My Path To Serenity

Chapter sixteen

I looked over at Charlotte, who was standing tall in front of the mirror, and gave her a smile. "You ready for your first day of work?" She tied her thick, curly, dark brown hair in a ponytail and applied a layer of chapstick to her lips. "I'm not too fond of the idea of working, but I'm ready to start making some money," she agreed. "But I don't see this place being a long term career. I mean, after seeing your car get broken into, I'm questioning if it's even a safe place to work. But whatever pays rent." Oliver waddled over to his mom and gave her a hug goodbye. "You have other options, you know," I encouraged. "It's not like this is the only job you're capable of getting. But given you're still in high school, and Sunrise Diner is up the street, this might be your easiest route. Besides, that was the first vandalism since they opened in the sixties." "Yeah, so they say," she scoffed as she she sucked in her cheeks and left out the door to walk to work.

Later that evening was a total disaster. I hadn't turned a page of my parenting book all day, Jasper spent his day off installing a camera in the car, Tristian was helping himself to what ever he found in the fridge, Oliver was throwing a temper tantrum, and Charlotte hadn't stopped complaining since she got home this afternoon. "And you know what else?" Charlotte went on, scrubbing her face with soap in the bathroom sink upstairs. "My boss was so, incredibly, angry I forgot to put a lemon in my customer's drink. A LEMON. She grabbed me by my arm and asked me what was with ME! Psh, more like what's wrong with her?" I put the toothpaste on my tooth brush and waited for her to be finished with the sink. "I know, Charlotte. You've told me this twice already." "Oh, and when I picked up Oliver from day care today, he had a scratch on his cheek. Do those teachers even watch those kids?" I was getting sick of hearing the complaining. It was draining my energy, and I didn't care to listen too much longer. I set the tooth brush down and walked out of the bathroom to have a minute. I made my way down stairs and seen Jasper sitting at the dining room table, beaming like a kid on Christmas.
"I can't believe I didn't think of installing a camera sooner!" I chuckled as I wrapped my arms around him from behind. "You know what this means?" He smiled. "No one's stealing shit from us any more. And if they do, well, they'd have to be a complete idiot." He turned his head towards me and kissed my lips, then went into the cabinet and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. "I say this calls for a few shots." I wasn't one to drink really, but with everything going on this month, I think it was well deserved for the both of us. He grabbed two shot glasses from the counter and poured a shot full of Jack Daniels. He smiled as he stepped closer and kissed me over and over again. "Someone's happy," I smiled. He screwed the bottle cap back on and eagerly offered that we go take a look at the new camera in the car. I knew he was proud of his work, so I agreed to go to the garage and see what he did. "Looks nice," I admitted as I stood there with my arms crossed, shivering. "Next, let's install a heater in this garage. It's freezing!" Why don't we go back inside?" He followed me back inside as he quickly glanced at the camera sitting in the car, and he had a smile on his face. When we stepped back in the kitchen, I noticed something was rather off. He looked at me, and I looked at him. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked, already buzzed and confused. I squinted my eyes and glared at the whiskey bottle, with the cap off and looking just a little more empty than before. I looked around for Tristian on the couch, where he was last, but he wasn't there. "Tristian got into that bottle," I concluded as my eyes met his. Ricky crossed his arms. "Oh Allison, you can't accuse him of that." I didn't have too much proof to back me up, but it was one of those things where you don't really need evidence, you just intuitively know. Jasper walked over to the kitchen counter where the bottle was, trying to compare what was in there before we went to the garage, and now. However, his drunken self caused him to forget how much alcohol was in there before we drank. He opened the back door to the patio to find Tristian chain smoking cigarettes on the bench. "I got this," He said to me as he stepped outside with him. "Oh hey man," Tristian looked up with his eyes glazed. "That camera thing you installed is pretty cool." Jasper thanked him as he sat down next to him. Tristian offered him a cigarette, but this time he declined. "I'm gonna be real blunt with you," he immediately spoke up. Tristian puffed his cigarette and watched the cloud of smoke disappear with the wind. "My wife thinks you were drinking some of that alcohol in the kitchen. Maybe you could talk to her and straighten things out. I don't want any bad blood, you know?" Tristian's blood shot eyes widened as he sat up straight. Jasper questioned his peculiar attitude after he mentioned the bottle, but he didn't say any more. Tristian grabbed another cigarette and lit it with the lighter that took five flicks just to ignite the flame. "I don't know what you're talking about," he lied. "What bottle?" Jasper leaned back on the bench, "I knew you didn't steal any alcohol. Allison just jumps to conclusions like that some times." Tristian didn't say any more, just puffed his cigarette. "Why don't we go clear this up?" Tristian looked at Jasper with his glazed, deep red eyes, and smirked. "Alright, alright. I'll go to talk to her." He flicked his cigarette in the grass. I came outside where they were and couldn't help but to say, "bull shit, Tristian. You're lying." Tristian sunk in and started biting his brittle nails. "You did drink from the bottle. How could you lie to us like this? We've invited you into our home with open arms and gave you a place to stay, just for you to do this to us?" Tristian's face turned white as a ghost. The back door opened just enough for Charlotte to peak her head out. She stood there in her pajamas with a cucumber face mask on, totally clueless. "If the three of you could quiet down, please. I just put Oliver to sleep." I turned towards Charlotte with a sorry look on my face. I wasn't sorry that I was being loud, I was sorry she had an ass of a boyfriend. "You wanna explain?" I told him with my adrenaline rushing from the sudden stress that was put on me. "What's the big deal anyways?" He stood up out of his chair, angry. "What's the big deal about what?" Charlotte asked him. Tristian looked straight passed her and kept on mumbling to Jasper and I. "So fucking what? You're on my case over some alcohol? Really?" Charlotte stepped outside now and turned towards Tristian. "What's going on?" "He drank, Charlotte. He's drunk." I admitted to her for him. Her jaw dropped instantly as she looked at his eyes. "Is that true?" I asked. "He won't tell you the truth, Charlotte." I added. Jasper looked at me, signaling me with his eyes to step out of this now. "Yeah," he confessed. "Temptation got the best of me, alright?" Jasper truly didn't think he took a shot from the bottle, so he was stunned. "You know you shouldn't be drinking. What, do you got a drinking problem or something?" He asked in all seriousness. Tristian stayed still. "You're in the court system, dip shit. You have a baby on the way and a baby upstairs who needs you. Did that conversation last night mean anything?" Tristian didn't say a word. Jasper shook his head in disgust. "You knew I'd tell you no again to having yourself some alcohol if you asked, so you took it upon yourself to go and do it anyway behind my back?" "Again?!" Charlotte looked over at him with such sadness in her eyes. "I... I just..." Tristian stuttered, obviously nervous. "Get real, Tristian!" Jasper whispered so he didn't wake the baby, but also made himself clear enough for him to hear. "I'm harping on you 'cause I give a shit about you. But the question is do you give a shit about you? About your situation?" He shook his head as he sighed deeply. "I don't really know any more." "Look man, I have no problem taking you to AA. I knew a guy who told me it helped change his life. We can get in the car first thing tomorrow morning, get some breakfast, and go to a meeting, alright?" Tristian scoffed, "you people think I have a problem. That's the real issue here. I don't have a problem! It's you people that assume I do, that create a problem." He gritted his teeth and glared at the three of us. "Stop!" Charlotte yelled. "Can't you just be grateful they're willing to help you?" All of the sudden, we heard Oliver fussing on the monitor. "I'll go get him," Tristian stepped up, doing anything to get out of this conversation. "The hell you will." Charlotte looked at him before going back inside. "This is all your fault," Tristian slowly caught his focus on Jasper. "Coming out here, causing a scene. So what I had a couple shots? You weren't seventeen once?" Jasper shook his head, "I was seventeen once, but not in trouble with the law with two children." Tristian rolled his eyes and slurred, "So fucking what Jasper? No ones perfect." Jasper contemplated in his head what he wanted to say, but he knew it was too harsh to be said. "Not gonna talk?" Tristian egged on. "Got nothing else to say?" He added. Jasper turned towards Tristian and stared him down. "I wasn't perfect at your age," he started, "but I wasn't a fuck up either." "The fuck did you just say to me?" He stepped up and staggered over to Jasper, getting in his face. "I said I wasn't a fuck up either," he said calmly. "Try being a law abiding citizen for once. I promise you'll feel a lot better about yourself." Tristian laughed in anger, "try not having a stick up your ass every once in a while." Anger got the best of me in the heat of the moment. "We've been doing you NOTHING but favors! Don't you see that?!" I screamed. We are literally adopting your child and giving you a place to live! We don't owe you a damn thing." Something I said must of stopped him in that moment, because unclenched his balled up fists and looked at the two of us before storming inside.