The banging noise was so loud it echoed through Emma’s room. Scared to her bones, Emma woke up feeling her heart beating like a Latin conga. She looked around her room making sure none of her stuff had fallen from her dresser. For a moment she thought that her middle school run & track trophy had fell. The first trophy she had ever won in her life, well, at least the only first place trophy she had won. The dresser was the only piece of furniture holding her life achievements, from a time when she was dedicated to school and her studies.
The rest of the walls in her room were covered with emo looking stuffed animals and Japanese animation posters. Her mom and dad didn’t even know what all posters were about, and didn’t pay too much attention to them. Emma grabbed her pillow, laid back down, and covered her face. She was trying to go back to sleep. But the sun was already out and the headboard of her bed was laying against the window, even though her mother didn’t like it. She was a teenager, a rebel to society, and a wanna be adult.
Her mom just didn’t like it because she was afraid that someone would reach through the window and grab her hair. Emma laughed at her mom every time she heard her mom’s worries. Her mom usually got mad and walked out of Emma’s room, yelling how disrespectful and inconsiderate she was. What her mom didn’t know was that there was a reason why Emma’s bed was setup that way. They both had grown apart soon after Emma started high school. Due to that and other family issues, neither of them were brave enough to talk to each other. Her mom didn’t even know that she had a boyfriend. The only reason Emma had her bed against the window was because it was easier for her to hear when her boyfriend threw rocks at the window, letting her know that he was there to help her sneak out.
The banging noise echoed through her room again. Who in the world is making so much noise this early? she thought. Looking out her window to the backyard, she saw her dad. He was building another of his weekend projects. “Why is he up so early building all that crap, it’s not like he is ever going too finished it”. She thought. She was right, her dad had the tendency of starting a project every other weekend, but never finishing it. Like the wooden rocking chair he started last month. After not being able to bend the bottom legs of the chair to make it rock back and forth, he quit. Another piece for his “hoarding collection.” A few times she thought about calling that TV show where they do interventions on hoarders, she always thought her dad fit the profile.
“Well I’m already up”, she thought. She headed down the stairs and into the kitchen to see what her mom had made for breakfast. Emma noticed the missing smell of pancakes, and remembered that her mom was going out. For a moment, she thought her dad may have made breakfast, but then again, he usually didn’t worry about anybody else in the house. “He should have at least made some scramble eggs and toast, but instead he went straight outside. If he was going to spend all day in the backyard, at least some food would have been nice.” She thought.
“Unbelievable, seems like nobody cares about me in this family, the only one that really gets me is Jason. I wish he could spend the night”. She knew better, though. If her mom ever found a guy in her room — she was a dead girl, and Jason would probably be cut in little pieces and fed to the fishes. She had a vivid imagination about possible murder scenarios ever since her mom made her watch a few serial killer movies. She remembered her Dad always kidding around about her mom looking for a way to get rid of him and collecting the life insurance.
He always joked about how she was getting the right tips on how to murder someone. Emma still remembered her mom saying that if anyone ever hurt her children, she will kill them in a slow painful way. That used to creep her out and make her think that she was adopted. But she didn’t have any proof. It didn’t help that the three of them were so different, with a somewhat psychotic mom and a lazy father. She wanted to leave the house, run away, but she was only sixteen years old. She knew better than trying to run away. And besides that, where would she go? To her teenage boyfriend, who still lived with his parents? A friend? Nope, she had seen too many movies where the girls got kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Well she was kind of forced to watch those types of movies, but not according to her mother. Though, it was really convenient for her mom to start watching the movies right after Emma got home from school. It also didn’t help that her mom was always blaming the victims of all the movies. “If they would have listened to their parents, nothing would have ever happened,” her mom used to say. Even as a rebel, the movies had done their job and prevented her from leaving the house. She always compared it to an invisible force field. “Two more years until I turn 18, and I can leave this house, find me an apartment somewhere, and not have to worry about all the nagging of my family”.
Emma felt the vibration in her pocket. She had forgot about the cellphone Jason had gave her, in case of an emergency. Well more like “If you get grounded you can use the phone to call me.” After a few seconds, she realized what it was. She took a look around ensuring her Dad was still in the backyard, quickly ran upstairs to her room and lock the door.
“About time, so when are you stopping by? I haven’t seen you for about a week,” Jason said over the phone. “Well, it is your own fault. I told you not to show up at my house and you did anyway,” Emma replied. “Well, if it wouldn’t have been for your Dad, I would have scored with you,” Jason said. All he could think was how hot Emma looked in her bikini the last time they ditched school and went to the lake. Too bad they had some friends with them and he couldn’t make a move on her. They had been dating for a few months now, but Emma hadn’t even let him grab her butt. He always thought she was such a tease, and since he had a one hundred dollar bet with his friends, he needed to get her in bed. All he could do now was smile, and think about how to get her there.
“Wipe that smirk off your face,” Emma said. Even though she was on the other side of the phone, she knew him well enough to know he always had that smirk on his face when he talked about anything related to sex.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Jason replied, letting out a quick laugh. “Well you should know,” she said. Emma knew he would try anything to get her to sleep with him. She came really close a couple of weeks back, but her dad came home early. He had told her he was going fishing.
Since he retired a year ago — more like medical discharge from the army — all he had been doing is milking the Veteran Affairs for a stupid injury he incurred in one of his unit training exercises. Emma’s dad spent most of his time fishing or playing golf with his buddies. But for some reason that day he returned early and caught Jason in Emma’s room. Emma was glad Jason was able to jump out of the window and escape the rage of her dad. Even if his back had an injury, he was still a good runner. But he was too old to be jumping out of the window to chase after Jason. He sure let her have it afterward. He yelled at her for almost two hours.
Afterward, she was grounded, and Jason didn’t even apologize for getting her into trouble. It had been his idea to go back to Emma’s house. She had no plans on letting Jason anywhere near her anymore. Since she’d been grounded every time she talked with Jason on the phone, she liked to mess around with him. Emma didn’t care anymore if Jason thought of her as a tease, it was fine by her, she wasn’t putting out anyway.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jason said.“You should not think of my body as Temple, you should think of it more like an amusement park,” Emma said.
Jason stayed quiet for a second, not knowing if to laugh or be concerned about Emma’s comments. He always thought that she was a virgin or that she had never been with anybody else, but he could be wrong. “Did a cat bite your tongue off, don’t be so shy now,” Emma said. “Whatever, so are you coming or what?” “You know, I’ll have to pass on your invitation, they already took my driving privileges for two weeks because of you. I don’t want my driving gone for a whole month,” Emma said.