents, but protecting Jess from any following punishment was far more important. Jess' dad sighed, the girls now had their heads down eating their food, trying not to draw any attention to themselves. "Get upstairs and get ready...and do your damn chores" Jack Aarons demanded shoving past Jess. He sighed and walked upstairs, leaving me to awkwardly stand there in front of his sisters and mother. "Have you ate yet, Leslie?" Mary, his mom, suddenly asked. "Yes, m'am" I replied respectively. "You can sit down if you'd like" she suggested. I sat down in Jess' spot across from Ellie. They all stared at me tensely, even the baby, Joyce Ann, who was only two. I smiled weakly at the slightly familiar faces across the table. The only one I really recognized was May Belle. I had seen Brenda and Ellie the day I used their washroom to clean up after Janice shot ketchup packets at me. And even then I didn't have a clear image of their faces stored in my memory. "You're grounded!" I heard Jess' dad yell at him upstairs, it made me jump, but sounded only a little louder than how my dad got whenever I messed up.