Waiting For Superman

Shoulders To Lean On

“Hey guys,” Kara said as she slid in the booth across from Sharon and Joyce. Joyce gave her a smile and said, “How’ve you been? I felt like I haven’t seen you in ages!”

Kara laughed and said, “It hasn’t been that long. We last met at… Shanise’s birthday?” “5 months ago isn’t long? You have an excellent sense of time,” Sharon said with a shake of her head. “Spare me will you Sharon,” Kara said as she rolled her eyes.

“Speaking of Shanise, where is the little cutie?” Kara asked as she picked up a menu. “We left her with Joyce’s mum,” Sharon said as she summoned over a waiter. After placing their orders, Sharon said, “I’ll be back in a while,” before slipping off to the toilets.

Kara smiled at Joyce and said, “I’m really so glad to see Sharon finally settling down with someone.” Joyce laughed and said, “Well, first of all it’s hard to find someone who can tolerate her.” Kara chuckled and said, “That’s so true. How exactly do you stand her?”

Joyce looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully before saying, “I actually have no idea. I just do. How do you tolerate the mess she is?” “I’ve known her since we were in secondary school,” Kara said. “I’ve seen her change over the years.”

“You were always one for gossiping,” Sharon said with a chuckle as she slid back in the booth next to Joyce. “And I’ve also seen her not change,” Kara said with a huff. “She’s still as sarcastic and rude as ever.” “You know I am,” Sharon said with a wink.

Just then the waiter arrived with their food. Kara tried reaching for her set of cutlery when Joyce said, “Come on, let me help you Kara.” She picked up the set of cutlery and was about to pass it to Kara when she stopped halfway.

“That’s a really bad bruise Kara,” Joyce said in shock when she saw Kara’s wrist. Kara looked down and quickly shook her sleeve down to cover her wrist. “It’s nothing,” she said hurriedly, taking the cutlery from Joyce. “Thanks.”

She could feel Sharon staring at her but ignored her and started to dig into her food. “Kara,” Sharon said quietly, her voice low. “Has Johnny been hitting you again?”

Kara’s hands shook as she picked up her glass of water and said with a feeble laugh, “Of course not. I just fell down.” Joyce’s gaze flicked between Sharon and Kara, the tension at the table growing thick. “Kara, look at me,” Sharon said loudly.

Kara slowly looked up at Sharon, not daring to meet Sharon’s gaze. “Johnny’s hitting you again isn’t he,” Sharon said. Kara could feel her eyes starting to tear and quickly blinked her tears away.

“Johnny’s hitting you?” Joyce whispered in horror, earning her a glare from Sharon. “So what if he is?” Kara said, finally meeting Sharon’s gaze. “It has nothing to do with you guys.”

“Yes it does,” Sharon said fiercely. “You’re my best friend Kara. I’m not going to sit around and watch some guy beat you up like you’re his punching bag.” “I am not his punching bad,” Kara hissed, glaring at Sharon from across the booth.

Sharon sighed loudly and said loudly, “Kara, he’s hitting you. He isn’t supposed to be doing that. You know that right?” “I’m not a kid Sharon,” Kara said exasperated. “Stop talking to me like I’m one. I’m a grownup. I can think and make decisions for myself.”

“You can make decisions for yourself?” Sharon said with a dark laugh. “Let me tell you something Kara. The problem with your train of thoughts now, is that you have no thoughts. You aren’t thinking straight at all.”

Joyce glanced nervously between the two of them and whispered to Sharon, “Let her be Sharon. It’s her problem anyway.” “No,” Sharon said. “She needs to break with him now.”

Kara’s eyes flared as she grabbed her bag and stood up saying, “Don’t be a bitch Sharon. Stay out of it like Joyce said.” She stormed out of the restaurant and over to her car parked on the side of the road. As she slid into the driver’s seat, she wiped away the tears now flowing down her face. She dug through her bag for her phone and her fingers flew across the screen as she typed out a message to Glenn.

15 minutes later, she was sitting across Glenn at a bar near their office. “Thanks for agreeing to come meet me,” Kara said as she chugged down her third drink. Glenn gave her one of his rare smiles and said, “No problem. As long as you’re sober enough for work tomorrow I’m cool with it.”

Kara laughed as she ordered yet another drink. “Slow down Kara,” Glenn said a little shocked as she downed that drink as well. “You’ve had four drinks in 10 minutes.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said as she shoved a drink at him. “I can hold my alcohol well.” Glenn chuckled darkly and said, “We’ll see about that later.” “Oh yesh we will,” Kara said, her speech starting to slur.

Glenn shook his head and sipped his drink. “So what happened?” he asked after a short silence. Kara looked up at him and said, “What do you mean?” “Well I’m assuming something must have happened in order for Kara Yeo to ask me out for drinks,” Glenn said grimly as he watched her order yet another drink.

“Nofink’s wrong,” Kara said with a giggle as she leaned into Glenn. She dragged him over to the centre of the room and said, “Come on, let’s dansh.” Glenn sighed as he followed her under the pulsing lights. “You really should cut down on your drinks starting now,” Glenn said as she began spinning round on the dance floor.”

“You don’t believe I’ll be fine do you?” Kara said with a giggle as she waltzed over to another group dancing nearby. Glenn squeezed through the crowd to try and find her but when he managed to make his way to group she was headed for earlier, she was out if his sight.

“Crap,” Glenn said with a sigh as he walked back to their table and sipped his drink as he sat down. He looked down at his watch and muttered to himself, “It’s 10 now. I’ll give her another hour and a half before I’ll drag her out with me. She can’t get that drunk in that short a period of time can she?”

2 hours later, Glenn was dragging a very drunk Kara with him in the direction of the car park. “I wanna dansh shome more,” Kara whined as she stumbled after Glenn, who had a firm grip on her wrist. He sighed to himself and said to her, “I thought you said you could hold your alcohol?”

Kara giggled and whirled over to her car, laughing hysterically. “I found it, look!” she said excitedly as she pointed to her car. Glenn smiled to himself as he nodded, rather amazed she had managed to located her car in her drunken state.

“Come on, I’ll send you home,” he said, digging through her handbag for her car keys. Kara simply smiled up at him before crawling into the backseat. Glenn climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “Let’s see if I can remember where you stay,” he murmured to himself as he turned out of the car park.

It took almost an hour, but he finally pulled up below Kara’s block. “Hey, we’re home!” Kara exclaimed as she climbed out of the car. Glenn climbed out of the car and locked it, rushing after her. He held out a hand to stabilize her and sighed in relief when she pressed the button for the floor she lived on.

He followed behind her as she walked up to a door and banged on it loudly. There was fumbling from inside before Glenn heard Johnny shout from inside the house, “What do you want?”

“It’s Glenn,” Glenn called back, supporting a very limp Kara by now. “With a very drunk Kara.” The door opened and Johnny poked his head around the door, groaning when he spotted Kara. Opening the gate, he grabbed Kara from Glenn and said, “I got her. You can go now.”

“You’re not even gonna say thanks or ask what happened?” Glenn asked in disgust as Johnny closed the gate. Johnny rolled his eyes and said, “Whatever Glenn. I don’t have time for your shit.”

Just as the door was about to close, Glenn said loudly as he walked away, “Oh and Johnny? Don’t even think of hitting her.” He saw Johnny flinch and chuckled to himself as he walked back to the lift lobby.

As the lift went down, Glenn leaned on the wall and closed his eyes, his head spinning from a lack of sleep. “Shit,” he said with a sigh. “I’m falling for her, aren’t I?”