Alan headed back to his room, the walls streaked with posters by rapper NF and other bands. On the way he looked into the bedroom of his parents and his sister Veronica. The beds were made. The mother usually started their staging only before noon. Veronica never thought about hers, he did everything for her without even drawing her attention. In addition, now they were not only posted, but they gave the impression that no one had slept in them that night. He felt a rising tide of panic. Was he already late for school? What time is it? From inside his room, he saw the alarm clock on the bedside table in Veronica's bedroom. It was ten to eight.
He had almost half an hour until he usually left for school.
There was deathly silence in the house.
At this time of day, the sounds of my parents were always coming from the kitchen. Even if they weren't talking to each other, which was quite common, there was the crackle of the refrigerator opening and closing, the scrubbing of the pan on the pan and the sound of dishes being placed in the sink. Someone, usually my father, flipped through the morning paper, grunting at the more irritating news.
Weird. He closed the door and stepped deeper into the room. You gotta get a grip, he told himself. He should go down to breakfast like nothing big had happened; pretend there was no argument; act as if his father didn't have to pull him by the neck from his older friend's car. His eyes fell on the open textbook on the desk and the Berkeley University placement test form. The night before he left the house, he had only answered half the questions, hoping to get up early today and finish the test. Yes, he should finish it now. Veronica was usually making noise by this time, running to the bathroom and back, playing songs from her favorite band BTS loud, screaming from the top of the stairs to her mother, asking where she put her T-shirt,
she was talking loudly on the phone, or was knocking on Alan's door, pulling him off the bed. He couldn't remember yesterday mentioning anything about wanting to go to school early, but why would she tell him about anything? Besides, he often drove the car alone. He treated Veronica with the contempt due to a "snotty middle school girl," although she tried very hard to keep pace with him in everything that was not allowed. So he was looking forward to having the opportunity to tell her how he had drunk himself into unconsciousness. No, wait a minute. that she would talk about everything, because she was out of favor herself and had to score points at all costs, probably because ...
Okay, let's say Veronica actually left school early. But where are the parents? My father could go on another business trip right after sunrise. After all, he often took
delegations, and there would be nothing unusual about it. He could only wish he had been home last night. And mother? Let's say that for some reason she decided to take Veronica to school.
Alan put on a t-shirt and a dust jacket in denim pants, then ran his hair through his fingers. May his mother and father not remind him again that he party too much. He went downstairs and stood frozen in the kitchen door.