First page short story

17 Hours, 4 minutes, and 20 Seconds

As the last bell rang at Alexander Hamilton High School, 5 teenagers rushed out of the open doors. Summer Vacation had started. Sophomore year was over. It was 86 degrees in Albany, Georgia. While Gabriel, David, Ryan, and Mark all went over to a girl’s house for a swim, John went home; as he did every day after school. He got home to the usual sight. His father passed out on the couch, empty bottle of whiskey on the three legged coffee table. John went straight to his room, and put on his black shoes, black slacks, and white button up shirt. As he walked out of the door, he stopped to look at himself in the mirror. He fixed his hair, put his nametag on, and walked to work. His dad works 4 days a week as a part time security guard at a bank. He spends most of his money on alcohol, and the rest goes to taxes. John works 3 jobs, 6 days a week.

    The summer started to go by very quickly. John worked a lot, but he went out with his friends when he could. Gabriel always stopped by at his job whenever he can to keep him company. They have been best friends since the 2nd grade. In the middle of the summer, Gabriel got his license. The very first day he got it, he drove straight to John’s work. But for some reason he wasn’t there. Gabriel figured he was at one of his other jobs. He drove to each of them but John wasn’t there. So he drove to John’s house. The door to the small house was open. Gabriel walked in to what John saw every day. Someone passed out on the couch, an empty whiskey bottle on the table. Except this time it was John who was asleep on the couch. Gabriel flipped him over, and saw the giant bags under his eyes. He had been crying and hadn’t slept the night before. Gabriel woke him up. In a frantic tone he asked “What happened, John?”

“My dad tried to commit suicide last night..”

“WHAT...?”

“And the child protective services took him. My grandparents are driving from Atlanta to get me in the morning.”

“Wait, why..? Wh.. I.. What the hell man..”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” said john in a disappointed tone. “can i stay at your place till they come?”

“Of course. Anything you need.”

    John thanked him and started to pack his stuff. they drove over to gabriel’s house and ate dinner. Gabriel went to sleep early, he had school in the morning. But John couldn’t sleep. His dad was openly an alcoholic, but he had no idea why or how he attempted to kill himself. He ended up falling asleep at around 3.

With only 5 hours of sleep, John got up to see his grandparents in the living room. They had both taken off work to come get him at 8 in the morning, so they weren’t the happiest campers in the world. The 3 of them stayed for breakfast, and started the 3 hour drive to atlanta. John slept the whole way there. When he walked in to his grandparents house, the first thing he did was go to his mother’s room, which was now his. He couldn’t take it. He had hated his mother his whole life for leaving him and his dad. After 5 seconds, he dropped to his knees and started sobbing. His grandmother walked into the room, but left and acted like she didn’t, since they had only met once. That once was 15 years ago. 15 years ago when she still had contact with her daughter, and her son in law was a business school, non-alcoholic, loving father.