Fear

Everyone! Listen up!”, someone yelled. Everyone looked up from whatever they were doing to see who was yelling. It was a girl named Emily. “We’re having a party tomorrow! It starts at 8 PM! I’ve sent the address and more information in our class chat!”, she walked back to her desk.

“Are we going?”, Zin asked.

“Of course we are!”, Alex said as loud as she could while still whispering.

“Don’t do anything stupid though”, Willow whispered.

“When have I done anything stupid on a party?”, Alex whispered back. “We don’t go to parties”

“Point taken”, Willow closed the book they were reading before. “But you never know what you will do”

The bell rang and everyone walked out of the classroom.

”This was our last class, right?”, Zin asked.

“Mm”, Alex nodded. She was eating a granola bar that had probably been lying at the bottom of her bag for three weeks.

“It’s Saturday tomorrow”, Willow said to themselves.

“Yes it is, big brain”, Alex said mockingly.

Willow rolled their eyes. “Yes, but that means that we don’t have any school”.

They walked down the corridor in silence.

“We’re going to me and Alex?”, Willow broke the silence.

“Yea”, Zin answered.

They had been friends for a little more than four years and they had never gone home to Zin. She did have a reasonable explanation though; her dad was an alcoholic and you didn’t know what mood he was in. Her mom was rarely home. She worked a lot and then went to parties and things like that every night.

Alex and Willow had seen Zin’s mom once or twice when she was walking home from work.

They usually did the same things every time they were together after school. They talked about dragons and other mythical creatures, ate something and played bad music. That was exactly what they did today too. Zin knew a lot of interesting facts about mythical creatures.

“Y’know.. is the party really a good idea?”, Zin said anxiously.

“Of course it is! It’s a

goodbye party

”, said Alex loudly

“How’d you know that?”, questioned Willow.

“‘Cause it said so in the the message. Y’know, the class chat”, said Alex.

“Oh-“, Willow was cut off by Zin saying “I have a bad feeling about it. And you know that when I have a bad feeling it often doesn’t go that well”.

“Yes I know, but it’s a goodbye party”, Alex insisted. She was very stubborn.

“Okay, okay”, Zin sighed. “But if something goes wrong don’t say I didn’t warn you!”, she pointed at the other two.

“Of course, love”, Alex said in a mocking voice and kissed Zin on the cheek.

“Stoop it”, Zin laughed and hugged the other girl. “You sound like a mom in one of those really cringe family shows”, everyone laughed.

After a while of laughing they all started talking about the, very few, times they’ve been to a party.

Once when Alex and Willow were about 14 they went to a party-family dinner/reunion thing. Long story short: it didn’t end well (has any family reunion ever ended well?). Their uncle had stated that “gay people are mentally ill and should be in hospitals”. Some people on their mom’s side had agreed with the uncle (who was also from mom’s side). And as if this wasn’t bad enough, Alex was already out as a lesbian at that point.

Alex had said that she wasn’t mentally ill and didn’t need to be in a hospital for that matter either. She didn’t realize what she said until it was too late. Neither Alex nor Willow remembered what happened after because their mom took them to their room so their uncle wouldn’t “beat them to the ground” as he put it. The only thing they remembered was a lot of screaming and banging and their mom apologizing for her brother’s behavior after everyone left.

The reunion ended with the uncle and the people who agreed with him getting kicked out and the other’s only staying there for a max 45 minutes.

“We haven’t seen that side of the family since”, Alex laughed.

“I think they haven’t talked to us since then”, Willow said quietly. They had told Zin about the story after it happened but that was 2.5 years ago so she hadn’t heard it in a while.

“Sounds like one great uncle”, Zin said. Everyone sat quietly for a few moments before Alex broke the silence. “Anyone hungry? We have some leftover potato soup”.

“Sure”, Zin stood up.

The other two followed Zin down the stairs to the little kitchen. Zin knew their house like it was her own.

|~<0>~|

“I should go home”, Zin said. “Mom probably wants me home”.

“It’s Friday”, Alex put another chip in her mouth. “Your mom’s probably at a party and your dad… well”, she cocked her head to the side.

“Drunk”, Zin sighed. “It’s nice to spend the night with my best friend’s”, Alex looked at her. “And girlfriend”, Zin added, Alex smiled. “But I’m tired of not being able to sleep at home every Friday”.

“I understand”, Willow said with a warm smile. Willow was always very nice. Always had a warm smile. Or not always but often. Someone could come up and punch them in the face and they would still talk in a very nice and soft tone to them. Whilst if someone was brave enough to punch Alex in the face they would end up with broken bones. The person who punched Willow would also have ended up with broken bones if Zin wouldn’t hold Alex back.

“We still have the couch set up from last Sunday”, Willow said.

“I guess I don’t have a choice”, Zin shrugged. “Or, I do but I don’t feel like being beaten by my father tonight”.