FIRST KISS (High School Romance - FYI - In need of redrafting/rewrites)

Chapter Thirteen

"What time did you get in last night?" asked dad when I slipped into the kitchen the following morning. I was still in my pyjamas and slipper-socks, even though it was after 11am.

He peered at me over his glasses and shook out his broadsheet before folding it and placing it down on the table. He had pushed his saucer and egg cup to one side, the remnants of his breakfast still on the table.

Mom was over at the stove holding a cup of coffee and a magazine, which she too lay on the worksurface when I came in.

"I'm not sure."

"That's not acceptable, Melissa." One of my dad's eyebrows was so highly raised as he spoke that the wrinkles on his forehead were smashing together like a pile-up on Route 66.

"Did you drink?" asked Mom.

"No."

"Really?"

"Uh..." I had hesitated. That was enough.

"We don't think Luke is a good influence on you. Those parties he throws..."

"Luke's my friend, mom. He's sensible. He doesn't do stupid stuff."

I could feel a dull whiskey-throb in the back of my head.

"And we know you were hungover last week after the Halloween party."

"How could you know that?"

"When Bryce called last week he wouldn't let us speak to you on the phone. He kept saying you were in the bathroom, but we could hear you in the background."

My cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.

"And you looked terrible when you came in on Saturday and you smelt of alcohol and vomit," said dad.

I couldn't believe they had waited a week to spring this on me.

"I called Mrs. Williams," said mom.

"What? When?" I glanced back and forth between the two of them as they stared at me.

"This morning. She said Bryce wasn't home yet."

"Why? Why would you do that?"

"Because I wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to know why he didn't come over at all last week, and why you were drinking on Friday, and now last night too, and staying out late and walking home alone."

"You're only sixteen, Mel," said dad. I think he just threw it in to make sure I knew he was also there, so I could feel the full weight of his disapproval too.

"Exactly. I am sixteen years old! That's too old to have you calling Bryce's mom behind my back! That's so embarrassing!" I covered my face with my hands, feeling humiliation and anger vying inside me for first place.

"She said he has a new girlfriend. Is that what's bothering you?" asked Mom.

"You have massively betrayed my trust, mom," I groaned.

"And you have betrayed ours. Clearly you can't be trusted to behave sensibly at parties," said dad, sipping on his coffee. "We're going to have to ground you."

"Ground me? Are you kidding?"

"Alice would never have behaved like this, Mel."

Alice was my older, and perfect, sister. She was away at college now, but I was still always being compared to her. It drove me mad.

Mom scribbled an answer in the crossword of her magazine, like it had just occurred to her and she had to note it down before she forgot. She wasn't even concentrating on me!