Free Falling

I got home to see my sister playing Mario Brothers on our Wii. "You beat that game yet?" I asked. Walking into the dining room putting down my purse and water bottle. Then walked back into the living room to see her battling Bowser.

"Just did," she replied sitting up, looking at me as Bowser flew all over the screen.

"Now I need to get you a new game," I looked at her annoyed. Then glanced towards our dog, Spot, lying on her bed in the middle of the floor as my sister turned off the TV waking her up. Spot is a Blue Heeler mixed with a bit of Red Heeler, the result? A dog that looked like a coyote when running through tall grass. She was an amazing cow dog, and then my family moved into town and her health went downhill. She was now our blind, deaf dog with arthritis and now permanently took up residence in our living room.

"What kind of game do you want?" My sister shrugged her shoulders, making me roll my eyes. "Do you know anything?" I asked, smirking as my sister shrugged once more.

"Mom's home," I said, upon hearing her hybrid car pull into the driveway, making me look out the front window. My sister ran upstairs to “read a book”, so she wouldn't have to take the dog out when mom walked in. Sighing, I moved the chair that blocked Spot into the living room, and picked her up to take her outside.

"Taking the dog out," I said, as I heard the back door opening along with the shriek of my little girl, Hazel, I smiled. I closed the door to the front and walked down the steps to let Spot do her business. looking up briefly I saw a greyhound bus drive by, not thinking anything of it. Even though we were a small community we still had buses driving through every once and a while. Granted they didn't always use the street I lived on, but it happened since I lived near one of the two highways.

After Spot did her business, I carried her back in the house to see my mom on the floor playing with Hazel. "Hey, Baby Girl," I said, as I sat the dog on the floor while hearing her shriek happily upon seeing me with the dog. "Did Mommy have the doggy?" I asked her, while going to wash my hands.

I came back into the dining room and my mom handed me Hazel who I took and got her supper ready. Soon Hazel was eating up the hot dog I made for her, making a mess along the way. After supper Hazel, my sister, and myself went for our daily walk. Which took us all the way to a park that everyone called Cheese Park, because all of the towers had "cheese" roofs. As we walked around the park I saw roughly five guys under the shelter laughing and drinking beer. I shivered a little as one of them got up and started walking towards us. "Beeilen Sie sich, kleines Mädchen," (Hurry up, little girl) I whispered towards my sister, making her speed up slightly. We rounded the baseball diamond that was near the park and headed back home.

Glancing behind us, I noticed the guy had stopped following us a little while back. I kept getting weird feelings all the way home, making me nervous. "Quit fiddling with your fingers, it's annoying," my sister hissed at me, as we passed a couple of people walking towards the park and the pool.

"Sorry," I sighed, attempting to relax. I let my hands fall to my sides. We got home almost too soon for me, I wanted to keep walking around, because it was nice out. Maybe I could just go to the farm later and stretch I thought to myself, rolling my shoulders. I heard Hazel shriek in joy when she saw my dad sitting on the porch reading one of his Men's Health magazines. "Anything interesting?" I asked, picking Hazel out of the stroller, letting my sister carry it onto the porch.

Dad showed me the front cover to see Taylor Lautner on the front, "Think I'll ever look like him?" my dad joked as he patted his beer belly.

"Well, you never know," I laughed, walking into the house.

After I put Hazel to bed, I heard a knock at the door, then two girls walked into the living room. I gave a half smile, “Band night already?”

“You know it,” one of my best friends, Karla, smiled, strolling to the fridge looking for food. My other friend, Alexandra, preferably known as Alex, rolled her eyes.

I took the PS3 that was handed to me and hooked it up to the TV and got the Rock Band game started. “Who’s files should we hack today?” I asked as Karla returned to the room.

Alex shrugged, as Karla suggested Avenged Sevenfold. I hovered my hand over the PS3, the screen flashed with names of bands and songs. I kept it there until it landed on Avenged Sevenfold archives of unreleased songs. “Do Hail to the King” Alex suggested, after briefly looking through the playlist. Again, I hovered my hand over the PS3 until Hail to the King popped up on the screen in Rock Band format.

Within seconds, we started playing the song, Karla on guitar, Alex on drums, and myself as lead singer. After we had gone through a couple songs, the doorbell rang. “Expecting someone?” Karla teased, as I ran to get the door, praying it hadn’t woken Hazel up.

“You wish,” I teased back as I opened the door. I stopped short, as I registered who stood at the front door. “Can I help you?” I asked, keeping the door cracked. Glancing towards the end of the porch to see four other men standing to the side.

“I’m looking for a Lorie Harwood,” the man replied, nervously.

I blinked a couple times, as Alex and Karla waited for me to come back. I opened the door wider and walked onto the porch. “Lorie Harwood?” I asked, the man. Now that I was closer I recognized the man almost instantly. It was M. Shadows from the band Avenged Sevenfold. Glancing over at the four other men I recognized the rest of the band. Especially Karla’s heart throb, Johnny Christ.

“Y-Yes. Her mom said that she lived at this address,” M. Shadows continued, stammering.

I looked at him again, completely at a loss. “Lorie Harwood’s mom,” I stated back, trying to wrap my head around the information I was receiving. M. Shadows nodded his head, confirming what I said. “You saw Lorie Harwood’s mom, Betty Harwood, and found out Lorie Harwood lives here.” I said again. “H-Hang on,” I turned and ran back into the house, and up the stairs to grab my mom.

“Ann, is that you?” my mom called from her room. I walked in the room to see her laying down, reading her nook. She glanced up, then looked back to her nook. “What’s the matter?”

“There’s a man on the porch, looking for you.” I replied. “What do you want me to do?”

My mom looked at me confused. “What man?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, starting to get frustrated. “He said he was looking for Lorie Harwood, and that he had talked to her mom, Betty Harwood, and found out she lived here. So there’s a man standing on the porch looking for you.”

My mom shot up into a sitting position, and swung her legs to the floor. “Tell him I’ll be down there in a couple minutes. Invite him in,”

“Uh…sure,” I replied, still not connecting the pieces together. I went back down the stairs to see that Avenged Sevenfold were sitting on the couches. Then looked towards Karla who was sitting dangerously close to Johnny. “Not even going to ask,” I muttered, as I walked into the room. “She said she’d be down in a couple minutes,” I turned towards M. Shadows, to see him nod his head. His eyes looked over me, making me feel nervous.

“Come on,” I heard Alex whine. “Let’s do another song,”

I glanced over at Karla to see that she hadn’t heard Alex. “Karla,” I tried to call to her, only to have her ignore me. “Karla,” I tried again. “Karla get away from Johnny!” I raised my voice, making her look towards me, as my mom walked into the room.

My mom looked at all the men in the room, before her gaze rested on M. Shadows. “Matt?” she asked, making Karla give me a “What is going on?” look.

“Lorie,” Matt stood up. “You’re still looking good.”

I shook my head, still trying to understand, "wait, wait.” I interjected. “How does Miss Goody Two Shoes, know M. Shadows?”

My mom looked at me with a serious look, “How do you know him?”

“Karla,” I pointed at her, as she sat on the couch with a big smile. “Are you surprised?” I finished sarcastically. I heard a couple of the guys give quite cough-laughs.

My mom gave me a disappointing glare, then turned back to Matt. “Why are you here?”

“I needed to talk to you,” Matt took a couple steps closer to her. Mom glanced at me, then back at Matt. “Come in the dining room.” Matt did as he was told, then mom closed the pocket door, closing them into the room.

“The fuck was that about?” I muttered, plopping down near Brian.

“Let’s do another song,” Alex tried to get our attention once more.

“I want to know what’s going on,” I growled, receiving mixed thought patterns coming from the dining room. After a couple minutes of hearing a heated debate from the dining room. The pocket door opened again, to reveal my mom and Matt.

“So?” I asked what everyone else was thinking. Well everyone except Jimmy, his thoughts seem to be jumping everywhere at once. “Mind explaining?”

Mom closed her eyes for a second as she took a deep calming breath, then opened her eyes to look at me. “Ann, this is your father.”