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Chapter Five ➳ The Drink and Dump Session

Anika

As the day starts to wind down, I look at the pile of books and papers I have to go through tonight and somehow, I feel my blood pressure rising. Emily looks at me curiously as we pile into the car. "So, what are your plans for tonight?"

I sigh exasperatedly as I fling my books into the back of the car. "Study, study, study... oh, and did I mention, study?"

Emily chuckles to herself. "Ani, you should catch a break. Go to a party or even get a hookup."

"God, I wish," I mumble to myself. "My dad's just been so hard on me lately. Every time I take a break from reading chapters or writing long ass essays, he proceeds to lecture me on how I should study more often and that my grades are slipping, which they're really not," I roll my eyes.

Emily looks out of the window as I reverse out of the parking lot. "It'll be okay." She looks at me and a smirk appears on her face. "But remind me how you were able to sneak out of the house and go to that party that one night where you... ya know?" She wriggles her eyebrows.

I snort. "I didn't sneak out."

"Wait, what?" she screeches. "Then how the hell did you even get out of the house."

"I basically convinced my dad to let me go," I start to explain. "I was dressed in a super tight hourglass dress and he looked at me up and down and was like," I deepen my voice, "'Anika Desai, why are you dressed like that?' and I was like 'um, because I'm going to a party, and you're going to let me go,' and I looked at him dead straight in the eyes until he flinched and he finally said, 'fine, but be back at curfew.'"

Emily breaks out into heinous laughter as he claps her hands together. "Jesus, Ani! What a classic!"

A smile appears on my face as I merge into the main road. I've been dropping off Emily at her house every day, since her parents haven't really trusted her yet with a car. Not only doesn't she have one, but she drives insanely. She's gotten at least thirty tickets, five accidents and ran at least ten red lights. I'm super surprised her license hasn't gotten suspended yet.

And then Tyler picks her up every morning and I drop her off, because what are friends for?

I arrive in front of Emily's small townhouse in about five minutes. As she packs her materials up, she says to me, "Let me know how the whole Shaurya Roy Situation goes," she winks.

"I'll let you know," I roll my eyes as Emily gets out of the car. "See you later, babe!" She blows a kiss at me and I pretend to catch it.

Once Emily goes inside of her house, I sigh as I set the car in drive and go to my house. I let the windows roll down as my loose hair starts to smack me all over my face. The sun beats down on my face, since the sun always shines here in Oakland. Although, it has been getting a bit chilly since September is right around the corner, so looks like I'm gonna have to pull my winter clothes out any time by now.

About a couple of minutes later, I reach my house. The birds chirp and the trees sway in the distance as I grab my books from the back of the car and slam the car door shut. I feel sort of happy, since my father isn't usually home at this time, due to work. He works possibly every day 9-10pm and is stressed, as if he isn't all the time. Also due to the fact that we're on a money crunch, since my father got suspended from his old job-- which really paid off our bills-- because he had 'anger management issues' and proceeded to yell at every customer that approached him. I really don't blame him for that, though, because my mom had passed away two months prior.

My father wasn't always so uptight and strict. When my mother was still alive, we were a happy and loving family. And it's pretty safe to redeem that my father was, in fact, nice. But the day we saw my mom passed out in the bath tub and the fact that we had to rush her to the hospital and found out that she had cancer... well, since then, my father has been a living hell. I guess it was because he got stressed with all the hospital bills that popped in and out every single month, and also the fact that I was entering UCLA and growing up right before his eyes.