Take Me Home

Chapter:8

I stood beside our project waiting on Knox to get here. I had my ford ball cap on backwards with my ford tee shirt on. It was the first night of the artwork fair. Knox came running in and over to our project. "Sorry I'm late. I had to sneak out." He said. "Having to do that a lot lately." I said. He sighed. "I wish he'd die of alcohol poisoning." He mumbled. "Almost to eighteen." I said. "Some more than others." He said.

I got a better look at his outfit. A Chevy tee shirt with his infamous matching ball cap. "Dude if you need a place to stay for the night, my mom is in Vegas with some co workers blowing money we don't have." I said. "Mine does the opposite. She sends money directly to me for groceries and bills." He said. "I'd go live with her but she got remarried and her husband doesn't like me very well."

"Sounds like normal family problems around here. By the way my dad sounded the other night him and my mom were planning on a divorce and she's taking my younger sister with her." I said. "Might be an improvement." He said before smiling at the judges as they looked at our artwork. I smiled too. As they passed by we stood at attention before breaking it as people walked around looking at the art.

Several looked as if they weren't apart of this school. Knox was the one that knew the history of this school. That I let him do while I made the finishing touches on the art. I saw my dad walking through with my little sister who was whining about being here and not in Vegas with mom. "Looks nice you two. I hope you win." He said as he looked around. Art is bright and dull, colorful and dual toned, two dimensional and three dimensional.

There is a lot of that here. Some that look as if they didn't put any effort in and others that look like they were well planned out. I couldn't help but feel small in this large room. "You alright?" Knox asked. "Yeah." I said a little too quick. Our friends were also circling the room. They stopped by ours. "So that's what these two were doing for the past two and a half months." Alan said.

By the end of the night I was tired. The crowd was no more. I was close to falling asleep. "Let's get you home." I let Knox put his arm around my shoulders and lead me out to his truck. On the ride home he pulled me closer to him keeping his right arm around my shoulders letting me lay my head on his shoulder. At one point I felt a feather light kiss applied to my forehead.

~~~~~~~

"Addison. Addison. Wake up." I lifted my head seeing Knox beside my bed. "What are you doing in my room?" I asked him. "Your dad sent me up here to get you. Come on." He said grabbing two blankets and two pillows off my bed. He then let me hop on his back. Thunder rumbled. lightning lit up the sky. Dad was at the cellar with Annabelle trying to get her to go down. "What's going on?" I asked Knox. "Trust me Addi we need to get into the cellar now." He said.

Suddenly dad picked Anna up and hauled her into the cellar. Knox was right behind him. He set me down and handed me a blanket. Dad went back up and closed the door locking it. "Dad what's going on?" Anna asked. "Don't worry girl." Dad said. I could hear the wind picking up outside. Knox sat down next to me and pulled me to him. I snuggled up to his chest as he put both arms around me.

I couldn't even try to sleep. Knox kept making patterns on my back lightly making me feel relaxed enough to regain drowsiness. I finally fell back asleep in his arms. A little bit later I could feel him stand and take me with him. Lights flashed on us as dad was walking with Anna to the door. Knox and dad stopped when the lights hit them. I opened my eyes to see what it was. "What in the world is going on?" Mom yelled.

"Take the girls inside. Both of you get to bed and stay in bed." Dad said. "I'm not going in with him!" Anna complained. "You will do as I say young lady or you will lose your phone." Dad told her. I gripped Knox's shirt. He opened the door for Anna to go ahead of him. He then carried me up to my bed. "Sleep tight. We've got the judges announcing the winner of the art fair tomorrow." He said.