All the dark places in me.

Chapter 5 Alaska Freeman

I was sorry to admit that I was actually excited for the party, not just because it got me out of the house and away from dad; I was generally excited about going. It wasn't like I hadn't been to parties before because I had, I'd just never been to a party out of my part of town and I was slightly worried to be honest.

I ran up the steps to our flat then stopped solid at the door as I remembered my dad was home. I took a second to breathe before opening the door on dad and his drug buddies. The smell had me instantly coughing, as it burned my lungs, and my dad's friends instantly laughing then coughing like me "not used to it sweet heart?" Questioned one of them in a husky voice, I ignored him and got straight to my point with my dad "I was wondering if I could go to a party tonight?" I asked quickly, I looked at him waiting for his answer; he looked terrible, far from the man my mother and I loved. He took a moment to think about it before answering "no, now go to your room," I looked round the room at his friends then back at him "why not?" I must have been felling brave to question my dad, he went to speak, or shout, when one of his friends cut in "go on Dan it's just a party and don't we need her out of the flat tonight," one of dad's other friends said "fine you can go but be back by 2 or don't come back at all." There must have been something really bad going on that night because I had already seen a lot so I didn't see what was so bad he needed me out but at that point I didn't care, all I cared about was getting out of there before it happened.

I rushed into my bedroom as I didn't wish to share any more time with my dad or his friends, plus I had to get ready. It was only 5:30 so I had 4 hours and a half to get ready but for me in this house that was how long I needed. First I had to have a shower that meant sneaking across the hall without my dad seeing me, showering quickly and making it back into my room, with a lock, all in fewer than five minutes otherwise my dad would get annoyed as well as the hot water running out.

Once I was back in my room I braided my wet her to hopefully give it some curls then I started rummaging through my wardrobe for something to wear, which in my case consisted of wore out jeans, ripped T-shirts and school uniform. My dad and I didn't have much money so I rarely got new cloths or shoe's the only thing in my wardrobe that looked new was my school uniform which was no help to me then.

After half an hour of looking, I manage to find a black strapless pencil dress, which Emily gave me, that came down to about 5 cm above my knees. I also managed to find a black lace jacket and some black flat shoes that were about a size too small for me. Next was the makeup problem, I got a box out from under my bed that consisted of all the makeup I'd gotten from people at school that I didn't want my dad to see. I put on some foundation then some black eye shadow, trying to give my eyes a smoky look, then some eyeliner followed by some screaming red lip stick. When I was finally done I looked like a dark angel with blood stained lips and frantic blond her and blue glowing eyes, I didn't look the best but I thought I looked good enough.

By the time I was done it was 9 so I had an hour before Emily and Todd would come to pick me up. There was no way I was going out to make small talk with dad's friends so I continued writing my story from English. The man stood tall in front of me, his dark eyes taking all of me in, I wrote, "what is your name," he demanded, never loosing eye contact with me, I didn't answer. He didn't ask again like I expected him to he just held out his hand to me "come on let's get you out of here," he said kindly, I took his hand and followed him. I was a sucker for love stories and always found myself writing them if I had any free time, I always liked to pretend that I was the girl in the arms of the man, pretending to be loved.

As I was about to go into my bubble of heart felt thoughts I heard the door bell, I grabbed my bag and 99p phone, that I bought myself, and walked into the front room. Todd was stood at the front door talking to my dad "tell your old man I ent forgotten about his debt," my dad hissed at Todd "we ent got the money yet but he ent forgotten," Todd replied calmly. Before dad could get violent I squeezed past him to Todd "bye," I mumbled, he didn't give me a second look before he shut the door in our faces.

Once we were out of ear shot of dads flat Todd said "your dad is a piece of work," I was silent for a minute before saying "I know." There was an uneasy moment between us when I thought he was going to say more about my dad but he didn't "so where's Emily?" I asked only just realising she wasn't there "oh, I told her to wait in the car as I know what your dad can be like," he said, I gave him a knowing look. We walked in silence till we reached the car "ahh! Bae, you look gorge," Emily said leaning out the passenger side window of the car. I could tell just from her leaning out the window that she wore more makeup than usual and that the dress she was wearing was too small for her as the dress started a quarter of a way down her breast and probably finished a quarter of the way down her thighs, but I kept my thoughts to myself "yea you look good too," I smiled. And we all got in the car and started for the upper part of town.