All Happy Endings Have Their Flaws, chapter 1

The first thing I heard that morning was the damned alarm screeching in my ear. It was making a plead for me to wake up. Or maybe it was just trying to annoy me. I honestly couldn't tell which it was. I opened my eyes, moaning and groaning. I pounding my hand down upon the clock at my bedside, and it shut off. I looked around, my vision blurred and disgruntled. I sighed, and sat up, turned my head to my left. There, on the wall, was a calendar. I narrowed my eyes. And then they shot back open just as quickly.

The Green Day concert was tonight. Fuck.

***

I ran around the house. It was about one in the afternoon. My older sister glanced at me with a curious look in her eyes.
"What??" she demanded of me.
I looked at her, panting. I wore damaged jeans and a long-sleeve black shirt with a hood on the back.
"The-The Green Day concert is tonight, remember?!"
"... Oh. Yeah, that's right." She gave me a witty smile, "God forbid you missed that. The world would end!" She said sarcastically and laughed at me. I narrowed me eyes at her.
"Very funny... "
I ran back upstairs again and dove at the phone at the foot of my bed. I punched in numbers and held it up to my right ear.
"C'mon.. C'MON!!"
"Heyyyyyllo?"
"Sara!! Sara!! It's me."
"Oh, hiyeeee!! Slept late again, eeeeh, there, Eri?"
My name was Ericka. I hated my name. I sounded like a girl who should be dressed in pink and just pretended they listened to Green Day. Hah. So I guess Eri sounded better. Whether I liked it or not. That's what everyone called me.
"Yeah, yeah. Need the beauty sleep for the concert." I laughed.
"As IF!! I WISH I looked like you."
Alright, I guess I was at least slightly good-looking. I'm 22, and I have medium-length golden hair with black tips at the ends. My eyes were a normal blue, I didn't think much of them. Whatever.
"Well, c'mon over. We're leaving tonight, baby!"
"WH-HOO!" Click.
Tonight was going to be the greatest night of my life.

I hoped.

***

It was about 6 in the evening. I grinned at my greatest friend, and held up my car keys. She stood at the doorway of my house, grinning back.
"You ready?" I asked.
"I was BORN ready!" She asked. It was such a Sara answer.
I laughed, and we trotted to my Jetta. It wasn't a luxury car, but I loved it all the same. My sister called out to us. She was 30.
"Don't drink too much beer! Oh, and, call me! And also-"
"Jeez, take a fucking break, sis." I smiled at her. She smiled back weakly, knowing I was joking.
"Have... fun."
I nodded, "But of course."

And we drove off, blasting one of our favorite albums, Warning. We sang along to it as we sat in heavy traffic, probably scaring most of the innocent drivers not going to the concert. As for the others? They were fellow Green Day fans. And they sang with us.

I had a bad feeling in my gut all at the same time.

Summer has come and past...

Fuck. Where was that fucking coming from? Another car. That had to be it.

The innocent can never last...

FUCK. Turn it off!!

"Hey, you alright?" Sara questioned, looking at me with a blank expression.
"Yeah, yeah... I... yeah."

Wake me up...

I pressed a switch at my right on the door, and the windows went up. Now all we could hear were the sweet, pleasing lyrics of Misery.

My friend looked at me with pleading eyes. Here it comes. A lecture.
"I know it's hard, but-"
"Just stop." I interrupted.
She fell silent.

My parents died when I was 12. My mom died from lung cancer. She never stopped smoking. And my dad, well. When my mom died, he just gave up on living.

He committed suicide.

That fucking drunk.