Sitting there amongst the group of six, Lee Adams took tender sips from his shot glass. Finally he had gulped it down in disgust.
"You want another?", James asked him.
Lee shook his head, one was enough, "Nope, I'm good".
The basketball captain turned to him, "Cumon man, you only had one, we won the match, celebrate. All of this is on the couch", he gestured at the circular table with it's fair share of alcohol.
"No, honestly I'm not really much of a drinker", Lee told them.
"Smoke?", Landon asked him.
Lee smiled sadly, "Neither do I smoke".
"Loosen up, after every game we've ever won, you never drink, just this once", James pleaded.
Lee Adams knew his mother would swallow him whole if he even dared stepping into the house a bit on the tipsy side, but like Landon, James, the captain and the others had said, they finally won the game. Why not?
That teenage urge was there no matter his morals.
"Just one more", Lee finally told them.
The group chanted his name then the basketball team name.
Lee gulped the glass down and winced his eyes.
He slammed the glass on the table, "another", he held a finger up.
"That's my bouyi!", Landon squealed.
Several more glasses down the road Lee felt the world spin. "I think I've had enough". He got up and laid himself on the cold floor.
"Me too", James covered his mouth and ran out of the room.
Lee screwed his eyes shut and ignored the sheer stinging pain in his head.
The door flew open and Lee raised his hand, "Pass me a water bottle".
"I'm looking for Lee Adams", a female voice told them.
Lee sat up and regretted it immediately, and a woosh to the head knocked him back on the floor.
"Hey! No girls allowed in here", the captain told her.
"Do I look like I care", she snapped back, "Who is Lee Adams?".
"Me", Lee balanced himself with the back of his hands.
She walked over to him and knelt next to him.
"Who's asking?".
Lee tried picturing her into rememberance, with no avail he stared at the new face infront of him.
A bit on the blurred side he couldn't tell whether he was picturing the tears on her cheeks.
"Theresa", she told him.
Lee cocked his head to the side in exaggerated confusion. He didn't know a Theresa.
"I'm your sister".
Confident as a peacock, the alcohol was messing with him he chuckled, "I don't have a sister".
"I'm your step sister", she gave him an impatient look "now get yourself together, we're late for the funeral".
What seemed to be Lee's version of drunkenness vanished in the blink of an eye, "Whaaaaaat!!?".
Theresa got on her feet and stormed out, "Car's outside".
Without a single goodbye to the group Lee flew outside, seeing the black Audi parked outside he sighed in relief, but worry quickly hit him in the stomach, and all of a sudden he felt nauseous. Lee bent over the school joranders and threw up senselessly. He shook his head and rubbed it with two fingers, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket he was off to the car again. Worry was an understatement to what he felt. Lee sat directly in between going crazy and trepidation.
Arriving at the car Lee drastically yanked the back door open and peered inside, seeing his mother and father perfectly fine he couldn't help but smile, but the sudden recollection of the new girl seated in the car brought confusion to his face.
"Good afternoon", he told them.
"Get in son", his father remained emotionless.
Lee Adams sat in the car in awkward silence, even as his father began to drive.
"Lee", his father began, "Two years after you were born, our relationship with your mother was a bit on the rocky side, so I had an affair, I didn't know she was pregnant she never told me, I only found out I had a daughter yesterday".
Lee tried to digest his father's words but they didn't seem to go down right, he let his silence indicate for him to proceed.
"Yesterday, your step mother was murdered", he spoke softly, "So Theresa will be staying with us from now onwards".
Turning his head to the girl from earlier on Lee finally understood her tear stained cheeks.
"Hie", Lee told her.
"Don't talk to me", Theresa looked out her window.
Lee Adams nodded his head and stared at her still, the only thing he could thing of was.
'She's black'.
Sure Lee's father was black, but his mother was white, and something told him that the newest addition to his family would cause chaos.
After many more moments of silence his mother broke it.
"How much did you have to drink Lee?"
Lee Adams gulped, "A few shots", he lied.
His mother frowned, "Lee you know you shouldn't ---------".
Lee's father cut her short, "Sweetheart I don't think this is the time".
His wife feigned ignorance, "I'm simply just saying I don't think it's advisable for him to attend the funeral drunk".
Theresa chuckled "Despite him bein' drunk, he shouldn't attend Mama's funeral, he didn't know her and neither did any of you. I don't know whether you think just because I'm related to this", she stopped to stare at her father, "bastard! you think you have to attend the funeral of a woman you never knew".
Elizabeth Adams fumed, "If you are going to stay with us, from now onwards I expect you to keep that tone down, your father is way older than you, you should respect him".
Theresa frowned, "He's a bastard and if you trying to change the way I sound because its not up to your fancy expectations then I suggest you should simply take me back home, he wasn't there most of my whole motherfucking life and you expect me to give him the world's best dad cup!".
Elizabeth turned beetroot red and clammed her mouth shut.
"Theresa", her father began "I'm sorry for-----".
Theresa laughed "Your sorry won't do anything for me, keep it, just drive me to the funeral and none of you talk to me".
Lee's eyed were blown wide. He had never once raised his voice at his parents, talkless of swearing in front of them.
Elizabeth sighed, "The-rii-sa-----",she reasoned.
Theresa screamed.
"My name is Theresa not The-rii-sa".
Elizabeth nodded, thinking that was a complete barbaric way to pronounce it, she would have corrected her but she didn't want chaos to re-errupt.
Lee sat still-ly awkward and watched intently as they approached the venue.
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💜AIO💜