Chapter 3
I woke up around 8:30. I picked up my phone, which blinded me when I turned it on to look at it. Three more messages. I sat the phone back down without thinking about those texts anymore and walked down towards the dining room. I smelled pizza, so that meant Jason didn’t have a chance to ruin any dinners this time. I always told Mom before she married him that men can’t cook. Apparently she ignored me, and as a result, we had no New Year’s Day dinner. I will never forgive him for that day.
I walked in and saw everyone sitting at the table eating Domino’s. Mom and Jason were on one side of the table, and Falon was on the other, chomping away at a pepperoni pizza. The dining room TV was on, and Mom and Jason were just sitting there staring at it. As if it wasn’t weird enough, Jason looked just as worse as he did this morning. Mom looked pretty messed up too, but at least she is a pro at applying that stuff she calls makeup. I sat down at the table next to Falon, who was completely focused on finishing that apparently marvelous pizza. When I reached over for a piece myself, I immediately caught a whiff of what smelled like rotten garbage with a cherry on top.
“Dude, what the heck is that smell?” My brain said to itself. If it was Jason, he really needed to do something about it. It was way stronger than what I witnessed this morning. I frowned, but immediately tried to pretend like I never noticed anything. I grabbed a piece of pizza from the box and ate in silence once again. I kept looking over at Falon, who was eating like she’d been homeless for four months. Mom must not have made her lunch after school. I knew she was sick, but if she got lazy and disabled, I was definitely signing her up for a senior citizen’s home. Speaking of which, it looked like she hadn’t done anything all day. The dishes from this morning were still in the sink. The table looked dirty, even the TV in the living room was still on and turned to the same channel I had it on this morning. Mom had been slacking. I looked over at her as she continued to stare blankly at the TV. Jason did the same. I studied them for a long time until finally I got bored and decided it was pretty much a waste of time. Falon had gone into the living room and was watching cartoons, so I got up and took our empty paper plates to the trashcan. I was going to go into the living room with Falon, but I wasn’t in the mood to watching some stupid cartoon on Cartoon Network. I walked up to my room and closed my door. I found my American History book and started working on the homework that was due last week.
When I finished, I put it in my backpack to make sure I wouldn’t forget it tomorrow. I lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Pure boredom had finally kicked in. I looked over to my dinosaur of a TV then started to feel my bed for the remote. I couldn’t find it.
“Oh well, it kills brain cells anyway.” I said trying to comfort myself. I really wanted to watch TV; my favorite show came on tonight and I couldn’t even TiVo it because Falon TiVo’d a stupid cartoon movie at the same time. I rolled over on my belly and pulled the sheets over me. For some reason, it was very cold in my room tonight. I relaxed and closed my eyes, listening to Falon come up the steps and into her room, then Mom and Jason. I heard groaning as they came past my room, as if every step they took was like being shot in the leg. I half paid attention to it as their noises faded down the hall and eventually quieted. All the quiet put me in a trance, and I was overcome by wondrous sleep.
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