Hollow Hatred

Chapter Eight

          By the time Cassy and her friends got here, I had figured out where everything was in the kitchen. The kitchen was its own separate room. All along the walls were light wood cabinets with an island in the middle. The kitchen had two sinks, two stove tops, one large refrigerater, and two ovens stacked on top of each other. The counters were multi-colored granite. All the cabinets were on display, no doors, and you could see all the appliances were neatly stacked together.

           It's hard for me to imagine my father organizing, cleaning, and decorating. He's always been my super hero. He comes in at my time of need then he's gone. He's never been my father figure. I saw him twice a year when I was a kid. One for my birthday, and the other for Christmas. That's it. No calls or e-mails or letters. I was always told by my grandmother that he was busy working, but as I got older that excuse became weak.

           I opened the front door before Cassy could ring the doorbell.

           "Hey!" She greeted me.

           I smiled. "Hey." I nodded to the others, and I allowed them in.

           "Damn, this house must've cost a fortune." Dale, Cassys boyfriend, stated.

           "Yeah, how much did it cost?" Ava wanted to know.

           "I don't know." I shrugged. "My dad doesn't really tell me anything." He probably took out the owner.

           I shook my head at myself. Bad thoughts, I mentally told myself, stop it. I led them into the living room. In total, the living room had ten seats: two couchs and four chairs. They were all pearl white and stuffed with pillows. The walls were painted light green, and the two glass doors had brown curtains hanging above them. No television.

           Cassy went over to the glass doors. "Woah!" Cassy said.

           Everyone followed her, and we all had the same expression.

           Two pools covered nearly the whole backyard. The first pool was small with steps on each side, and the second pool was huge. It was ten times bigger than the smaller pool. The pools were surrounded by the stone patio. If you looked on either side of the glass door you could see two staircases on either side leading up to the second floor.

            "Hey Ari," I looked over at Cassy. "Can we go swimming?"

           Five minutes later, everyone was running towards the pool. It took ten seconds to decide, four minutes of figuring out how to unlock the glass door, and one minute to push everyone out of the way. We all stopped by the small table by the pool, and we put our valuables down. Phones, wallets, watches, cigarettes. I gasped at the last one. Apparently Dale smokes. Didn't expect that. Cassy, the other girls, and I went upstairs to my bedroom. I let them choose from my t-shirts and bathing suits, and we all went to change in separate bedrooms. By the time everyone was ready, the sun was setting but nobody cared.

           "One the count of three everyone's going to jump in!" Cassy yelled. "One, two-"

           Dale and another boy, Jake, jumped in, and everyone followed. The water engulfed my body. It was warm yet cold at the same time. When I came up for air, Ava started splashing Cassy and they started a war. At first, I was on Dales team than I was on Jakes team than everyone just turned against each other. Even though the pool didn't have a water slide or fountain or other accessories, it was pretty fun.

           After two hours, it was dark and the outside lights automatically came on. I noticed everyone looked tired so I went to search for towels.