I slowly opened my eyes to see that Neo had his arm around me and I had my head rested against his chest. Neo opened his eyes and he finally realized our position and his eyes widened.
I quickly got off the couch and brushed myself off.
"Jon what are you doing here?" I asked, yawning
"Well I was coming to apologize, but I see your sleeping with Neo!" Jon accused
I started laughing.
"Are you serious? You think I'm sleeping with Neo?" I said. Then I heard Neo quietly laughing behind me. "Neo and I were just watching a movie, and I guess that's how you found us like that, we were just sleeping"
"So you guys all cuddled up together is nothing? You guys always hanging out and staying over here is nothing? Wow if that's friendship, then we're not even good friends!" he said sarcastically
"Will you stop with the melodramatics? You're exaggerating Jon. You're blowing this way out of proportion" I said crossing my arms.
I saw him look at me his eyes narrowing, looking at my shoulder. Then Neo went to the kitchen.
"What happened to your arm?" he asked
"I scraped my shoulder and back on Neo's driveway after him I and I did a prank on Lindsey" I explained
"I'm guessing you didn't go to the hospital for those bandages" he said
"Of course I didn't. I fixed them up here" I replied
"I'm also guessing you had some help"
"Sure Neo helped me clean my cuts, but I did the bandages"
"There's no way that happened with just a t-shirt on" he said, his jaw tightening.
"I had my tank top on" I lied
"So he's seen more than me?"
"Why does it matter?"
"Because a guy's girlfriend isn't supposed to be hanging out with her guy friend more than him!" he exclaimed
"You are not going to believe me are you?" I asked
'No, not really" he said
"The get out now" I said coldly
Just then Neo came back into the room, his eyes directed at me and then at Jon. Then Jon stormed over to the door and left. As soon as the door slammed, Neo's head whipped around to look at me.
"What the heck just happened here?" he asked
"I would tell you if I knew" I mumbled
"You know he's got a bad temper, I bet in a hour he'll come back again" said Neo
"The thing is…I don't want him to come back. He has always been weird about our friendship, I could always tell. I can't give up our friendship for a relationship I'm miserable in. I just can't live like this, so I hope he never comes back" I said quietly
"I didn't realize your maturity level, Nina. I'm proud of you. I'm glad because I didn't want our friendship to end either" he said hugging me
"I have to end it with him: I said sighing
Just then my phone vibrated and I quickly pulled it out, it was another text message from Jon Nina, can you please come so we can talk? Please meet me at the Elementary School in 10 minutes. I looked up at Neo.
"I have to end this; can I take your car?"
"He texted you didn't he? Here take them" he said tossing me his keys.
I walked out of the house and hurried to his car. I jumped in, put the keys in the ignition, and turned the radio up full blast. I had to clear my head before I talked to him. I drove into the elementary school parking lot. I saw Jon sitting on the swing, swinging back and forth. I got out of the car and slowly made my way to the swing set. I saw Jon look up at me sadly, as if he had been crying. This is going to be harder than I thought I said to myself. The Jon asked,
"When will the fighting stop?"
"I don't think it will ever stop" I replied" It's always going to be like this"
"So what should we do about this then?" he asked
I looked at him sadly, "Maybe we should, you know break up?"
To my surprise he looked like he understood.
"That's probably the right thing to do; I don't want to leave you here when I go to Rehab" he said
"Your going to Rehab?" I asked, shocked
"I obviously have a drinking problem, Nina. After I found you this morning… I came here. I sometimes come here to think and a few hours ago I realized that all I've done lately is hurt you. I don't want to lose somebody else to my problems. I'm tired of affecting everyone else" he replied
"You didn't lose me completely, I'm just not your girlfriend anymore, but I'm still your friend" I said
"I leave in five days" he said
"Even if were not together, I'll still miss you" I whispered
He got up from his swing and hugged, then broke away. Then I laughed,
"You know what's sadly ironic?" I asked
"What?" he replied
"This is the place where we started, and this is the place where it ended" I said smiling sadly
We said goodbye and I drove to Neo's, still in shock. Once I got to his house, I opened the door and threw myself into the couch. Neo must have heard me and I heard him glide down the stairs.
"So what happened?" he asked nervously
"We broke up. He's going to r-r-rehab" I stuttered
"Rehab?" he said, raising his eyebrows
"He's leaving in five days" I whispered
Neo hesitated and he grimaced then he said,
"I think he's starting to realize that he has a problem which is good. We'll have him over tomorrow. Abby should be back, so she could come too. It will be a little party.
"Thank you" I replied
I walked up to my room and once my head hit the pillow, I feel asleep.
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I woke up to find myself all sweaty. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and I stood up and tripped over something. Pain had traveled to my arm and back when I heard,
"Ow"
It looked like Neo had slept on the floor last night. Neo quickly got up and gently lifted me off the floor.
"Sorry. I didn't mean for you to trip over me" he apologized
"Why were you sleeping on the floor anyway?" I asked, sitting on the bed
"Well you went to sleep, and two hours later I was getting ready to go to bed. On the way to my room I came to your room to check on you and you were tossing and turning, I think you were having a nightmare because you were all sweaty. I was worried so I stayed in here" he explained.
"I remember my nightmare now"I muttered
"What happened?" he asked
"I don't understand it. I was in a all white room, all alone. Then there was this desk, this plain white desk. I walked up to the desk, and then there were people behind me, like in a line. There was this second line too, when I looked to my left there was this girl. The girl looked so innocent, so pure. When our eyes met, her face fell apart. All the skin on her face was gone and blood splattered the walls. The girl was gone, and then I woke up" I said shuddering "I just don't get it"
"That is a weird dream" he said "I've never heard of anything like it"
"It was so confusing"
"Hey, don't worry about it. It's just a dream" he reassured
"Dreams tell you something, I'm sure of it" I said, starting to get frustrated
"It's okay just go shower and I'll invite Jon and Abby over here'
'Fine, but I need to go over to my house first, okay?" I said
"Just promise to come back" he said smiling
I walked out of his room, rushed down the stairs, and I was out the door. I ran across the street to my house. I hesitantly opened the door a little and looked through the crack. The house seemed empty, so I hurried up the stairs to my room. I walked into my bathroom, stripped off my clothes, and I jumped in the shower. The warm water was soothing to the cuts on my body. I washed my hair and body quickly and stepped out of the shower. I wrapped a towel around myself and dried off. I took some gauze out of the medicine cabinet and gently wrapped my cuts. I went to my room and put some clothes on. I ran my fingers through my dirty blonde hair. I sighed as I saw the red streak in my hair was already fading away. I applied some eyeliner around my dark icy blue eyes that were always complimented. I threw on some shoes, but before I left I noticed a piece of scratch paper on my bed. I picked the note up and unfolded it. The note was unaddressed and said: One by one you all shall die, each so fast in the blink of an eye, your death wont be so great, because of your last mistake. I finished reading, and then I read it over and over again and again. I took the note and ran over to Neo's. I burst through the door and Neo suddenly got off the couch. I tossed him the note
"This is jacked up!" I exclaimed
"You can't be serious" he said "you actually believe this crap?'
"We'll see what Jon and Abby think of it" I said putting my hands on my hips.
Right on cue, we heard the doorbell ring, which was Abby of course. Abby was the only one out of us who actually was that polite. Neo let her in, and she sat on the couch beside me. I already saw her gawking at Neo, but this time I could see why. Neo was in a wife beater and sweatpants, so it showed off his muscles. The door then flew open with Jon walking in, He gave me a small smile, and then he sat in the recliner across from me. Abby gave me a questioning look, so I gave her a look that said 'I'll tell you later' The Neo cleared his throat.
"Okay so Nina came running over here with a note that was on her bed" he said passing the note to Abby and Jon. They both had the same reaction: confused.
"Is this a joke" asked Abby
"I have no idea" I said
"I would have to say that we watch our backs" Jon suggested
"So now that that's done. Let's get this party started!" Neo said, breaking the tension
'Nina and I will get some food form the gas station down the block" she said
Abby grabbed my wrist, and once we were out of Neo's front yard she said,
"So why did Jon sit with you like he usually does? He usually greets you with a kiss or at least a hug. What's going on?"
I told her about what happened with Jon at his place, leaving the parts out about Neo and me.
"Wow. Seven years…gone" was all she could say
"We both understood that it was going to happen sooner or later" I mumbled
The rest of the way to the gas station was silent. We quietly grabbed food from the aisles and went toward the cash register to pay for it. With bags in our arms, we walked quickly back to Neo's. Once we got there we threw the food on the table.
"Hey guys, so Jon and I have a theory on who may have went you that note, Nina"
"Who?" Abby and I said in unison.
"I think Lindsey is trying to freak us out" Jon said
"Maybe we should well I don't know, ask her?" I stated
"I'll stay here and set up the food" Abby said
"Okay, we should be right back" Neo said
So we hurried out of the house and made our way to Lindsey's window. I carefully chucked a small rock at her window. She immediately opened her window.
"What do you want now?" she hissed
"Did you send me this?" I said holding out the note towards her
"Let me see that" she said reaching out
I didn't offer for me to be lifted up again because I was already a casualty of being lifted to her window. Jon gently gave Neo a boost toward Lindsey. Lindsey took the note out of Neo's hands. I felt a burning sensation in my throat, I tried to ignore it.
"I didn't write this" she said with confusion in her eyes
I sighed, sadly I believed her.
Then I finally realized why my throat was burning, and I began to cough violently.
Something was on fire.