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He suddenly stopped his assault on his guitar.  Even in his drunken state, Roxie’s words stung.  He turned around slowly to face her.  He stared at her for a few minutes before turning on his heel and walking out of the room.

Roxie felt bad.  She hadn’t meant to say that.  “Nick, wait.”  He stopped but didn’t turn around.  The mere fact that he stopped was enough for Roxie to know that she had his attention.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Yes you did.” He cringed to himself when he realized his words were slurring together.  “The truth always comes out in the heat of the moment.  If you want to report me, I won’t stop you.  She’ll probably be better off without me anyway.”  He walked down the stairs and through the kitchen until he reached the basement door. 

He had stashed a 24 pack case of bottled water as well as several bottles of vodka Grabbing a bottle of water and his open bottle of vodka, he headed toward the bathroom with the intent of dumping the water down the drain so he could pour the vodka into the water bottle and hide the fact that he wasn’t drinking water.

After what just transpired, he had decided to lock himself in the basement, not wanting to see anyone.  He figured that Roxie would call child services on him and he’d lose Ariel forever and he couldn’t bear the thought that after everything he went through he was going to lose his daughter anyway.  Even though it hurt that he would lose his daughter, he felt it was for the best that she’d finally get a decent parent.  Placing the bottle of vodka on the bathroom sink, he reached to unscrew the top off of the bottle of water.  Halfway through the motion, he stopped and walked back to the broken down couch in the other room.  He returned his water bottle to its hiding spot and grabbed the bottle of vodka.  After unscrewing the cap, he put the bottle to his lips and took a big gulp of the alcoholic liquid and winced at the burning sensation that the alcohol caused in his throat.

Roxie felt horrible for what she said.  Not only had she hurt her boyfriend but she had forgotten that Ariel was in the room, causing her to hurt Ariel as well.  Ariel had run out of the room after that, without either Nick or Roxie noticing.  After Nick walked off, Roxie found Ariel crying in her room.  She had managed to comfort Ariel by promising her that she didn’t mean that she was going to report her father to child services and promised her that she’d watch The Little Mermaid with her until Nick emerged from the basement.

The phone rang, causing Roxie to jump.  Ariel had fallen asleep against her from pure emotional exhaustion.  Roxie moved cautiously to not disturb Ariel and grabbed the phone.  “Hello?”

“Hey sis.”

Roxie sighed, seemingly in relief.  “Hey Mandy.  I’m so glad you called.”

“Really?  Well, my husband has all five kids so I figured maybe we could go do something, just the two of us.”

“That sounds great but I can’t.”

“Aww, why not?”

“I have to watch Ariel.” 

“Oh.”  Amanda seemed just as disappointed as Roxie felt.  “Well, how about I come there?  We can just talk or whatever.”

Roxie was unsure.  She really wanted her sister to come over but the whole thing that just happened with Nick made her a little leery.  She made a split second decision.  “Sure, that’d be great.”  If Nick could lock himself in the basement and ignore his fatherly responsibilities, then she won’t feel guilty about having company while he was downstairs pouting.

“Will Ariel be okay to play by herself?  Or should I convince the girls to come with me?”

“Um, I don’t think Ariel is in much of a play mood right now.  The situation with Nick is affecting her too.”

“What situation with Nick?” 

“Um, I’ll explain it when you get here.  It’s a long story.”

“Alright, well I’ll be there soon.  See ya.”

Roxie hung up the phone only to have it ring again in her hand.  “Hello?”

“Hi, Roxie?”

“Yeah, who is this?”

“Bob Carter, Nick’s father.”

“Oh, hi Mr. Carter.”

“Call me Bob.  So anyway, I was taking the family to an amusement park tomorrow and I thought you and Nick would like to come with Ariel.”

“Thanks but we can’t.”

“Oh?”

“Nick and I aren’t feeling too good right now.”  She said referring to her nausea and his emotional issues.

“Oh, well that’s too bad.  I hope you two feel better.”

“Thanks Bob.  Bye.”  Roxie said hanging up the phone.  She felt bad that she was well enough that she was letting her sister visit, but not well enough to spend time with Nick’s family.  She reasoned, that Nick probably wouldn’t want to go anyway after they day they just had. 

She looked down at the little girl next to her and couldn’t help feel bad that she was pulled into this craziness.  She got lost in her thoughts when she started thinking about Nick and wondering what was bothering him and whether or not he’ll ever open up about it.

The doorbell rang and Roxie immediately made her way over to the door so she could invite her sister in. 

“Hi Rox.”  Amanda said with a smile.”

“Hi Mandy.”  Roxie couldn’t muster up a smile.

“Are things that bad?”

“It’s just rough.  Well come in.  We’ll have to hang out in the kitchen.  Ariel is sleeping in the living room.”  They entered the kitchen.  “Would you like something to drink?”

“No thanks.  Sit.  You look like you need to talk so get talking.”

Roxie finally sat down.  “I don’t know where to start.”

“Well, I think the beginning would be a good place.”  Roxie smiled.  “Good, I got you smiling.  Now, please tell me what’s going on.  Are you and Nick okay?”

Roxie looked down.  “I don’t know.”

“You guys seemed really happy the day I was here.”

“We were really happy.  And then without warning, he seemed to have turned into a different person all together.”

“Well, something must have happened.”

Roxie thought about it.  “He’s been different since Ariel broke her arm.”

“Different how?”

“Well, at first he got angry easily.  Over the past couple weeks he’d go between melancholy and angry as well as very aggressive.  Just about an hour or two ago, he got so aggressive that he became scary.  He destroyed his guitar.  And I got upset and said some stuff I shouldn’t have said and now he’s locked himself in the basement.  I just don’t know what to do anymore.”

“What did you say to him?”

Roxie looked away, ashamed of what she was about to admit to her sister.  “I said that I should’ve called child services when I first met him and that I was going to call now because he was an unfit father.”  She blinked and a tear rolled down her cheek.  “I didn’t mean it.  I was just upset and now he won’t come out of the basement.”

“Something must’ve happened.”

“But he won’t talk to me, so what am I supposed to do?”

“Well, what exactly happened?”

“What do you mean?  I already told you what happened.”

“You said that he changed after Ariel broke her arm, so something must’ve happened then.”

“He blamed himself, when really it was both of our faults.  We were fighting and not watching her.”

Suddenly Amanda looked at Roxie with a very serious expression.  “It sounds almost like he’s drinking.”

“What?”

“Well, he blames himself for his daughter; he’s had personality changes and mood swings, has gotten very aggressive and took it out on an inanimate object.”  She paused.  “That’s probably a good thing.  If he’s getting aggressive enough to destroy a guitar at least he destroyed the guitar and didn’t hit you and/or Ariel.”

“I don’t think he’s drinking.  He had a problem with alcohol and drugs years ago, but he’s sober now.  He knows better.”

“All it takes is one weak moment for an alcoholic to revert back to old ways.”

“I don’t think so.  He wouldn’t do that.”

“If you say so.”

Ariel chose that moment to walk into the kitchen.  “Hi Ariel.  How was your nap?”  Roxie asked.

Ariel just shrugged and climbed onto Roxie’s lap.  She saw Amanda across the table.  “Hi.”

“Hi sweetie.”

Ariel laid her head on Roxie’s chest.  “Can you read me a book?”  Ariel asked suddenly.

Roxie placed Ariel on the floor and patted her butt gently.  “Go get a book and we’ll meet you in the living room.”

“Okay.”  Ariel ran from the kitchen and up to her bedroom, to return minutes later with a book.  She handed Roxie the book and crawled onto Roxie’s lap.

Roxie took the book and opened it to the first page.  As she was reading she began pointing out how to say certain words so that Ariel could read them.  Every time Roxie came to similar words, she would point at it for Ariel.  Roxie closed the book after reading the last page.  “Again.”  Ariel said with an excited squeal.

“Maybe later.”

Nick walked into the living room at that moment.  While he was downstairs, he drank a little more than half a bottle of vodka.  He noticed the three girls in the living room and knew that if he wanted to keep his alcohol consumption a secret, he needed to stay quiet and hope that he could walk straight enough.

A floor board creaking alerted the girls of a visitor.  Roxie turned around and smiled at him.  “So, you decided to come out.”

“Yeah.”  He mumbled quietly.

Ariel turned to look at her daddy.  “Why don’t you love me?”

“I do love you Ariel.”  He hoped the slur in his voice wasn’t as noticeable to the others as it was to him.

“You don’t act like you love me.  You’re always yelling at me, even when I don’t do anything wrong.  I miss you Daddy.”

“How can you miss me?  I’m right here.  I’ve always been right here.”

“You don’t act like my daddy.  My daddy was nice and loved me.  You aren’t nice and you don’t love me.”

“I do love you Ariel.”  Nick said then turned on his heel and heading back to the kitchen.

Amanda watched him walk away.  Damn, that boy is fucking wasted. 

In the kitchen, Nick was sitting on the stool, by the counter. Ariel’s words kept echoing in his head.

“Nick?”

“Not now Roxie, please.”

“Can you please talk to me?”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”  He stood up and grabbed a bottle of water that was filled with vodka before heading up the stairs.  He entered the bedroom, closing the door behind him.  He had intended on locking the door, but he slid down the door crying before he could.  He couldn’t get Ariel’s words out of his head.  He stood up and walked to the bed, hoping that the 24 ounce bottle of vodka would be enough to make him pass out.