Rules & Roses

o n e

Thursday, August 9
I wake up.
Big shocker, I know
But yep, that's how it started.
I step off my bed in the tiny room that I call my own, I look out the window, and notice it's raining again.
I hate rain.
It's so cold and wet and bleh. Just bleh.
I pull on a clean-looking t-shirt and some jeans I found on my desk chair. I get my backpack and a sweatshirt as I artistically maneuver around all the trash and dirty clothes that litter the room and make my way down the hallway to the stairwell.
  I get downstairs to see my dad, asleep on the living room armchair, a.k.a his throne.
Ugh, asleep again. I think to myself as I make my way strategically into the kitchen, grab myself a pop-tart and get my Nikes on. As I get to the front door, my dad wakes up and mumbles something along the lines of 'have a good day at school'.
Ya, thanks.
I get to the bus stop and hop in.
No, not literally, I step in, and the first thing I see is my best friend, Alan, waving like a yahoo in the back few seats. I make my way back there and as soon as I sit down and start eating the first thing he says to me is, "When was the last time you got a good nights sleep?"
"Not in a while" I reply with a hint of sass while chewing my pop-tart.
Now, let me catch you up to speed. Alan is my best friend, and lately I've been developing a tiny crush on him. The only thing he knows is that my mom went missing the-- never mind. He's always lived in Tennessee, and I moved here from Maine after that night. We had met at a convention Nashville and instantly became friends.
Now, I do have other friends, but Alan is my closest, you'll hopefully get to meet the others later.
I know my way around Western High because I had came to enroll and ended up taking a tour of the place.
Its HUGE.
I walk into the attendance office to see an elderly lady that most certainly wasn't there before when I enrolled, and she looked at me like she's ready to hurt me.
I enrolled last week.
"Uh, hello, I'd like my schedule please." I ask with a hint of nervousness in my still-croaky voice.
"Don't you have it already?" The lady asks me.
My word, she looks like she's about to kill me or something.
"N-no, I-I don't, I enrolled last week and they said I could come in and get it on the first day of school." I explain.
She never takes her eyes off me as she looks up my schedule and prints it out. She gives me a death-glare as our hands accidentally touch when she gives me my printed schedule.
******

After school: Thursday, 3:32 PM

"Hey! Jasper! Hey! W-wait up!" Alan runs up behind me and, well, let's just say, I had him on the floor with my hand on his throat real fast.
"Jas, it's me, Alan." He tries to explain as I snap out of it. "S-sorry, uh,- Training-summer"
"It's fine, I get tackled by my brothers all the time, it's nothing." He says, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
Thank the lord he's okay. I think to myself as we help each other up.
I don't take the bus home, but Alan does, so he gets on the bus as it pulls away, and I pull out my phone and put in my earbuds, I click pandora and put my favorite list on shuffle and start walking with the umbrella unopened.
When I get home, I see my dad watching TV. I hear a boom and a crack, then the power went out, and that's when it finally registered in my brain that it was still raining. My dad cursed, loudly, then it finally registered in his brain that I was there.
"Hey champ, how was school?" He asks with a hint of nervousness in his eyes.
I grumble something along the lines of 'good, I'm going upstairs now' and, like I said, I walked upstairs to my still-dirty room. I groan as I remove my sopping wet sweatshirt and sit down and start on my biology homework.
Now, I love biology, with all my heart. But the homework sucks.
A few hours later, I get done with all of it, and go downstairs to make dinner.
Actually, it's not dinner, it's me making mac-and cheese at 10:00 PM then eating it.
That's not my definition of dinner.
*****
Friday, August 10: 6 PM
Hey jasper! Wyd? -Alan
Nmu? -Jasper
Same here, lol -A
Lol, wanna come over and play video games? I'm bored -J
Sure, I'll be over at 8 lol -A
Ok, ok, Alan is coming over, I REPEAT, ALAN IS COMING OVER,THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
I went totally ballistic on my room, taking out all the trash and picking up all the dirty clothes and putting them in the laundry room, straitening everything up and setting up my TV system and Xbox.
I pulled out some video games I like; Call of Duty, Rainbow six siege, Overwatch etc; etc;
And an hour later, the doorbell rang.
I panicked.
We went up into my room and closed my door, my dad doesn't care anyways, so what the heck?
"Nice gaming system you have set up." He says, eyeing my tv, Xbox, and gaming desk.
"Ya, it helps clear my mind about my mother." I reply nonchalantly
I let him play first, since I only have one controller, but I don't care.
3 hours later, I walk downstairs to get some water, and I overhear Dads news rant.
Eyewitness reports say that Sarah Marlo was seen with Jason Alterrez in Londo---
The next 5 minutes were a blur.
The cup in my hand shattered. Dad shot the Tv into bits. He screamed. I threw up. He had a gun. I punched a wall. He almost pulled the trigger. Alan came downstairs. I was crying. Dad broke a chair. I grabbed a knife and cut my hand down the palm. Dad got his keys off the counter and walked out to his car, got in, started it, and drove off. Probably to get drunk. Alan came over and helped me to my feet. He took me to the sink and washed my hand off and wrapped it up. He literally carried me to the couch and laid me down- even though i cut my hand, not my leg- as he went to clean up the vomit and broken glass.
Another 20 minutes later, he came over and sat in the throne. I looked at him, then up at the ceiling, then covered my eyes with my wrapped up right hand.
"You need to leave."
"No."
That was his reply.
No.
I laughed.
"That's cute, I'm not kidding, you need to leave. Now." I say it more forcefully and demanding this time. Not wanting to fight with him like an old married couple.
"Nope. You can't make me"
"You're right. But I can force you."
"Tell me."
"Tell you what?"
"Why did you react the way you did when your moms name was mentioned?"
"I--I don't know"
I want to tell him. I want to tell him so many things. But I can't. I swore an oath. I can't. I wont.
"Yes. You do. What was it."
"I-"
I look at him and he's looking back. His brown eyes are filled with curiosity, and a fiery passion I once had, but lost after my mother disappeared. His eyes made me think of hers, both curious, and filled with an eternal flame that will never be extinguished. I looked into his eyes, and closed my own. An hour later, I heard the creaking of the century-old armchair, the squeak of Alan's shoes, and the opening of the door.
"Welcome back, Mr. Marlo, sir. I hope you had a pleasurable time."
"Yeah yeah..... woohoo who is this? She's a lovely little doll now isn't she?!" My dad exclaims drunkly as he leans over the couch to get a better look at me. I can't see him, since my hand is still covering my eyes, but I can most certainly smell the beer, alcohol, and whisky in his rotten onion breath.
"No-- well, yes, she's lovely, but you can't have her until your sober, or anytime after that, if you're dirty." Alan says defensively
"Aaawwwww but why?! Is she your girlfriend or something?!" My drunk dad yells.
"No, she's not my girlfriend, but that doesn't mean she won't be."
Please tell me he thinks I'm asleep. Because I just heard every bit of that sentence.
"Nnnhhhhhggggg okay....imma go...to.....imma sweep now..... g'night." My dad says. Then I hear a loud clump noise, and I figure my dads just fallen over.
"W-what time is it?" I ask, acting like I've just woken up.
"Oh, Jasper, it's about... Midnight."
"Alright... wait, why are you still here?
"I'm not going to leave you here, hurt, with a drunk father. Who knows what he would do too you while your sleeping?! I texted my mom, and explained everything, and she let me stay."
"Alan, I've dealt with a sober dad before, I can take care of myself," I hesitate, "but- thanks for watching me, when you sleep, your vulnerable to oncoming attacks." I explain in my famous groggily voice. Alan doesn't say anything, but just walks over to the throne, plops down and sighs
I know, dramatic right.
"Why do you always talk about fighting, and attacks? It's weird. Not normal." He says as he sighs again.
I look at him, and apparently I looked at him for too long, cause he started starring back. And we just stayed like that, until I fell asleep, which was about an hour later.
It was the first night since the accident I had a nightmare.

END OF CHAPTER 1

A/N

This is one of the first stories i'm actually going to try commit to.... So dont expect it to be good
BTW this is the longest chapter i've ever wrote, i wouldn't bet on any more, but ill try
Thanks,
HopeLizzy29 <3