December

Three.

“Sorry I'm late.”

December's quiet apology was she as the first thing that she said when she sat next to Jenna an hour later at the football game. She had only missed the first five minutes of the game, but December was always a punctual person.

“You're fine,” Jenna said, giving December an easy smile. Jenna was a bit more of a – “mess” – than December was. She was a tad bit disorganized, and not really a stickler about time. Which is why she didn't mind that her friend was late.

But Jenna was looking at her with a curious eye.

“What?” December asked, raising her eyebrow at her friend, even though she already knew the answer. Jenna was suspicious. She knew something was up.

 “Something happened,” Jenna said.

 December felt her face heat up. One of the reasons she was so close to Jenna, was that Jenna could read her better than anybody.

“N-no,” She stammered, a bad habit when she was lying.

Jenna's eyes light up, December's bad lying only an affirmation that something had indeed happened. A grin crept up onto Jenna's face.

“Something did happen,” Jenna said. “Was it that Kaiden kid?”

A warm blush slid over December's face. Her best friend was the only person who could make her feel like they could see through her head. Well, her and Kaiden. Unable to deny it any longer, December nodded.

“I ran into him in the park,” She explained.

That wasn't the entire truth. December had suspected that Kaiden had known where she was – by the thoughts of others – and sought her out. But she couldn't really explain that to Jenna. There had been times where she had wanted to tell her friend about her gift, but she wasn't sure if Jenna would believe her.

“What happened?” Jenna asked, the game all but forgotten. Washington High School's football team was a powerhouse anyway. There was no doubt that they'd win.

“I was painting,” December began, taking a deep breath as she tried to pick parts of the conversation that she could piece together so that it made sense to Jenna with out telling her everything. “He – uh, he kind of scared me. Made me mess up the painting. He fixed it, and we just started talking.”

December told of the conversations they'd had, about where he had came from, what his parents did, etc. Jenna was happy for her friend – she expressed it with her mind and was about to express it with her words when Washington High School caught an interception.

The pair of girls, along with the rest of the crowd, jumped up in cheers as the player started down the field with the ball he had snatched out of the air. December had always liked football, but found it hard to go to the games with the hundreds of people there.

But her conversation with Jenna had caused a good enough distraction.

“Amway,” Jenna said a few minutes later as they sat back down. The quarterback had ran all the way down the field, scoring after the interception. “I'm happy you met him.”

“Yeah?” December asked, prompting her friend to go on.

“I like him for you.”

She laughed.

“We're jumping the gun a little bit,” December said. “I've just met him.”

The two's conversation went quiet for a while, with Jenna concentrating on the game and December trying to. There were so many thoughts swirling around her, she did her best not to seem distracted. But Jenna knew better.

“Are you alright?” She asked.

“Yeah,” December answered. It wasn't a lie. “I'm just tired.”

That part was a lie. But she couldn't explain what was really going on.

The rest of the game went by just fine. December didn't have to worry about Cori or any of her minions trying to ruin her night, because they were all prancing around in their little cheerleading outfits on the track in front of the football field.

When the game was over, with their team having won 52-27, December and Jenna got up and started on the way to their cars. December said goodbye to her friend and slipped into her Jeep. When she arrived home, she suddenly wish the game had lasted longer.

On a rare occasion, both of her parents were home. And they were fighting. It didn't surprise December. They got pretty pissy with each other when they weren't being work aholics.

She slipped into the house unnoticed, but that didn't surprise her. Unless she was in some kind of trouble (which was rare) her parents hardly batted an eye at her. Sometimes, that got under her skin but tonight, December was glad that they weren't paying attention to her.

She didn't really want to talk to them when they were like this.

December went into her room, wishing she had something to drown out their voices – and their thoughts. She thought of putting on some music, but that wouldn't block out what they were thinking. And those isolated thoughts from her angry parents wasn't something that she really wanted to focus on.

First, she tried to take a long bath to get her mind off of what was going on. But her parents voices carried past her room and into her adjacent bathroom. She squeezed her eyes shut, sinking deeper into the water.

“Can I get any peace?” She whispered to herself.

And while she listened to everybody all the time – whether she wanted to or not – she rarely had her voice heard.

When December realized the hot bath wouldn't relax her, she got out and got dressed in pajama shorts and a tank top. She dried her dark brown hair and brushed it out as her parents argument continued. They were well past spewing hurtful words at each other.

December sat in front of her bookshelf that was under her television and pulled out all of the books, intent on organizing them. Maybe that would distract her.

“Damn it, Charlotte! You can't have everything your fucking way.”

The anxiety around December's chest tightened, and she tried to concentrate on putting the books in perfect alphabetical order. She took in a deep breath, wishing her parents would shut up.

“Of course, Dave! Because it's all about you!”

“Fuck you!”

Hot tears stung her eyes as she swept her hand across the bookshelf, knocking off the books she had put on there so far. She needed to re do them.

After what seemed like an eternity, her parents finally shut up. Her mom stayed in their room, crying and her father went into his home office to work.

Now that their words were quieted, their thoughts were louder.

And just as she predicted, their uncensored thoughts were even harsher than their rude words to each other. December didn't know how two people who loved each other so much could say and think such mean things to one another.

She knew that her parents loved each other. She could see it in their thoughts. But sometimes, they were just so damn dysfunctional.

December crawled into bed, tying her hair into a braid as the TV illuminated the room just enough for her to do so. After she was done, she switched it off and reached over to turn on her stereo. Her iPhone was plugged into it, a play list of Taylor Swift songs that would hopefully lull her to sleep.

Her parents were finally asleep, their thoughts on  until hiatus until morning. She was thankful for that, for she had known that she wouldn't be able to go to sleep until both her mother and her father had gone to bed.

It was past one when December finally fell into a fitful sleep.