Caged

[Three]

I really wish that I had gone to bed earlier last night. I was definitely paying for it now. It wasn’t even my fault that I didn’t get to sleep until about midnight. I blame my mum, and that scary drunk guy.

I didn’t even get to finish my essay, which I would now have to spend my Sunday afternoon finishing. Damn my mother and her drunken buddies.

I had only gotten five hours of sleep last night, and now here I am, cleaning up afer my mum and her friends, once again.

It was five o’clock in the morning, and instead of being warm in my bed, I was in my living room cleaning up spilled alcohol and cigarette butts.

Jax was still asleep in my bed, lucky him. After what he did for me last night, though, he deserved to get an extra hour of sleep.

We both started work at eight this morning so he needed to wake up a little earlier, so that we had some time to stop off at his house so he could get ready.

As for me, well, I was up this early because if the house wasn’t clean when my mum woke up, then I would be in a huge amount of trouble.

I hadn’t had a shower yet, nor had I eaten breakfast. There was really no point having a shower before cleaning, because then I would just have to go and take another shower to get the smell off of me, and there was no way in hell I was eating surrounded by this horrid mess.

Once the place was clean, I walked into the small kitchen, and opened the fridge to grab the milk out for cereal. My stomach rumbled loudly as I found that the milk carton was empty.

The carton was full last night! I looked around the room, and saw an empty Kahlua bottle under the table. So that’s where the milk had gone.

Oh well, looks like I’m having plain toast for breakfast this morning. I would have to go grocery shopping today too.

The sound of a tired grumble alerted me to Jax’s presence. His hair was slightly wild, and he had bags under his half opened eyes.

“Where’s the cereal?” he asked, sitting at the table.

I bit my lip, and looked at him apologetically. I didn’t even need to say it, and he knew that there was no milk. This was a regular occurance in my house.

“It’s all good, we can eat at my place. My mum will have something cooked.”

I nodded, and thanked him before walking to the bathroom to take a shower.

Unlike last night, I didn’t have to watch every step that I made along the way. There were no drunks passed out on the floor, and no cans to crunch under my feet.

The hot water of the shower hit my back in soothing, forceful drops, and the steam was a reminder of what the living room had looked like just hours ago.

I washed my body slowly, enjoying the feel of the way that the soapy bubbles massaged my skin as they popped. It left the faint smell of coconut in the room and on my skin. It made me feel like I was on some tropical island.

I didn’t want to step out of the shower. It was amazingly warm, and soothing, and it was really the only place that I felt alone, and relaxed.

I sighed deeply, and stepped out, braving the cold breeze that was creeping in from under the locked door.

I dressed quickly into my work uniform, which consisted of black pants, and a plain black collared polo shirt, with the logo of the store on the left breast pocket.

When I came out, Jax was already leaning against the frame of the front door, twirling his car keys around his forefinger. I grabbed my bag and stepped out on to the front steps. It took me a while to close the door because the latch didn’t work properly; yet another thing in my house that needed fixing.