ii. Warm Water

"You should know better than this," Didi's voice was stern, with a hint of shakiness on the side.

Standing in the doorway was Tommy and Kimi, who groggily rubbed their eyes and stretched their arms. Taking a hesitant step forward, the teenage boy attempted a smile and reached a hand out towards his mother. "Look, the party wasn't supposed to get as big as it did-"

"You had a party?!"

Wincing, Kimi let out a short breath and put a hand on Tommy's shoulder. "Mrs. Pickles, he didn't exactly mean party- it was supposed to be us, Chuckie, Phil, Lil- you know, the gang."

The woman's eyes narrowed at the hand on her son's shoulder. Making a face, she quickly removed her hand and laughed nervously. Tommy cracked another smile and walked towards the table, indicating Kimi to follow him. "Word got around." He started before pulling out a seat for his girlfriend. "I'm sorry, I can't help that."

"You could've kicked them out, Tommy."

Right as always.

"I assume that's why there was alcohol." Didi muttered, placing it down on the table in front of Kimi. "Did you drink at all?"

Both teens glanced at each other before shaking their heads simultaneously. "No mom." Tommy uttered, taking a seat next to Kimi who looked as drained as ever. He took a mental note of to go easier on her- but he could clearly recall the small girl ushing him to go harder.

They'd talk later.

"I didn't want to be near it, Mrs. Pickles- neither did Tommy." Reaching a hand underneath the desk, Kimi placed it on the sleepy teen's leg. "We knew better than to get ourselves involved in that."

"So..." pausing, the mother paced back and forth with a hand to her chin. Slowly, her dark orbs stuck through Kimi. "That still doesn't explain why... that happened."

A blush overrided Kimi's cheeks as she gazed down at the table, eyes locked onto the wine. Coughing awkwardly, Tommy spoke up. "Uh... hormones?"

Shaking her head, Didi put a hand over her face as Stu walked into the room. "Stu, honey, I think you need to talk to our son."

The latter blinked with a mouthful of pudding. Swallowing slowly, he tilted his head. "Uh, sure honey. Why?"

Nudging her head towards the quiet couple, who in response shrunk in their seats as the adults stared them down. Squeezing Tommy's leg, Kimi swallowed and slowly raised her hand. "Uh, Mrs. Pickles...?" All stares then turned to her as she realized what exactly she was doing. "Don't blame Tommy. It was kinda my idea."

A long silence set over the kitchen, no one bothering to speak as stares traveled across the room. However, just as Didi was about to speak Dil meandered into the room with a lopsided smile as he hummed a tune to himself. "Hi, mom, dad." Looking past them, he waved at Tommy and Kimi. "Sup bro- Kimi."

And, in a unison of dread, they replied simultaneously: "Hi Dil."

Shrugging his shoulders, the younger teen grabbed a glass, poured orange juice into it, and walked out. Everyone looked at each other with an unphased look before shaking their heads and engaging back in their previous conversation.

"Kimi, don't try to take the blame off Tommy-"

"Honestly though-"

"Mom she's right."

"Stu, when are you going to talk to Tommy-"

"Di, I'm trying to make breakfast."

"Stu, this is important."

"If I snuck you out now, do you think they'll notice?"

"What am I even going to tell him- don't have sex? It seems that-"

"Stu..."

Both parents turned to the table, however they were both very surprised when they found its seats were empty. With a surprised yell, Didi looked around before letting sigh out. Patting his wife's back, Stu proceeded to shrug his shoulders before offering her the pudding.

Within ten minutes, the two teenagers were back down the stairs in appropriate clothing. With a stern look, Didi folded her arms and stopped the two in their tracks before they could reach the front door. "Not so fast you too."

With a groan, Tommy put his hands in his pockets and looked down at his feet. "Can we at least talk in private?"

"I think this is a very serious manner, Tommy." Directing her gaze to Kimi, she continued. "I feel that having the two of you together while we speak would be beneficial."

Adjusting her shirt, Kimi averted her eyes. "Mrs. Pickles, as lovely as that sounds, I have to get home. I'm sure my parents are worried sick about me."

Didi's face quickly fell for a brief second, showing a bit of worry before the peeved look came back. "I already have intentions to tell you parents, young lady."

"I'm sure Chuckie already told him," she muttered mostly to herself. Now that she thought about it, her phone hadn't gone off since earlier that morning- about one or two in the morning. Usually by now her parents would be freaking out- perhaps it died. "So you don't have to worry about that."

Reaching for the door, Tommy was quickly cut off by his mother. "Geez..! I was just going to walk her home!" Pulling his hand back, he glanced back at the dark haired teen before shaking his head. "Like a good boyfriend does."

Daggers were stabbing Tommy repeatedly.

"Or... not." Laughing nervously, Tommy turned to Kimi. "I'll uh, talk to you... later?"

With a small nod, the dark haired girl raised her head with pleading eyes at Didi who sighed and stepped aside. Opening the door, Kimi quietly shuffled outside and gave one last wave to the Pickles before closing the door behind her.

"Living room. Now."

Sighing, Tommy followed close behind. "Yeah yeah.."

Sitting on the couch was Stu, who had now finished his pudding. Upon seeing his wife and son, he stood up quickly and straightened out his shirt before giving a half smile to the two of them. Tommy quietly sat down while knowing that the cold stare from his mother was still directed entirely at him. "Now, explain yourself."

"We weren't lying about the party." Tommy started, folding his arms over his chest as he leaned back on the couch. "It was supposed to just be the gang and a few others, but someone let the word go out. Honestly, I don't know who it was but if I do..."

"You're going off on a tangent, son." Stu muttered, giving him a face.

Shrugging his shoulders, Tommy continued. "Anyways," briefly biting down on his lips, the purple haired teen closed his eyes. "Me and Kimi really had been intending to tell you guys about our uh... moments.. but we didn't know how to go about it. I mean, I figured if I told it to you without you finding out like that it'd be better-"

"Tommy, honestly; I'm not that angry about that." Didi began, placing her hands on her hips. "I just want you to be safe. You know what happens with young couples who aren't safe..."

"Oh mom, please, don't go there right now!" Begged Tommy as his eyes went wide. The last thing he needed to think about was the talk. Though, of all the things, his mother would go there. It was his luck, after all. "I get it: unprotected sex is bad."

A slight smile eased its way upon Didi and Stu's lips. "Good. However that doesn't make up for the fact that you had a party."

With a groan, Tommy lowered his head and shook it.

"I expect this house cleaned spotless by the end of this weeked, or no video games for a week."

Upon entering her own house Kimi met complete and utter silence. There was no shuffling of feet rushing down the halls or stairs towards her, nor was there any sound of Chuckie playing one of those strange games on his computer.

Just eerie silence that the sixteen and a half year old couldn't put a finger on.

Her lips parted as she took another step, almost expecting her parents to jump out from behind the couch. But no, there was no surprises, just the eerie silence and the house all to herself.

Something was definitely up.

Furrowing her brow, the asian reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Oddly enough, the girl had only acquired a few texts over the night. While most were from Lil, and another from Phil, only one had been from her family- and it was Chuckie at that;

| Chuckie :)
|12:53 AM
| You better get out soon. I'm giving Trevor a ride home at 1- I'm supposed to take you home.

Confusion overcame her as she hopped onto her couch, thoughts fuzzy.

Maybe Chuckie had just decided to stay at Trevor's for the night. It was a far fetched statement, sure, but nowadays he was pretty unpredictable. However, with her parents she just didn't know. On weekends at least one of the two were home, and if they weren't by the time the two teenagers had woken up, then they would have written a note...

A note.

Jumping off the couch (and silently groaning to herself for letting herself tell Tommy to go harder), Kimi traversed to their kitchen and searched all over. However, after moments of searching and nothing to be found, fear and panic quickly rose in the teen. It was highly strange for her family not to tell where each other was.

But perhaps it was just her punishment for not telling her parents- or not coming home with Chuckie. After all, the last time she checked, she wasn't even allowed to have sleepovers with any boys. Especially Tommy.

The amount of trouble Kimi was in was getting far out of control.

Just as Kimi was about to give her mother a call, the door burst open and a worried Chas and Kira appeared at the scene. Their eyes were red, from what not even the the teen could tell, and they were out of breath. However, as soon as the couple's eyes set onto the confused and happy child standing in the middle of the kitchen, a sigh of relief left the two of them.

"Oh thank god you're okay!" Kira cried as she rushed into the room, arms wide and a weary smile on her face. "We thought something happened to you!"

Confusion was clear on her face by this point- even her parents could tell.

Chas had a look of discontent on his face as he slowly approached Kira and Kimi. "Honey... Chuckie never came home last night either."

Taken back, Kimi gently pushed her mother back. "What do you mean? I thought he was giving Trevor a ride home..."

"Exactly."

"I don't.." trailing off, Kimi's features slowly faded as a few pieces were put together. "I don't get what you're getting at dad."

A long breath left Chas' mouth as he ushed Kimi closer to him. Reluctantly, with guilt still on her mind, the teenager approached him with open arms which he did not accept. "You see.. Kimi.."

However, Chas could not finish. His sentence came cut off as fresh tears came to his eyes and heavy breaths began to come. As the grown man began to cry like Kimi had never seen before, Kira quickly turned and pulled him into a hug as she tried to console him. Taking a step back, Kimi glanced back down at her phone before taking a long look at her exhausted parents. More pieces fell into place as she watched her parents reaction.

No words were needed by that point. Only raw emotion: tears.

I can dubbed a horrible person now.

However for plot reasons, things had to be done. This is only the beginning of an (hopefully) emotional story of lost, fear, and love.

Read and review!