Louie.

It was noon when I finally decided that I had enough of starring at the cold blue walls in my room. My stomach was grumbling and my lips were chapped; my body was longing for nutrients.

When I entered the hallway I saw everyone else in their own rooms. Rockwell was painting Lorraine’s toenails while they gossiped. Lizbeth was on her phone in her room while Beatrice played Legos with Louie on the floor.

My father’s room was closed. He was at work but Beth was sick in bed.

I headed downstairs into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to figure out what I would make myself. My stomach growled at the sight of processed cheese slices, so I settled for a grilled cheese sandwich.

I was too hungry and decided I would wash the pan after I ate my food. I began walking to the couch in the living room but I was cut off by Lizbeth bounding down the stairs. Beatrice and Louie were behind her, with Lorraine was beginning to slowly step down because she was helping Rockwell.

“Oh my god! Ben that smells so good! Lorraine you're making us grilled cheeses!” Lisbeth exclaimed, smacking some gum in her mouth. She scurried over to one of the arm chairs and continued to text on her phone.

“Yeah! Yeah! Grilled cheeses and juice, Rainy,” Louie cheered, holding a Lego spaceship in his hand. He ran over to the coffee table and sat down on the floor. Beatrice gave me a small smile before following her younger brother.

“I’ll heat up tomato soup,” Rockwell promised when they finally reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Okay, can you heat up one for my mom too?” Lorraine asked and he nodded his head.

Lorraine ignored me and quickly set to work but Rockwell was stayed behind.. He paused for a moment and looked at me.

I was stuck in between both rooms, unable to walk past the stairs because of the herd that cut me off. I had a water bottle in one hand, and my grilled cheese in the other.

“Hey Ben.” His spoke softly, his green eyes staring into me for a moment. I felt my heart skip a beat, but he moved into the kitchen before I could respond.

I let go of my breathe, that I didn’t even know I was holding and sat on the couch. I looked at the other three people in the room, each in their own world and most likely not seeing what had happened.

I turned on the television and settled on watching The Avengers.

Despite my best efforts to pay attention, the conversation between Lorraine and Rockwell was all I could focus on.

“How do you even know them?” Rockwell asked.

“They go to our school, and they just started talking to me over Instagram. They don’t seem like a bad crowd. They invited me to their party, but I only said I’d go if I could take a friend. You’re not going to let me go by myself are you?”

“Well. . . no. . . but. . . it just seems really sketchy, Lorraine.”

“Jesus Rockwell, live a little okay? We’ll go and check it out and if you don’t like it, we’ll leave. Megan is going, she said she’d give us a ride home,” she reassured him.

~~

But Rockwell was right, going to the party hadn’t been a good idea. That was the first thought that popped into my head when Beth woke me up in the middle of the night. She was wearing pajamas and wrapped up in her robe, her hair in a messy bun on top of her head. Despite the room's darkness, I knew she was sick, and that her faint aging lines were probably more prominent.

Beth coughed into her arm, a set of car keys and smart phone in one hand.

“Your sister just called and asked if I could pick her up from her friend Megan’s house, but I’m horribly sick and I don’t want your dad to lose sleep, can you go pick her up?” She asked, extremely congested.

I managed to choke out a groggy yes.

“Okay, this is my phone, I just washed my hands and I wiped it down so you won’t get sick. Lorraine said she would text the address, so you just have to Google Map it. Please drive safe, Ben.”

I threw off my blankets and began to rummage through my drawer for socks. I had a pair of sweatpants on and a simple cotton shirt, so I didn’t bother with changing them.

“Yeah, don’t worry, just get some sleep, I got it,” I reassured her, pulling on a sweater and slipping into Vans. I took the phone and car keys from her and followed her out of my room, she made her way back down the hall and I rushed downstairs and out the front door.

The cold air of the night woke me up, and adrenaline began to kick in. I became anxious as I started the car and turned on the heater. I reached for the phone, mentally thanking Beth for taking off her lock screen. I pulled up her messaging app but there was no address from Lorraine. I didn’t feel like waiting so I decided to just call Lorraine.

My stomach drop at when I realized what was happening at the other end of the phone. I faintly hear music playing in the background and the sound of someone crying. I quickly assumed that it was Lorraine crying because I could also hear Rockwell asking for the phone.

“Hello?” he asked, his voice louder, close to the speaker.

“Hey, it’s Ben, what’s the address?”

“I’ll text it to you right now,” he said and hung up.

I felt super uneasy, even when after I finally got the address and began to drive. Beth didn’t sound very worried when she was in my room, just a slightly annoyed and sick. Lorraine probably did manage to call her and keep her cool but now she was. . . crying? Rockwell seemed pretty panicked too.

I didn’t like it.

My anxiety only escalated when I found myself in front of a two story house that was blasting music. A couple people were sitting on the porch, smoking cigarettes.

Oh yeah, Lorraine was stupid for coming here.

I stuffed my hands in my pockets and tried to keep my cool, nodding at the guys on the porch when they greeted me. The music only got louder when I entered the house.

The furniture was pushed against the wall, a few people drinking out of red plastic cups. Some were dancing in the middle of the room and there were couples making out on the couches. It was obvious some people were drunk and that the room smelled like weed.

This was a stupid decision.

I wasn’t sure where I should start looking for Rockwell and Lorraine, the music seemed muffled when I spoke with Rockwell on the phone but I didn’t want to venture upstairs.

My eyes were drawn to a couple near the stairs, the guy was struggling to open a closet under the stairs but the door was giving him trouble. I slowly made my over, hoping that I could find who I was looking for. My suspicion were verified when I saw the door open enough for me to see the sleeve of an ugly hipster sweater. The couple ended up heading up stairs instead..

I knocked on the closet door.
It flew open.

“I swear to God, get a fucking ro-- Ben?” Rockwell was sitting on the floor, with Lorraine sitting in front of him, her head in her hands.

“Just get her first and come back for me” He commanded, pulling at her arms so she would stand up. My arm wrapped protectively around her shoulder. I could feel Lorraine shaking, she was crying.

“Don’t tell me anything! I know this was stupid, okay!” She yelled when she opened one of the back doors of the car. I kept silent and closed the door once she was buckled in.

I walked back into the house.

I was not prepared to see now crying Rockwell sitting on the floor of the closet. He was leaning his weight on one hand while the other rubbed his upper thigh of the leg that was in a cast. He whipped his head up at me, and that was when I realized that he had a black eye and a scrape above the same eye’s brow. His arms reached out to me and I quickly leaned down and wrapped my arms around his torso and hoisted him to his feet.

“I’m sorry” he whimpered when he stumbled into me.

“Don’t worry about it” I said, my arm pulling him closer to me.

Rockwell did not sit in the back with Lorraine, instead he sat in the passenger seat..

Both of them stopped crying on the way home. I could hear them sniffling, sometimes at the same time. When I pulled into the driveway and turned of the car, it became silent.

“Rockwell . . .” Lorraine began.

“Just shut up. Don’t talk to me, I’m mad you” he interrupted her. I could hear the venom in his voice.

Everyone else in the house was asleep. Lorraine ran up to her room as soon as I opened the front door. I heard her door slam shut.

I helped Rockwell get up the stairs and into my room.

“There’s single use ice-packs in the first aid kit in the bathroom,” he said. I got one for him and started it. I helped him prop one of my pillows under his cast-covered leg. I took out the spare blanket I had in one of drawers and made sure he was comfortable before I laid in my bed next to him.

My bed wasn’t made for two people, so us being squished together was inevitable. I settled for laying on my side, so my legs took up less space and he didn’t have to move his injured one.

“Thank you, Ben.”

“Your welcome.”