Me n U

Going Down

Cassie was in her bedroom sitting at her wooden desk that sat in front of her wide window. She had an open note book in front of her and was writing slowly as if she had to slow down her thoughts in order to capture them and glue it onto the pages. She had worked out that morning and just got through with a shower. She wore her long blue and white gym shorts, a black tight t-shirt and white ankle socks, the attire she usually wore on a lazy Monday afternoon. Since there was no school for two weeks, it was certainly a lazy Monday.

It has been three days since she has agreed to meet Madison’s parents, three days too many according to Cassie. Normally when she had something planed the days would go by slowly, but this time the days seem to have been pushed or sped up somehow; of course she doesn’t like that.

“Cassie what are you doing?” Cassie slightly jumped at the sound of her kid brother’s voice.

“Damn it Jeremy don’t you know how to knock?” She lightly snapped at her seven year old brother while slamming her note book shut.

“Ohhh you said a curse word.” He pointed at his sister who only rolled her honey eyes in annoyance.

“I can say a lot more curse words if you don’t start knocking on the damn door.” She said the last part slowly, hoping that it burn his head and make him start to knock.

“Whatever.” Jeremy sat down on her small white couch that had a small coffee table in front of it with multiple comic books on the surface of the table.

Jeremy was not her full brother, yeah they had the same mom, but his dad was her mom’s second husband. Cassie would never admit this to a living soul because of her built up pride, but she was deeply jealous of Jeremy. She was jealous because his father is still in his life while her father wants absolutely nothing to do with her. Since Cassie’s mother was still married to her second husband who is Jeremy’s father, she would have to watch Jeremy live the life that Cassie has loaned to have. A life that includes a Father that will do whatever it takes to make their child happy, that life.

“What do you want?” Cassie turned the office chair to fully face her brother who was now flipping through one of her many Spiderman comic books.

“Mom wants you down stairs.”

Cassie groans before standing up to her feet. While walking past the couch she grabbed her kid brother the ear which forced him to stand up as she kept walking.

“Ow stop it.” He groaned and dropped the comic book.

“Stay outta my room.” Cassie ordered once they were out of her room and in the hallway. She shut the door behind her then walked down the stairs.

The living room was modern and neat seeing as how her mom cleaned up every Saturday. They had a long sectional white couch with purple Orchids on each end of the couch. A coffee table which was much bigger than Cassie’s, and cleaner since hers had comic books scattered on the surface. They had a plasma flat screen TV that sat above the modern fire place. Cassie kept walking and came to the counter with stools that sat in front of the kitchen where her man was busy, she sat on a stool and watched her mom place a pan wrapped in Reynolds wrap into the oven.

Cassie looked a lot like Beth her mother; she had dirty blonde hair only Cassie's was longer and jagged. Cassie had honey brown eyes instead of blue glass eyes, her lips weren’t small like her mom’s, just thick and pouty, a feature that made her a great kisser.

“You called?” Cassie said gaining her Beth’s attention.

“Yeah, I need you to go to the store and pick up some things.” She wiped her hands on a nearby towel before walking over to where Cassie was and handing her a piece of paper that sat next to Cassie. “This is a list of what I forgot to get,” Cassie raises an eyebrow when her mom hands her two pieces of notebook paper.

“Ah yeah this is totally a small list.” Cassie pointed out, mocking her mom’s definition of small lists.

“Okay maybe I forgot a little more than I expected.” Beth smiled and admitted that it was indeed a pretty long list.

“You think?” Beth just rolled her eyes at her daughter’s humor.

“Take my card and pick up what’s on the list.” She nodded her head to her wallet on the counter before going back to the stove to a pot of boiling water.

Cassie reached over to the her mom’s wallet and opened it reveling many credit cards and wallet size pictures of Jeremy, Seeley her husband, Cassie and one of herself. Cassie reached in and picked up her mom’s Visa card, then closed the wallet.

After reaching the top of the stairs she walked up the hall, the sound of galactic guns being fired grew louder as she came closer to Jeremy’s bedroom, just as she thought, she saw Jeremy sitting in his room with the lights off, door wide open and sitting Indian style in front of his TV with a PlayStation 3 controller in his hands. Shaking her head she walked into the room across from Jeremy’s which is her room.

“Hey Louie, you feel like going for a ride?” Cassie asked Louie, her close Hispanic friend, through the phone which was in between her shoulder and head since she was pulling on a pair of black jeans.

“Where to?” He asked her.

“The market,” She answered. “I’m stopping to the Game Shack after.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you out front.” they hung up just as Jeremy walked into her room once again.

“Can I go with you?” He dropped himself onto her bed, laying on his stomach.

“No,” She answered while walking into her closet.

“Why not?”

“Because I said so.” She pulled out a pair of black sneakers with a white bottom. “Just like I told you to stay out of my room.” She sat on the edge of the bed next to where he was laying, still on his stomach with his hands holding up his head.

“How come you never let me go anywhere with you?”

“Because you’re my little brother, I do things that you’re not allowed to do.”

“Like weed?” Cassie stilled her movements when she heard her brother’s comment, she turned her head and looked at him.

“Jeremy, don’t ever do weed.” She ordered.

“Why not, you do it.”

“Just because I do it doesn’t mean you should.” She spoke gently to him seeing as how this was no laughing matter. She went back to tying her shoes.

“Well why do you smoke weed?” Up until this point time, she had never thought about why she smokes weed, or when she began smoking weed.

“I don’t know.” She admitted. “Promise me you’ll never smoke weed.”

“I promise.” He agreed. “As long as you promise to stop.” Cassie couldn’t say anything to her kid brother, she looked at him, he wasn’t looking at her. She finished trying her shoe then held her pinky out to him.

“I promise to try,” She compromised. “I will try not to do it as much, pinky promise.”

Her brother stared at her before grinning and lacing his smaller pinky with her slightly bigger one.

“Oh yeah, did you decide what you wanted to go as for Trick or Treat?”

“Yeah, I wanna go as Commander Shepherd from Mass Effect.” He smiled

“That game that Mom doesn’t want you to play?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Jeremy frowned. “I begged her to buy it but she said I’m too young.”

“I’ll buy you that game you wanted.” Cassie stood to her feet.

“Really?” His eyes went wide, he wanted that game so bad but since It was rated M for mature, mom or dad wouldn’t buy it for him. “But it’s on 360.”

“You can use mines,” She grabbed her keys off the desk. “But the games have to stay in my room or else mom’ll find it.”

“Okay.” He smiled brightly up at his older sister, his hero, he once wrote a paper about what he wanted to be when he grew up; it shocked Cassie when she learned that he wanted to be a star football player just like her.

“If I buy you these games you better start knocking on my door.” She told him firmly.
“Okay, I will.” He said as if he were annoyed and tired of the subject.

“Until I get back, stay out of my room.” She grabbed him by the ear and he groaned.

“No need to grab my ear.” He scrunched his face up.

Cassie walked outside and over to her white mustang with black chrome rims. She saw that Louie was already in the passenger’s seat rolling a blunt, immediately her mind flashed back to the promise she made with her kid brother, she shrugged it off her shoulders and got into the driver’s seat.

“Hey man what’s up?” She asked her close friend. “What’s with the blunt? I thought you only smoked at night.”

“I do but my mom almost found it.” He licked the side of it, making sure it’s sealed. “So I have to sell it and smoke it.”

“Man let me get some.” Cassie started the car and pulled out of the driveway.

“You sure?” Louie lights the blunt.

“Yeah, how much you want?” Louie blew out some smoke before answering her question.

“Oh c’mon man you know you’re free.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out one baggy green mashed up weed. “Here.” He handed her the baggy.

“Thanks man.” She placed it in her pocket, and then reached for the blunt when he handed it to her.

Louie and Cassie have been best friends since middle school. Louie moved across the street from Cassie when he was twelve years old, she learned that his mom is an actress named Sofia Vergara. They didn’t go to the same school and they still don’t, Louie goes to a school called SOAR, an alternative school for students with Behavior problems. A few years ago Louie got into trouble with the law, he almost got thirty years in prison, his mom and dad didn’t know what to with him, he started fights at school, on the street. He would have been perfect in the rap game with all the other thugs that start fights and smoke weed, so it would be no surprise to know that he ended up in SOAR when all the legal trouble ended, but this Cassie’s story not his.

“Hey man what’s up wit’ that girl?” He asked after giving her the blunt. “You still date her?”

Cassie puffed out some smoke before answering his question.

“Yeah man, she wants me to meet her parents this Friday.” She took another puff.

“Com lun,” Louie took the blunt back. “Do they know about your package?”

“No, I didn’t want her to tell them.” Louie took another puff. “She said she’ll tell them so that they have time to let them get used to the news.” She stopped at the red light and took the blunt from him.

“Wait, how do you get to go to her house if they didn’t know that you two were dating?”

“I’ve never been to the house when they where home,” She took a puff of the blunt, then blew smoke out. “Plus as far as they know, I’m just her good friend that comes over from time to time and leaves before they get home so that I can get to work.” She took another puff.

“So Friday you meet the Austs.” Louie concluded.

“Looks that way.” She took another puff then handed it back to him just as the light turned green.

--

There are many things that scare Cassie Herring, her car braking down, not having anything to eat when she catches the munchies, not being able to ever have sex again; or finding an unknown car parked in front of her house. So when Cassie got home and spotted a jet black car parked on the curb in front of her house, she slightly panicked. Louie had went home because he saw that his mom was home and had a lot of grocery bags in the trunk. Cassie picked up the tree brown bags of groceries after stuffing Jeremy’s video games in her pockets, then walked into the house.

Once inside the house she placed the bags on the counter next to her mom’s wallet that still remained there. She could see and hear her mom’s voice coming from the basement along with someone else’s, a man’s voice. She could hear her mom let out a frustrated sigh and then begin to talk.

“Look you really shouldn’t be here, Cassie’ll be home soon and I’m sure she doesn’t want to see you.” Who could her mom be talking to she wondered.

“Oh and you just happen to know what she wants without asking do you?” The man’s voice was deep and gruff like, a voice that Cassie rarely heard.

“Unlike you I’ve been there for our daughter.” Cassie froze at those words. “Due to that fact, I kind of know what she likes and doesn’t like, and your presence is one of them seeing as how it’s foreign to her.” They were coming closer to the kitchen, Cassie could see them and saw her mom carrying a case of soda pop.

“Mom I’m home.” Cassie called out deciding to play as if she had just got there and knew nothing of what was going on.

“Hey Cassie, how’s it going chipmunk?” Her father, Darren, asked using the nickname that her mom had given her.

“Don’t call me that.” Cassie sighed out. “What are you doing here anyways?”

Her mom placed the case of soda pop on the island counter top while she listened to her daughter and ex husband speak to each other.

“I came to see how you were doing.” He kept his sadistic smirk while he leaned against the counter.

“Bullshit.” the words Cassie spoke made Beth turn to face her.

“Cassie.” She scolded her daughter who just shrugged her shoulders.

“No it’s okay,” Darren held up his hands and slightly backed up. “One day she’ll change her tune when she needs someone to give her a loan.” Those were the words that made Cassie go into defensive mode, the fact that her father who has never been around her is saying that she’ll come crawling to him when she needs something, will piss he off in a minute.

“Whoa wait a minute.” She spoke. “I have not now nor will I ever ask your sorry ass for anything.” Beth turned and faced Cassie, she saw that her jaw was clenched and her right eye brow was arched an lifted, something that only happened when she was upset.

“Okay obviously I’m not welcome here.”

“After 17 years of being in and out of my life you finally get the hint?” She looked at him firmly. “Why don’t you go away and do what is you’ve done since I was born, ignore me, and forget that I exist; I’ve already done the same to you.”

“Okay,” He chuckles. “It’s easy done as it is said.”

Darren chuckled at his daughter before turning to leave the house. Beth watched as he left and as Cassie’s face twisted into a look of anguish.

“Cassi-”

“Mom I don’t wanna talk about it.” She began said and tossed her mom’s credit card on the counter and walked out the back door. Beth sighed as she watched her daughter walk at a brisk pace and out the back door, she hated it when these little encounters took place, it always disturbed the atmosphere in the house.

Once Cassie came out the back door she saw her kid brother sitting on the bottom stairs wearing his Halloween costume crying.

“Jer what’s wrong?” She sat next to him.

“Nothing.” He looked away from her.

“You don’t cry over nothing.” She stated. “What’s wrong, I thought you went trick or treating.”

“I did but the neighborhood kids took it.” Hearing this slightly upset Cassie even more, when Jeremy was born and she held him for the first time, she told him that he has one time to tell her that some kids were bothering him and she would kick their ass.

“Where was this?”

“The community park.” He pointed up the road.

“C’mon lets go.” She stood to her feet and started for the community park.

When Cassie and Jeremy reached the Community park, Jeremy pointed to a light skinned boy who had the small book bag Cassie let Jeremy use, she walked up to the kid surrounded by some other kids.

“Hey you.” The kid turned around. “You posses something that belongs to my kid brother, that bag.” She pointed to the small book bag.

“And that means what to me?” everyone grew quiet.

“Just gimme the damn bag.” She ordered.

“Or what, your gonna kick my ass?” His friends chuckled. “Just because you’re some star high school football player that means we’re supposed to freeze as soon as we see you?”

Cassie clenched her jaw and gently sighed.

“Just give my brother’s candy back.” Cassie said once again. The kid walked up to her, his pudgy face inches away from Cassie’s firm face.

“No.” He said. Cassie’s eyes narrowed into slits, she looked back to where Jeremy was, then she looked back to the kid, raising her right eyebrow.

--

Jeremy ran into the house and over to Beth who was cuddling on the couch with her husband Rick.

“Mom look.” He jumped onto the couch and opened his small book bag.

“Oh boy it looks like you got a lot of Candy.” Beth dug her hand into the bag, moving it through the sea of sweet teeth rotting candy.
“Yeah, I went to the second Neighborhood, it was great.” He smiled while opening a fun size candy bar.

“Well I’m glad you had fun.” Seeley ruffled his son’s hair. “What candies do you got.

While the two were talking Cassie slowly and quietly closed the back door. She slowly walked towards the living room, once she saw that her parents were distracted, she rushed up the stairs and to her room, unaware that her mom had seen her.

Cassie stood in her bedroom bathroom treating a cut that went from the top of her lip to the bottom of her lip. the kid had cut her good, but she still managed to knock him out and get the book bag back for her kid brother, that was all that mattered. She threw the cotton balls in the trash. She walked over to her desk and pulled the bag of weed she got from Louie, after rolling the blunt, locking her door and turning on the ceiling fan, she laid on her modern queen size bed.

She lights the blunt and takes a long puff, normally she went to Louie’s house, to the community park, or just drove around in her car, but today she didn’t feel like it. She just lay on her bed puffing in the weed, thinking about the encounter with her dad then about seeing Jeremy with mom and dad. She felt the familiar jealousy creep up her spine, she didn’t have the strength to shrug it off, dealing with her father took away her mental energy but fighting that pudgy light skinned kid took her physical energy, now all she could do was lay there and smoke a blunt while waiting for the day to be over.