home ? b. allen ? (discontinued)

C H A P T E R T W O

s t a t u s
unedited
w r i t t e n
02.11.16

WAS HER DAD INFURIATED or confused or concerned? Or all of the above? I couldn't tell.

I think all fathers would probably be a tad bit of all three if their daughter brought a soaking wet homeless girl she had just met that morning to come stay at their house for the night.

I know I would be.

But I was the soaking wet homeless girl, so I don't think I really had a say in the matter.

I found myself in their guest bathroom, trying to make myself look a little less crazed as Iris argued with her dad. I could hear them almost perfectly through the walls, but I tried not to listen too much. I honestly didn't want to hear want they had to say.

Her dad, Joe apparently, would probably end up refusing my ever so delightful company and pay for me to stay in a hotel.

Then I can wake up and get out of this wretched town.

But next in the line up of my own little series of unfortunate events was Joe calling in to his work and getting my background checked.

And what he would find: I was tossed around from foster parent to foster parent from the ages of five to nine, I had to leave the system when I turned eighteen because I still hadn't been adopted, I tried to run away 47 times, I stole a lot of things in my rebellious teen years, and I got into fights -- and usually won.

Who would ever want me to stay in their house after reading that?

The only thing going for me was that I hadn't committed any crimes since I was seventeen. Six years of being crime free -- or at least not getting caught.

All of that piled together was why I thought he was an idiot for letting Iris convince him to let me stay.

In the end, all Joe had to say to me was a simple "If you try anything, anything, I will shoot you."

Iris gave me an armful of her old clothes and showed me what everything was in the shower. I thought it was kind of idiotic, seeing as that I know how to work a shower and how to tell the difference between shampoo and conditioner.

She left and I hopped in, scrubbing off all the grime that had been layered on since my last shower. After I was finished, I wrapped a towel around me and grabbed my clothes, washing them in the tub. I hung them over the side of the tub and got dressed in Iris's clothes. We were about the same size, but she was a little bit taller, so the sweats she gave me ended up acting as my socks.

When I came back into the living room, I saw that Iris was sitting on one couch, watching the news, and had pulled out the hide-away bed from the other couch. There was a stack of blankets there and and some pillows -- the first real bed I slept in for over a month.

Iris said goodnight and took the extra clothes from me, telling me to wake her up if I needed anything.

So there I was, 1 AM and still wide awake, laying on the creaky pull-out bed.

Gosh, I'm dehydrated.

But I was honestly terrified to get up. I wasn't in the mood for dying. There's a time and a place to die, and in the kitchen of Iris's house with a bullet in my heart wasn't it. The clock ticked by to 2 AM, and I couldn't take it anymore.

I pushed the sweat covered blankets off and walked through the living room and into the kitchen. I quietly opened and closed each cabinet until I found the one housing cups. I grabbed one and went over to their fridge, filling up my glass.

Terror coursed through me as the handle on the front door rattled. I stood as still as stone, cup in hand, as the door slowly opened.

And in walks the jerk.

Careful not to make a sound, the coffee shop dollar stealing idiot walks in, gently placing his bag and jacket on the couch I hadn't been sleeping on. He paused, finally noticing that the bed on the other couch had been pulled out. He stared at it in confusion, so I decided to interject.

"You still owe me a dollar."

Mind you, I had been terrified until I put it together that Iris and Barry seemingly knew each other at CC Jitters. So when he casually walked in, I assumed they were dating or something. Barry didn't have a chance to put things together.

"What the?" He shouted, spinning around in shock. I held back a laugh as he looked at me in horror. "What are you doing in my house?"

So he lives here?

"I needed somewhere to stay, and I wound up at CC Jitters." I explained. "Iris convinced her dad to let me stay."

In that moment, Joe comes running into the living room -- gun in hand.

"What's going on?" He shouted.

"I honestly have no clue." I said. I decided to play it cool and casually drink my water, but I ended up choking on it.

Doubling over in a coughing fit in front of two strangers at 2 AM was not what you would call fun.