A circle of three young boys talking. A small rock in the center of them. A boy with medium-length black hair looks between the other two before smiling. He takes their hands, and they do the same, completing the link of the three. A soft spoken word is said, but it isn't quite clear. The two boys look at the medium-length haired one curiously, before another smile is shown. But something is off, everything is drowned in darkness to the sudden sharp sound of a bang .
…
A pair of sky blue eyes shoot open, the pupils of them shrinking quickly from being startled awake. They clam shut for a few seconds as something bangs the wall. The figure they are a part of sits up with a headache. They try to adjust to waking more, but the series of loud screams and swears from another room was making it hard. A hand runs down the figure's tired face with a yawn.
They check the time in their room, only to find 5:13 a.m. in blaring red numerals on the alarm clock.
"Oh for fuck's sake," they mutter, falling flat onto their back, "couldn't even wait till the sun was up," they look out their window, "…or till we were at school."
They sit up again with a sigh, knowing they wouldn't be getting any more sleep, and look to kill time for at least an hour. When it nears 6, and the voices die down, they decide to leave their room and make their way down the chilly hall to the bathroom.
Once done, they wash their hands and catch a glimpse of the dark circles under their eyes. They sigh, knowing that at least one of their friends would say something about it. They exit and head back down the hall to their room.
"Kenny?" a small voice asks.
"Yeah?" the figure, Kenny, stops and replies.
"Did they wake you up too?"
"Yup."
"Do you think they're…"
"I don't know, I'll go check after I change," Kenny says, glancing down the hall.
"Okay…"
"The bathroom is free to use if you want," he says, looking back.
"Oh, okay."
"I'll see you in a bit then," he says, as he starts to head off, "Oh, and Karen," he quickly adds, "remember, no hot water this week."
His younger sister nods once before closing her bedroom door. Kenny continues on his way, entering into his room. After he throws on a pair of discarded gray jeans and a white shirt, he exits his room yet again.
Peeking around the living room corner, his eyes carefully scan it. It's messy, like usual, although this time he notes the small coffee table is on the other side of the room, toppled over, whatever had been on top of it was now in a mess spread across the floor. There's a spilt beer can between the kitchen and living room area, its contents pooled in a puddle between the two rooms.
"Great, another mess," he sighs to himself.
As his eyes continue to scan the room, they fall onto the passed out person of his father on the couch. He was the only one left in the room, and Kenny figures that his mother probably went off to bed alone at some point. He watches his father for a few more seconds, before entering further into the room.
He makes his way to the kitchen, as quiet as possible through the scattered mess of cans, and opens a cabinet. Grabbing some bread, he puts it in the toaster, then goes about cleaning up the puddle of alcohol with an old dishcloth. The toast pops up just as he rinses the cloth off in the sink, so he sets it down and grabs some jam out of the fridge. After he's done spreading it, he puts it away and carries the toast on a small plate back down the hall.
As he heads down it, his sister comes from the direction of the bathroom.
"Here," he says when reaching her, and she looks at him curious, "got to have breakfast," he adds.
"Oh, thanks," she says and takes it, "although, I probably could have gotten it myself," she smiles.
"Yeah, but the kitchen is a bit of a mess right now," he replies.
"How bad is it?" she frowns.
"Oh, you know. Same-old-same," he gestures with his hand, "anyways, go eat and get ready, I'll meet you back out here when it's time to go to school."
Karen smiles with a nod and thanks him for breakfast, before the two part ways to their rooms.
Kenny kills some more time by playing a game on his cheap cell phone, then meets up with Karen once it's time to leave. The two make their way down the hall, through the living room and to the front door. They manage to remain quiet while passing through, until reaching the door. It opens with a very loud and long creak as they try to leave, stirring their father on the couch to wake and groggily look around.
"Where you off to boy?" his father slurs, half-awake.
Kenny stops and tenses, before looking back at his half-inebriated father, now sitting up on the couch.
"School," is his single word response.
"School," his father mocks back.
"Yes," Kenny says, and ushers Karen out past him.
"Right," his father scoffs, "schoooool," he drawls out, "don't see why you're going, not like it will help you with anything. Just a big 'ol waste of time, if you ask me."
"Well, I didn't, so…" Kenny mutters under his breath.
"What was that?" his father asks, eyes narrowing.
"I said I'm going to be late," Kenny replies.
"Is that so?" his father sneers, his gaze on Kenny making him tense more, causing him to quickly head out the door. " Hey !"
"I'm going to be late!" Kenny quickly says, before shutting the front door behind himself.
He catches up to Karen at the end of the pathway, who gives a concerned look, but he just shakes his head before she can ask anything and the two continue their way to school.
The walk is long from where they live, add on the bitter cold of winter and one can imagine that it's not a very pleasant one either. Usually the feeling in their faces, hands and feet would be pretty nonexistent by the time they would make it to school during the cold months. But it was one that they had also grown more accustomed to throughout the years, from the chilly mountain town, to the lack of heating at home.
About 45 minutes later, they reached the school. Once the two enter the building, they part ways and go to their individual lockers.
When Kenny reaches his locker, he's met with the sight of his girlfriend, Sally; or as she's more well known by her friends given nickname, 'Powder', standing by it.
"Kenny!" she greets.
"Hey," he greets back and offers a smile as best he can.
"You're late today," she says.
"Yeah, I uh, stayed up late studying," he replies.
"That's not good for your health, you know."
"I know," he chuckles and opens his locker.
There's a bit more of a small exchange between the two, and a quick shared peck, before they head off to their morning classes.
When lunch comes, Kenny meets up with his friends, who of course waste no time in asking why he looks so tired.
"Dude, you okay? You look tired as fuck," one of his friends, Stan asks.
"Yeah man," another, Kyle adds.
"I'm fine," Kenny replies, "just stayed up studying late last night."
"You seem to be doing a lot of that recently," Stan says, to which Kenny shrugs at.
There's a pause as another member of their small group, Cartman, finishes talking with someone next to them with a laugh, before looking over at the other three, then spotting Kenny.
"Kenny, man, I don't know if you're aware. But you look tired as fuck," he says.
"Duly noted, thank you," Kenny replies, dryly.
He had expected one or two people to notice, but guessed that wasn't going to be the case today.
A short while later his girlfriend joins the table and they go about talking with everyone, before lunch comes to an end and everyone heads off.
When his English class comes along, it goes by pretty normal. Although, about halfway through it, he gets the feeling as if he's being watched or something. There's a strange inkling that nags at the back of his head and he looks to where he thinks it's coming from.
He catches a small glimpse of his classmate, Craig, looking at him before the dark-haired boy looks away. This wasn't the first time he had caught the other looking at him, there were times before where he would catch it on occasion, but for some reason, as of late, he seemed to be catching him staring more and more.
There's a pause, he looks away and he starts to recall his dream from before. Part of him wonders if that had anything to do with Craig starting at all. Several images pass through his mind at the thought, but he closes his eyes and tries to shove them away. He didn't know why he was thinking about all this now, but none of it mattered anymore. It was from a long time ago, in the past. And it needed to stay there.
Still though… He never seemed able to shake the faint feeling of guilt whenever his thoughts would wander to those distant memories. Or when he would look at Craig.
The school day comes to a close and Kenny hangs out with girlfriend for a while after it, while Karen hangs out with some of her friends like usual. The two of them always opted to do anything else, until it got too late and they needed to head back home.
"Kenny?" Sally asks, drawing him from his thoughts.
"Hmmm?" he replies and looks at her.
"You okay? I've been trying to get your attention for the last couple of minutes, but you seem like you're zoning out."
"Oh, yeah I'm fine," he smiles.
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Hmmmm, maybe you're more tired than I thought," she thinks aloud, "did you want to head home?"
"No, I'm good, I swear," he says and tries his best to smile, then gives her a hug.
"Well if you're sure then," she laughs, and returns the hug, "why don't we head back to my place for a while, where it's nice and warm?" she adds and gives him a small kiss.
Kenny knew what would most likely happen if he went, but was pretty used to it by this point, and he didn't mind the time the two spent together. It was a lot nicer than what was waiting for him back at his place, and was for sure a hell of a lot warmer too.
"Sure," he replies with a weary smile.
…
When Kenny arrives home later, he's unsure, as usual, on what to expect when he enters through the front door. Slowly, he opens the door, but is somewhat surprised to not find his father, beer-in-hand, sitting on the couch watching T.V like usual. As he makes his way through the house, he doesn't find either parent at home and starts to figure that they must have gone out to the local bar that night. This seems to be confirmed when he checks the garage and finds the truck gone.
Once he realizes that they're out, he breathes a sigh of relief, then goes about cleaning the mess still leftover from that morning. Karen comes home a short while later, offering to help, but Kenny tells her not to worry about it and get to work on any homework she may have.
Once he finishes cleaning, he heads to his room, changes, then finishes his own homework, before getting ready for bed.