Ch. 4 Maximum Sentence

I trudge down the stairs in a very discreet manner. I want to see if anyone is in the living room before I make my presence known. I see Buffy sitting on the edge of the couch. I knew she was going to be waiting; she's good. She is staring out the window as if she is waiting for her husband to return from war. I finally make it down the stairs and slowly look up. I see Buffy looking into my soul.

"Dawn, take a seat." Buffy pats the couch cussion beside her.

"Look," I swallow noticably, "I'm-I'm sorry. I really am."

"I am too. Willow and I are concerned for your health, Dawn. You have to stop sneaking out every night. I know I haven't been there for you recently and I'm sorry. But I'm trying and you're gonna have to try to."

I nod in agreement, "I know, I know. I don't know why I snuck out last night, honest. I was just gonna go for a walk, I swear. I needed to get some fresh air (lies) but my friends drove by and asked if I wanted to hang out with them. I went over to Kit's house and I got too drunk (lies.. I wasn't going to let her know that the Bronze is my favorite hangout place?!). Buff, please, don't be mad."

Buffy takes my hand, "I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed."

Hearing that is worse than bad. It's like I'm-already-six-feet-under-and-having-someone-let-their-dog-do-their-business-on-my-corpse kinda bad.

I stare off in the distance dramatically and start thinking of all the terrible things I've done while Buffy continues talking. "I can't keep waiting up till three in the morning to have my baby sis stumble in the doorway like some drunken hobo. Dawn, I can't keep holding your hair back while you throw up and change you out of your clothes every damn night. When I said we were going to make changes, I meant it," Buffy takes hold of chin and faces me in her direction, "Do you hear me?"

I can multi-task, bitch. "Yes."

"Good," Buffy goes back to blabbing, "Xander is coming by this afternoon to do some work on our house; starting with a security system."

"What?" Hearing this makes me face Buffy. She has my full attention now.

"Yes, and only I have the password... so if you get the urge to sneak back home through the front or back door the handy alarm will sound, notifying the police immediately as well as either I or Willow."

Ohhh, so scary. I can just sneak back home through my window; no biggie.

"That also reminds me," Buffy continues, "Xander is also installing some metal bars outside your window for the time being. Ya know, just in case you try to sneak out again."

I immediately stand up, "That is such bullshit!"

"Dawn!" Buffy yells.

"I don't care if I used bad language, I'm pissed off. You can't just keep me prisoner in this stupid house forever!"

"That's so not what I'm trying to do and you know it. I just want you to follow the rules! I know you're growing up and I know it's frustrating to be grounded. But you need to follow the rules that I give you. Go have your fun on the weekends; all I ask is you do your homework and be back by 11 p.m. on school nights. I don't think that's too much to ask for! If you keep running around and doing as you please, you're gonna flunk out of school! I'm not saying you need to get into Harvard or some other ivy league school; I'm not even saying you need to go to college, Dawn. I just want you to graduate highschool!"

"Why do you even care if I graduate highschool?" I yell back. I honestly don't care if I do or not. I'm already failing classes as it is.

"So I know I didn't fail you," She has tears in her eyes. I think it's bullshit. She once again has to act like she gives a damn.

"It's not your fault if I hate school! Jesus christ!" I'm so pissed off right now.

"Yes it is, Dawnie." Buffy wipes the tears from her eyes.

"Fine. Whatever," I start comicly wailing my arm from side to side, "Hey everybody look at me, it's the world's first ever teenager to hate school!"

I'm quickly cut off by Buffy, "Of course you aren't the only kid to dislike school. But you're also failing several classes. You skipped a week last month, yeah, don't think I don't know what happens, because I do! I'm raising you, it's my job to make sure you at least show up to school. Don't you dare say that it's not my fault if you don't graduate."

Ok Jesus, chill the fuck out. "Look, I see your point. I already apologized and you already punished me. Let's just move on. I'm going up to my room."

I walk past her and quickly walk up the stairs. As soon I step into my room I cut myself again. It's more effective than crying or screaming into a pillow. Plus, Buffy didn't ask me about the cut, so I'm not going to worry about. I then get to watch Xander install metal bars, which I can hardly stand. I also can hear Buffy testing out the alarm system (it's loud as shit and it works so stop messing with it!). Finally, one hour later, I hear Buffy say goodbye to Xander. As soon as he shuts the door I hear some sort of timer ticking followed by four loud beeps, which I assume was Buffy entering in the passcode. I start to read a book when I hear a knock on the door.

"Dawn," Buffy calls out from behind the door, "may I come in?"

"Yes," I sit up in my bed.

"I was thinking since I don't want you seeing your friends these next couple of weekends that you and I could go out and do something."

"Like what?" I roll my eyes. Gag me with a spoon.

"Well how bout we head out for icecream and maybe a little shopping? I mean it's only the afternoon and we shouldn't let a Saturday go to complete waste."

"Fine."

"Alright, meet me downstairs in half an hour." Buffy closes the door and walks away.