She woke up feeling a little funny. She sat up in bed and looked
at herself in the big mirror. Her hair was wild and her face puffy
and her boobs were even bigger. No, she thought it was actually
true!! She jumped up outta bed and ran to the mirror and looked
at her boobs through her pajama top and she could've sworn they
were bigger!! Slumping over, she walked into the bathroom and
leaned across the sink to get a closer look at her teeth. It was
a ritual, look at her boobs, look at her teeth, then look at her
face to see if she had any zits. The teeth were fine and no zits
today. Well at least that she had that mercy. She started to feel
a little better and hoped that she wasn't going to end up going
up another bra size. The damn things already didn't fit worth
a damn anyway.
After her shower she ran down stairs and called out to the kitchen
where she knew her mother would be fixing herself breakfast. The
house was quiet and so she went back upstairs and to her mother's
room and it was quiet, door closed like it always was. She knocked
on the door.
Nothing.
Then she decided to take a risk and open the door. No, better
knock again.
No answer.
"Mom?"
Nothing.
"Hey Mom? I gotta go to school now."
Missy couldn't believe how fast her heart was racing. If her mother
was asleep, then she was going to be furious if Missy woke her
up. Missy slowly turned the knob, her heart pounded loudly and
felt like it was going to jump right out of her chest. Then she
slowly pushed the door open.
No one was here!
Missy started to cry. She wasn't sure why she was crying, just
that if her mother and father didn't come home last night then
something was wrong. She sat on the floor and cried until she
heard the bus honking it's horn outside. She got up and went for
the door. She wished she could stay home today, after all no one
was home, but if she missed school her parents would want to know
why and then she would have to lie and they would take her to
the doctor and, well shit, it just wasn't worth it.
She didn't say a word the whole bus ride.
She was sitting at one of the cafeteria tables and reading a
book like she always did in the morning. Alone. When Paula sat
down. She didn't look up from her book and Paula was like, "Can
you believe it?"
She didn't know what the fuck Paula was talking about so she just
said, "Believe what?"
"That I'm having a party and you're invited." Paula said smiling.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Well, I'm inviting you to a party...at my house." Paula bent
down and looked up at Missy's eyes that were buried in the book.
Missy didn't smile and she didn't respond. "Hey, a party! You
know what a party is right?"
"Thanks but I can't come."
"Of course you can come. I'll give you directions later today.
I'm having..."
"I know where you live, but I'm not coming."
"Look Missy, the angel of depression, you are coming and that
is all there is to that."
Missy stood up and almost knocked the book off the table and tears
filled her eyes and she said, "God! Why do you always have to
be so stupid!? Why can't you just leave me alone?"
Lunch time came and Paula came back over to the corner outside
where Missy usually hid from everyone. Missy was sitting with
another girl who never spoke to anyone and they were both reading.
Paula shook her head but she approached with more caution this
time. Missy looked up and she instantly shoved her book inside
her bookbag and then started to walk away. The other girl just
scowled at Paula and Paula smiled back and the girl pulled her
book up over her face.
"Missy, wait up. Hey! Wait for just a second."
"You know I could probably get you for harassment or something."
"Would you just chill for two seconds?....STOP!"
Missy stopped and turned around furious. Paula dramatically stopped
and crossed her arms and was like, "So?..." Long pause, "What's
up?"
"Wow! That's your big speech? You really should write a book on
expanded vocabulary."
"Huh?... Oh! That was like geek speak for cutting me down!" and
Paula laughed, a good honest laugh. Missy was furious and now
there were some people actually watching them. Great!
"No, seriously, what's up wif you?"
"Go away."
"Nope, not until you tell me what's the dealeo."
"What, 'dealeo'? I'm fine, I just don't associate with drug addicts
and whores." Missy spouted out venomously. Paula stopped for a
second and then she was like, "Good. Me either. So wanna tell
me why you are even more depressed and dismal than usual?"
"None of your business."
"Parents?"
"What? It's none of your..."
"What? Your dad beat you? Molest you?"
"WHAT!? Are you crazy?! No!"
"Then what? What did they do?"
"I said none of your damn business!"
"Well, that's why I'm having this party."
"What?"
"Because of my Mom. Because she isn't going to be there."
"What about your dad?"
"Don't have one."
For the first time Missy stopped thinking about herself and looked
at Paula with something almost resembling sympathy. Paula wasn't
looking at Missy though, she was looking at the Art building and
Missy could swear that Paula was actually sad. The girl that was
always happy, always the "good time" was actually sad. This was
misery, this was despair, this was something Missy could relate
to, this was Missy's home turf.
"I'm sorry." Missy said stepping a little closer.
"What?" Paula said like she was coming out of a dream, then...
"Oh, about that? Who cares? Anyway, I can totally understand parents
being shit heads. I think there should be a law that parents have
to go to like a parent school or something. You know?"
Missy just shook her head.
"So anyway, my Mom is gonna be gone for days and so I'm having
this party Friday and I think you should come. So please come?
Please?"
"My Mom is gone too."
"Huh? What? Your Mom left?"
"I..I don't know. I mean maybe. She didn't come home last night."
"You gotta be fucking me? No way! So is she like gone for good?
What are you going to do? You can stay at my house if you need
to."
"No, no, I don't think she is gone for good. I just think she
must have been at someone's house last night. I guess." Missy
couldn't believe she was telling Paula all this. She couldn't
believe she was telling anyone. She felt strange talking to Paula
about anything, but it felt good to be telling someone.
"So you think she'll be back today?"
"Yeah, well, I hope she will. I really don't know what is going
on."
"Well, I gotta scoot, but if you need a place to crash, just swing
by, k?"
Missy watched Paula as she hopped away. Paula kept turning around
and watching Missy watch her leave. She could have sworn Paula
was acting like she was flirting, but...naw.
When she walked into the house she wasn't sure if anyone was
going to be home or not. But she heard the yelling coming from
the kitchen and so she tried to creep up to her room, to hide.
But as soon as she got into view from the kitchen, her mother
called out to her.
"Missy Anne, get in this kitchen right now!"
Missy felt her stomach start to cramp up and she slowly walked
into the kitchen, dreading the obvious trouble she was in.
"Missy, was anyone here last night?"
Missy almost about had a heart attack! What was her Mom talking
about? What did she mean was anyone here? Was she talking about
Jeffrey? Missy didn't know what to say and her father was looking
at her just like Jeffrey did when he wanted something. Her father
looked completely whipped and she started to figure out what this
was about. Her mother looked back and forth from her father to
her and then she asked again, "Tell me right now! Was anyone here
last night? Where you in this house alone? All night?!"
Her Father tried to shake his head 'no' and she smiled at him
and he smiled back and then she said, "When I woke up this morning
there was no one here."
Her Father's jaw dropped and her Mother jumped up and put her
arms around Missy and said, "Oh Honey! I'm so sorry! Oh my God!
I can't believe this happened!" Then she whipped her head around
toward Missy's father so hard, Missy thought her head might fly
right off!
"You God damn lying son of a bitch! You left a 16 year old child
home alone in this house so you could go off and screw some whore
behind my back! I can't believe you, you are such a lying sack
of shit! I could..." She turned back around toward Missy and Missy
could tell she wasn't supposed to be in the room any more and
so she took off to her room. Somehow the tears didn't come, for
some reason the only feeling Missy had was just, "Finally" and
she closed her door against the sounds of her parents fighting.
On to Part 4: The Party