Allison and I were what anyone from the surface would see as just a typical brother and sister; and while it's true that we loved each other and oftentimes fought each other as brother and sister, we weren't related at all by blood. Many people we would encounter just assumed we were brother and sister and for the most part we would never correct them because it didn't matter. We would only correct those we'd see all of the time. One of her close friends thought we were brother and sister for an unnaturally long time before she found out that our parents were married when we were both very young. Adding to the confusion was the fact that we all had the same last name and she had ALWAYS called my dad "daddy." Some people thought we were at least half brother and sister, but we'd always correct them with one word... STEP.
My dad married Allison's mom Melissa when Allison was two, nearly three and I was four, nearly five. They got married in early October, and neither of us had had our birthdays yet since she was born on October 21 and I was born December 6. In fact this particular day was just a few days after Allison's 18th birthday and our parents were celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. Allison and I always joked that just as she was gaining on me age wise I was about ready to gain the upper hand come December.
My mother had her fair share of troubles after I was born, including drug addiction. She had spent some time in rehab centers and a brief court-ordered stint in a psychiatric hospital. Needless to say, I didn't see much of her growing up and in fact my dad put a stop to all of that completely from ages 5-15. So for ten years the only mother I knew was Allison's mom Melissa.
It was very confusing for a four year old, but for two year Allison it seemingly wasn't nearly as bad. Allison never really knew her father and the situation wasn't nearly as complicated as the situation with my mother. Allison's father had died when she was two. What made both situations unique and similar at the same time was that neither of our parents were married before they married each other, so neither Allison nor her mom ever had her birth father's last name, nor had they had any other children before or after they were married to each other.
So Allison and I were both technically an only child, and barring any surprises we were going to always be. And we were ok with that. If nothing else, we had each other and that was always just fine with us. Our parents worked a lot and at a certain point would even take vacations without us. They figured we were old enough to take care of ourselves for a week. It's not that we didn't go on trips together at all or that they didn't care about us. We would all occasionally go away for a long weekend and we took plenty of week-longs when we were younger. But at a certain point our parents just decided to travel alone and they actually at times felt bad about it but Allison and I encouraged them to travel as often as they could while they still could. They had promised to one day fund a trip for just the two of us, but that hadn't happened yet, was rarely talked about except for the day they promised it, and we didn't even know where we wanted to go anyways.
I had been in college for two years already and it had been routine for me to come and stay with Allison when our parents went away. I never felt like I had to "watch" her, but still the idea of her staying alone kind of bugged me. Of course lately I had just been using it as an excuse to spend time with her alone, as my feelings for her were starting to develop into something I couldn't quite explain in words.
Along with still being in high school and not planning on graduating until June, she had a job at a local farmer's market where she had worked her way up to a position in management after working there during most of high school. The owners treated and paid her well, so she was happy and she was saving money as well all the while still living with our respective parentsβwhich of course isn't uncommon at all for someone still in high school. Even though I didn't have to anymore, I still lived on campus at my college. It was a lot easier on me than trying to have to figure something out and it was a bit of a commute to try and go to school and still live at home.
There had already been a handful of occasions, as I mentioned, that I'd go home and it would just be me and Allison for a weekend. It was hard to have everything work out perfectly in the fall because I often wouldn't come back until Saturdays after football was over, and Allison's long-time boyfriend Troy was a star wide receiver on the football team and she'd often be at the games until late Friday. But on this particular weekend in the fall, both or our schools had away games. Allison had told Troy at the beginning of the season she wouldn't be making this particular trip because it was just too far and she might have to work the next day. Even if she didn't have to work, she wasn't going to plan on going since she didn't want to try to change things at the last minute.
Once the day got closer, she found out she'd have to work on Sunday only but her Saturday was free. And that was kind of rare because the farm market had all kinds of extra activities going on during the weekends in October for their annual fall festival and usually hired extra people during that time just to make sure everything was staffed. Saturdays were always the busiest though and Allison insisted on having at least one Saturday off in October since she'd more than likely be working each and every other Saturday and Sunday both during that particular time. So while it was all perfect this time and while I had no other plans than to spend some quality time with Allison, I hadn't exactly planned for everything that would transpire that weekend.
I had become somewhat of an expert at scheduling my classes at this point in my college career and I nearly got out of taking classes at all on Fridays this semester, but I had only scheduled one class, and it was a later one from 3-4. I spent most of my time in the library from whatever time I got up on Friday until it was time for class, breaking only for lunch. This particular semester hadn't been going on long at all, but that was my routine and I liked it. I always went home after my three o'clock class was over but this would be the first time this semester that I'd be going home to an empty house since our parents had already left for their long weekend to celebrate their anniversary and Allison would be at work until at least 6 and probably even a little longer considering she wouldn't be there at all the next day. So sure enough, when I rolled in at a little after 5 on Friday, I walked into an empty house.
I had just kicked my shoes off and sat down on the couch and pulled my phone out to see I had a text from my on again/off again girlfriend Jessica. Before I was able to really even open it, I got another text from Allison.
"Hey!! Are you home yet?? What's for dinner? I'm starving. Hope you're making something good!" and of course it had some goofy faces after it.
I had been thinking about this night for some time and just thought that we would stay in and order a pizza like 80 percent of the rest of the country on a Friday night. When I told her this plan, she said it sounded amazing but we'd have to put it off until tomorrow.
"What the fuck?" I thought to myself. She then replied "Yeah... I was just kinda kidding about you making me dinner before. I might grab a quick snack at home but I have some plans tonight. It's kind of a last minute thing and I'm sorry. Kris and I are going to the Lawsons' tonight for a little senior get-together."
We lived on a lake and had a nice community of people around us. Everyone knew everyone. There was also a housing development close to the lake and directly across the street from the high school. The Lawsons, who had two children, lived in that particular housing development and had by far the nicest house there. I knew their son but didn't graduate in the same class as he did because he was older, but Allison was in the same grade as their daughter Trisha and close friends with her. Allison's best friend by far was her friend Kristen or "Kris" though. Since they had such a big house, the Lawsons frequently held large gatherings there for their kids' respective classes and other friends.
Things never got too crazy there, but I had already seen some buzz about the party on Facebook and knew that Mr. and Mrs. Lawson wouldn't be in town so obviously things might get a little more crazy than usual. At least the football team or the cheerleaders wouldn't be there. When Allison told me, I surprisingly wasn't all that disappointed that she was going. While I had been looking forward to spending the evening with her, I knew that we'd have all day the next day to do whatever we wanted and even potentially not even have to leave the house.
So I just texted back "Ok, that's fine. Have fun."
Sensing I was being short with her, although I really wasn't, she texted "Don't be mad. I need you in a good mood because I need a favor" with an angel face next to it.
"Well are you going to spare me the suspense and just tell me what it is now?"
"No I'll wait until I get home. I'm finishing up here and I'll be headed that way soon. Love you."