Outer Space

Chapter 4 - Back to School

    "Leave me alone." Jemma groaned at the annoying figure towering above her and poking her side repeatedly. But the second she was awake enough to register the finger that was attacking her side she was also awake enough to register that she was about to barf. Getting up and off of what she now realized was a couch she ran as fast as she could to the bathroom. But with her current state of hungover, she had no idea where she was.

    Thankfully a voice from behind her directed her in the right direction and she was able to lean over the toilet just in time for her guts to practically spill out of her mouth. The same voice followed her into the bathroom and grabbed her hair, taking it out of the line of fire of her barf.

    "Charlie?" Jemma asked the person holding her hair back in a weakened voice. She might still be a little tipsy.

    "Who else would it be loser?" Charlie responded in a whisper like voice as she gathered Jemma's hair into a ponytail.

    "Too loud," Jemma said, referring to Charlie's voice. "What happened last night?"

    "We can talk about that later, but you have to get up and get to school." Charlie was being weird. For one she has never cared about Jemma going to school and two, she never woke Jemma up on mornings like this because she said she hated it when people woke her up.

    "What?" Jemma was nowhere near okay enough to attend school. "Why?"

    "Because you're a kid and kids are supposed to go to school. Kids are supposed to have people that force them to go to school. And starting today, I'm going to be that person for you." Charlie stated as Jemma slowly shifted her head to look at the crazy woman behind her.

    "You had to pick today," Jemma said groggily as she took in Charlie's facial expressions and realized that she was being completely serious. "Whyyy?" Jemma asked turning her head back around and resting her forehead on the toilet seat.

    Charlie knew that Jemma didn't remember. She didn't remember what she had spilled last night and she was probably too distracted at that moment to even remember why she wanted to get drunk in the first place. But Charlie realized she was wrong about the latter as she watched Jemma's facial expression slowly morph. It looked as if she was confused about something, then she was angry, but in the end, she just looked sad, like she was in pure agony.

    Looking up at Charlie's face, Jemma noticed that she was watching her and she could tell that whatever she had said last night was enough to earn that pitying expression that was currently etched into Charlie's face. Deciding that she would prefer being around people that had no idea what was currently going on in her life, Jemma stood up. She walked slowly toward the kitchen, noticing a fresh glass of water and the Advil bottle sitting and waiting for her on the counter.

    "Thanks." She said simply downing the glass of water and two Advil. "Do you have sunglasses I can borrow?" Jemma asked and without answering Charlie walked into her bedroom and came back out holding a pair of sunglasses. She still had the pity look that Jemma hated on her face.

    As Jemma took the sunglasses from Charlie's hands she quickly looked around the apartment to see if she was forgetting anything. But she soon recalled that she walked out of her apartment last night with nothing in hand. Sighing, she waved goodbye. Not bothering to say anything as she walked out the door because when she glanced at the clock she noticed that she had already missed half of first period. And, in her opinion, it's harder to avoid getting in trouble going into school late than it is sneaking out of it early.

    Once she reached the front door of the apartment building and was able to breathe in the fresh air, she felt like she was about to throw up again. The fresh air in the city is not very fresh. Jemma came to the conclusion that she would be better off going home first, because of the fact that her clothes looked completely disheveled and also because she needed coffee.

..........

    As Jemma took out her key to unlock the front door of her apartment she prayed that he wasn't home. She really couldn't deal with him on top of everything else she had going on at the moment. But she wasn't so lucky as she stumbled into the apartment smelling the distinct odor of fish. He was a fisherman, so sometimes he would disappear for a while when he was on a long trip, Jemma lived for those days when he would just disappear.

    "Hey." She mumbled looking down as she walked in seeing him sitting at the kitchen counter. Just get your shit and get out, she repeated to herself in her head. She didn't stop to exchange pleasantries. She just continued on to the door that held her room behind it.

    "Woah!" He said standing up and grabbing her arm, pulling her back to face him. She just held her head down, not taking her eyes off of the vomit-inducing carpet that covered the ground. "Where have you been?" His grip steadily became harder and more powerful on her arm.

    "I slept over a friend's, I have to get ready for school." She mumbled still not daring to make eye contact.

    "Go then." He said pushing Jemma towards her room as he let go of his grip on her arm. "We can talk about you not telling me where you were when you get home. Don't be late tonight." Jemma wasn't surprised he was letting her off the hook for now. She figured that he was probably too tired to do anything. He looked like he hadn't slept in days. And he probably hasn't, seeing as though he hasn't been home for over three days.

    She got ready as fast as she could, throwing on a pair of ripped jeans and an old worn-out t-shirt. Then grabbing a sweatshirt knowing that she would probably get cold later. She also grabbed the bottle of Advil that was stashed under her bed, knowing that she would definitely need to take more of that later in the day because of the killer headache that she was rocking. She didn't bother to put on too much makeup seeing as the bruise on her cheek was almost cleared up.

     She walked out of her room and back into the kitchen grabbing a to-go cup for her coffee and filling it to the brim. Noticing that her phone was still on the counter from the previous night she grabbed it to turn it on, but she quickly realized that it was very much dead. She threw it back on the counter as she began to walk to the front door.

    She saw him passed out on the couch and as she grabbed the door and exited the apartment she whispered to herself, "see you later dad."

..........

    When Jemma got to school, she wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it certainly was not this. It started out normal. She arrived and went to get a pass so that she could just go to class and get the stupid day over with, but the second she told the secretary her name she noticed something was off.

    "Go straight into Mrs. Jacobs's office please." The secretary said without even bothering to write Jemma the pass that she came to get.

    Mrs. Jacobs just happened to be the vice-principal, also known as Emmie's mother. Wait, Emmie. Shit. Emmie. She was supposed to go over to her house last night. Shit. Her headache really wasn't getting any better.

..........

Thank you so much for reading!

    -Claire