Lina leaned into her hip and sighed deeply. She had a slicing headache that went at the same pace as her heart, quick and persisting. It made her skull feel bloated, as if it weren’t already filled with so much crap as it is.
Her father pounded his fist on the kitchen table, making the drinking glasses tremble.
“So why is it that every time I come home late, I’m accused of something, yet you—“
“Richard, I don’t want to start this again!” Her mother screeched.
The argument went on for nearly 45 minutes, and when each pound on the table or high-pitched scream or swear word erupted, it seemed like the world itself would end. And for the second time this month, a wedding book was flung across the room, a bottle shattered on the linoleum floor, and doors slamming.
Nobody was ever physically hurt, though; things were kept at a distance, although they were still strong enough to move mountains. The only thing that was really hurt or broken was Lina’s (and possibly her parent’s,) heart. This hurt her more than anything, seeing her parents fight this way.
When a pen came flying dangerously close to her head, Lina decided that enough was enough, and left the kitchen doorway for her room. Although her door was slammed shut, she could still hear the shouting, the cruel, vulgar words being fired into the air. It was as if she wasn’t even there to hear those evil things her parents called each other.

Even with her ipod cranked at near full volume, she could feel the vibrations from the house during their awful rage. She only stood about five more minutes of this until her terrible headache had bordered to the side of a terrible migraine. She shut off the ipod and buried her head under the pillow, cringing at every dull shout and bang coming from the kitchen.
Lina held her head in her hands, cradled it, until her temples exploded with pain, and she could no longer handle the shouting. Slowly, she lifted her heavy head from under the pillow and looked at her computer screen with blurry eyes. Tears gathered on the edges of her eyelids, but she dared not let them fall, at least not until she made it to the computer.

After moving the mouse to scare away the screensaver, she took a split second to look at Whiskers, the background computer image of Leroy’s cat. He seemed to glare at her with glowing green eyes.
Lina then opened the IM browser, desperately hoping Jackie was still awake.

locoLina96: Jack? Are you still there? Please tell me you’re awake…..

She waited impatiently for a response, and got one a few minutes later, with a ping.

Jack_of-all-trades: yeah, I’m here. So what’s up?

Thank god Jackie leaves her computer on at night…..Thought Lina.

locoLina96: my parents are fighting again…

And with that recognition, a few more teardrops fell onto the keyboard.
Jack_of-all-trades: Is it really bad this time?

locoLina96: yeah. And I was wondering if maybe I could crash at your place tonight…..

locoLina96: I mean, I’m just really scared…

As her parents started up again, Lina’s body wracked with spasms of chocked-off sobs.

Jack_of-all-trades: um, well, I don’t really know. It’s already almost 10:30…….is it really that bad?

Lina heard a sharp and long tearing noise, as if something had just been torn apart. She dreaded to find out what it was……
She didn’t respond.

Jack_of-all-trades: ok, I’ll be right over. Meet me in a few. See ya.

Jackie logged out.

Lina took a ragged breath, opened her window, and stepped out into the bushes with her sandals. The air was humid, as if it might rain, but it was impossible to tell in the dark starless sky.

Just as promised, Jackie, only a year older than 14 year old Lina, appeared out of the shadows in a matter of minutes. Lina’s sandals clopped as she walked closer to Jackie, who embraced her in a tight squeeze.
“You ok?” she asked.
Lina whimpered slightly and laid her head down on Jackie’s shoulder, not wanting her tears to be seen. Jackie patted her back lightly, and led her away from the bushes and the porch light, onto the sidewalk. There, they walked with arms around each other’s shoulders, each step departing from the chaos at Lina’s house.

In all of the four years that she had known Jackie, Lina could not remember a time when she let her down or was not there for her when she needed help. Not once.

Jackie was a faithful friend.