I woke up in a puddle of vomit on Cody's couch. I had a crick in my neck from the way I was laying, my throat was burning from puking all night, I had a pain in my stomach, and to beat it all, I had the worst headache I have ever felt. I blamed it all on the alcohol, but I could not figure out why my knuckles were swollen.
Cody's dad walked through the house to the front door. He opened the door and slammed it shut, still standing in the same place. I gritted my teeth and grabbed my head. He did it once more and looked at me.
"What are you doing?" I asked, still holding my head.
"Just making sure you're awake," he said. He opened the door only to slam it shut again.
"I'm awake!" I yelled, "gosh that hurts."
"Do you like drinking?"
"No, I got laid flat on my back by another guy because I couldn't walk on my own," I said, "I don't ever want to do that again."
"You must not remember the good parts of the night, do you?"
"The good parts?"
"Yeah, you and Cody were talking about it on the way home."
"What do you mean, on the way home?" I asked.
"Well, I'll start by saying that you are the stupidest person I know when you're drunk. You sold your truck last night for five pieces of gum."
"What?" I asked, "why would I do such a thing as that? Did I say who I sold it to?"
"No, but I know where it is now. The person you sold it to was under the influence also, and drove it into the lake."
"Great. So I can either tell my parents that I sold my truck for five pieces of gum, or that I drove it into the lake," I said. I got up and walked into the kitchen to get a drink.
"Oh, you don't have to explain anything to them. They already know."
I spat my water everywhere. "How do they know?"
"You called them last night and told them. You talked about how drunk you were and how good you were fighting, also."
"How good I was fighting?"
"Don't ask me about that. You only told me that you won some kind of fight."
"I've gotta go home and talk to them!" I ran outside to drive my truck home. I stopped running when I realized that my truck was at the bottom of Lake Lyonnaise. I shamefully walked back into the house. Cody's dad was standing in the same spot as he was when I ran out, only smiling this time. "Can you take me home?" I asked. He agreed to it, but I had to clean up my mess before I could go anywhere.
I wondered about the punishment I would receive from my parents on the way to my house. My parents were pretty cool with certain things. They didn't like some things, and did everything they could to not let me do them, but I never really got punished for them. This was a little different though. I never mentioned that I was going to a party, nor did I mention that I was getting drunk. As we pulled in the driveway, I noticed an unfamiliar truck in my parking space. I examined the truck as I walked by it. It had drive out tags from a car lot taped to the inside of the back window. I thought that surely they didn't buy me a new one. I walked in the front door. Nobody was sitting in the living room. I went to the kitchen. Nobody was there either.
"I'm home," I shouted.
I waited for a reply, but never heard one, so I walked toward my room. It was completely empty. My bed was gone, my pictures were missing from my wall, and my door was even gone. All that was in my bedroom was one pillow and one blanked. Whoever took my pictures found my stash of money, but luckily, they didn't take any of it.
"Good morning, honey," mom said as she walked through the empty place where my door would have been.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"What do you mean, sweetie?"
"Where did all of my stuff go?" I asked.
"You mean your bed and everything?" She asked with an evil smile on her face, "you'll get it back when you turn eighteen. You see, if you were already eighteen, you would have everything and no room to put it in, but for the next three months, you have a room and nothing to put in it."
I could feel my face darken as it turned red. I was furious. I opened my mouth to argue with her, but dad walked by before I did and said, "how did you like the new truck outside?"
"I don't understand what is going on," I said.
"What's the matter, Matthew?" Dad asked.
"Mom is mad, and you seem happy."
"About what happened last night? Yeah, we're both pretty upset with you," he said.
"Why'd you buy me another truck then?" I was completely puzzled. They weren't making any sense.
"That's not for you," he explained, "That's my new truck. I've bought you two vehicles now, and you have been unappreciative toward them, so I'm not buying you another one. If you want another car, you can buy it with your own money."
This was the time where I would slam the door in their face and cry myself to sleep on my bed, but I didn't have a door or a bed, so I was out of luck. I went outside to get away from them. I looked at my phone for the first time since I didn't know when and had forty-eight missed calls, all from Grace. I felt a lump in my throat as I called her back.
"Hello?" She said.
"Hey."
"Hi."
"I saw where you called," I said after a long pause. I wasn't really sure what to say.
"Oh did you?" Her tone changed like the snap of a finger. I could tell she was angry.
"I haven't looked at my phone in a while, I'm really sorry."
"Why haven't you looked at your phone?" She asked.
"I was at Cody's and forgot to take my phone charger."
"Yeah," she said, "at Cody's house, all night."
"Yeah, I stayed the night with him."
"So you weren't at a party?"
I didn't know what was going on with her family lately, but they could all tell when I wasn't being honest. I looked down at the ground for the longest time. I was speechless. I wasn't even going to try to make up an excuse. "Answer me, Matthew, were you at a party last night?" She repeated.
"I was," I said. I could hear her sniffing on her side of the phone.
"Why did you lie to me?" She asked with a tremble in her voice.
"I don't know. I'm sorry, it won't happen again."
"What else are you going to lie about? You lied about a little cut on your arm, and now this? I don't know what has gotten into you, Matthew, but you need to fix it. You haven't been the same Matthew these past few days that I met a year ago."
"I can explain, Grace."
"No. Don't explain. Just fix it," she snapped as she hung up the phone.
I listened to the buzzing sound of the dial tone for a minute. I was realizing how close I was to losing everything I had. She was all I had left, and I have been treating her so badly lately.
