It was always there

In a Fit of Rage

Sid

Screams of teenage girls wake me up from my sleep. Halloween night and I'm home alone watching a scary movie marathon in my self-proclaimed man cave in the basement of my house. My dad helped me convince my mom to put in a pool table, a few arcade games and the biggest T.V. we could buy. Ever since, we've done small renovations and its become the complete vision of what a man cave should look like with bean bag chairs, a comfy couch, dirty magazines in the bathroom, pantry and refrigerator stocked full and also beer hidden in a juice pouch box that I'm really hoping my mom never finds.

Since the whole movie theater shit fest that happened with Anu I've felt like an absolute fucking asshole and haven't left my place on this couch since that night. She never stops talking to me, she can be in the worst mood or beyond angry with me but she'll yell and scream and hit me a few times and she'll be alright after that, this silent treatment crap is the worst fucking punishment ever! I rather have her slap me or kick me in the balls.

Grabbing the remote control I flick through the channels looking for something other than dumb people running from a serial killer to watch. I stop at an episode of Drake and Josh remembering Anu and how she laughs at the dumbest things in this show. I hear the door unlock and close at the top of the stairs and slow footsteps following. Its close to midnight and my parents left for the weekend and are coming back until Tuesday. Jumping up from the couch I grab the baseball bat and stand behind the wooden beam ready to hit whichever son of a bitch broke into my house. The footsteps stop at the end of the stairs I peek from the side of the beam and see long black hair. The person looks around craning their neck to look around the dark basement. Once I see they are unarmed I jump out from behind the post yelling.

"Sid! Its me!" my mom screams holding her arms over her face.

"Mom! I almost killed you! What're you doing home?"

"Killed? Not likely but bashing my skull in, yeah," she laughs smacking my shoulders "We tried calling you to tell you we're coming back early and your phone went to voicemail,"

"Sorry," I drop the bat onto the floor grinning sheepishly.

"A party night and you're already home? Who do I need to talk to? This is a rare occurrence," she chuckles sarcastically as I walk up the stairs with her.

"Uh-just not in the mood,"

"No something's got you down, what is it?" she loops her arm around my elbow nudging my shoulder softly with her head.

"I messed up, I messed up bad," I confess.

"Ah, Anuksha," she smirks shaking her head "I don't know why you're here go fix it! When your dad messed up and believe me he did, I found no greater pleasure than him admitting he was wrong,"

"You're giving me permission to go to a girl's house at midnight?"

"This girl is different sweetie, she's your best friend and the only one who's probably willing to tolerate you long enough to be your wife,"

"Wife..."

"You heard me! Now go, remember all you have to say is 'I'm sorry I was wrong', repeat after me," she urges with her hands.

"I'm sorry I was wrong," we say in unison and break out laughing.

Not wasting any more time wallowing in my self-detrimental state I rush out of the house to my car and drive straight to Anu's house in Scarsdale. Cutting people off on the street gets me cussed out and honked at all the way from the Upper East Side through the rest of Upper Manhattan. Pulling into Anu's street I see a car parked a few houses down by the corner and recognize Charlotte and Shreya standing by the trunk of the car peering down the sidewalk for who I presume is Anuksha.