Family Gains

“We just don’t love each other the same way anymore.” said Carla’s father, forking steamed broccoli into his mouth.

“No Tom, you don’t love me at all.” Sandra replied quietly.

“It just always boils down to money with you Sandra, I don’t know how or why you started caring so much but It’s paper and you’re letting it ruin your life! Our life!”

“It’s just paper? This is our livelihoods we're talking about! Earnings that we saved together mind you. It’s my money too! How could you lose the book? And more importantly who writes down bank account information in this day and age? You make stupid, childish mistakes and then you just expect me to let them go but I canno-”

“Can we just like, just have dinner in peace for once? God, it’s like every night with you people. I’m so sick of it! God, FUCK! You know what? You did it. You win. Want me to go away? I’m not even hungry anymore. I’m going to Jackie’s. Goodnight.”

“Not Jackie’s. Please? Carla? you know we hate her. If there’s anything your mother and I agree on, it's how rotten she is. Please, for God sakes if you respect anything we ask you-”

Carla stomped off to her room and slammed the door. She snatches her phone up and dials her best friend. “Jackie, can you please come get me? These children are throwing tantrums again.”

“Girl, again? I’m on my way.”

She packs her purse and dresses comfortably. Slipping out of the window, she wonders what it would be like to be free from the cage.

“I just feel like if they really cared about you and each other they could at least like, tone it down for dinner, you know?” Jackie says

“I know it’s a shitshow you don’t have to tell me.” Carla sighed.

“No! No! It’s not that at all! I think you just need to take your mind off of things. I have a surprise for you!.” Jackie responded, smiling. She pulls her backpack off and unzips it. After digging around she pulls out a small piece of aluminum foil.

“Jackie what the hell is that!?”

“SHHH!” she exclaims, giggling. “It’s LSD. have you ever-”

“Oh hell no! No no no no no no! I am NOT trying acid tonight! I don’t do drugs. Like at all. Like, I don't even do weed.”

Jackie snorted with laughter. “You don’t do weed Carla, you smoke it. Stupid. You need to loosen up. Please? It’ll be over quick. I heard it’s so fun and I love you so much. I think it would be perfect if we did it together!”

“No. a MILLION times no!”

“What do I have to do? Hmm? I’ll cook for you. We can paint. I’ll do your makeup. Come on carla anything! please? “

Carla thought to herself for a moment. The things she saw about LSD on TV made her feel like maybe it was a good idea to try it after what happened tonight, but she was still afraid. She’d never smoked or drank or done anything wild like her friends. How could she jump straight to Acid? She always promised her parents: good grades, no drugs. She was allowed to do literally anything else.

It seemed just crazy enough for her to do it.

“Give me half” she muttered.

“Yes! I promise we are going to have so much fun! It's lit! I'll be back, I'm going to go cut it!”

She came back with her hand pressed carefully forward.

“I already took mine”

Carla popped the little square in her mouth and about 20 minutes later she began feeling light. Her and Jackie sat in mostly silence besides their music softly playing. Carla began to quietly giggle.

“You feel it too?” Jackie oozed.

“Most definitely.”

For the next few hours they blasted music in the living room talking about which celebrities inspired them and why. They talked about how their life was truly limitless and how the people on their screens were made of the same flesh and bone they were. Carla couldn’t help but feel a flicker of sadness. She was ready for the next chapter in her life.

“We could do anything if we put our minds to it!” Jackie exclaims. “I mean, look at Beyonce. She is so powerful. All she does is work for what she has. If you worked as hard as her, you could be just like her.”

“Life is depressing” Carla groaned

“Sometimes, I guess it depends on how you look at it though. You want a cigarette?” Jackie pulled out a pack of Red Marlboro’s and offered Carla the pack. Carla took a cigarette and let Jackie light it with the butt of hers.

“I bet if your parents weren’t always making the air so thick in your house you wouldn’t be so sad all the time.” She said, dragging the cigarette.

“I know. I want to run away. And not just sneak out of the window, but I mean jump state lines. They would be so busy arguing they wouldn’t even notice.”

“You literally could if you wanted to. How much money do you have in your bank account?”

“Like $600.” Carla replied

“Definitely enough for a plane ticket and a hotel room, I would come with you.” Jackie sang.

Carla pulled the cigarette.

“You’re right.” Carla took out her phone. In just a few clicks she had a confirmation email for a plane ticket leaving in the morning.

“Are you going to buy yours?” She asked Jackie.

Jackie pulled out her phone and a few clicks later they were airport buddies.

“You know, this acid isn’t so bad. Did you take the whole thing?”

“Of course.”

“I guess I’ll take my other half now. I don’t want to be left out.”

“I never cut it in half.”

“Jackie, what?” Carla cried.

“I. Never. Cut. It.” She laughed.

“You lied to me?”

Suddenly Carla felt very hurt. She knew deep down it wasn’t that big of a deal, but for some reasons her emotions were overtaking her. She began crying and softly shaking.

“Bro, please calm your tits. We’re peaking, don’t you start crying right now. You're going to ruin the trip.”

“No you’re going to ruin the trip! How can I travel across the country with someone who lies to my face!” Carla screamed.

“You’re totally blowing this all out of proportion. I literally just wanted you to have a good time. I knew if we weren’t like, on the same level or whatever you wouldn’t enjoy yourself.”

“Then you should’ve only taken half! You laced me!”

“I laced you? Carla, don’t play victim you agreed. And honestly, I couldn't find any scissors. So even if i didn't care about you and how much fun you had I wouldn’t have been able to cut it anyways.”

“You bitch! You take everything too far. Everything! I’m going home.”

“How? I drove you here carla. You are always tripping! I have some water in my bag. I will dig it out for you.”

Carla begins digging through her bag and a small, black jornal falls out onto the carpet. She stares blankly at it before trying to scoop it up.

“Is that my dad’s Bank Book?” Carla questioned. “Why in the hell would you have that, jackie?”

“I was going to tell you! It was supposed to be a surprise queen! I know how much you hate your parent’s so I took the liberty of-”

“Causing them to argue for the last six months? I sit there for that. That ruins my day too. How are you helping me? And jackie what the fuck happened to their money? What did you do?”

“Shhhhhh Carla you’re going to get us caught!”

“Us? US? There is no us right now! You have so much explaining to do.”

“Damnit Carla! When I called you over here to trip with me, and to take a trip with me I was going to surprise you!”

“With my Dad’s bank account information?”

“No… with this.” Jackie pulled an overstuffed Chanel wallet. She opens it and hundred dollar bills flash vividly. A piece of paper sticks out and Jackie hands it to Carla. Her eyes bulged. It was a check for $20,000 with her name on it.”

“I drained it Carla. The whole account. If they were good parents, this is the money they were gonna use to send you to some shitty university anyways. Technically, it was already yours. Of course, I took some off the top for a service fee, but not much. It’s yours. Now on this trip you can literally go start your own life.”

“I legit cannot believe the words coming from your lips right now,” Carla said.

“Don’t think about it. Just go with it. The only way to give it back is by giving your parents their money out of your hands, and some of it is definitely missing. How would you explain that? Don’t think about what’s right, think about what Carla wants. What do you always say? You want to be free, right? Fly away? Right? Well now you’ve got thousands of dollars and a plane ticket. What else could you possibly want?”

Jackie sat quietly twiddling the check between her fingers. After careful thought she spoke confidently.

“We’d better get some sleep then Jackie.”