Still Tough

Chapter 1

"Hey there, kiddo!" Dad called as I came in the back door, "How was your day?"

I looked at him. "Warren can be an ass," I sighed, "But I don't think I can beat him as badly as I want to. I'd probably feel bad after the fact."

"But during?"

"I'd be enjoying every minute I'm pretty sure."

He laughed, "Sometimes you just have to deal with it."

I sighed again, "Yeah I know. How was work?"

He grinned suspiciously, "It was an ordinary day." I was about to say something, but he held up his hand, "Do not ask me anything. Shoo to your room missy."

He only called me missy when something was up, and that freaked me up. I needed to hit something really bad. Instead, I buckled down and finished all my homework that was due both tomorrow and the next day. I unintentionally fell asleep on my bed with my copy of Brave New World covering my face.

I was awoken by my phone, which I had left on loud, blaring out Surfin' Bird by the Trashmen. I sat up quickly and pulled it out of my pocket.

"Hello?"

"Happy Birthday!" Warren yelled.

"Warren, why are you calling me? It's...oh is it really midnight?"

"I wanted to be first to say Happy Birthday first! You sound tired, were you asleep?"

I yawned, "Yeah, I fell asleep doing homework I guess. Damn, I didn't eat dinner yet. Okay Warren, thank you for the call, but I'm going to go eat something. I'll see you at school."

"Wait Kris! Don't move okay?!?" he said quickly.

"...Okay?" I was so lost.

 He hung up and I stayed put for about a minute, then got up to get food; my stomach was growling angrily at me. I was in a tank top and didn't realize how cold it was in the house until I had already gotten out the stuff to make a turkey and cheese sandwich. I shivered and after a short mental debate I decided to make the trip back to my room to grab a sweatshirt. I searched blindly on the floor for one until my hand touched the familiar cloth. As I slipped it on, I happened to absentmindedly look out my window and I saw a face peering in. I jumped and nearly screamed, but I recognized the face as Warren's.

"Warren?!?" I hissed and opened the wndow, "What are you doing here?!?"

"I came to make you food, duh," he snorted and climbed through the window, landing with a dull thud. I pressed a finger to my lips and pointed back at the window.

"You can leave, I can make my own food ya know."

"Yeah, but it's your birthday." Without another word he went into the kitchen and without much choice I followed him; I was hungry after all.

When he saw the stuff out on the counter he glanced back at me, "I thought I told you not to move."

I rolled my eyes, "Do you expect me to listen? I was hungry, I wanted food. How was I supposed to know what you were going to do when you told me not to move? Your just lucky I came back in my room to get a sweater or you would still be out there freezing your ass off while I happily munched on a sandwich. And please keep it down, my dad's still asleep."

He returned my eye roll, "That was a long winded monologue all for nothing."

I gritted my teeth, "Look dude, I don't really wanna hurt you on my birthday but I will if you keep this up."

He ignored me and looked into my fridge and then back at the food that was already out. He shut the fridge and just made me a  sanwich, just as I had planned to.  I ate it and he just watched. It was pretty good, I mean it was a sandwich, and when I tried to help clean up but he refused to let me. He put away everything and was going to to put the knife used to cut the cheese in the sink when he accidentally dropped it on the hard floor and it landed with a loud clang on the floor. I froze and looked back at the wide-eyed Warren who was also frozen. I heard the all too familiar creaking of the boards of Dad's floor. His door creaked open and I hit the floor as quick as I could, pulling Warren down with me, with me on top of him.