2014
‘’I’m coming back home.’’ Jimi sang while he opened the front door.
"Open it fast, please! I have to reunite with the toilet as soon as possible!’’ Karen pushed Jimi away and disappeared into the hall when the door was open.
‘’Such an bad excuse.’’
‘’Yes, now we have to carry her stuff inside!’’ Elijah said and grabbed Karen’s suitcase and started to pull. He fell on the ground. ‘’What did mommy take home? Bricks?’’
Jimi had to laugh ‘’Clothes.’’ He grabbed Elijah’s little backpack of the ground and gave it to his son. ‘’Here buddy, I’ll take care of mom’s stuff.’’ Together they walked inside and Jimi closed the door behind him. When he wanted to place his foot on the first stair when Karen started to scream, followed by Elijah.
‘’What’s going on here?!’’ Jimi rushed to the living room and found his wife standing in the middle of it with Elijah in her arms. The living room was a mess; plants and flowers were threw out of their fase, magazines were ripped apart and diffused through the whole room, books were threw out of the cabinets and the furniture stood skewed.
‘’Someone broke in!’’ Jimi yelled.
‘’Like I didn’t saw that already!’’ Karen snapped. Elijah looked at her and she looked back. ‘’Oh, I’m sorry, E.’’ The latest months were tough for Karen, the recovery was a kind of heavy on the stomach for her, she snapped a lot toward Jimi until the two found out that it made Elijah upset, since then she tried to stop, well at least try to snap less.
‘’It’s fine.’’ He released himself out of Karen’s arms and walked to his dad, who lifted him up.
"They didn’t steal anything, at least not here.’’
‘’I’ll take a look upstairs.’’
‘’Please, don’t leave Elijah alone!’’ Karen looked scared.
Jimi nodded and the two disappeared out of Karen’s sight. When they came back she just hung up her phone.
‘’The cops are here within twenty minutes. Everything alright upstairs?’’
‘’I think they didn’t even went upstairs.’’
‘’What a shit end of the vacation.’’ Karen sighed and took a seat on the floor. ‘’What a mess.’’
‘’Let’s make a bet for who will clean it up.’’ Jimi joked, but realized Karen wasn’t laughing. He took a seat next to his wife and wrapped his arm around her. ‘’Hey, it’ll be okay.’’
‘’Yes, don’t be sad mommy.’’ Elijah crawled to Karen’s lap and made a typical 4-year-old joke. Her attempt to smile failed.
‘’I’m tired.’’ Elijah whispered.
‘’Let me bring you to bed then.’’ Jimi stood up and lifted Elijah up.
‘’Do you think it’s save?’’ Karen looked up to Jimi.
‘’Of course it is, and the cops are coming soon, maybe they'll scare Elijah.’’
‘’Cops! I want to see the cops!’’ Elijah shouted.
‘’No, that’s big people business only.’’
"But I am big too!’’
‘’No, you’re not, you’re still small, little man.’’ Jimi reminded his son to his nickname.
‘’Be happy that you’re still small.’’ Karen stood up.
‘’What do you mean with that?’’
‘’Never mind.’’ She turned to Elijah. ‘’Just go to sleep, everything is fine. And if you’re scared tonight just crawl in our bed, okay?’’ Karen gave Elijah a kiss and watched him and Jimi walking upstairs.
When Jimi came back downstairs, Karen sat on the floor again, with her head against the wall and her eyes closed. In her right hand she had a beer and took a sip of it every now and then.
‘’Honey, don’t worry too much, it will be okay.’’ Jimi sat down next to her.
‘’I know that, it’s just,’’ Karen sighed. ‘’I thought a new start, no bad things only happy thing and now this happens. It just makes me so mad!’’
‘’Just let it go.’’ Jimi grabbed Karen’s hand who laid her head on Jimi’s shoulder. She took another sip of her beer.‘’I couldn’t find the Pontoon-koozie.’’ She lifted the bottle up.
‘’I actually like to see you drinking a beer.’’
‘’Why?’’
‘’I don’t know, you’re cute.’’
‘’I know, I know.’’ Karen frowned. ‘’No, I don’t know that, you just say that ten times a day."
After all the problems Karen had, Kimberly told Jimi that Karen is actually pretty insecure. She is good at covering that because Jimi never actually noticed that. Since Kimberly told that Jimi is saying saying a lot of sweet things about his wife, but she just thinks he is getting crazy
‘’If you want to have something just buy it, I’m not your mother.’’
‘’Why do you think I want something?’’
‘’Well eh, all those compliments you are giving me the latest weeks, it’s weird ya know.’’
‘’Why is it weird?’’ Jimi laughs. ‘’I just want to let you know that I love you."
‘’I believe you then, thank you.’’ Karen squeezed in Jimi’s hand.They saw a reflection of flashing blue lights and slapping car doors.
‘’Hide the beer, the cops are here.’’
‘’Oh Jimi, that’s so bad!’’ Karen giggled and put the beer back in the fridge, together with Jimi she walked to the front door.
"Mrs. Westbrook?" The officer said when they opened the door.
"That's me." Karen said and smiled to Jimi.
"Well, she's the only mrs here."
There was a short awkward silence.
"My name's officer Hall and you've called 911?"
"Yeah, we came back from our holiday to Miami and someone broke in. The living room is a mess. I can show you the place, if you want."
"After you, Mrs. Westbrook."
"Please call me Karen." She walked to the living room followed by Jimi, officer Hall and two other cops.
"Did you see that?" Jimi giggeled. "The youngest cop couldn't stop staring at you."
"You mean Jack?"
"Yeah, Jack, whatever. The redhead. I guess he's like twenty-three?"
"He is nice."
"You find everybody nice." Jimi handed Karen her beer again, opened a bottle for himself and took a seat next to Karen.
"I don't think they found anything they can use to make a case of this." Karen said.
"I don't think that either. Thank God that no one stole anything."
Karen laid her head on his shoulder. "Turn on the fireplace." She nodded to it.
"Why?"
"It's romantic."
"So you don't want to go to bed or anything?"
"Do you really think I can sleep?" She laughed.
"Oh, dear." Jimi sighed. "I hate those times when you skip the nights." He stood up and turned on the fireplace.
"I don't ask you to stay up with me!"
"Did I said that? It's just, I can't sleep when I know that you're creepin' around the house all night. What do you actually do when you can't sleep?"
"Eh, reading, painting, tweeting, eating everything except sleeping. I like it, ya know. A day is too short."
"You should stay in bed, then I can get some sleep too then. It gives me peace to look at you while you sleep."
"That's creepy, ya know? Why don't you just get your butt out off bed and keep me company downstairs? We're married!"
"I'm also married to our bed."
"Oh dear."
"Our bed is basically a part of our s-"
"Jimi stop!" Karen covered her ears. "I don't even want know what you are about to say!"
Jimi started to giggle.
"I'm leavin' ya." Karen grabbed a blanket and moved to the other side of the couch. She wrapped it around her and closed her eyes.
Jimi moved to Karen again, who sighed. He wrapped one side of the blanket around him and tried to move closer to Karen. And put his arm around her.
"You're like a bug, annoying." Karen looked to Jimi. "But also sweet." She pursed her lips and Jimi answered it with a kiss.
"You're so cute, Karen."
"Thank ya."
"You know what makes me happy?"
"Tell me."
"That when I grab your hip bone, I don't feel it anymore."
"I did that for you, I don't want to be the cause of anyones unhappiness."
"You're a sweet girl, you know that?."
"Shut your mouth please and keep kissing me."
Jimi went with his hand through Karen's hair and let it rest on her cheek.
She came closer to him and he felt her chest beating against his.
Jimi unbuttoned Karen's blouse slowly and took it off.
Karen pushed Jimi slofly on his back, he understood what she meant and laid back and pulled Karen on him.
She started to giggle and kept kissing him. Now it was her turn to take his shirt off. She looked up and saw the dark sky outside. They didn't closed the curtains. She couldn't see anything but anything could see her. Shit.
"What's wrong baby?" Jimi asked and tried to see where Karen was looking at. "The window?"
"Yeah, everybody can see us now."
"No one does, and who cares. I want to let the whole world know how sexy my wife is."
"Well eh, I don't want to show my bra to the whole world." Karen wrapped a shirt around her breast and closed the curtains.
Jimi sighed when she left him alone on the couch.
"Here I am again." She whispered in his ear. "Where did we stay?"
"At the part where I take off your pants. And now you stay!" Jimi pulled Karen back on him. She started to scream of happiness.
"Hey, hey, hey! No one opened the door so I just used my own key." Kimberly avoided a flower on the floor. "Poor thing." she said and kept yelling her story. "With my own key I mean the one Karen gave to me." She walked into the kitchen. "Hello? Someone here?" She opened the curtains and turned around. "Karen we had an appointment, this is so not- oh my stars!" She took a step back.
"Kimberly?" Karen muttered.
"Is it 10.30 am already?"
"It sure is and- Karen eh, don't come up you eh," Kimberly pointed to her chest. "You're shirtless."
"Oh dear. Let me get some clothes on."
"Here is your, eh, bra?" Kimberly gave the thing to Karen.
"Damn, this is so awkward ya know."
"What? This? It's not, I've seen you like this before. Minus Jimi." Kimberly giggeled.
"I don't even want to know it." She got up and walked to the stairs. "What were we going to do again?"
"Lunching silly."
"Oh yeah, sorry. It's been a rough night.
"I could see that, my lady." Kimberly laughed.
"No, no! I mean yes also but," Karen took a short break. "Give me ten minutes to make myself ready and I'll tell you everything okay?"
A small hour later the girls sat down at a little cafe downtown Nashville.
"But aren't you curious? I mean, don't you want to know who did this?"
"I want but it's basically impossible! And nothing was stolen, thank you Jesus, so I can live with it. Only the plants died... Elijah wanted to see the cops. He was a bit too excited. I was suprised that he was still sleeping. Now he is in Jimi's hands. I hope he doesn't get a childhood trauma when he finds his dad naked on the couch." Karen laughed and shook her head. "Last night was so wrong but I just missed it. I felt like I was eighteen again. Oh, how I wish. Growing up isn't cool at all, ya know."
"It's a trap." Kimberly took a sip of her drink.
"Exactly. Cheers girl."
"The years go by so fast. I remember having sweet little Daisy Pearl in my arms and now she's so big already. She and Penelopi are almost real ladies. And Elijah isn't Baby Elijah anymore."
"Don't you ever feel empty from the inside? Like you have reached everything you've ever wanted in your life?"
"No, I'm satisfied. I love to sing, I love to cook, I love to love. Why? Aren't you?"
"No? But sometimes you hear that."
"Nope." Kimberly said. "You know what makes me happy? That I can have lunch-dates with you again!"
"Yeah, Jimi said something like that too last night."
"You scared me, Kiki. All of us."
"I'll never forget the look on my dads face when he saw me."
"Why, Karen? Why?"
"I just wanted to be perfect. It's all about the control, ya know. It kept me busy like a hobby, something to look forward to." a tear streamed down her face. "I hurt so many people. My own boys! You and Schlap, the Sweets, the girls, my family. Another thing I'll never forget is Cassadee's emotional scream in the hospital."
"Oh dear, yes. She totally lost it from reality."
"My sweet girl." Karen whispered. "But we aren't here to cry right?"
Kimberly handed her a napkin.
"Where are you up to?"
"Lookin' forward to new clothes and music."
"Did you told Cass about Smokin' and Drinkin' already?"
"Of course I did! She was the first I told it to as soon as I was allowed to talk about it. She might have screamt for three straight hours. She's a big fan."
"So am I."
"And I."
There was a long silence between the two girls.
"Are you sure everything is alright?" Kimberly asked.
Karen nodded.
"You act different. I don't know."
Karen grabbed Kimberly's hand. "Kim, I'm fine. Don't worry, babe, okay?"
"I'm worried about the fact that you just called me 'babe'!"
The two started to laugh.
"I like that word, sorry."
"Well, as long as you don't touch my butt again!" Kimberly giggeled.
"Oh my, Cupcake!" Karen sighed but had to laugh at the same time.
"What are you going to do this weekend?" Kimberly asked.
"Nothing." Karen said.
"Ah, ah, you're parents are coming." Jimi said to Karen.
"Oh yeah shit. My parents are coming. But I still can do nothing. Ha!"
"And Philly?"
"Nothing too." He had to laugh. "Kidding, Becky is taking us to somewhere, I don't know where."
"Ahw! I'll be so bored then. Schlap has to go to Michigan for a week and Daisy will stay at my cousins place."
"Aw poor Kimberly." Karen said sarcastic. She leaned back on the couch and looked grumpy to Jimi.
They were having a group video chat and this time, Karen wasn't in the mood for it at all. No one has something interesting to say and she wanted to sleep.
"What's wrong, Kiki?" Kimberly asked.
"Everything."
"Am I supossed to be scared or something?"
"Nah, Jimi has to be scared." Phillip turned around on his chair and when his face appeared again he grabbed a candy cane. "He is right next to Miss Grumpy who can hit him everytime."
"Oh dear." Kimberly whispered.
"It's just my face, okay? I see my face on the iPad screen and I hate it."
"Karen! I thought we promised that, that kind of sences belongs to the past!" Kimberly yelled. Her face became red.
Karen was about to sing a part of Bones, about the past who will hunt you down. Jimi stopped her by putting his hand on her mouth.
"Karen, please stop. Get some food or something."
She muttered but got up and dissapeared into the kitchen.
"Holy goodness." Phillip giggeled.
"Kimberly, are you alright?" Jimi grabbed the iPad to see Kimberly's face. Her eyes now became red too.
"Yeah, yeah." With the sleeve of her pink sweater she rubbed over her face. It didn't helped, her eyes and face were still red. "It just hurts me to hear Karen talking like that." She didn't mentioned that she's actually pretty worried about her friend.
"Don't be sad, Kim, I'll talk to her after this. I can't stand this behavious either."
Karen came back with a box full of cupcakes Kimberly made for them.
"Cupcake, those kiwi cupcakes tastes like Heaven, I love it." She took a seat on the floor and gave a cupcake to Jimi. "Here." She said and acted like nothing happened.
Kimberly frowned when she saw Karen feeding Jimi a cupcake.
Gussie, she thought, what's wrong with her?
She started to get a little anxiety attack and grabbed to her stomach.
"Kimberly!" Phillip jumped off his chair but realized couldn't actually do a thing. He felt awkward, sat back down and blushed. Hopefully no one noticed it...
Jimi and Karen, who didn't payed attention to Phillips action at all, where pretty shocked too.
"Sorry guys." Kimberly whispered. "It's my time of the month. Have to go, love y'all."
Her video connection became black and then turned into her Skype profile photo: a picture of her, Schlap and Daisy.
"Wow." Phillip looked amazed.
"Shit, if it's her time of the month, then I have to be careful too!" Karen jumped up and ran away.
Phillip frowned. "Did I miss something?"
"Their periods are at the same time." Jimi said slowly. He felt awkward about what he just said. And as he could see, Phillip felt like that too. "When two women hang around together a lot, their perioids- yeah, eh-"
"Stop right there Jimi-boy, I know what you want to say."
Both started to laugh very hard and Phillip almost choked in his candy cane which made them laugh harder.
"Women and their peroids." Phillip shook his head.
"Yo Philadelphia, I'm going to search for Karen. I really want to talk about how she acted toward Kimberly. That was not cool."
"Sure, Jamestown, it's cool. Bye!" They waved to each other and both disconected.
"Karen!" Jimi screamed as he walked into their bedroom. He was really angry but became even more angry when he saw Karen lying in bed while singing a Spice Girls song. "I can't stand you right now, you know that?"
Karen looked up. "What?"
"How you acted toward Kimberly was really cruel. What did that poor thing do wrong? Nothing!"
"Sorry for the things I said when I was hungry." Karen quoted.
"Bullshit Karen! I follow Karla on Instagram too. I did saw that post of that board saying that too." He threw a magazine on the floor, which made Karen a bit scared. "Why do you act like a bitch? No one will like you more if you act like that! And you know everything about that."
"Jimi, please don't talk about my past."
"Anyways," Jimi started. "What I want to say is that you should be sweeter to your friends. Kim has been your best girly friend for over twenty years already and as long as I know you two, she has always been loyal to you. Did she ever snapped to you like you did today?"
Karen shook her head.
"And this isn't the first time you act like this to her. Okay, during your recovery-peroid we all understood whenever you were a bit mean, but that's over now. Phillip was there too, he didn't liked it either. You really emberessed yourself today and even I was a bit ashamed." He felt real bad about everything he had said but he had to. Otherwise Karen wouldn't listen or even care. He'd fixed this all after she apologized to Kimberly.
"So please say sorry to Kim. And Phillip. Do I see you during dinner? I'll cook."
As soon as Jimi closed the door, Karen started to cry.
Did I really emberessed myself? Was I really that mean to Kim? Why do I do this? Was Jimi really ashamed of me, his own wife?
All kind of questions came up and it made her feel even more sad, more then she was already. Mabye that's why she was so mean to Kim, hiding her emotions. Is that possible?
She felt a massive head ache coming up but she ignored it, got up, changed clothes and got in her truck to say sorry to Kimberly.
Karen wasn't even that mean to Kimberly, there were worser times. Especially to Jimi. But he was totally done with Karen's bad moods. He also felt a bit guilty because he had been really mean to Karen. He thought she was in bed, not on her way to Kimberly to say sorry. Karen had made a bad turn on her way to Kimberly's house and scared the 'glitter' our of her blonde curly friend; she saw her truck at the gas station on the other side of the road. She recognized Kimberly's curls as soon as she saw the truck. When she arrived, Kimberly just left her truck to pay and Karen sneaked into it and wait until Kimberly came back.
She screamed when she opened the door but stayed nice. "Eh, I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure this is my truck." She said slowly.
Karen was about to take off her sunglasses when Kimberly recognized her. "Fairchild-Westbrook!" She yelled and lifted herself into the truck. "You scared the glitter out of me!"
"Glitter? Really?" Karen asked.
The two started to giggle and hugged each other.
"I was on my way to you!" Karen said. "I'm sorry, I acted like a bitch and you didn't deserved that. I'm stupid."
"And I was on my way to you! It didn't felt right, I thought you might needed some female advice." She looked down and looked upset.
"Oh, Cupcake come here." Karen pulles Kimberly to her and held her tight for a while. "You look like you needed a hug." Karen said when Kimberly let go.
"I did." Kimberly said softly. "I'm just worried about you."
"You should stop with that, okay? I'm an adult and I can take care of myself." Karen took a short moment. "Actually not, but hey, my parents are here this weekend, they'll take good care of me."
It made Kimberly giggle. "I'll call your mom four millon times then, okay?"
"Okay." The two smiled to each other.
When Karen came back home, Jimi had finished cooking dinner, he didn't even noticed Karen left the house until she threw her car keys on the table and said she was back. Jimi had to admit that he didn't even noticed that she had been gone. She said it was fine.
Karen walked to him and gave him a big hug. They stood like that for a while and a few tears streamed down both their faces. Jimi said he was sorry that he had overreacted and was mad to her and Karen said she was sorry about being in such a bad mood and being mean to Kimberly.
They had dinner together and went to bed early, the head ache was still bothering Karen.
The next day when she woke up Jimi bought her flowers.
She found it sweet, put them in a vase and brought them back to their bedroom. She was too tired and sick to do be downstairs so she enjoyed from her pretty flowers while lying in bed.
The latest days Karen slept a lot. Jimi said she had a migraine because she said she felt weird.
Jimi woke up and find out that Karen laid on the blankets instead of under it, which is weird because Karen never lays on it. 'Someone could touch me, ya know. It's freakin' scary.'
Jimi pushed in Karen's hip.
"What?" she muttered.
"Why are you laying on the blankets?" He had to laugh about what followed. "Because of me?"
"Nah."
"Bailey says 'nah' is stupid."
"You are stupid." Karen sighed. "It's hot, okay?"
"That's because I took my shirt off."
Karen grabbed Jimi's shoulder. "Liar." She pulled her pillow under her head and turned her back to Jimi.
"Are you ignoring me now?" Jimi pinched in Karen's back. "Karen?" Every time he said her name, he pinched her. After a while he stopped and got out of bed.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Going downstairs."
"It's freaking 8 am."
"Leavin' ya now, bye."
"Ass." Karen randomly said and closed her eyes. She wanted to sleep. The latest days she slept a lot and had no idea why.
The door got open again. "You know your parents are here at 4 pm?"
"Yes, I'm not stupid. We still have 8 hours to go, I won't sleep the whole time."
Wrong. Jimi woke her up at 3.55 pm.
"Karen, your dad just called, they are here within three minutes, get your lazy butt out of this bed."
"Ha, ha, very funny." and again she turned her back to Jimi.
He grabbed her phone and showed the time to his wife.
"Freakin' Hell, I'm downstairs within a minute."
Jimi dissapeared out of the room while Karen rushed to her walk in closet.
Jeans. Simple shirt. Black socks. Hair in messy bun. Make up still from yesterday.
She jumped off the last part of the stairs and opened the front door.
"Karen. You look tired." Mrs. Fairchild gave her daughter a hug and entered the house.
"Nice to see you too mom."
Karen turned around to her dad who was getting their suitcases out of their car.
"Karen, can you help me please?"
"Jimi! Dad wants you to help with the suitcases!"
Jimi runned out of the kitchen, outside.
"What a lazy butt."
"Who?" Jimi asked.
"Karen. I asked her to help me."
The two started to laugh, a typical action for Karen.
"You should not pay a lot of attention to her, she is still not the old one. She may act a bit weird."
"Poor girl." Mr. Fairchild shook his head.
Karen's situation hurt him a lot. It hurt the whole family. A lot.
For dinner, Jimi made chicken. They all were listening to a story Mrs. Fairchild was telling. She had to laugh and ate the last part of her chicken wing. She looked at Karen, who was pinching her chicken wing with a fork.
"Karen."
"What?" Karen looked up.
"We all finished dinner."
"I can see that."
"Baseball match. Five minutes." Mr. Fairchild said.
"Go to the living room and put on the TV already, we'll come soon." Karen smiled to her dad who stood up and left the table.
She looked back to her plate and pushed it to the middle of the table. "I'm not hungry." All she had eaten were the vegtables and some potatoes. Mrs. Fairchild pushed the plate back.
"I want you to eat this. Now."
"But mom, I'm full." She stood up.
"Karen Renee Fairchild, eat that damn chicked. Now!"
Karen looked at Jimi but he looked away.
"Karen, how does this TV works?" her dad yelled and they heard some noise from out of the living room.
"I'm coming!"
Mrs. Fairchild grabbed her daughers hand. "Karen, come sit down."
Karen didn't listen.
"I'm just really worried about you. I'd never thought you would starve yourself. Look at how skinny you are. Why?"
"Mother, I am a 44-year-old independent woman, I really know what I am doing." She left the kitchen.
"Oh really? Is that why you had anorexia?"
Karen turned around. Her eyes where filled with anger. But also something else: sadness.
Arrived at the living room, her dad took two steps back. He knew what was coming.
"If something doesn't work, keep hitting until it does." Her own wise words.
Karen hit the TV twice and an empty baseball field appeared on it.
"There ya go." She gave the romote control to her dad and walked upstairs.
When her mom came into her room, she wrapped her arms around her head and hid under the blanket.
"Karen,"
She didn't said a thing.
"Karen, please. You're not thirteen anymore." Mrs. Fairchild pulled the blanket off Karen's head.
Her eyes were red and filled with tears.
"Oh honey, I didn't want to upset you."
"Well, you did. Congrats on you."
"Karen, come on." She sat down on the bed and pulled Karen up and hugged her. "I love you, you know that?"
Karen nodded and wipped off her tears.
"I 'm just very worried and still shocked because, well, I eh didn't know you could actually starve yourself."
"I'm sorry, mom." Karen started to cry harder. "I'm so sorry."
Mrs. Fairchild went with her hand through Karen's hair and they sat like that for a while.
"I'm so sorry." She said again.
"I wanted to say 'it's alright' but it's not."
A little smile appeared on her face.
"You look tired, honey."
"I know, I'm so tired. And I look horrible when I 'm tired!" She laid back down.
"Don't say that."
"Can you please stay until I fall asleep? Like back in those days?" Karen asked. She and her mother used to ask each other questions whenever she couldn't fall asleep and within no time she actually did.
"Of course I will." Mrs. Fairchild grabbed Karen's hand and looked at her while she closed her eyes.
She's so beautiful, mrs. Fairchild thought, so innocent and so sweet.
It hurts her to know that Karen isn't happy about herself. She had never heard Karen complain about the way she looks or what. When she got the phone call of Jimi that Karen was in the hospital, they were all shocked but they were even more shocked when they arrived there and heard that her daughter has an eating disorder
"Okay, what do you like the most about yourself?" Mrs. Fairchild asked. "And don't say your voice or taste of clothes."
"Damnit mom, now it will be hard. Ehh, let me think..." It took a while before Karen could answer, which hurt Mrs. Fairchild. "My hair? Yeah, my hair, I guess."
"Okay, and what do you dislike the most about yourself?"
"What not? I mean, have you seen this?" She pointed to her face. "My eyes looks like I'm always mad, I have to lay in the sun for hours to not look like a zombie, my nose is as big as Hell, my mouth is, well actually that's pretty normal, but my teeth! I have to sport for hours to not become fat because I'm the only one in this family who doesn't own the damn skill to eat freakin' everything and stay skinny and I have no boobs at ALL and then my feet, it's so-"
"Karen stop."
"Sorry mom."
"You're such a silly girl. Go to sleep."
A couple of hours later Karen woke up and showed up in the living room. The others were watching TV.
"Hi." She whispered and walked to Jimi, who sat on a chair on her right. She took a seat on his lap and laid her head on his shoulder.
"Hey you." He smiled.
It made Karen giggle. "What are y'all watching? Did I missed something?"
"Not really."
"Useless you're intrested in the fact that there's post a new picture of that North West-baby." Mr. Fairchild said.
"Hm, not really. So I actually missed nothing?" She looked to her dad and smiled. "That's for the first time. I always miss the best stuff when I'm taking naps."
"Well, everything has a first time."
"Do you want to do anything special tomorrow?" Jimi asked.
"Not really." Mrs. Fairchild replied. "But we do want to see lil man."
Mr. Fairchild agreed.
"Sure, sure, I'll pick him up from Kim and Schlap's place. He likes to be there because yeah... it's more relaxed there, ya know." Karen looked down. At this kind of moments she always releases how she screwed everything up.
"Hey, don't look sad honey. It doesn't mean that Elijah doesn't love you anymore."
"Of course Elijah doesn't stops loving you. You're his mother!" Karen's dad grabbed her hand.
"Thanks y'all. It's just, ya know, stupid and all." she looked on the clock. 11.49 am. "Did I sleep that long?"
"Yes, you did. But if you don't mind, I'm going to bed. I'm tired!"
"Of course I don't mind, mom." Karen stood up and walked to her and whispered ‘thank you’ in her ear.
Mrs. Fairchild wrappen her arm around her daughter and waited for her husband to come with her.
"Jimi and I'll clean up this sh- I mean stuff up together and come right after you."
They greeted each other good night and Jimi walked to Karen. She laid her hands on his shoulders.
"Do you think you can sleep?" He asked. "You slept all day already."
"No, but I'll just watch how you sleep like you do when I sleep."
Jimi looked surprised. He didn't knew that Karen knows that he actually stares a lot at her. "You look cute when you sleep."
"Thank you. So do you, but Jimi,"
"What Karen?"
"You really should stop taking pictures of me while I sleep." She started to laugh.
"What? How do you know that?"
"Your phone."
"Aha. Are you checking me or something?"
"I'm not going to lie, yes." She giggeled and moved her head closer to Jimi's. And then she kissed him.
"Kelli!"
"What?" Kelli screamed back.
It made Karen laugh. Her sister is the screaming kind.
They all sat on the couch with the iPad on the table. They were Skyping with Kelli and her family who were in Mexico for a week.
Kelli dissapeared out of their sight and two other voices became very clear.
"I did a depression test on the Internet." the voice giggeled.
"And let me guess, it says you're actually insane."
"No, it says that you're insane but anyway, my results were 72 out of 100."
A laugh followed. Cassadee's.
"And what the heck am I then? Suicidal?"
"Shut up Cass, you don't take me serious."
The two girls didn't appeared in their sight but they could follow their conversation.
Karen put her phone away. This sounds interesting.
"I take you seriously, missy, I just want to make clear that I'm sadder than you are."
"Cassadee I hate you! You know I hate it to be called "missy" yuck!"
"Ok."
"I'm going home gonna load my shutgun and blow your head off."
"Nice to see you too girls. Well yeah. hear." Karen said.
Suddenly a lot of hair appeared on the other side. The girls looked upside down to the iPad.
"Aunt Kiki!"
"Mom didn't told us that she was Skyping." The two sat down. "Mother!"
"Did you heard our conversation?" Bailey asked shocked.
"Yep."
"You're not depressed, Bailey." Mrs. Fairchild said. "You're so young, enjoy life! Don't take those tests to seriously, the all cause negativity."
"Well spoken." Mr. Fairchild said.
"But what kind of test is it?" Karen asked.
"Oh, it came along on Facebook."
"I'll send the link to you, now I want to do it too." Cassadee pushed Bailey away. "I can't see a shit, Bae."
"But remember what I said, Cassadee."
"Yes, granny."
"So how's life going there down below?" Jimi asked.
"It's hot." Bailey replied.
"How's that possible? I'm not even there."
The girls started to giggle.
"Jimi." Karen pushed him but had to laugh also.
"No, but the swimming pool is nice. The beach too, only the locals here are a bit... creepy."
"Scary as fuck." Cassadee finished.
"Watch your words, Fairchild."
"Sorry granny."
Mrs. Fairchild isn't a big fan of swearings so whenever she is around the family has to use replacements.
"Are y'all going to do something special during the summer holidays?" Bailey asked.
"Playing at all kinds of festivals" Jimi replied.
"Mexico. Matthew will be there for a week. We're there then too." Mr. Fairchild said.
"I hate Matthew. He left me alone, it's so boring without him around!"
Matthew, Cassadee's 21-year-old brother, decided to travel around South-America after college and does all kinds of volunteering work there.
"Thanks Cassadee." Bailey turned to the screen. "Will y'all go to Vegas?"
"In August?" Jimi looked to Karen.
"August 2 yes." Karen answered.
"I'm coming with y'all!"
"And if you go to Arizona, then I want to come with y'all!" Cassadee said. She has a small obsessed with that State.
"You're always welcome."
"Yes!" Bailey screamed and hit Cassadee's head.
"Ouch." She said sarcastic and looked to herself on the iPad screen. "Don't touch my hair! Ew, my gosh I look so ugly today."
"Cassadee, please. Don't become like your aunt." Mrs. Fairchild said. She didn't meant to say that out loud.
"Mother!!" Karen shouted.
"What? What!" Cassadee looked confused.
"Attention seeker." Bailey whispered.
"Girls." Kelli showed up behind Bailey and Cassadee.
"We're going to the pool!"
The girls waved to the others and dissapeared.
"And then there was only one." Kelli muttered. "Sorry for my grumpy mood y'all it's just so hot here!"
"How's that possible? Jimi's not even there!" Mrs. Fairchild joked.
"Joke stealer." Jimi laughed.
After an hour they all kept going with their daily routine.
Karen laid down on the grass under the oak tree in the back of the garden. Cassadee had sent the link about the depression text to Karen. She was very curious about it, not that she felt depressed actually but she likes to do the weird tests the Internet has.
The questions were weird, about feeling worthless and suicidal and all. She was pretty worried about Bailey now since her score was 72 out of 100.
Karen's score wasn't far away from that, 81 out of 100.
"81?! That's not even possible!" She said out loud. "I'm not freaking depressed!" She sighed. "I want to listen to the Spice Girls." She plugged her earphones in and hit the play-button. Bad 90s music is her weakness and once in a while she likes to blast out some Spice Girls music.
She closed her eyes and after a while she started to sing along.
Then she opened her eyes, she felt that someone was staring at her, and she was right. Jimi appeared from the back of the oak tree.
"Hello there, baby spice." He laid down next to her.
"How do you know that I'm listening to the Spice Girls?"
"Besides that you're almost screaming the lyrics, I'm your husband. I know everything from you."
"I better hope not."
"Why? Do you have someone else?"
"Jimi." Karen sighed. She got a flashback of the time she woke up next to Jimmy. She still has nightmares about it.
"Babe." Jimi moved his head closer to Karen's. "It's fine, honey."
"It’s not okay." She laid her head on his shoulder.
He gave her a kiss on her head and wrapped one arm around her.
"It is okay. And now shut your mouth or I'll leave you." After everything that happened the passed months, Karen became closer toward Jimi. In the passed she didn't really liked it to hug or kiss in public, she was scared of the reactions of others but now she doesn't care anymore.
‘I want to kiss my freakin' husband whenever I freakin' want to kiss my husband.’ Karen had said when she first kissed Jimi in public two weeks ago. He was very suprised, but didn't cared about it. He grabbed her hand and together they walked off the boulevard.
"I love you, Jimbo."
"I love you too, Kiki." He gave her a kiss on her nose and they fell asleep like that.
"Wake up, lovebirds, dinner is ready."
"Dinner is what?" She opened her eyes and saw her mothers face staring down at her. "Is it that late?"
"Yes, 7.30 pm. We let you two sleep a little bit longer but we're actually really hungry."
"Yeah, yeah, sure." she pinched Jimi in the back.
He moaned.
"Jimi ew."
"What?" He looked up and saw Mrs. Fairchild. "Oh sorry, I'm just a bit tired." He laughed, stood up and pulled Karen up. They walked back to the back porch, where Mr. Fairchild and Elijah were waiting for them with dinner.
"Y'all are gross!" Elijah shouted.
"Watch your words, Westbrook. Big people business." Karen sat and took a seat next to him.
"But I'm big too! It's still stupid that I couldn't see the cops!" He was talking about when someone broke in to their house.
"Hold on there, cops?" Mr. Fairchild asked.
"Yeah, eh, someone broke last week." Karen leaned over the table, looking at the mac and cheese. "No big deal. Nothing was stolen or something."
"No big deal? Karen, it damn is. Why didn't you told us about it?" Mrs. Fairchild shouted.
"Because, like I said, it isn't such a big deal."
"I do think it is. I'm your mother."
"I know but-"
Before Karen could finished what she wanted to say, Mrs. Fairchild stood up and walked back inside.
"Mother." Karen said but her mother already dissapeared. She sighed.
"Sorry mommy." Elijah whispered.
"Hey, it's not your fault." She gave him a high-five and continued with eating. She would talk to her mom later.
"It’s so accurate, even my kid plays the guitar better than I do, and I’m old." Karen gave the guitar back to Jimi.
The four of them were sitting in the basement, doin’ a little midnight jam. Karen’s parents likes to hear Jimi and Karen sing together.
“The only song I can play is If I Die Young from The Band Perry.”
“That’s a sad song, Karen.” Mrs. Fairchild said.
“Mother, I am sad.” No one took that serious and kept talking through each other.
Hm,
Karen nor her mother said sorry about what happened, even thought nothing really happened. And her mother also acted like that, everything was just fine again as soon as the others finished dinner and came back into the house again. They decided to leave it like that.
Karen laid her head in Jimi’s shoulder.
“What’s up, baby?” He asked her. “Are you getting tired.”
Karen nodded. “Yeah, shall we go to bed?” She looked at her parents, like she had to have their premission to go to bed.
“Go. I’m actually pretty tired too.” Mr. Fairchild said.
“Same for me.” His wife said.
They turned off the lights and found a way to their bedrooms in the dark.
Karen already laid in bed when Jimi turned on the lights of their bedroom. Her face was burried in her pillow and only her chest went up and down.
When Jimi had his pajama on and crawled into bed, close to Karen, he laid his hand on her butt and asked her if she shouldn’t change her clothes.
Karen moaned and rolled out of bed. She found a shirt from Jimi on the chair next to her side of the bed and put it on. She put a braid in hair while she walked back to the bed without turning her face to Jimi.
“Are you scared of me or something?”
“No, just staring at the door. I thought I saw something.” Karen lied.
“Silly girl.” Jimi turned off the light on his side of the bed. “Are you starting to get a cold? You’re sniffing the whole time.”
“I know, it’s so annoying.” Karen got into bed, turned off her light and crawled to Jimi. He wrapped her arm around her.
After a while Jimi asked her if she find it cold. “Your breast goes up and down in a strange rythm the whole time.”
Karen nodded but didn’t admit that she was actually crying.
Around 6 am, Karen sat at the table with a big mug full of coffee. Tired as Hell, and her hands wrapped around the mug. The only thing she was doing was staring at the seiling. She didn’t know why she was up that early, she just couldn’t sleep anymore so she decided to wait for her mother, who usually wakes up around 7 am. But she didn’t showed up at that time. Or 8 am. Not even 9 am.
She didn’t moved the whole time. Only her eyes she closed every now and then and her breast who goes up and down because of breathing.
Around 9.30 am Jimi walked downstairs.
“Don’t talk to me.” Both said.
Jimi made coffee for himself and took a seat against Karen.
The kinda started a staring game. They didn’t even took a sip of their coffee.
“Oh no. You had a fight, didn’t you?” Mrs. Fairchild sighed.
Karen frowned and now took a sip of her coffee. “Eh, no we’re both grumpy as Hell so we started this little staring game.”
“And why are you grumpy?”
“Mornings.” Jimi snapped.
“Going to bed at 2 and wake up at 5 “
“I’m going to take Elijah downtown, okay? He’s too sweet to hang around with two grumpy parents like you who are having a staring game.” She walked back upstairs.
“I hate mornings.”
“I hate you.”
“I hate you too.”
“I hate me too.”
“Karen, please.” Jimi tried something else to talk about. “Ready to go back on the road?”
“Guess so.” She stood up and walked to couch and laid down. “Come cuddle with me.”
“I like that idea. Great.” Jimi walked to Karen and after he laid down, he wrapped a blanket around them.
“You’re sweet to me lately.” Jimi giggeled.
“I know. I realised I was some big loser bitch because I didn’t want to be ‘romantic’ in public, but I’m married to you, not myself. You’re my other half and it’s not always about me. My weight changes, and so did my personality.”
“Well spoken. It’s very sweet of you.”
“I can be nice, sometimes.” Karen smiled to Jimi.
He kissed her.
“Y’all are gro-oss!!” Elijah shouted and ran to the front door, waiting for his grandma.
“You’re gross too!” Jimi yelled back. “You didn’t took a shower today.”
Elijah appeared in the doorgate and sticked his tongue out.
Karen shook her head. “Boys.”
Karen had wrapped her arms around Phillip.
He still frowned. Normally Karen takes distance of people but now?
“Sleep well.” She whispered.
“You just slept in the car.” Jimi took a seat next to Karen.
“Here.” Phillip said and pushed Karen to Jimi.
She just wanted to lay her head down on his shoulder, but he pushed her back to Phillip.
He sighed and said ‘help’ very soft to Kimberly.
She started to giggle. “One thing: you don’t have to get up to get her something to drink. And she doesn’t bite. It’s cute.”
“Why don’t you take over my place.”
“Ahw come on Phillip she doesn’t has aids or something.”
“Aids.” Jimi laughed.
“No, but I’m having a cold. I don’t want to be the cause of someone elses cold.”
“Okay dokay.”
“Kim is just scared that Karen touches her butt again.”
Kimberly started to laugh really hard.
“Butt? What did I miss?” Phillip askes confused.
“I heard that.” Karen muttered. “It’s a long and awkward story but it ends with my hand on Kim’s butt. Let’s hush hush about it okay?”
“Whatever you want Kiki.” Phillip laughed.
“I want a blanket.”
Jimi sighed and laid his jacket over Karens back.
‘’What are we actually doing here?’’ Kimberly asked.
‘’Chillin’.’’
‘’No, but I mean, come on. We’re in the studio, sitting on couches. No one is here. Who has the key anyway?’’
‘’I took the spare key from the kitchen.’’ Jimi explained.
‘’And Jay agreed with that?’’
‘’I don’t know.’’
‘’Oh gussie.’’
‘’But the positive thing is,’’ Phillip started. ‘’It’s a church. We’re chillin’ in a church. There is a television and a kitchen, food drinks and couches. We can hang out here for a while.’’
Jimi agreed with Phillip.
‘’But are you sure Jay won’t be mad if he find out?’’
‘’Kimberly, relax. Of course not. We won’t break anything, we’re not a bunch of hooligans or something.’’ Phillip said.
‘’Karen is my hooligan.’’ He hit on his wifes butt.
‘’Kimberly?’’ she muttered.
‘’Whaaat?! My hand is in my mouth silly!’’
Karen opened her eyes and saw Kimberly liking chocolate off her finger. ‘’I’m making a mess of it already, I know.’’ She giggeled.
‘’Let’s watch a movie together.’’ Phillip stood up to get the television and came back pushing a television on a sideboard on wheels. ‘’Now the only question is: what will we watch?’’
‘’Anchorman!’’ Jimi, Karen and Kimberly yelled at the same time.
‘’Jimi has a copy of it in our truck.’’ Karen said.
‘’Seriously?’’
‘’Yes, so we can watch it whenever we want.’’
Jimi got the dvd out of the truck and the four setteled down. There were three couches and together with the tv it had the shape of a square.
Karen sat on the right one with her legs on the table. Jimi laid in her lap. Kimberly sat with crossed legs on the left couch. Typical Kimberly: always politely and with her boots off. And Phillip just laid down on the couch acorss the television.
The laughed for the millionth time about the same jokes they always laugh about and quoting their favorite parts.
They ended the movie with saying ‘Stay classy, planet Earth’ all at the same time.
‘’Damn, this movie never gets old.’’ Karen laughed.
‘’Do you also have part two?’’ Kimberly asked.
‘’No. But maybe we can rent that one. There is a video rental two blocks away from here. And then order some pizza maybe?’’Jimi proposed.
‘’And buy whiskey!’’ Phillip shouted.
‘’And buy whiskey.’’ Karen repeated. ‘’Let’s split up.’’
‘’No, let the boys get it and we stay here taking care of the… couches.’’ Kimberly giggeled.
‘’Perfect idea.’’ Karen threw her wallet to Jimi and Phillip. ‘’See y’all later. Oh, and don’t spend too much money, okay?’’ she winked.
‘’Girls. Too lazy.’’ Phillip shook his head and left the studio with Jimi.
Two hours later, Karen and Jimi and a little fight about nothing, but still Karen joined Kimberly on ‘her’ couch and laid down. Kimberly now had Karens legs in her lap. She was secretly watching Karen. Her behaviour changed. She didn’t yelled along the movie anymore and only laughed about the jokes. She just stared at the screen and had wrapped a blanket around her.
‘’Everything alright, Kiki?’’ she asked.
Karen just nodded, she didn’t took her eyes of the screen.
An hour later she was laughing hysterically. ‘’I’m drunk!’’ she yelled. ‘’Phillip you look so cute.’’
‘’Karen, stop. You’re not on LSD or something.’’ Jimi snapped.
‘’You’re cute too, Jimi. That’s why I married you.’’
‘’Stop.’’
‘’I love you.’’
‘’Karen.’’
‘’I love you, Jimi!’’
‘’Karen, stop!’’ Jimi snapped.
‘’Don’t you love me anymore?’’ suddenly she started to cry and fell in Kimberly’s arms. ‘’Doesn’t he loves me anymore?’’ she whispered to Kimberly.
‘’Of course he does.’’ Kimberly said and went with her hand through Karen’s hair. She was really drunk. They all were, but Karen was going insane.
Kimberly looked mad at Jimi.
He rolled with his eyes and kneeled down before Karen and grabbed her hand.
‘’Hey honey, it’s alright.’’
Karen kept crying.
‘’Okay, this is it. I’m bringing her home.’’ He stood up to get his car keys.
‘’You can’t do that, man. We’re drunk. You, Karen, Kimberly and me. You can’t drive a car.’’
‘’No! I will even swallow the keys if you’re going to drive anyway!’’Kimberly yelled.
‘’But what do you want to do then?’’ Jimi yelled back. ‘’Stay here?’’
‘’Yes, yes! We have couches, blankets, food, drinks and a toilet! We can survive the night.’’ Phillip said. ‘’But one of us has to share a couch…’’
‘’That’d be me. Karen will sleep with me.’’
‘’If that’s what you want, Kim.’’
‘’Yes, I want that. Something seems to be wrong and since I’m the only one who takes it serious here, she’ll be sleeping with me.’’ She turned to Karen. ‘’Come here sweetie, lay down and get some rest, okay?’’
Karen nodded and laid down. Kimberly noticed something in her hand.
‘’What’s that? Shall I take care of it?’’ Kimberly grabbed a silver ring and put it in her pocket. ‘’Go to sleep, honey.’’
Is this serious? Yes, it’s serious.
Karens eyes were wide open within a second.
‘’Kimberly!’’ she yelled.
Kimberly fell off the couch and started to scream. ‘’What is wrong?! You scared me!’’
Karen started to laugh very loud.
‘’What’s so funny that you had to wake me up?’’ Jimi muttered. ‘’It’s so early.’’
‘’Kimberly’s hand was, ‘’ Karen started. ‘’was on my butt when I woke up!!’’
‘’Whaaaat?!’’ Kimberly started to scream. ‘’Never! Never!’’
‘’I swear Kim, I woke up and your hand was on my butt!’’
‘’Oh gussie!’’ the two girls started to laugh very hard.
‘’Revenge of the touching butt.’’ Phillip said. ‘’If you don’t mind then I’m going to sleep for another hour again.’’ He turned his back to the girls.
‘’Same for me, if this is why I had to wake up.’’ Jimi sighed and turned around.
Karen immediately stopped with laughing and looked to the floor.
‘’It’s fine, Kiki. It’s just his morning mood.’’ Kimberly squeezed in Karen’s hand and smiled to her friend.
On their way home, both didn’t said a thing. Karen wanted to but she felt some negativity around Jimi which made Karen a kind of scared to start a conversation with him.
Back at home, Jimi straight walked to the shower.
In the kitchen, Karen was wondering why Jimi acted like this.
Had it something to do with her behavior of last night? She was pretty drunk and acted ridiculous, she knew that too but she just didn’t felt well at all. The alcohol made it less. The lastest days she kept feeling like crap more and more. Everyday she woke up with the thought that the next day would be better but it was actually not at all.
Her phone went off and it made her startle. She hit a glass of the kitchen table and it broke down on the floor. Shit.
A bunch of swearings followed.
Karen looked down on all the broken pieces. It felt like she was looking into a mirror. Broken.
Then she felt the pain on her wrist. She looked down, she had a little cut in her wrist.
That didn’t hurt, Karen thought. She picked up a big piece of the broken glass and looked at it. It had one sharp side which shined in the sunlight outside.
Would it hurt if she cut herself with it?
I didn’t felt a thing the first time, Karen thought.
She put the sharp side of it on her wrist and started to push until she saw blood streaming down her wrist on the floor.
‘’Oh my goodness, Karen!’’
(Names of) family members are replaced, fictional or not mentioned by name because of their privacy.