Emerson was tired. Job hunting had been quite the ordeal. He had put applications in at a dozen different places. He felt optimistic about finding a job. He'd put in so many applications, he had to at least get a few interviews. As long as he did well at the interviews, someone had to hire him.

They'd been home for just over an hour and spent the entire time cleaning. They hadn't gotten up to his room yet, but the kitchen was nearly spotless. He glanced at the clock as he finished mopping. Lacey would be home shortly with the car and Zee needed to be leaving for work in a half an hour. Dresden had finished the dishes some time ago and was sitting at their table reading. Music played upstairs while Zee got ready for work. The evening was peaceful.

Emerson started putting away cleaning supplies, mumbling along to the music from upstairs. For once he felt okay. He knew Zee was probably still upset with him and he felt awful about it, but the house seemed calm and he didn't feel like he had the last several weeks. That made him happy. He was so tired of being angry and sad all the time. He hoped that this meant it was over for a while. He smiled to himself. It had to be over, whatever it was.

The music from upstairs abruptly stopped, briefly throwing the house into a peaceful silence before Zee trampled down the stairs like a small herd of elephants. Emerson smiled to himself, wondering how someone so small and shy could be so loud all the time. He'd never met anyone else who could make the amount of noise that Zee put out.

"Hi, guys!" Zee chirped as he entered the kitchen. "Lacey isn't here yet?" He looked around, puzzled. Lacey was running late and that almost never happened.

"Nope. I bet John showed up at the library and she lost track of time." Dresden replied. "You're going to have to walk to work. I'm off tonight, so I can pick you up later if you want."

"Ok, sure. Thanks, Denny!" Zee called over his shoulder as he walked towards the front door. "Later, Em."

The door shut behind the young man and the house settled back into silence. Dresden seemed absorbed in his book. Emerson rummaged thru the fridge to see if there was anything left over from the night before. He thought about going up to the roof to star gaze and decided to bother Dresden instead. He hadn't willingly spent time with any of his friends lately and Lacey wasn't actually coming home that night. She was dropping off the car and going to her boyfriend, John's house.

John was a fairly recent addition to their group. He'd gone to high school with them but had run in different circles. He'd started seeing Lacey about six months ago. Emerson wasn't sure how he felt about the guy, and Dresden seemed to greatly dislike him but that may have just been because Lacey was his sister. Lacey spent several nights out of the week with him and was rarely home anymore, between work, school and her boyfriend. John rarely stayed at the house. Probably because of the amount of people living there. Or maybe because of Zee's disregard for boundaries.

He grabbed a bowl and heated up the last of the chilli from the night before and plopped down into the chair next to Dresden. They hadn't talked much about the previous night and for that, Emerson was grateful. He didn't think he could put words to what he had been feeling and there was absolutely no way he could tell anyone about the agression he had felt towards Zee. Nor could he tell them about his thoughts on the roof. They wouldn't understand. They'd hate him. He couldn't let that happen.

He forced himself to abandon that train of thought, knowing it went nowhere good, and began to pester Dresden about his book.

Things around the house would return to normal over the next several weeks.

....

It was the week before Thanksgiving. Emerson was in an amazing mood. He had gotten a few interviews, but no one had hired him yet. He briefly felt frustrated. He knew it was his own fault, though. His employment record sucked. His mood brightened almost immediately. He'd just have to put in more applications. Someone would hire him eventually.

He was walking home from what he expected to be another fruitless interview. Surprisingly, it didn't really matter much right now. He knew it should bother him more that he was still unemployed, but for whatever reason he just couldn't hold onto his frustration. He felt like nothing could ruin his mood right now.

He turned the corner and saw an unfamiliar car in front of his home. It wasn't Dresden's, nor was it Mrs. Edwards's. As he got closer he realized someone was sitting in it. As he walked up, the person climbed out of the car. It was his mother.

Emerson's mother stood in front of her car, an unlit cigarette hanging from her mouth. Her dark hair pulled back into a wild bun. She stared at her son with angry, blood shot eyes.

"Where the fuck were you?" She growled as she lit her cigarette. "I've been sitting here for over an hour and its fucking cold."

"Sorry, Mama, I didn't know you were coming." He told her when he stopped in front of her. "How've you been?"

"Well, if you ever called me, you'd know, wouldn't you?" She spat.

Emerson took in his mother's rumpled appearance and wild hair. She was short, barely five feet tall. Emerson looked a lot like her, except he'd gotten his height from his dad. He had her wild curls and they shared the same eye color. She was perpetually angry. She looked unhealthy and had big bags under her eyes.

"You want to come in?" He asked her.

"Nah," she replied, not looking at him. "Just wanted to see if you had a couple dollars I could borrow for groceries. Don't want to deal with the freaks you live with."

"Sorry, Mama, I don't. I was actually out looking for a job. And please don't call my friends that."

She stared at him for a long time. Her hands shook and her eyes had a strange light in them. Finally she climbed back into her car, muttering. The only words Emerson caught before she climbed into the car were "useless fuck."

He watched the car drive away and then walked into the house. He actually did have a little money left from his last check, surprisingly. It wasn't much at all, but he was saving that for the last few Christmas presents he needed to get, just in case he hadn't found a job by then. He felt weird lying to his mom but it was probably for the best. The only time she ever asked him for money was when she was back with his dad. And if they were together, they weren't sober. He sighed. He didn't want this to ruin the rest of his afternoon. He was in much too good of a mood for that.

His phone beeped. He looked at the screen and saw that his oldest sister had texted him, demanding his presence at Thanksgiving later that week. He stared at his phone, shocked. His sister hadn't so much as looked at him since she moved out when he was ten. He texted her back, telling her he'd be there and grinned from ear to ear. Maybe things would finally start to get better with his family, despite his parents' bad habit. His sister said everyone was going to be there and he hadn't seen them in such a long time. He was elated.

Things were definitely looking up.

...

Dresden pulled up to the curb in front of Emerson's mom's house. He looked at the dilapidated building and wondered what it had looked like when it was taken care of. The front yard was mostly mud, and dead bushes his most of the front windows. He looked over at Emerson, who was nearly bursting with excitement over spending the holiday with his family.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked his friend for the millionth time.

Emerson looked at him, confused. "Why wouldn't I be? It's my family."

"Ok, I was just making sure. You want me to stay?"

"No, you should go. Lacey, Zee and your parents will miss you." Enerson smiled at him.

"Ok. I guess call me when you want to go."

Emerson climbed out of the car, not the least bit nervous about the holiday even tho he had a horrible relationship with basically all of these people. He walked up the cracked sidewalk and onto the sagging porch and knocked on the door. His knock was answered by his 5 year old nephew, his oldest sister Claire's son. Emerson looked down at the boy and grinned.

"Hey, kiddo!" He exclaimed as he walked in. The house smelled of tobacco smoke and chemicals that Emerson couldn't place.

"Mom! Grandma Jane! Uncle Emerson's here!" The boy yelled as he sat down in front of the tv.

Emerson smiled. He wasnt upset that his nephew didn't really seem to care he was there. Ezra didn't really seem to care about much of anything anyway. He turned and walked toward the kitchen at the back of the old house, where he could hear his mom and sisters talking.

The women sat around his mom's small kitchen table, smoking and gossiping. He wondered where his dad, Claire's husband and his sister Marisa's boyfriend were. He sat down next to his youngest sister Lucy.

"Hi, guys!" He smiled. "Happy Thanksgiving!"

"Yea. About time you got here, brat." Marisa told him as Lucy rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry if I'm late," he responded. "I had to wait for a ride. Where's everybody else?"

"You didn't miss much anyway." Claire shrugged. "Dad went to get beer and the other two went to go get food."

"Oh. We aren't cooking?"

His mother snorted. "Fuck no. I dont want to deal with any of that and none of y'all can cook for shit."

Emerson was starting to feel a little awkward. Everyone seemed tense and Lucy was already upset with him for some reason.

The front door opened and slammed shut. Emerson heard his dad yelling at Ezra to put the tv back on the channel it was on before he'd left. A child started crying.

"God damn it!" Lucy screamed. "Dad! Rosie was asleep!" She got up from the table and stormed into the living room. She came back holding a sniffling toddler and a beer.

A short while later the other two men came back with pizza and they all started eating. Enerson tried to keep up with the conversation the men were having but he just wasn't interested in football. The smell of the house was starting to make his head hurt and he felt bad for the two children. He was sure they probably didn't like the smell either.

Over all, it wasn't a terrible Thanksgiving for his family. Most years, it ended in fights. One year, Lucy had gotten into it with Claire's husband and he'd ended up needing stitches.

He called Dresden for a ride around 5, deciding he'd had enough when his parents had disappeared upstairs and the chemical smell got worse. Claire had already left with her family at that point, along with Lucy and her daughter, and Marisa's boyfriend was so drunk he couldn't walk, let alone carry on a coherent conversation. Marisa was ignoring all of them, talking in the phone with a friend. Thanksgiving was over.