Broken Bottles

Broken Bottles: chapter 7

"What do you want me to do?" Danny quickly asked.

"I don't know. He can't see you after he freaked out just last night from you being here." I said. I frantically peaked through the blinds and watched as dad got out of his car slowly. He swayed with every step, which showed me that he was extremely drunk.

"I can leave through the back door or hide maybe?" Danny suggested.

I looked at him and then back outside, "Fuck."

"What? What is it?" He rushed over to stand next to me by the blinds.

"Your car is in the driveway." I stated the obvious factor we both forgot.

"Shit." Danny muttered.

"Well, hide anyway. Maybe he won't notice the car if he's too drunk." I instructed. Danny looked around the living room frantically.

"Dude, just pick somewhere." I told him.

"I don't know if you noticed this, Paxton, but your house doesn't have many good hiding spots." He hissed at me.

We both froze as the front door swung open. Dad staggered in, took his shoes off, and walked up the stairs without uttering a single word or even glancing in our general direction. We both stayed absolutely still until we heard his bedroom door slam shut.

I slowly turned around to face Danny, "Did he just?...Did that just?..."

"I guess he finally warmed up to me." Danny joked.

"Yeah, right. He was just too drunk to notice you were even here." I scoffed.

"Either way that was hilarious. You should've seen your face when he pulled up." He was laughing even harder now.

I glared at him, "You looked just as terrified."

"No, that was all you." He tried to convince me.

"Keep telling yourself that." I gave up.

Danny laughed a little more before collecting his things and putting his shoes on. We said our goodbyes at the door and I watched his car disappear from our street before closing the door.

That was such a dangerous close call, yet in that moment I never felt more alive.

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"If one more kid decides it is a good idea to throw two bowling balls down the lane at once, I'm going to punch something." I complained to Hannah as I joined her back behind the front counter.

It was Friday and I was working the closing shift at the bowling alley with Hannah. The alley was packed, because Linda decided to start having Friday night cosmic bowling. All it consisted of was flashing neon lights in replace of the normal ones and we took music requests from the costumers that we played through the stereo. It wasn't anything fancy, but Linda advertised it all throughout the city as 'new Friday fun for the whole family' and people wanted to check it out. Linda could also take the opportunity to raise the prices, because of the 'heightened experience' we were giving.

"As long as it's not me you punch, I'm cool with it." Hannah replied.

"No promises."

"How much longer until closing?" She asked.

I checked the big clock on the wall behind us, "About two more hours."

"I can't sit here and scroll through music requests for the next two hours. Can we switch jobs?" Hannah asked me. I was currently working the front where people bought games and got their shoes and Hannah was taking song requests and playing them through the speakers.