Sounded Silence

My First Sleepover

No Set POV

"I'm not FUCKING DRUNK!"

An overweight male yells at his wife. Their auburn-haired boy is cowering in fear from the other room. He wonders why his father is like this.

"Why did you even start this?!" The woman yells. Their son was no older than 7, but he knew to stay out of this. What did his father do? What did his mother do?

What did he do?

The sounds of glass breaking and hard thuds come from the kitchen. The boy can't bear to see his parents fight like this. He starts crying. He runs to his room.

He pulls a backpack from his closet, fills it with clothes, opens the window, and runs. He needs to stay as far away from this as possible.

* * *

Cowan is sitting on his couch, playing Wave Race on his Nintendo 64. His parents are busy with his 16-month-old sister, so he needed to occupy himself. The doorbell rings. Since his parents are nowhere to be seen, he answers it.

"Hi, PJ!" Cowan greets his redheaded friend.

"Hey, can I stay here a few nights?" PJ responds.

"Like a sleepover?" Cowan cocks his head.

"Kind of."

"Wait here."

Cowan runs to find his parents.

"Mama?! Papa?! PJ's here!"

"Could you keep it down?" His father approaches him and responds, "it's Pinto's nap time."

"Sorry," Cowan's voice goes soft, "PJ's at the door and wants to know if he can sleep over."

"Are his parents ok with it?"

"I didn't see his parents."

Cowan meets PJ back at the door, his father tagging along.

"Where are your parents, PJ?" Cowan's father asks the redhead.

"They're...back at home...yelling at each other..." escapes PJ's mouth, "don't even know I'm gone...I don't wanna be in the middle of all that..." he breaks down to tears and hugs Cowan's father.

"I'm sorry to hear that..." Cowan's father consoles PJ, "you are a little young to be running away like this, but if you need a place to stay away from family drama..."

Cowan looks at his father with puppy-dog eyes.

"...you're more than welcome to stay here."

"SLEEPOVER!" Cowan excitably yells.

"Cowan, shush! Remember Pinto!"

PJ cocks his head.

"Oh, I have a sister now."