Before the Hunt

Ten: "Our Little Secret"

POV Jeff

It had to be at least seven thirty, earlier than when I usually wake up for a school day. I was asleep, doing just fine, until my radio alarm blasted "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith, which made me want to bash my head against the wall in front of me. I only knew the song because Isaac always plays it when I go to his place to play video games. Which is, sadly, every other day. I lied on my stomach for a good three minutes, until Estelle called for me from the kitchen across the small, cramped patio house. I groaned as I rolled off my bed and hit the floor with a loud thud. "Jeffery Javier Rose, what the hell are you doing in there?" Estelle called. "I fell out of bed!" I called back. "Well get your ass up, get dressed, and get out here! I need to speak with you," she responded, as I heard two plates being placed on the kitchen table. I rolled my black eyes and stood up. I looked at the clothes I had on, the clothes from last night. I smelled my shirt and saw how much I smelled like pizza, soda, and peppermints. I gagged once I saw my socks, they were drenched in what looked and smelled like dried mud. Which was a smell that I despise with every fiber in my body. I took off my dirty, white and grey stripped shirt and threw it across the room, as it landed across from the laundry basket full of dirty clothes that I will probably never clean. I walked to my small closet, put on a bum out hoodie (aka my Marlon Monroe hoodie that I never leave the house without), and some old, ripped and torn jean shorts that still fit because I haven't' grown since like fifth grade. Perks of being part Asian, looking younger than you really are. Okay that was satire, I look fucking ten. 

Once I'd put on my shoes, Estelle called, "Jeff, do you mind grabbing my purse on the coffee table in the living room? And grab my phone while you're at it!" I rolled my eyes and said to myself, "Why don't I just give you my blood while I'm at it." as I opened my bedroom door and walked to our small and cramped as hell living room. Our living room didn't have much. Just an old, palm leaf covered couch with matching throw pillows, an old burgundy shag carpet, out signature box TV that we'll always have. I swear that thing was around in the BC times. But we do have a really old stain glass lamp that sits near the TV so... that's fun to turn on and off when you get home at like four in the goddamn morning on a school night. Aka, me last night. That's what I fucking did when I got home last night. 

I saw Estelle's floral print purse and her phone next to the purse, so I shoved her phone in her purse and walked into the kitchen. "You called?" I asked as I set her purse on the kitchen table. "Jeff I don't have all day. And neither do you, young man," Estelle said as she grabbed a box of cereal out of the thin pantry that sits next to the back door. I stood in the kitchen doorway and asked, "Now what?" "Don't you "Now what?" me! You know why I want to talk to you," Estelle scolded as she poured herself a bowl of cereal. "What? Is it the fact that I broke the neighbors window with a baseball, or the fact that I messed with the gay flag lamp in the living room at four in the morning?" I asked as I sarcastically took a guess. Estelle gave me her stern aunt look and said, "I just got a call from the neighbors in Marceline's neighborhood, saying that you were with the twins at one in the goddamn morning, playing with firecrackers. Firecrackers, Jeffery! What the hell was going through your mind when that happened?" I rubbed my eyes with my right hand and said, "Uh-wait, that's what I did last night? Jesus I had no idea that we had firecrackers." "Well, that's what Vincent and Archie's next door neighbor said. So you better start talking," Estelle added as she sat down at the kitchen table. I shrugged, "Well, I don't remember much from last night, except that we almost burned out shoes off. And the fact that we lit them in the backyard, and they were the small ones that you can step on and they won't make a damn sound. So... why did we get a complaint?" "Because it was one in the fucking morning, Jeff!" Estelle said as she tapped her watch repeatedly.