The rays of the rare December sun peaked through the window of Beth's bedroom late Sunday afternoon. She and her bestfriend Dana lay tangled in the sheets of her messy bedroom, a puke bucket close by.
Beth awakened first, with a migrane that felt like an earthquake, and Dana soon after. They trodded slowly down the steep decent to kitchen, where coffee and smoothies awaited them. Eric was seated comfortably at the kitchen table staring intently at the laptop setting in front of him. The girls soon joined him, and began sipping on the liquids that would begin the recovery from the night before.
Eric looked up, and into Beth's eyes. It took Beth a moment to notice he was looking at her and when she did she shot him a look.
"What?" she scoffed.
"You said your dad suffered from Alcoholism?" Eric asked.
"Yeah...so..." Beth glanced at Dana, who didn't seem too concerned that Eric knew a deep dark family secret, so she wasn't suspicious on anything.
"I think you may have it too." Eric simpy stated.
Beth practically sprayed him with her smoothie. "What?!" she seemed offended.
He turned his slick silver laptop to face her. Several windows were open, listing causes, meanings, side effects and all one would need to know about Alcoholism.
"It's herreditary," Eric explained. "Meaning, if Al had it, you could too." He put a hand on the small of her back as she leaned in to read more about the disease.
After a few seconds she closed the laptop and shook the thoughts from her head.
"This is ridiculous. I'm not an alcoholic, I'm... I'm sixteen, I don't even drink that often...." she trailed off.
Dana looked at Eric in shock. How could he go deep into her family history like that? Even if he was a history teacher, none of that was any of his business.
"I think you need to leave." Dana snapped at Eric.
"Dana-" he stumbled.
"Now. You're not her freaking father, or therapist, you have no business digging into her life like that." she snapped again.
"Dana," Beth spoke. "stop."
"What," Dana defended. "It's true."
"He may not be my father or my therapist, but he's by boyfriend," Beth grabbed his hand before he could make a run for it or change the subject. "And he loves me. He's only doing this because he cares."
Eric looked at Beth in shock. He didn't know how to react. Should he lie, should he say she's still drunk from last night? Eric looked at Dana, searching her face for a reaction. Would she call the police? Call him a pervert? Report them to the principal?
A smile grew on Dana's face. Eric most definitely wasn't expecting that reacition.
"I knew it!" she shouted, leaping from her chair. Beth winced at the sharpness of her voice. "I knew there was something going on. And the hickey, that was most definitely your doing!" she pointed at Eric.
"See, I knew it was something, and I guessed Conklin. I just guessed the wrong teacher. Dude, I was sooooo right!" She began dancing where she stood, too excited about her intuition being correct to stop.
Just then, Martha appeared at the doorway from the master bedroom, dressed in a too-tight tank top and some booty shorts with "kiss me" written on tbe butt, a pair of shorts a mother should never be seen wearing. Her long blonde hair was stringy, hanging around her shoulders and a grin was etched on her face.
"What are you guys doing?" The sound of her voice startled Eric, who quickly retracted his hand from Beth's.
Dana froze mid-robot and eyed Martha, who took the seat next to her and stole a sip of her coffee.
"Oh, just studying for History midterms tomorrow... Eric was helping us, he's kind of smart for a college boy" Beth remarked.
"Gettin' an early start aren't ya?" Martha pressed.
"Well, better an early start than a late start, wouldn't want to pull an all nighter before the big day, HA HA." Dana was a terrible liar. Seriously, Beth's dead dog could have done better than that.
Martha rolled her eyes and headed back to her room. "Opening up the hot tub today since it's kind of chilly. You kids can join me if you get bored of studying."
Beth grinned and looked into Eric's eyes. "I'll never be bored of studying."
"Alright, now you can't be doing that around me," Dana pretended to gag.
Beth was relieved that Dana knew everything about her now. She felt like the wall that had been built between the two over the last few months had been torn down, for good. She no longer felt like she had to hide anything, and she re-informed herself that she could trust Dana. Always, no matter what.
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Sorry Guys This Is Sort Of A Filler-I'm Trying to figure out where this story is going.