Chapter Thirteen

I hopped up into Lewis's room, a new sort of spring in my step. I had promised him I'd let him know what happened at ZigZag's, so I had taken the liberty to swing by his room on the way to mine. I knocked on the door frame to signal I was there.

He looked up, "Hey! What happened?"

"With ZigZag?"

"No, last night, at one o'clock am," Lewis said sarcastically. "Of course, with ZigZag."

"You were right," I said dieing a little inside. I had vowed that I would never say that again. "He was protective of the information, but it was pretty easy to sneak it out of him. I feel a little guilty though."

"Green Lake has taught Emma the fine arts of dishonesty, such a bad influence."

I laughed, "Nah. Anyway, you wanna know what I found out, or not?"

"Sure," he confirmed.

"Well, he pretty much straight out told me that Squid still loves me."

"There. See?" Lewis said. "All that worrying for nothing. So what are you going to do about it?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I kind of figure if he really loved me, he'd approach me…"

"Oh no, you're not going to do that," Lewis groaned. "You have all the information you need to make the next move. And you're gonna drop out? You really are a psycho.

"I seem to remember someone else having all the information he needed and still not acting upon it," I said with a purposeful cough.

"What are you talking about?"

"Never mind. You're too dense to get through to."

"What?"

"Nothing," I laughed. "I'm out, you wanna pick up Gia on the way to Ziggy's in an hour?"

"Nah, Magnet and me are going to walk there together," he said shutting his door in my face.

I stepped into my room and decided to take a nap. I would wake up in about forty-five minutes.

I hate everything about you

Why do I love you?

I hate everything about you

Why do I love you?

My eyes sprang open at the sound of Three Days Grace blasting through my speakers. I fluttered my eye sight to the clock, which indicated that forty-five minutes had indeed passed since I fell asleep. I dragged myself off the bed and into the bathroom. I retouched my make-up, brushed my teeth and hair, and walked down stairs and on the side walk. I headed to go pick up Gia. She hopped slipped into step with me and we headed to ZigZag's. I filled Gia in with every single thing that happened between ZigZag and me this very afternoon.

"You did what?" Gia said.

"I had to know," I said now feeling a little ashamed.

"And you didn't figure it about by all of us saying it to you?"

"Did Squid tell you directly that he still loved me?"

"Well, no. But-"

"Well, he said it to ZigZag. So, that's who I needed to hear it from. Case closed."

We pulled into ZigZag's driveway, and walked up to his door. I rang the doorbell. ZigZag swung the door open.

"Where'd you send my brother and Magnet?" I said pointing to them as they headed down the street in the opposite direction.

"Um, I had to send them on an errand," ZigZag explained. "Come in." He said further, opening the door widely to allow them space to enter. They looked at each other, puzzled, and stepped into the house.

"Where's Squid?" I asked right off the bat, looking around. Squid was usually on time for things.

"Uh, I dunno," ZigZag said with a forced laugh. He was very bad a lying, but I decided to let it slide. "Um, you girls want some cola? We have cola, cola would be nice, wouldn't it?" He didn't even give Gia or I time to answer, just bolted out of the room.

"What's up with him?" Gia question, half amused, half confused.

I shook my head, my eyes rooted to the spot where he had just been standing. "I have no idea. But he seemed to get all nervous when I brought Squid up."

"Don't worry about it," Gia said. "You said he was the only one who Squid really talked to about you, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"And, you said you weaseled some information out of him earlier?"

"Yeah."

"So, he's probably afraid you're gonna trick him into saying something dumb again. Don't worry."

I nodded in agreement, seeing the logic in Gia's statement.

An hour later, everyone had arrived. Accept, Sarah, Lewis, Squid, and Magnet. We weren't really doing anything. I was watching TC and Caveman play…

"Got any twos?" TC asked.

Caveman sighed, "Go fish."

TC picked up a card from the pile and looked over her hand of the deck at ZigZag. Sighing in defeat, she set her cards on the table.

"ZigZag, what is going on?" TC asked him.

"What do you mean?" he asked abruptly. Too abruptly.

"You're pacing. And, four people are missing," Caveman explained reasonably, setting down his own cards and gesturing to the lack of a party. "You're the host. Try entertaining your guests."

ZigZag sighed. "Look, you guys, I'm sorry, there's just a lot of going on."

"A lot that you don't feel obliged to share with us? You're usually strange, but right now you are down right freaky," Gia said. "Come on, ZigZag, we're your friends. They're our friends. Tell us."

"Calm down," Princess insisted.

"To be honest? I have no idea what's going on. All I know is that Sarah is with Squid, and Barfbag is with Magnet, all right?"

"Squid is with Sarah?" I asked, trying to make my voice sound less jealous and more confused. "Why? What's going on ZigZag?" I demanded standing.

"I don't know," ZigZag repeated.

"Oh, by the way, I meant to ask you," X-Ray voiced to Twitch. "Was someone like, enjoying prank phone calling earlier? Because I got a call from some guy and I guess your name was mentioned, apparently."

"Are you sure my name was mention?" Twitch asked, confused as to why someone would call X-Ray about him.

"No, actually my brother answered the phone. He said it started with a T."

"Was it Twist?"

The rest of the party looked at me. "What could someone possibly want to tell X-Ray about me?" I reasoned.

"Hard to say," Princess responded.

"That's weird that you bring that up," I said at last. "Because I talked to Lewis before I came over here, and he got a strange phone call from a guy, too. He said the voice sounded familiar. Almost like…Squid."

"Do you think it was Squid on the phone?" ZigZag asked X-Ray anxiously. "Asking you for Twist?"

"Dude, he wouldn't ask about Twist to me unless he was like, drunk," X-Ray laughed.

When nobody else did, he stopped, and the possibilities hit him head-on. He didn't realize what that statement meant to ZigZag and me.

"Oh, crap," I said in sync with ZigZag.

I raced over to the door and down the street in the direction of Squid house. I ran the whole ten minutes to his house, and up to the door, and started barely had enough energy to knock on it. I opened the door and whispered inside.

"Squid? Sarah?"

There was no answer. I saw there was no car in the driveway when I ran up it. Slowly, I made my way inside, glancing around for my friends.

"Guys?"

"Shh," said Sarah, coming down the stairs.

"Where's Squid?" I asked frantically.

"He's upstairs, resting," Sarah explained. "What's up?"

"Is he okay?" I inquired.

"Why wouldn't he be?" Sarah asked, attempting to play dumb.

"Sarah, don't even try it," I insisted. "Over at ZigZag's, the fourteen of us managed to put our heads together quite well," I continued. "And we figured it out. Squid is drunk. Why is Squid drunk, Sarah? I need to talk to him, I need to see him."

"Emma," Sarah stated, stepping in front of the stairs to keep me from ascending. "He's doing fine. Stop. He needs to rest."

"But why? Why did he do it?" I asked her. "Please tell me." I said about to cry.

Sarah sighed. "He's having a hard time dealing with his family, and not to mention you."

"Me?" I whispered.

"Let's not even get into it," Sarah persisted. "Go on home, Em."

"Why are you suddenly his best friend?" I demanded. "Treating me as though I'm, like, lower than low. Let's get something straight. I didn't do anything to him. He was the one who wanted to break up. If he doesn't now, then, well, he should say something to me."

I was getting really pissed off. How come Squid had told Sarah about his family problems? He hadn't even known her for more than a month or so. I felt as though an intimate detail of his life that was a connection between him and me had been snapped. Sure, ZigZag knew, but they were best friends.

She sighed. "If you wake him up, now, he'll have a hard time getting back to sleep, and he'll get sick again. Please, just come back tomorrow."

I sighed, and lowered my head in defeat. "Fine," I whispered, and slowly exited the Smith's house, my worries higher then they had been before.

Well, there it is. Hope y'all enjoyed. I realize that it does sound a lot better with Twist's pov. It just...flows. Ha. I'M GOING SHOPPING FOR MY HOMECOMING DRESS TOMORROW! It's going to be awesome! Well, happy reading until next time. Review!

Love always,

Dee