Sincerely, S.H

Chapter 8

Nick doesn’t even speak to me until we get to my room, where thankfully, nobody is home. We go to my room with all doors closed behind us. “What were you thinking?” he asks, exasperated, and flabbergasted.

               With an ironically sober tone, I answer. “I wasn’t”

               “No kidding,” he snaps, obviously in no mood for my irony. “What would you mother say?” Low blow.

               “Can you not bring up my mother right now?” I snap back, similarly not in the mood for his lecture.

               “Why not? Because she would be just as disappointed in you as I am?”

               I roll my eyes at this. “You told me to go, and I did. Then I had three shots. It’s not a big deal.” Like a child, I lay on my bed and face away from him.

               “Who the hell even was he?”

               “Why should that matter to you? He’s just a guy.” I can almost feel Nick rolling his eyes. This may be unfamiliar territory for us both, but he is assuming the role of a father rather nicely, and I suppose I am assuming the role of the disobedient child just as nicely. But what a stupid cookie jar to have my hand caught in. How long will I even be able to blame the voice? I can see myself slipping away. The real me would never have drank. Let alone drank with such a rude stranger.

               Nick sits next to me and sighs heavily. “What were you thinking?” he asks again, softer this time.

               “We’ve been here before, dad. I believe we determined that I wasn’t.”

He laugh’s a little, breaking character, not hard just a single light shake of his diaphragm. “I am acting like a father, aren’t I?”

Now it’s my turn to laugh. “Just a bit” I say, sitting up.

“Okay, let’s start this over.”

“Fine by me,” I say a little harsher than I should have, especially considering that I am the one who messed up, and he is the one who is trying to rescue me.

“Okay, so did you have fun?” He responds with sarcasm and mock lighthearted interest. In response, I stare at him blankly. “Too open?” I nod. “Okay. Underage drinking. I know it’s common, but you have always been better that.”

I’ve certainly been told otherwise. Whatever that voice is, it seems to know better than Nick. It knows that I’m incapable of doing far worse than I have done in the past. Maybe I’m not better than breaking the law publicly like I thought. Scratch the maybe. Beyond committing the harmless crime, I allowed somebody I don’t even know to convince me to do so. “No I’m not, “I respond with candor.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked, suddenly fatherly again, but not in the angry and superior sense, more in the concerned protective sense.

Because a voice in my head told me so. I almost laugh out loud at the ridiculous of my head’s automatic response. How did my life even get to the point where such a thought would cross my mind in passing? A voice started talking to me in my head, that’s how. “Because I did it” I answer, avoiding the real reason.

Luckily, Nick has no idea what the real issue is, so he doesn’t push that point any further. “Hey, you know that’s not true, and I guess I overreacted. We may be the only ones here who follow that particular rule, but to see you with… whoever he was drinking. I guess it was kind of…surprising to say the least.” He turns his head a little to the side. “I never see you talking to anyone, let alone males, let alone drinking with them.” I blush at the implication in his statement. I can’t even bring myself to think of Drake in that way. He is such a pig. A pig with pretty eyes, but a pig nonetheless. I shake my head once to try and forget the searing green eyes.