Bates & Landon [Wattys2015]

BATES

Bates

When I got home from school, mom and Andrew was home. But the downside was that they were drunk. Mom and him were in their room, music blaring. I had no idea what they were doing -- I didn't even want to know -- so Emmy and I went outside after sitting inside for a while and listening to the overly loud music. Even though we could still heart the beat to the sound and their muffled lyrics, it was better than being inside with two drunken irresponsible adults.

Emmy was sitting in the grass, a catapillar in her hand. I was sat close to her, staring up at the sky. It was getting dark, really dark. How long have we been out here? The music was still cranked up loud enough to damage your ear drums. They must've went out of the room and noticed that Emmy and I weren't inside because the front door swung open.

And walked out drunk Andrew, he was rubbing his stomach again and he looked at us with a glare. He staggered down the steps and mom was behind him. "What're the two of you doin' out here?" He slurred, swaying a hand to indicate the two of us.

Emmy stood up just like I had, the both of us standing by one another. "We couldn't stand hearing the loud music, so we went out here."

"Oh, we were annoying you?" Andrew accused with a evil look on his face.

Emmy grabbed my hand. "No," I said. Mom stood beside him, wrapping a thin arm around his big waist. "Why does it matter anyways? Not like you two are sober enough to care."

Andrew got angry. "Okay, I see how it is." He said, grinning disgustingly. "You wanna be outside like a dog, we'll let you. Ain't that right, babe?"

Mom looked over at him and when they met eyes she bit her lip. "That's right, baby," I scoffed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I said as they walked towards the front door.

Andrew turned back to us, snickering. "Y'all wanna be outside, we will let y'all be outside all night."

"You can't possibly be serious," I muttered as he slammed the door shut. I ran up to the door and tried to open it. The door was locked. "Mom, let us in! Andrew, you sick son of a -" I stopped when I realized Emmy was beside me, looking scared. "It's okay, Em, we'll get back in." I banged on the door repeatedly. Each knock, I got more upset. They seriously locked us out. I ran my fingers through my hair, groaning loudly. This cannot be happening. This was ridiculous!

"Bates," Emmy whined as she began to zip up her small jacket. "I'm cold." I slipped off my jacket and handed it to her. It was like a huge dress on her. "What're we gonna do?"

"Hold on," I said as I pulled out my phone from my jeans. I dialed Jessie's number, he didn't answer. He was probably already off to sleep. I mean, it was already 10:47. Either that or his phone was dead. I tried to call Jonas. And guess what? He didn't answer. I tried them again and again multiple times and they still didn't answer. There was a chance that the two of them were playing video games together and the phones were on silent. I cursed aloud, not worrying that Emmy just heard me cuss.

I scrolled through my contacts -- which I didn't have many people on there, so it didn't take long -- and stopped at Landon's name. And I called her.

She answered.

"Hello?" a tired sounding Landon answered.

"Landon, hey," I said softly.

"What do you want, Bates? It's," I could picture her moving the phone away from her ear to look at the time, "eleven o'clock at night!"

"Yeah, s-sorry about that. Here I'll go," I'll just have to pray Jonas or Jessie will answer. Before I pressed the end button, I heard Landon say my name.