The Way Back to You
Chapter 8
"Adam, where have you been, dude?" Eli asked as he walked into the weight room, where Adam was laying on the weight bench, lifting a barbell.
"Here," he said simply.
Eli walked over to his friend. "Want a spot?"
"No thanks." Adam put the barbell back into the rack and sat up. He walked over to the punching bag.
"You ok?" Eli asked as Adam began hitting the bag, showing no mercy.
"Not really."
"Wanna talk about it?"
"No thanks."
Eli sighed and walked over to Adam. "Dude, come on. You can tell me…" he was cut off when Adam's fist suddenly collided with his face.
Eli doubled over, holding onto his nose as blood poured out of it. After a moment, he straightened up, the lower half of his face covered in blood. "What's your problem?"
"Sorry," Adam mumbled, shaking his head as he began walking away.
"Wait a minute," Eli said, grabbing his friend's arm.
"Don't touch me!" Adam shoved him away. Eli stumbled backwards then shoved Adam.
Adam rushed Eli, tackling him to the ground.
Eli pushed him off and pinned the younger boy. "What's wrong with you?" he demanded.
"She hasn't called in over a week," Adam said, his voice low.
Eli sighed and stood up. Adam remained on the ground, until Eli held his hand out. Adam grabbed his friend's arm and pulled himself up.
"She'll call," Eli told him. "Just give her some time."
0o-0o-0o-0o
Drew knocked on the door to Adam's bedroom. Though it was only four in the afternoon, Adam was already in bed, staring at the picture of him and Fiona that was on the table next to his bed.
"What?" he asked, not moving from his position on his bed.
Drew slowly opened the door and walked into the room. "Wanna go see a movie or something?"
"No," Adam said simply.
"How about the arcade? We can go to the batting cages."
"What do you want, Andrew?"
"Mom's worried about you," Drew told him. "So am I. I mean, you're taking this break up with Fiona really hard."
Adam finally looked at his brother. "We're not broken up! She just… she needs some time."
Drew sighed and slowly sat down on Adam's bed. "When a girl says she needs time, she's just trying to let you down easy."
"No." Adam shook his head. "No. She was just mad. She needs some time to cool off."
"How long has it been?"
"Nine days."
Drew looked at Adam sadly. "I'm sorry, man."
Fiona stared at her cell phone, an unfinished sketch for her design class was on her desk. She couldn't concentrate on homework. She hadn't been paying attention in the last class session. She had no idea what the assignment even was.
She picked up her phone, deciding to call her friend Carly, who was in her class. But she didn't dial Carly's number.
"Hey," the all too familiar voice said as the voicemail picked up. "This is Adam. You know the drill."
The phone beeped. Fiona opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She sighed and slowly lowered the phone from her ear.
She sat down at her computer and logged onto FaceRange. She looked at her own profile. Something was wrong. Engaged was still written under her relationship status, but the link to Adam's profile was gone. Confused, she went to his profile and looked at his status.
Single.
To be continued…