Dear, Dear diary....

Diary Entry 3

July 12th 2011: 1st August 2009

Dear, dear diary! Oh what to say?!

For JJ and I, the holidays were not our favourite and especially not the summer break as they were around 3 months long.  We'd never been allowed to go to any kind of camp like some of our friends, which we never really understood as he always acted like he didn't want us around, so thought he'd love the idea of getting rid of us for a month or so.  But in reality he would never have spent that kind of money on us, he resented sending us on school trips if it cost money and he'd have never wanted us away from home for that long.  Nope! He wanted us nice and close to home where he could 'keep an eye on us,' as he liked to tell people and remind us regularly.

We'd never had a family vacation, the most we'd experienced as a family vacation was when we visited our father's parents once a year at Christmas and this was not a vacation that JJ and I looked forward to, ever.  It was just a home away from home but in the middle of nowhere surrounded by tree and a lake, which if it wasn't for the company may have been a lovely get away.  The Christmas' we spent at home when our father had to work were the only times we actually wanted to be at home as it was better than being stuck at our Grandparents for a long few days.

Our school breaks mostly consisted of JJ and I trying to find somewhere to be other than at home and although we had some great friends, such as Trey and Lincoln, who's parents never seemed to mind how much time we spent at theirs, day or night, but they did go on vacations and summer camps, which meant JJ and I had less places to go during the holidays.

However by the start of August most of our friends were back from vacations and summer camps and this was celebrated a lot through house parties our friends threw while their parents went on short breaks together or were away working for a few days which is what I remember about this particular day.

JJ and I had been at our friend's houses for most of the day, arranging to meet back at home late afternoon so that we could make dinner for when our father finished his shift.  I'd got back slightly earlier than he had and as no-one was in I grabbed a drink and sat in the living room to watch television.  I wasn't watching anything particularly interesting when JJ arrived home about half an hour later.

"Alright, you had a good day?" I asked him as I heard him come through the front door and head into the kitchen.

"Yeh, not bad, you?" He called back to me.

"Was alright, did you get the message about the party at Gemma's tonight?" I asked him as he walked into the front room and sat down in one of the arm chairs.

He nodded as he took a sip of his apple juice.  "Yeh, think everyone in town got it," he laughed a little as he looked at his phone to see of there were any messages from his friends about the party.

"You know what she's like, it's all go big or go home," I smiled and checked my phone too.

"Least it'll be a good party," he commented.

"Did you want to..." but I was cut short as we suddenly heard our father's truck swing into the drive.

"Shit!" I said in a panic and looked at my phone to see the time.  "Has he not been at work?" I whispered, the question more to myself than JJ, seeing that it was barely five so no where near time to be home if he was on an early shift.

"Guess not, he's in his truck," he said, having got up and peaked out of the window to take a look.

"C'mon," I said and grabbed our things from the table as we both headed for the stairs.

We'd just made it to the landing when we heard the front door open and as it slammed shut we both jumped and I stopped peering down the stairs to see if I could see him.