Due to work and school (and my life being in a general state of chaos), I keep getting less and less time to write. Because of this tragic fact, this chapter might have a bit of a rushed feel to it. Nevertheless, I need to bring the story up to the point where it is in my head.
Apologies, both for the above, and for any delay in the posting of future parts.
/ F

'Fifth Annual Pioneers Barbeque' read a banner hung over the iron gate that led into the Bugrows' garden. The music and muffled conversations could be heard all the way out onto the street. On this aforementioned street Oscar stood sweating in his grey linen suit under the surprisingly warm September sun.
He was late, due to his work taking up more time than he had expected. It made him feel uneasy, as he always tried to be punctual and professional. But alas, he was late, and had to swallow his shame and walk in.
As Oscar took his first few steps onto the pale red stone that made up the garden's walkway, a security guard cleared his throat to get Oscar's attention. So he stopped, and inspected the other man. At about an inch or two shorter, and probably a few pounds of fat too many, the guard almost looked nervous, but still spoke.
"Name?" The voice was wheezy, and made Oscar assume asthma.
"Price.", Oscar answered. "Oscar." The guard looked at a clipboard he had in his hand, and then nodded.
"Welcome to the party." With a nod, he gave Oscar permission to officially join the festivities. He rounded the corner of the mansion-like house that was the Bugrow residence, and felt like he was hit in the face when the music and voices got even louder.
It looked like almost five hundred people, young children who he assumed were the players' younger siblings, to old, creaky individuals with hair as grey as his suit. He had trouble taking it all in, trouble dealing with both his stress and the millions of sensory inputs he got from his surroundings. Then a voice broke through.
"Nice suit.", she said. He recognized the voice as Kara's, the older friend of Nicole. He'd seen her a few times when she'd either picked up or dropped of Nicole and/or Jason at his house, but never really talked to her. Curiously enough, he'd also seen her once at the gym, but even then he hadn't managed to strike up a conversation.
"Thank you." He looked down on her, trying to find something to compliment. After a microsecond of deliberation, he decided that her pale blue dress would be most appropriate, and spoke accordingly. "Nice dress."
"I should certainly fucking hope so, otherwise I'd have paid good money for nothing." She shot him a smile that almost seemed flirtatious, and then made a gesture toward the bar that Oscar hadn't even realized they were standing by. "You getting anything?" Before he could answer, she had gestured over the bartender and ordered herself a gin and tonic. The bartender then looked at Oscar, with an impatient look on his face.
"Lager, if you have it." The bartender nodded, turned around to fix the refreshments, and then placed a glass in front of Kara and a bottle of Pabst in front of Oscar. They simultaneously picked up their beverages and turned around, looking over the crowd.
"Seen my brother anywhere?", Oscar enquired before he took a sip.
"Not for a while, but I think he and the others parked their asses on the patio, or whatever it's called. Why?" Kara took a sip of her own, and then looked up at him whilst stirring her drink with the black plastic stick that had come with it.
"Should probably tell him I'm here, so he doesn't get pissed of thinking I didn't show."
"Aight. Come find me when you're done." The tiny blonde smiled at him, and then they parted.
Franklin was, as Kara had said, seated on the patio, along with Brooks, Nicole, Tracy and a slew of footballers and their significant others. Barging straight through them, and not having anyone dare stand in his way, made it possible for Oscar to hold the conversation with his brother very short. In only thirty seconds he found out that they were going to another party after the gathering, and that Frank would most likely stay at Tracy's. So with a nod, he turned around and left his brother with the young people around him, and for a split second felt jealous of their uninjured bodies. But he shook it off, and went to find Kara.
It took him longer than expected (he'd had time to drink half the beer) before he found her, standing in a hedged-in area next to another woman. They were having a conversation, and as soon as the other woman saw Oscar she piped out a quiet: "I see what you meant."
Kara responded by rolling her eyes, then turned to Oscar, who was in full progress trying to light a cigarette.
"Don't ask.", she said when they finally locked eyes, causing a small chuckle from Oscar.
"Wasn't going to." Smoke puffed from his mouth when he spoke, and then slowly seeped from his nostrils when he went quiet.

Somewhere in the midst of all the alcohol, barbeque and cigarettes, Oscar lost track of time. Suddenly, the youngsters were gone, and all that was left were people of his own age and older, drunken to the point of stumbling both over words and steps.
He was sitting down, with Kara beside him, both of them puffing on their respective cigarettes in a quiet corner of the otherwise loud party.
"This is nice.", she said after a while. He didn't respond but for a nod, looking at the half-emptied beer bottle in his hand.
"Which part in particular are you referring to?", he asked, stumbling over his words slightly. She held a finger up to her lips.
"You're cuter when you're quiet." They both smiled. Then the unexpected came. Out of nowhere, from a position where they were barely even facing each other, she leaned in. And then she kissed him. Not the nervous kiss of first timers. Not the over-sexualized make out session of a one night stand. But a soft, yet focused kiss from a girl that had a clear intent.
Just as he was about to start kissing her back, some strange outside force seemed to pull them apart, and shatter the moment. Kara stood up quickly.
"I…", she began. "Sorry." And with that, she stumbled away, leaving Oscar dumbfounded with his cigarette and beer.


The month of November had seemed to go in fast forward for Oscar. He was working on three separate projects at work, trying to get to the gym every other day, and fill the role that neither of his parents ever did.
But the stress had not completely gotten hold of him yet, and he'd managed to keep up some sort of relationship with Kara, even though they weren't officially a couple, and the awkward kiss at the party were as close to romance they'd come. Every day he thought of talking to her about it, but didn't manage.
Oscar wasn't alone in his stress however, as Frank's team were still winning most of their games, thus putting more pressure on the youngest of the Prices. Six games into the season the Pioneers had amassed a record of five wins with only one loss, which was the result of a strip sack returned for a touchdown in the dying seconds of the game. That fumble had been one of Frankie's two turnovers that season, the other an interception as he was getting hit by the blitz. But with 11 passing touchdowns and two on the ground, the junior quarterback had started getting praise from all angles. Not that it was getting to his head though, the younger brother understood the importance of remaining focused.
But, like any human being, he allowed himself some distractions. One of these 'distractions' was Tracy, and thus Oscar was greeted with a girlish giggling coming from his brother's bedroom as he got home from work. To alert the teens of his presence, he shut the door as loudly as he could, but it was in vain as they didn't seem to notice.
"I'm home!", he yelled instead, which was followed by a loud thud from inside the house: someone had fallen out of bed.
"Don't come in!", Frank yelled back as Oscar stomped past his door and into the kitchen.
"I won't.", Oscar said whilst opening the fridge. "I don't want to see what you are doing, trust me."
As Frank exited his room, sloppily dressed with a bedraggled head of hair, the older brother was drinking orange juice straight from the bottle. Seconds later, Tracy followed, and was just as haphazardly dressed as Frank.
"That's disgusting.", she said, looking straight at the giant man and his bottle of juice. Oscar sighed.
"Considering that you two collectively are wearing less clothes than me, I'm going to ignore that comment." He put the cap back on the bottle and stowed it away in the fridge. "Now, I'm going to sit down in front of my computer, put on headphones, and do my outmost to ignore whatever the hell it is you two are doing for a while, okay?" He had barely walked past them when Tracy spoke again.
"Why do you always talk like an old person?" Frank inhaled loudly, and Oscar stopped in his tracks.
"Because it isn't only time that makes a person age." He turned around with a stoic look on his face. "And also, I'm pretty fucking old." That was the end of the conversation as far as Oscar was concerned, and he followed it by doing exactly what he said he would, the office chair creaking under his weight as he sat down.

Tracy looked at Frank with a confused look, as if to ask for clarification.

"Don't ask.", Frank said, sighing.

"Why not?", she demanded.

"Because the truth is ugly, and not easily discussed." This statement was one that Tracy seemed to accept, as she gave a thoughtful nod before she and Frank once again locked themselves in the bedroom.

Past midnight, Tracy and Frank's snoring filled up the house, causing Oscar to flee out to the porch for some tranquillity. As he sat there, half-smoked cigarette in hand, beard in disarray after endless scratching, she appeared. Her car stopped right outside the gate of the property, and she was in the yard in mere seconds.

"Hi." Kara's voice was barely a whisper, raspy as if she had cried.

"Hey.", he replied as she sat down next to him on the steps. "You okay?"
"Honestly?"

"There wouldn't be much point in asking otherwise, would there?" He blew smoke out into the night, she cracked a bleak smile.

"True. Honest answer is probably no." They looked at each other.

"Well, welcome to the club, I guess."

"Oh? What's bothering you then?", she wondered, seemingly eager to forget her own problems.

"Nope.", he said.

"What?"

"We're focusing on you here." He dropped his cigarette and put it out with the heel of his shoe. "What's the trouble?" Fatigued, she pressed her face against his shoulder.

"People…", she started.

"Are a bunch of assholes, tell me something I don't know."

"The earth is not completely round, it's actually slightly elliptical.", she said. He gave her a confused look, then understood the joke, and let out a short, tired laugh.

"Did not know that, so point one Kara. Which asshole in particular is bothering you at the moment?"

"Fred Tucker." She separated her face from his shoulder and looked at him again. "Can I sleep on your couch?"

"No.", Oscar said, patting her on the head as a joke. "You take my bed, I'll take the couch."

"Thank you." She hugged him, and he hugged her back with his free arm.

"Don't mention it." He let out a sigh, and prepared himself mentally for his next words. "You know, there's probably some stuff we should talk about." The hug ended, and Kara leaned away from him. Not in a way that suggested that he'd offended her, but rather as a way of taking in the entirety of the situation.

"Yeah." Her words were very quiet again. "But can it wait until tomorrow?"

He nodded acceptingly, and the conversation was put on hold in the interest of sleep.