Just One Look

Conflict

On Friday, Karen showed up late, as usual. We threw all her stuff in my room and set up our tent, the one thing that we have kept a tradition. Every girls night, we build a tent in my room and deck the thing out with pillows and blankets and an old VCR TV. We always watch one Star Wars movie, along with a horror and a chick flick. We make popcorn as we go, and bake cookies in the mean time. Last time, Karen and I had a drinking contest, once. Who could chug the 32 ounce bottle of Dr. Pepper in the shortest amount of time. I won, as always. This time, she brought a bottle of gin.

"Karen, you know my Dad's a cop right?" I asked, she nodded.

"Yeah, I know."

"You realize that we're breaking the law, right?" She opened the bottle and took a swig.

"Yap, I know." She swallowed and took another drink. She screwed the cap back on and shoved it in the depths of my closet. "Shh." She whispered, holding a finger to her mouth.

"Since when did you start drinking?" I asked, she bent down and crawled into the tent.

"Oh, the party wasn't the first time. Then last weekend and a few days ago at Jared's house."

"So, like, three times?" I asked, she nodded her head as I crawled in next to her, laying on my stomach. We started watching Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. We didn't get far through the movie before Karen and I started talking.

"You know, I'm really happy with Jared." She said, I nodded my head.

"As long as he treats you right, and you're happy. I'm happy."

"Yeah, but there's something." She paused and picked at the blanket that we were laying on. "I don't know, but there's something intimidating about him."

"What's that?" I asked, she looked back at the movie.

"He's so hot." She said, speaking about Luke, her voice caught and she shook off a thought. She was avoiding my question.

"What is it Karen?" I asked.

"Anyways, umm. Jared, I don't know. He loves me, he told me that about three weeks ago. But, there's something."

"You said, the other day that he threatened you..." I trailed off, hoping she would expand on my thought.

"Yeah, he uh. He told me, that if I ever tried to break up with him. He would lose his mind."

"Was that, legit?"

"I don't know what he means, by losing his mind." She said, she thought for a moment and shook it off.

"Was there anything else?"

"Not really, I've seen him angry before. That wasn't fun-"

"What happened?"

"One of his friends didn't bring him his money that his friend owed him. He went bezerk. He beat the shit outta him."

"When did this happen?"

"A few days ago, I went over to his house and a couple of his friends came over." She paused, "They brought drugs and booze, I didn't do any weed. But I had a few drinks."

"Karen, you broke the law." I stated bluntly.

"So?" She asked, "we didn't get caught." She shot.

"So? You could." I shot back.

"Whatever, but it was scary."

"Maybe, it's not the best to date Jared."

"Don't tell me that. I don't want to hear it." She said defensively. "You sound like my Mother."