History Must Repeat Itself

Chapter 30

          Arriving home, my mother's car was still in the driveway. I sighed, parking at the curb. I'd hoped it was a bad dream. Putting my key in the door, I noticed with annoyance it was unlocked. I hated the door being left unlocked, especially the middle of the night. The kitchen light was on and I knew what my mother was doing before I even saw her.

"If you're going to smoke cigarettes inside, can you at least open the screen door," I said, walking past her. She was in the same spot as this morning.

"Where have you been all day?"

"I was helping a friend," I answered, filling a glass with water.

"The Satanic freak who murdered that poor girl?"

The glass froze at my mouth. "He didn't kill her. She was attacked by an animal."

"Is that what he told you? What an original story."

I did my best to ignore her, drinking the water. The cigarette smoke was bothering my eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, glancing at her.

"I had the weekend off. Decided to come see if my daughters had destroyed my house."

I filled the glass again, but didn't drink from it. I just stared into the water.

"Nope." I let my lips pop together. "We're fine. Don't need a check up."

"Well, I don't exactly trust you," my mother stated, wandering over and dropping her cigarette into the sink. It sizzled in the thin layer of water along the metal. "Especially since you ran away in New Orleans and got that lovely elderly woman in trouble. You remember her?"

Over the smell over cigarette smoke, I could smell alcohol. Great. I poured out the water and put the glass in the sink. She was goading me, waiting for a reaction. I took the cigarette butt and threw it in the garbage. I left the kitchen without another look, proud of myself for not reacting how I wanted to. She chuckling behind me.

I walked into my room, slamming the door shut. That would be my old expression of anger. I paced back and forth, working to calm down. I shouldn't expect anything else from her. I looked at the phone, but I didn't know who to call. Nancy was busy. Steve would insist on picking me up. Robin would make Steve pick me up. I couldn't call Eddie.

I remembered the marijuana hidden in my room. I got on my knees and checked under my bed, spotting the box filled with things to make me feel a bit better. Opening the decorated box, I pulled out the bag of rolled joints. Some looked better than others. You could tell which Eddie had done. Opening my window a little, I lit one. I grabbed the small box of pictures I kept on my desk. Spraying my wrist with Billy's cologne, I sat below my window. Billy's smiling face looked up at me, along with photos of the kids. I found a picture from Halloween. The night I referred to on the ride home. The night Eddie and I had made out.

          I'd dressed as Sigourney Weaver from the end of Ghostbusters. It wasn't a hard costume to put together. I only dressed up because Steve was having a Halloween party and he'd loosely begged me to. One last shebang for Robin and I before graduating. 

As was all Harrington House parties, it was fun. We all got drunk, danced around, and had really loud conversations. I tried my hardest to convince Dustin, Lucas, and Mike to squeeze into their old Ghostbusters costumes to take pictures with me. It only cost me seventy-five bucks and two hours at the party. No alcohol entered their systems and it was a deal.

Most of the night I spent with Robin, drinking beers. I danced with a few random guys. It was fun, but I didn't care much for them. Steve was dressed as Marty McFly. It was the most adorable costume I could imagine him in. I spent as much time with him as possible, but we kept getting pulled in different directions.