Short Stories

Love and Cats?

Part 2:

TW: This whole story deals with a few different things such as alcoholic households and death, if these things make you uncomfortable feel free to skip them.

I sit in the back of Jordan's car, wedged between Cory and Kay. I was supposed to catch the bus but outside was so hectic and everyone was going nuts. Jordan offered to take Aubrey home and he was already giving Cory a lift, so he kind of just put us all in his car and we left.

"We can all go to mine if you want," Jordan says, "My parents aren't home until 7".

I stare at my feet. Cory says yes and so does Kay.

"I, uh, need to get home," I mumble to my feet.

Jordan just pulls over on the side of the road and unlocks the doors.

"Well, this car is only going one way, so, out."

I look up at him. His eyes are cold and he is smirking. He wants me to squirm and crawl back to him because he's got a car. I realize there are only two ways to finish this and I refuse to come crawling back. I grab my bag from the floor and awkwardly scramble over Kay to get out. As soon as my feet hit the pavement I slam the door. I'm walking off when I hear another door slam. I half expect Aubrey to be running after me, coming to say Jordan was joking. No such luck. I feel a hand grab my wrist and I turn. It's not Aubrey. Or Jordan. And it's not Kay either. Standing behind me awkwardly shuffling his feet is Cory. He drops my wrist when he realizes I have turned around. A horn honks behind us and Cory looks like he's about to explode. I'm scared he is angry at me but he just turns and flips off Jordan. I hear chuckling.

"I will be right back," he says to me.

He jogs back to the car, smashes his hand against the hood, leans against the driver's door, and says something to Jordan. The car takes off down the road and I am left with Cory in the slowly darkening street. He walks up to me.

"I'm sorry, they were talking about you in the car and laughing, so I decided to come out and walk with you. Jordan thought it was hilarious, he thought I was trying to make a statement"

I stare at him in amazement, no one had ever done anything like that for me before.

"Thank you"

I look up at the sky. It's getting dark now.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" He asks.

This is a whole new thing for me and I do not want to be out here in the dark.

"Sure, that would be great"

We walk down the road and it is kind of awkward to start with. We slowly get more and more comfortable. The conversation varies from school to home life and movies we both like. We are arguing about which Captain America movie was better when we reached my front door.

"Thank you for walking me home" I look at him, he doesn't seem in any rush to leave.

"Did you want a drink?"

His eyes light up.

"Yeah"

I try the knob. It's locked. I scramble around in the front pocket of my bag for the house key. With fumbling fingers, I slowly open the door. If the door's locked that means Dad is probably down at the pub. I drop my bag on the floor and walk into the kitchen, Cory drops his bag and follows. I flick on the light and kick the wall. I am one step away from having a mental breakdown. There is vomit all over the sink, broken bottles scattered everywhere, and a half-eaten peanut butter sandwich on the floor. The island bench is covered in slowly drying blood. Dad has once again had an episode and refused to clean up. I kick glass shards into the corner and try to mop up as much vomit as I can. I don't even notice I'm crying until my tears splash onto the floor. Cory comes up behind me and slowly pulls me out of the mess.

"I can call my mum if you want, she could come to pick us up and I could take you down for pizza"

I look at him for the first time and he looks genuinely concerned.

"We also have a spare room you could stay in for a while if you want"

I nod and try to wipe away as many tears as I can.

"I'll just go grab some stuff"

I dash upstairs and grab some clean clothes, a phone charger, and a toothbrush. Cory has mine and his bags in his arms when I come back down. I grab mine and quickly stuff my things in.

"Do you need to leave a note?"

That is smart. If Dad came home to an empty house he probably wouldn't care until he was sober enough to think straight, but it's good to look like we are a somewhat civilized household. I quickly scribble down some lame excuse about me going to Aubrey's. When I get back out Cory is finishing up a phone call, probably to his mum.

"She's coming round now"

I pick up my stuff and close the door behind us. Headlights come up the drive and a beautiful black car comes into view. Cory walks down and opens the door for me.

"Mum this is Ashley, Ashley this is my mum"

"Nice to meet you, Ashley, you can just call me Sarah"

"Thank you" Is all I can manage.

A/N: This book legit took me ages to write and hate all of it, but I have nothing better to post so here.