Jesse

Maddie was kind enough to inform me that the party was a day after she told me that we would be having a party in the first place. I wasn’t too surprised, already used to Maddie’s spur of the moment plans that she never really thought out. For the first time, I wake up to find the bed half empty. I hear the screen door pop open and close, along with Maddie’s nasal voice yelling out orders.

I deliberate between taking part in the party or crawling out through the bedroom window. Then I remember Tyler and wonder if he’s still in his room. That’s enough to get me awake and ready for the day. I check up on him, only to find him asleep, which gives me time to shower.

I’m spoon-feeding Tyler cereal, when Maddie barges in with some guy carrying a cake. I don’t pay them much attention, but I do cringe when I hear the chatter coming from Maddie’s friends. They’re the same three bitches from the bar that I met on the night I knocked Maddie up. All three of them are whores with fake orange tans and a minimum of at least four ex-husbands.

Maddie’s only been married once that I know of, but then again, she’s the youngest of the group. I didn’t see much of her annoying friends in the beginning, when Maddie ended up pregnant, but her group accepted her again once Tyler was born, as if he had never happened and things were back to normal. Now I saw them at least once a month, before I got the hell out and met up with the guys. I couldn’t stand Maddie’s friends even more than I could stand her.

“We have booze!” Tammy yells from the foyer. Easily the most annoying of the bunch, mostly because I’m almost sure she’s a drunk.

Tyler’s mad scared of them, which is good because we can both skirt away once we’re done with breakfast. Tammy wasn’t kidding when she said they brought booze. Maddie’s friends brought enough booze for a keger, not a little kid’s first birthday and I say keger because they literally brought in a keg.

I let Tyler play outside, while I smoke a cig. I can’t wait for this shit to be over. I can hear our neighbors, the reasons for the party we’re having, come in through the house. If I were any other person I might go inside to greet them, but they’ll realize that this party is a joke soon enough.

I watch a few guys from a rental place start to inflate a jumping balloon in our small yard, and realize that at least that was a nice touch. More money for Maddie to spend, but at least it made Tyler’s eyes light up when he saw it. I put my cigarette out and help Tyler climb into the balloon once it’s ready. I almost smile, watching him jumping and giggling like the kid he is.

I vaguely hear one of Maddie’s friends flirting with one of the rental guys, knowing that her fifth husband is probably inside. For a moment I want to transport Tyler and me to another reality. A place where it’s just us two and nothing around us exists. When Maddie was pregnant I used to have the same instances, where I wished I could just go to sleep and wake up somewhere else on my own, anywhere. Not like it really started when everything with Maddie did, I had those moments for my entire life. Ever since I was a kid and my no good dad used my mom as pay off for his gambling addiction.

I let a small bitter smile fall onto my face in Tyler’s direction, because I know he’ll grow up wishing he lived in another reality too. No chance about it. The shitty part was that we were both stuck, and we always will be.

Eventually more of the neighbor’s arrive since they’re the only people, aside from Maddie’s friends, that we know. I watch the kids play in the jumping balloon, making Tyler’s reality fade away for just a few minutes and I’m just a little bit less lost watching him.

Maddie’s cackling with her friends around the keg that’s been brought out, but I try to make that fade away too. I’m the only dad still looking at his kid jumping, but I’m alright with that.

I’m almost reaching a point where I can feel lighter, except that in that moment a loud sound pierces the air and shakes me away. I want to punch whomever broke me away from the black hole I was about to reach, but when I turn I see a clown’s back, tinkering with a small radio.

I’m pretty sure it’s a girl clown, because she has a huge bow on top of her head. When she turns, it’s like a signal for all of the kid’s who’ve been jumping to crawl out and surround her.

And I’m left all alone, beside the jumping balloon, hoping to escape away.

Things are about to get interesting! New chapter in a few minutes :)