A Perfect Evening

The knock at the door interrupts her thoughts. She walks quickly to the door annoyed about the interruption and hopes she can get them away as quick as possible.

“Hi Jess, can I come in?” says Edward as she opens the door.

She decides that a bit of company wouldn’t be all that bad.

“Yeah, sure I’m just about to watch a movie”

“Oh cool, I thought that you’d be out tonight”

“No just a quiet night in for me, are you hungry, the pizza will be ready soon”

Edward hadn’t seen it before, but he loves it. They probably spend more time talking about it than watching. It’s also looking like she can probably kick him out and still have some time to herself without being too rude. Then an unfamiliar sound interrupts the ambience

“Yo what’s up?” says Edward talking into his phone. “Yeah, me and jess are just watching movies, sure you can come over” he says looking at Jess like he’s asking her, she responds with a shrug knowing she doesn’t really have a choice.

“JASON, MATE!!!!”

“Hey!!! I brought some beers, what are we watching? Oh, and I hope it’s okay Chris and Sam are coming over too”

“Sure, the more the merrier I guess “replied Jess not really sure that more would be merrier.

“Hi guys, sorry we are babysitting tonight so we had to bring them with us, this is Sarah and Tim, they’re twins” says Chris

“Oh, are they allowed to watch M rated movies?” Jess inquired

“Probably not, don’t worry though they’re going to be on their tablets, so they won’t even notice” replies Sam

“Oh, okay then um maybe they can sit on the couch in that room you can still see them from here”

“Yeah, great thx you’re the best, come on guys” the two children walk in zombie fashion face down in their screens.

The next hour was good Jess thought. Her perfect night was ruined yes but she did have friends around so that was okay. It was more than she wanted still they weren’t going to be staying the night or anything, the kids would have to be going to bed soon surely. Yep, all was good…. until the battery on the tablets ran out.

“Sorry I didn’t think to bring a charger, do you have one?” Sam asked slightly panicked.

“No sorry not for that type”

It didn’t matter though as the twins had already wondered off to find a new source of entertainment.

“I’ll go find them,” said Chris.

“Oh man, where’s your toilet, I gotta go?” said Jason who had drunk at least four of the beers he had brought with him in the past half hour. She pointed down the hall to the left.

There was a scream from somewhere in the house. Sam said she would go and check it out as it sounded like one of the twins.

This was the moment Jess decided, if she kicked everyone out now, she could still salvage some of her precious time to herself before her parents returned.

“Hey, I’m feeling like it’s past my bedtime, I might have to hit the hay”

“No worries we’ll make sure to lock up when we leave” replied Edward

“Oh, it’s probably better if you guys go and we can organise to do this again another time”

“Yeah, but I’m all comfortable right now”

The sound of someone who had been drinking too much too fast came from the toilet.

“And it sounds like Jason isn’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon”

Jess stood their fuming deciding what to do “how about a I call you a taxi so you can take him home?”

“Hey sorry to interrupt but can we stay the night? You have heaps of beds and it’s going to be really hard for us to get the twins home this late” said Chris re-entering the room with Sam

“We’ve called their parents, their fine with it” said Sam misinterpreting Jess’s expression

“Sounds good to me, you did invite us over Jess, let me call the rest of the gang, they can bring some more drinks and make it a real party” said Edward Jovially

Jess began to twitch. She had spent ages organising the cruise for her parents and making sure no-one else would be over this weekend so she could spend the time she needed to recharge. The only mistake she could think of was that she had opened the door. She could have just ignored it and pretended she wasn’t home. Then her perfect evening would still be here.

Then something broke, literally, there was a loud snap from the bathroom and Jason hobbled out.

“Sorry somehow your door handle just snapped, guess it’s not designed to be stood on”

Then something inside Jess snapped. She was no longer going to take this they stole her night, they threatened to steal tomorrow as well and now this!

“Get out!” She screamed as she snatched the door handle from Jason’s hand, she threw it across the room somehow turning on her parent’s cd player. Music from some action movie soundtrack blasted out. The thumping of the beat fuelled her aggression. She grabbed Jason carried him to the front door and threw him out, not caring where her newfound strength had come from. She turned back down the hall bent on finding and removing the others. She heard something breaking and two children laughing. Guess the twins will be the second ones to leave she thought.

She found them throwing glasses in the kitchen and watching them smash on the ground

“What are you doing?” she screamed. They looked at her and giggled then ran in separate directions. She chose to go after Tim first, running through the rooms, he ducked under tables she followed, he jumped and swung around on the fan, she followed, he bounced off pillars and she followed.

Then he was cornered. She walked towards him slowly, knowing he couldn’t escape. She was about to grab him when something large and heavy rammed into her back knocking her over. Sarah was there, the two of them ran off as she picked herself up to give chase. She heard a soft whining noise, the puppy she was looking after from the pet shop!

She found the twins ripping pages out of books. Slowly she crept holding the puppy out in front of her. The twins instantly became enthralled by it. “Can I pat it?” asked Tim “Me too!” said Sally. Slowly Jess backed away, the twins followed. As soon as they were out the front door she raced back inside and closed it behind them. She put the puppy back in its bed and went to look for their babysitters. She knew the twins shouldn’t be left outside alone for too long, so she had to get them fast.

She found them out the back, jumping on the trampoline.

“Hey, it’s time to go, the twins are already out the front” She called

“No-way we’re having too much fun, and who’s going to make us” they said in unison before they flipped off the trampoline landed in front of Jess ready to fight “You?”

Jess kicked out at Chris, then blocked a blow to the face from Sam. She jumped back dodging kicks and punches from the two babysitters. She spun around a big tree, using it as a barrier. They lunged for her she dodged easily. Quickly they realised this wasn’t working so they split up coming around the tree for her from different directions. She jumped up putting her years of dancing practice to good use and landed on the nearest branch pulling herself into the tree.

“You can’t stay up there forever Jess” the girls said in unison.

When had they started doing that she thought? they weren’t even that close as friends. Still, they had a point she couldn’t stay up here forever. The girls began circling the tree taunting her to come down.

She put all her power into a single massive leap from the tree landing perfectly on the trampoline springing high into the air above the house. Chris and Sam followed flipping over onto the trampoline and jumped up to catch Jess on the way down. She was ready for them though twisting her body so that she fell faster using her gymnastic knowledge to stretch out and grab the two girls before they could react. They attempted to kick and wriggle free. Jess had changed too many of her little cousins’ nappies to be thrown off by their feeble attempts. All three of them landed on the trampoline, Jess made sure to use their combined weight to the best advantage as they sprang back up and as they almost reached the zenith of their jump, she took hold of the momentum and threw the girls over the house and into the pool out the front. She heard shouts of “that was sick” and “hell’s yeah” coming from the twins amongst the splashes. There was just one more ‘guest’ left to remove, and she would finally seize back her perfect night.

“Congratulations!” came a voice from the house as she stood next to the trampoline catching her breath. She looked up to see the silhouette of Edward standing at one of the windows on the top floor.

“You’ve done well to get rid of the rest, though you will find that I am in a whole different league”

“We’ll see” Jess shouted back as she ran into the house.

Toys lay strewn across the stairs. Debris from the twins or an attempt to trap her? she wasn’t sure. Still, she carefully leapt up the stairs, the door at the end of the hallway was open, the door to her parent’s room, the biggest room in the house. She walked carefully inside; Edward stood at one end brandishing one of her hockey sticks. She looked around and found another on the wall not far from her.

“I wanted this to be fair,” he said indicating the hockey stick next to her “of course you can just surrender, go with my plan and I’ll invite the others over”

HIS PLAN! she thought “You stole my evening, you could have left when I asked nicely, there is no way I am going to surrender to you” her voice now barely containing her anger

“Let do this then” he said as he leapt into the air with the hockey stick high in the air. Jess quickly reached out and grabbed the stick by the wall. Too late though as Edward landed his stick on her outstretched leg. Pain shot through her, she brought her own stick around and into his side, he rolled away. She stood up swinging at him, he parried the hit and launched his fist into her chest. She managed to avoid most of the force however he still connected and causing her to roll to the side. She needed to get him closer to the front door. She backed away blocking his attacks, the stairs were behind her. She had to time this correctly, he swung, she returned in kind, no luck it was only a glancing blow, again he swung. She swung her stick at the hook end, success! they connected.

He pulled, she was ready though and stayed her ground. She then pulled him which he wasn’t ready for as she gracefully stepped out of the way letting him tumble down the stairs. He slowly got up collecting himself. Jess was too fast though, sliding down the banister and uppercutting him with the stick. He flew backward sliding across the wooden floor. He stopped short of the front door, Jess readied herself and waited for his attack. Edward stood up and taunted Jess.

They both stood there each waiting for the other to attack first, neither sure what their next attack should be. Jess knew she needed an advantage, but how? she couldn’t open the door and each attack meant sacrificing her defence. She looked around nothing, wait up! on the ceiling. Edward saw her reaction and tried to follow what she had seen. It was too late though. She hooked one of the scented candles she had lit earlier and flung it up towards the smoke detector.

It shattered sending burning wax and glass everywhere. Most important of all it set off the alarm itself. Edward lost concentration as he avoided the glass and tried to cover his ears. Jess breathed in the Dewberry, Peach and Bergamot scent as she seized her opportunity and swiftly opened the door, tripped Edward up and shoved him out the front door. She had done it, she had won! she thought to herself as she beamed with pride.

“Uh Jess? Hello Jess?” Edward stood at the door with a paper bag in his hand “are you okay?”

Jess blinked “yeah um sorry, got lost in my thoughts for a moment there, what’s up?” she said as she held her dressing gown together.

“I was just on my way home, and I thought I would return the books I borrowed from you the other day, they were great by the way”

“Oh, you’re welcome, you don’t want to come in?”

“Thx but no I’ve got a quiet night at home with my name on it”

“You’re not catching up with Jason?”

“Who’s Jason?

“Oh, no-one, don’t mind me, thanks again Edward, hope you have a good night”

“Thx I will, us introverts need to have time to ourselves, right?”

“Right” she replied

Jess watched him leave then locked the door, grabbed her pizza, walked to the couch, and laid down watching the puppy sleep happily in its basket before turning on the tv. She decided that maybe she had better see a counsellor about her thoughts or something, then again, she would never let anything ruin her perfect evening.