Southside Boy

That Damn Doorknob

Present Day
"Good morning sweetheart" Hal says as he kisses my cheek.
"Good morning" I turn around to face him
"What's for Breakfast?"
"Pancakes" I say with a smile
"My favourite"
"I know" I say and he smiles. He gives me a quick kiss before going to sit down at the table.
I put the pancakes onto the plate and carry them to the table.
"Elizabeth!" I call "Breakfast is ready" she walks down the stairs and sits down at the table with us. We all make some small talk as we eat and then she leaves for school.
"Have a good day honey" I say as she walks to the door.
"Thanks, see you later" she walks out the door leaving just me and Hal at the house.
"So, what are we gonna do today" I ask him
"Hm, I don't know. What do you want to do today?"
"Well were completely kid free for a few hours. We can do anything we want" I smile at him, hinting.
"Very true. Actually before I forget I should probably go fix the back door"
"Oh, yeah sure" I say as he stands up from the table.
"Breakfast was great honey" he kisses my cheek and goes to the garage to grab his tool box. I bring the plates to the sink and start washing them when Hal calls for me.
"Alice, could you come here a minute?" I walk over to the back door where he is. "Could you run up to the attic and see if you can find the other doorknob? It looks like this" he holds up the broken knob to show me.
"Where in the attic would it be?"
"In a box somewhere. If you can't find it we can just buy a new one, but it's worth a look"
"I'll be back" I say as I turn to go upstairs.
I open the attic door and walk up the stairs. It's so cluttered up here, I doubt I'll be able to find what I'm looking for.
I start looking through boxes. I find some of Betty and Polly's old baby clothes. After looking for a while I finally find that damn doorknob Hal is talking about.
I'm about to walk downstairs when I see a box tucked tightly in a corner. There's an old blanket covering it. I pull it off and instantly know what box it is. Stuff from my teenage years. My old uniform and name tag from when I worked at Pops, and just random things that I threw in this box. And then I see it. At the very bottom of the box, a pink book. I instantly know what it is. I reluctantly pull it out of the box and slowly open it. I bought this in the summer of 1995. The summer I spent with a certain brown eyed Southside Serpent. I read through it, when suddenly Hal calls my name.
"Alice, honey did you find it?"
"Oh uh yeah, I'll be down in a second" I grab the doorknob and the diary and walk down the attic stairs. I check to make sure Hal isn't nearby and go to our bedroom. I open my dresser and hide the diary under some clothes, and then go to give the doorknob to Hal.
"Here you go" I say as I hand it to him
"Thanks"
"Do you need any help?"
"I'm just about done just got to put this knob on and then all done"
"Okay well I'm going to go read or something upstairs. Call me if you need anything" I say as I give him a quick kiss before going upstairs. I close the door and take out the diary again. I open to to the front page and see my name written on it Alice Smith. Now it's Alice Cooper, but this was before I married Hal, this was when I was a completely different person. This was the summer of 1995. The summer I got cozy with a Southside Serpent. I've worked hard to erase that part of my past from my memory. But it isn't that easy. I did things back then I'm not proud of, and that was when I made the biggest decision I would ever make, and also the biggest regret.
I read the first entry:
June 8th 1995
Today I got a visitor at the diner. Fp Jones. Him and some of the other serpents came in. He instantly locked eyes with me, and demanded he take me out that tonight. He had always casually flirted with me. But he flirted with everyone so I didn't think much of it. He had to persuade me into going, I didn't think it was a good idea but I went anyway. Besides I always found it hard to resist those deep, dark eyes of his.
Anyways, I just got back from the date. He took me to Pops and we had milkshakes, and then we got in his truck and drove around for a bit. We just talked for a while. He drove me home and before I got out of the truck he kissed me and said "Goodnight Siren". I guess that's my nickname? I don't get it, but there must be a reason he called me that. I'll have to ask him-"
I close the diary as I hear Hal walking up the stairs. I open the drawer to my bedside table and throw it in there. I grab the book that was sitting on the table and pretend to read.
"Door is officially fixed" he says as he walks in the room.
"Great!" I smile at him as I close the book.
"You know, that's the only thing I had to do today. And like you said we're completely kid free, we can do anything we want" he comes close to me.
"Mm yeah" I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him in for a kiss. He lays down, pulling me with him. He deepens the kiss and as hard as I try not to, all I can imagine is a certain dark eyed Serpent.