Goodnight Moon

16- I'm Done Trying

Going home the next morning is the most excruciating thing that I’ve done since saying goodbye to Adan when he left for the military. I was exhausted, only working on about forty-five minutes of sleep, and I was sore from sitting in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs for hours on end while they were in the back working on Max. The vets told me that they need to pump his stomach but after that, he should be okay. I can’t bring him home until tomorrow though, just to make sure that he responds well to the aspirin-like medication they gave him. Also, I’m pretty sure that Lake will be at my house along with an incredibly large mess that he won’t clean up because he rarely ever cleans up after himself, let alone hundreds of people.

There are no more cars parked around the house, which I’m relieved about because I don’t like having to park forever away from my house. I park in the garage like I usually do and appreciate the fact that the outside of the house actually looks pretty decent. When I walk into the house though, I realize that it looks like Kesha just threw up all over the whole first level. There’s glitter, cups, pillows, and a bunch of other stuff strewn around the room without a care. Anything that wasn’t anchored to its place is now misplaced. Just what I expected would happen if I ever had a party here.

I’ll call the maid service later but right now, I need to sleep. I take a few steps towards the stairs when I see Lake coming down them, probably to greet me at the door because he heard me walking in. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to deal with him right now and I’m very disappointed to be seeing his face right now.

“Where have you been?” He demands. “You scared the shit out of me, just disappearing like that. I was looking for you almost all night.”

I ignore him because I’m so freaking exhausted and I just go past him, walking up the stairs and careful not to step on any of the trash that’s carelessly thrown all over them. Lake calls my name a few times from behind me but I ignore it all and go into my room, locking the door behind me before plopping down on my bed and I’m passed out in a matter of moments.

When I wake up again, I don’t feel much better than I did before because I have so much to take care of and I feel so incredibly overwhelmed by it all.

The first thing that I have to do is change out of these clothes because I smell like an animal hospital which is depressing so I get dressed in an oversized sweater and some yoga shorts before padding my way downstairs into the kitchen to eat, which is the second thing on my to do list.

While my waffles are in the toaster, my third to-do list item is to call my dad because I have a few missed calls from him- probably about the police issue. With a loud groan, I dial his number and put it to my ear, hoping and praying that he’s in a meeting or something right now so that he can’t actually answer the phone.

“Ariel Brooks,” He greets me over the phone and I know that when he says my name like that, I’m in serious trouble.

“I’m so sorry, Daddy,” I breathe, deciding to just cut to the chase. “It wasn’t my fault, I swear.”

“How was this not your fault?” He demands. “Are you saying that Adan threw a huge and illegal party at the house from Afghanistan? Because you’re the only two other people that live at the house and I know that I didn’t throw a party for teenagers at the house from here in Japan.”

“No,” I mutter. “I was trying to help out this guy. He’s having some bad family issues so I let him stay here for a little bit- it was totally innocent, I swear, I just gave him one of the guest bedrooms- but he threw this stupid party behind my back. I told him not to do it, but he did it anyway. I was the one who called the cops. I’m so sorry. He’s such a terrible person. I knew that but I still let him stay here.”