BAD REPUTATION.

13

Judd Kidd

As I drive through Brandy Mae's tired looking neighborhood, I contemplate the problem I have at hand; namely the five bottles of overpriced alcohol that I bought to impress a girl who clearly doesn't want to be impressed.
What has my life turned into?

I don't want them anywhere near me because if I start I won't stop or if I stop it will be because I can't feel anything anymore and at that point ambulances and doctors will have to be involved.

Then I think about tossing the whole bag into the bushes, but even for a multimillionaire like me, it seems like a lot of wastage; on alcohol not money.

Grandma Veronica's clustered garage seems like the best place to hide five bottles of liquor. For one, she rarely visits the place and also if she ever did
find the alcohol here, she can't think they are mine; they could belong to anyone - even trusty old Mary.

I find a dusty corner which looks like the last time a broom swept through it was at a time when people solved their grudges at high noon and hide the shopping bag there. I take one bottle with me, promising myself I won't drink it.

Problem one down ,next problem?   avoiding grandma Veronica.

She's a nice old lady and all but she tends to break into these annoying rants  every now and then .They are always about some ungodly thing she saw on tv or about how America hasn't produced a good bunch of youths since before nineteen sixty and in between she'll stop to lecture me about the effects of drugs, ask a bunch of questions to figure out if I'm still using, want a second by second report on how I spend my day ,enquire on the progress I'm making on wooing  her sweet innocent Norah and lots of other useless stuff.

Tonight is not the night.

I'm on the first step making my way upstairs and marveling at my stealth skills when she calls out from the living room, "Oh Judah, I was waiting for you, I told Mary to keep your dinner warm. I haven't seen you all day come into the living room for a moment." she shouts.

Why doesn't she respect my stealth skills? I allow myself a few seconds of loud sighing, hide the bottle in my back and then retreat.
She's seated in front of her giant television as she scrolls through channels. Her displeasure at the whole process is visible by how far downwards her lips are tilted.

"There is never anything to watch on this TV. How's Norah, Is she still thinking about changing her college major?"

I grunt. My grunt says I haven't seen Norah in close to a week and also,I don't care about her college major.
To grandma..the grunt clearly is taken to mean affirmative,.because she continues to say,"I've always told her medicine is more practical than bio chemistry."

Of course Norah is the kind of person who would talk to my grandmother about her career and shit. I'm even sure they've talked about whether or not it would be considered as cheating if her future husband liked to another female's photo.

I grunt again. This conversation hurts my ears more than her rants.

"I think I'm going to head up to my room," I twirl my iphone in my hands "charge my phone and what not."

"No,sit down and eat your dinner. I'll go and tell Mary to set it in the dinning room."  She's off the couch before I can even make up my mind whether I want dinner or not
The easiest way to deal with her is just do what she says and even accept that she's going to call me Judah for the rest of her life.I hope for my sake that its not a very long life because that name gives me a lot of icks.

When I finally make it into my room, I hide the bottle in my closet and collapse on my bed and then I'm confronted by a problem ive been trying to ignore all day.