2: Play dates.
James walked into his house after walking all the way home from school at 3:05 on a cold sunny Friday. he put down his backpack on a hook and unlaced one of his blue and red sneakers. The house was silent except for the sound of laces sliding together as the knotted bow came apart. Then he looked up to see nobody else there. Everyone else shoes wee there, mom's shiny short heels, dad's leathery brown shoes, and Molly's ripped dirtied used to be black flat heeled sneakers. James wondered to himself why no one else was there.
"Mom! Dad, Molly!" he called out. Then his mom ran into the room looking very concerned and stressed at him. "Mom what going on?" he asked sounding a little scared. He was scared. He had no idea what was going on. His mom put her hands on his shoulders and knelt at him.
"James you need to go to D.W's house, I've already told Mrs. Reed about it. You're sleeping over there." she sounded urgent as she handed him a large plastic bag.
"Okay mom." he said trying to sound as brave as possible. Her mom nodded and stood up leaving the room. Back to square one James thought retying his shoe after putting the plastic bag on his wrist. Once he had finished tying it the slid the bag down to his hand and put his book bag on since he had a lot of math homework to do over the weekend. He opened the door and then stepped out having to walk all the way to her house right after walking home from school.
It was a long walk to her house. He didn't really think about anything as he just kept on listening to his shoes clap against the dull grey sidewalk. His plastic bag was also scraping on the sidewalk as well creating a few small holes in it from a few small rocks. He was just looking down at the sidewalk and not paying attention to his surroundings. He felt a few bumps on his shoulders from other people. He didn't care though. He was completely worried about whatever was going on, since he didn't know what was going on after all. That's what was worrying about. Not knowing what to worry about.
Then he heard a loud terrifying car screech as he looked up and gasped seeing a very angry looking man in a car.
"Damn it kid! Look where you're going why don't ya!" he shouted as a few tears entered Jame's eyes and he sniffed holding them back. He just felt really embarrassed that was all.
"Sorry sir I was thinking about why my mom wanted to go to a friend's house." he said nervously.
"Sorry kid, I-I'm just really tense right now. My niece and goddaughter just tried to commit suicide and she's in the hospital right now. I gotta go see her. Thanks for stopping me, I didn't even notice the red light I was so rushed." he explained with a thick Brooklyn accent he noticed. James looked up at the light. It was red alright, very red and bright as he squinted from the immense amount of light.
"It's okay sir." James said as he ran to the other side of the street. He kept his head up for the rest of the walk until he got to their house. Then he felt a drop of rain on hit the top of his head and ran inside of the house where he was greeted by Mrs. Reed.
Hours passed and D.W. looked at him then at the clock.
"James it's 8:00 shouldn't you be going home?" she asked him curiously. James looked at the clock as well. It read 8:01. he pushed his glasses up at the nose piece since they were falling off of his face.
"My mom said that I'm spending the night here, hope you don't mind. I still don't really know why I'm here though." he said taking off his glasses. Maybe they weren't falling off but were just dirty.
"Do you think maybe something horrifying happened?" D.W. started
then smiled. "Like you're dad's an axe murder and he killed molly and your mom wanted to get you out of the house as fast as she could before the police arrived to cover it up." James thought about it for a minuet then looked at the clock. Now it read 8:03.
"D.W. don't be ridiculous." Arthur said walking in the room with them. "James don't listen to her. Hey I got the new Hero Squad video game. It's four players and I think that I need some help beating a level." D.W. and James looked at each other and smiled. The three of them ran out of the room to go play.
"Dibs on Crystal girl!" D.W said as they all went to play the game. Maybe this wasn't such a bad night after all James thought to himself. His homework was finished and he'd get to play the new Hero Squad game. This was going to be fun.
Molly.
"Molly why the hell did you ever do something like that?!" her dad shouted at her in pure rage.
"It was only a joke." she said not really meaning it seriously. She had been shouted at and lectured for over an hour, but it felt like 24 hours to Molly. She wished that he would just leave her alone for once in her life. She hadn't really been listening to what he was saying for the whole time.
But what she did pick up was that she was going to be missing some class time to go and see the counsellor for two days a week. While that meant more lecturing it also meant that she'd miss a period, which she had to admit was kind of nice sounding considering the circumstances that she was in. Boy was she in some boiling hot oil. No electronics for two months unless for school, no after school hanging out with her gang, and the most humiliating a limited bedtime.
What was she four years old! A bedtime really? Okay all of the other punishments were all the usual but with an extended amount of time, but this was just ridiculous! The bedtime thing wasn't even close to fair!
Either way Molly wasn't the one that pushed her onto the road, she was the one that threw herself in front of that truck. It wasn't her fault, it was just a joke. God, did anyone know what that damn word even meant. A J-O-K-E, why was everyone being such dumb asses? Oh boy was Monday going to be hell for her. That is if somehow the other people learned about Annabelle's death, then it would be all over for Molly. It may all be over on Monday. Only time could tell Molly the answer to that.
Then Monday came.
Molly walked in the door of the school wearing her navy blue hoodie. Everyone looked at her as she slowly chewed her newer slightly softer and warm pink bubble gum. She blew a large bubble as it popped making a miniature booming sound. Sort of like a small sweet sugary explosion. Everyone turned back around to their lockers and other friends. She started walking to her locker and then bumped into Arthur.
"Hey four eyes look were you're going will ya!" she looked at him as Arthur shoved her off and ran off away from her. Molly bit down to air, no gum. She looked at Arthur. There was her gum on the back of his brown sweater. She snickered at that then reached into her pocket as she stood up and grabbed another paper wrapped piece of strawberry gum. It wasn't as good as bubble gum, but it was still pink and sweet just like the bubble gum. She ripped it open and stuffed the brightly coloured paper into her pocket to put in a garbage can later. She popped the fruity piece of gum into her mouth and started chewing with her right cheek then switched it to her left cheek and left it there. It was softer and easier to chew without all that sugar, but it didn't taste as sweet as regular bubble gum though.
Molly walked over to her locker and grabbed some books that she knew she'd need for a class. She wasn't willing to fail, she still just didn't care that much about her classes. Her parents would kill her if she failed even one of them. Why did they expect so much of her she thought. Class was a bore. Math wasn't Molly's best subject anyways. She preferred English out of all of them since it wasn't so damn boring. Lunch came all too soon for Molly. It was supposed to be a place of solitude, but today little did she know it was going to be different. It would be a living nightmare that she could never escape from.
Molly's worst fears had been realized. Or more specifically everyone knew about Annabelle some how.
