The arms I placed around Ashle’s fleshy neck did not stop squeezing. Her last words were “I.. Hate…. You…” before she coughed and clocked out with her head slamming on the crispy, yet cozy carpet. Her smile, even while unconscious, was radiant to the whole room. It was the only reason why the scenario we were in looked anywhere near okay. I watched as she took her first breath for the first time in a while. This raspy breathing didn’t sound like the usual ones, this one croaked and got me to worry a little. As I reached for my things to dodge a felony, she raised her head and stared at me.

“Where do you think you’re going?” She said just waking up again.

“Hahahaaa… Yeahh, it’s my turn, right?” I said with a mildly dispassionate glare.

Ashle got behind me and began to, well, choke me out. It was calming at first, but that was because I didn’t feel the need to inhale. It’s been over a minute, and her sweaty arms are still wrapped around my neck. The gentle river of panic solemnly seeps into the crevices of my malleable mind. Thinking turned into instinct. My palms developed an invisibility to my senses, and the floor began to tingle like tickles to the feet. My mind stopped wording things to me a little bit before I hit the ground.

When I woke up, I saw a dark figure before me. He smelt of coffee and a little hint of sweet tea. Standing to the entrance of a hallway, he asked me how my day was. The staccato pronunciations I made were mostly out of fear and guilt. My reply expressed a fine day as well as questioning him about his time spent this fine day.

“It’s not over yet,” he responded. His cold body made it’s way to the kitchen and back with last night’s dinner wrapped in a tortilla. Something about that burrito, if I even would call it that, mixed with a TV set made that man relaxed.

I sat down on the opposite end of the couch. The man slapped on random YouTube videos onto the main screen. A majority of the videos selected were road rage clips or towing conflicts. This young feeling, like the one I get from eating cups of yogurt and applying anti-wrinkle cream, felt different. Natural instinct kicked in; I slid my patchy feet across and above our fluffy floor. Along with the legs, the feet landed right by my side, to the left of me on the couch. I could now finally relax. The comfort I got from my knees pointing forward towards the TV screen made me calm down.

“What’d you do at school today?” spoke the man after 5 videos of conflict.

“It was okay. I had to write a short story in class today.” I said.

The man now intrigued, “What'd you write about?”

“Uhhh I don’t know.” I answered.

“HAHAHAAA what do you mean you don’t know? Weren’t you just in class several hours ago?”

“Maybe… I don’t know. I can’t really remember.”

“Well okay… What’d you learn today?”

“Uhhh I don’t know…”

“What do you mean you don’t know!? Why do I send you there then?”

“Hahahahaa I don’t know.”

The world’s largest smirk was invented on my face. He had a similar response, yet his response involved more shaking of the head and a sigh.

He turned the TV off and said, “Time to go to work again.”

The squeaking coming from the couch clarified that he was getting up. I forgot that today would be the last day I’d see him. The last moment with my father and he was slightly disappointed in me.

I woke up from my choked coma. “YOOOO YOU WERE BREATHING SO WEIRD!!!! That was amazing, wanna do that again?” Ashle marveled.

“Yeah. Let’s go for round two.”

The arms I placed around her bulbous neck did not stop squeezing. I wonder where she went in this dream-like state. That was a curiosity that would get answered when she woke up in less than two minutes.