An Unusual Story

Midnight Drives and Movie Nights

The first week of school consisted of only Thursday and Friday, so thesepast two days went by quickly. Since I'm a Senior, I didn't get too much work. Once I got home from school today, I sat down on the couch and decided to catch up on watching Modern Family. It was my favorite show, the mixture of Gloria's accent and Phil's awkward personality made me laugh more than any other duo on a sitcom. My Dad was upstairs watching his shows, which did not interest me because they were so serious. I hate to admit it, but I still have a hard time watching crime investigation shows because of how serious they are. I like comedies, and kids shows. 

I suddenly heard the door open, and my first reaction was to check the time. It was eleven o'clock, which was the time my Mom usually came home. She was always caught up at work, even though she's supposed to leave the office around eight. Though she's mostly absent from this house, she's truly a hard worker. As the door slammed shut, I heard her footsteps coming towards me. She stood at the entrance to the living room and gave me a tired smile.

"How's my little girl?" she asked me, coming closer and sitting down in the couch perpendicular to mine.

"Good." I said. I didn't have a lot to say to my Mom, because she was so distant. I didn't know what she was into these days unless it caused a mess in the house or if Dad pointed it out. Right now, I'm deciding whether it's painting or hiking. "How was work?" that was all I could think of, such a simple question.

"Good." she replied to my question, getting up from the couch and heading out of the room. "I'm going to go to bed." she said. And with that, she walked out of the room and up the stairs. Maybe five minutes after, I began to ehar her raising her voice at Dad. 

"Stop complaining!" was all I heard before I turned up the volume to thirty. Honestly, I didn't care what they were fighting about. All I cared about was drowning it out and forgetting all about it. I'm not a huge fan of hearing my parents yell, I think I've heard enough of them screaming when I was younger. Except then, they weren't screaming at each other; they were screaming at my Aunt's in my defense. I miss the days when they were yelling to defend me, rather than yelling at each other. Most times when they were fighting, I ended up walking to Carlie's house five blocks over. Carlie comforted me in the way I truly wanted to be comforted, which wasn't by being cuddled, but instead by laughter. The two of us would watch comedies and she'd crack some cheesy jokes until our stomachs hurt and I had forgotten about everything bad. A few years back in therapy, the doctors said I shouldn't push everything into the corner of my mind, and that I should talk about it. I told them ' thanks but no thanks' and that I felt better when I set my problems and past aside. They grudgingly accepted, but they all probably thought I was a stubborn girl.

"Oh, you're so delusional Kate." my Dad yelled. I heard a frustrated groan following his words.

"And you're so oppinionated!" she screamed back. "You don't like anyone else's ideas but your own. Is that why your father won't speak to you?" 

"Kate, he's been dead for two years." I chuckled at my Dad's words. "You would know that if you were actually active in this family." 

Though what my Dad said was funny, I knew it was only going to get worse from then on. And like I predicted, it did. I finally decided to call Carlie. 

"Emma?" she asked. "You only call at two in the morning if.." before she could say what she was going to say, I cut her off.

"Yes, they're fighting. Can I come over?" I asked, almost pleading.

"Of course! I'll go make some popcorn and set up a movie." she said before hanging up. I got up from the couch, and ran into the laundry room. I grabbed some pajamas, my car keys, and left the house. I was careful to close the door quietly, so that my parents wouldn't realize that I had left. Driving away from my house, the song that played on the radio was Jumper by Third Eye Blind. I wasn't listening to the words anymore, I knew them too well. All I heard during the five minute drive was the guitar and the drums. As I parked my car in front of Carlie's house, she opened the door as if she knew the exact moment I would be arriving.

"I've done this too many times, it's impossible to not know what time you would be pulling up." that was her reasoning when I asked her how her timing was so precise. I ended up shrugging it off, and following her into the living room where she had set up a fort and a huge bowl of popcorn. Carlie loved building forts, because she wanted to be an interior designer, and took pride in the perfect looks of her pillow forts. I climbed into it, and she put on the movie Shes The Man. Towards the end of it, I was beginning to doze of while Carlie was still wide awake.

"Are you kidding me?" I said with a small chuckle. "How are you not tired?"

"Four years of high school means staying up until three." she said, throwing a piece of popcorn at me. Though I was tired, I still managed to catch it with my mouth perfectly. I threw one back at Carlie, who instead was hit in the eye by the piece of popcorn.

"You'll catch it one day." I said encouraging her. Even though she's never caught one in her mouth properly, I still had high hopes that one day, she would.

"You're too optimistic for me, Emma." she said, rolling over to sleep. I stayed up until the end of the movie, watching my favorite part of the movie. Like most girls, it was when Duke and Viola made up and kissed. It melted my heart, and I truly couldn't help but think of Julian and I in their situation. I sighed heavily, and finally fell asleep.

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Oh Emma, you highly optimistic hopeful romantic! As you can see, Emma's Mom is almost always at work which has caused a rift between her and Emma and Emma's Dad. I'm pretty sure she's the last character I have to introduce, besides the minor characters, so thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it c: