New Girl In Town

Chapter 6

The rest of our time at Pop's was relatively relaxed. The conversation stayed lighthearted and fun; at one point, Archie laughed so hard that milkshake came out of his nose, but other than that, it was a relatively uneventful evening. It felt good to act like a normal teenager. It seems like it's been forever since I've been able to just go out and have fun; I'm usually attempting to control my dad's drinking and trying to figure out how we'd be able to afford both the groceries and the rent. I definitely preferred hanging out with these guys.

Around 7:30, we all agreed that it was time we go our separate ways. I decided that I wanted to skate home, and I had to reassure Betty that I would be fine and that Pop's really wasn't that far from my house. As much fun as I'd had with them, this much socializing drained me mentally and I needed a little bit of alone time to gather my thoughts. Skateboarding was a great way for me to clear my head, and that's exactly what I needed to do. I didn't want to think about school, or the serpents, or the ghoulies. Honestly, my mind was so overloaded with the day's events that I wished I could just turn it off. But since I couldn't do that I'd have to settle for the next best thing. So, I plugged in my earbuds and started skating.

* * *

It only took about 20 minutes to get home, and it was already pitch black out. I ascended the stairs to our house, threw my board on the porch, and let myself in. I made my way to the kitchen for a much needed drink after skating home. I threw my bag on the table and opened the fridge, only to find an empty bottle of mustard and a few beers. Great. No food or beverage; I'd have to go to the store tomorrow.

I plopped down at the table and noticed a few newspapers scattered around with red x's

scribbled all over them. After closer examination, I realized that it was the 'Help Wanted' section of the paper and that my father had crossed out all of the jobs that he was ineligible for... which was most of them. I sighed and tossed the papers back onto the table as my dad came in from the livingroom.

"Hey dad," I greeted him as he opened the fridge and cracked open a beer. "How is the job search going?"

"What do you care?" he snapped, slurring his words and stumbling into the chair. He was already completely drunk and it was barely 8:00. Classic.

"The refrigerator is pretty empty. I'll go to the store tomorrow to get some more food" I said quietly, hoping not to bother him more.

"Yeah, whatever" he responded dully, taking a swig of his beer. I started to get up, but was startled when my dad slammed his fist onto the table.

"Honestly Angela, do you really have to leave your shit lying around everywhere?" he spat, shoving my bag off the table. Woah. He just called me by my mother's name. That hit me like a ton of bricks. My eyes started to water and I felt like my chest was caving in. I quickly grabbed my bag from the floor and ran upstairs into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me.

I leaned on the small vanity and breathed deeply for a moment before looking at myself in the mirror. My eyes were red and puffy from the tears threatening to spill out of them, and the bags underneath them had grown darker from the way they were this morning. I continued to stare deeply at myself while I thought about what my dad just called me. My dark, mahogany eyes were the only feature I'd received from him, everything else I had gotten from my mom: my nose, my hair, even my freckles. I was almost a carbon copy of her.

I couldn't let this get to me. It's been three years, it's about time I tried to move on with my life. But how could I move on if I was the one who found her... I tried to shake the thoughts out of my head and splashed some water in my face to calm myself down.

I made my way into my room and dug through the moving boxes until I found what I was looking for. It was a picture of the three of us, my parents and I, all standing in front of our old house. Huge smiles lined all of our faces, and I giggled as I looked at the toothless grin on my six year old face. My mother was so beautiful, and my dad didn't look as tired as he always did now. We were all so happy then; I never would have imagined that we'd end up this bad.

I leaned the picture against the lamp on my side table and laid down in my bed. It was only about 8:30, but I was completely worn out from the day's events. So much had happened and I just wanted the day to be done, so I closed my eyes and waited for slumber to take me. My final thoughts were memories of my mom's melodic laugh, and then, I was completely consumed by the blackness of sleep.