It was no later than 3 am when I heard Chris knocking at the door again. Stumbling out of my sheets, I fought the urge to lay back down and just let Chris figure it out. This was the fourth time he'd come to my house in the dead of night, and as my eyes searched for a light switch through my 2-ton eyelids, I remember deciding this was the last time I'd be so willing to help him.
If you make me waste one more second of my goddam break after this, I muttered beneath my breath. I want to go just one night without thinking about my entry exam or your creepy family. Failing to find the switch, I gave up on lighting my way and made for the door at a crawl; the blue haze of our living room tv coated my path, pouring in around the end of the stairway.
On turning the corner I passed last year's christmas tree, which was never taken down, a testament to my parents' home that they left in mild disarray. I found my dad dead asleep on the sofa. I didn't bother trying not to wake him, an effort which would have been betrayed anyway by more knocking from the front door. In nights prior I'd taken more care to be quiet; after the same routine three (now four) nights in a row, I threw open the lock, tossed the glass door aside, and cut straight to the chase.
"Where is she?" It seemed like Chris wanted to respond, but he noticed my expression and turned silently, walking with me to his porch.
"She's getting better, I think," Chris noted carefully as we went up his front steps. "She's started laying down sooner. It shouldn't take too long this time, I swear."
"I need to sleep, Chris," I commented. "This better be quick." Sitting upright on the porch in her pajamas, her eyes closed as usual, was Chris' younger sister. She was sleepwalking again; at the very least, Chris managed to keep her propped up in a chair long enough to come get me. "Remind me why you can't take care of her yourself?"
"I mean, I don't need you here, I just–" Once again my deadpan eye cut him off, and he continued. "Look, it's really weirding me out, okay? I told you, she's never done this before. I don't want to be alone with her like this."
