missing | gilinsky

18

I roll over off the couch and bang my head on the ground the second I wake up. 

"Fuck!" I curse, rubbing my forehead. I'm likely to be nursing a huge red spot in just a few short seconds. 

"You're such an idiot," Hannah tells me, not bothering to hold back a loud laugh. She's sitting next to me, arms folded across her chest.

"Sue me," I say, helping myself up off the ground. 

I have a rush of memories flood into my train of thought as soon as I hear Nate's voice. "That was one nasty fall." I whip my body around so I'm facing him. He stands at the counter in the kitchen, a white bag placed in front of him.

"Where's Jack?" I blurt. My cheeks heat up after realizing how desperate I just sounded.

"Well isn't somebody eager," Nate teases. "What? Am I not good enough for you?"

"What broke?" Jack asks. He strides out of Nate's room with a worried expression on his face. He's dressed in basketball shorts, no shirt. I suck in a gulp of air, trying to make sure my breathing stays steady.

"Your girlfriend," Nate states, leaning against the kitchen sink.

I clench my jaw. It's something Jack and I hear everyday, but there's no getting used to it. Especially since I'm pretty sure Jack doesn't feel that way about me. I mean if he did, wouldn't he have made a move already? Sure he flirts, but it never goes any further than that. I'm not even sure how I feel about him myself yet. As much as I want our relationship to stay platonic so things will stay simple, there's no talking my brain and my heart into feeling the same way.

"Are you okay?" Jack questions, walking up to me. Controlling my breathing gets harder the instant he lays his hand on my forehead. His touch is warm, causing my stomach to do back flips. 

"Yeah, fine, I just fell is all," I croak. Clearing my throat, I take another deep breath.

"You're always on the ground, I'm starting to think you like it there," Jack teases. It feels better than when Nate teased me when I first fell. It doesn't make me mad. 

"Well, it can be pretty comfortable at times," I humor him.

"Can you guys stop being bitches for five seconds," Nate pleads. For a moment he sounds just like Sam, I almost smile, but then I remember he isn't Sam. He's nothing like him and he's not joking around, he's being serious. I'm starting to realize that everything Nate says seems to be done in a malicious manner. 

"Nate," Jack scolds. He removes his hand from my forehead and glares at him. 

Nate rolls his eyes in response and starts walking towards us. "Whatever, the leftovers are on the counter since you two girls were so worried about not having any food to eat tonight, I'm going to bed." 

"Good riddance," Hannah murmurs. Nate gives her a quick look before slamming his bedroom door shut. 

I furrow my eyebrows and pull my phone out of my pocket, forgetting what time it was. 1:00 AM. Wow. I look under the time and see that my mom and Sammy have both texted me. I unlock my phone and text Mom back, letting her know everything's okay, and tell Sam that no, Jack and I haven't hooked up yet. He called me out on my use of the word 'yet' but I just ignore him and put my phone away. 

"You guys hungry?" Jack asks, making his way into the kitchen, Hannah following close behind. Now that Nate's no longer in our presence, he seems to have become more relax, which makes me happy. 

Hannah groans. "We've been starving." 

"While we were out we stopped for some Chinese, we have some leftovers." 

I wrinkle my nose. After having gone most of the day without eating, I was looking forward to a good meal. I'm not really a fan of Chinese, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. 

"Don't worry," Hannah says. "There's an egg-roll left." I let out a sigh of relief, thanking God for this act of kindness. 

"So you don't like Chinese food." Jack nods his head, confirming his suspicion. 

"Whenever I force her to order Chinese with me she only gets egg-rolls it's so sad," Hannah tells him, pouting.

"The last time I ate Chinese food I got so sick, I'm not about to spend all night puking up my guts," I say, snatching the food out of her hand. I sit down on a stool and nudge Hannah and tell her to get me a fork and a napkin. 

"Ok first off, that was when you were like eight, get over it! And second off, no one eats egg-rolls like that, you sicken me."

Jack laughs as he pulls the stool that's next to me out so he can sit down. "Why are you using a fork?" 

I slap his hand when he tries to take the utensil out of my grip. "I will stab you!" I threaten. 

"Damn, feisty, I like it."

"I'm eating over here," Hannah complains, shoving a heap of rice in her mouth. 

"So am I!" I say, raising my egg-roll in the air. 

"That's not eating it's called being weird." Hannah snorts, almost choking on her rice. I want to smack her. 

"Fuck off!" I say, sticking my fork back in the egg-roll and pulling out the steamed veggies to put in my mouth.

"Lemme have some," Jack says, reaching for my hand. Well, he was reaching for my fork, but my fork is in my hand so it's basically the same thing. 

"No you pig, you've already eaten."

"So? I'm a growing boy, I need to eat a lot."

"I know what else you could eat." Hannah winks. 

It takes me a few seconds to realize what she's getting at, but as soon as I do I lean over the table and smash her foam plate right in her face. "You disgust me."

Jack is practically in tears beside me, laughing harder than I've ever seen him laugh. It makes me laugh too. Seeing him like that makes my heart swell.

Hannah let's the plate fall back to the counter, traces of lo mein sticking to her face. Her mouth is wide open and her eyes are closed, not wanting to get sauce in them. Jack and I are wheezing, we can't seem to catch our breath. 

"I cannot. Believe. You. Just. Didthat." Hannah's voice is all jumbled up and I can't tell if she's really upset or not. But that doesn't stop me from continuing to laugh.

"All of you shut the fuck up! I'm trying to sleep!" Nate booms from his bedroom. He knocks on his door so loud I'm pretty sure the neighbors hear it. 

Jack's laughing fades, but doesn't completely stop. I hold my breath to try and calm down, it helps a little, but I'm still giggling.

"Holy shit, Nadia," Hannah says. I hand her my napkin and watch as she wipes her face clean from all food. As soon as she opens her eyes I flinch and pass my egg-roll to Jack, waiting on her to get me back.

"I'm sorry!" I utter, covering my face. I squeeze my eyes shut. I sit like that for a good five minutes before cautiously uncovering my face. I look around to see that neither Jack or Hannah are in the kitchen with me anymore. My egg-roll is also gone. I shouldn't have given it to Jack. I am still hungry. I am alone and afraid. There's no doubt in my mind that Hannah is plotting her revenge and that Jack is helping her.

But I will not give up so easy. It's 1:20 AM and I am ready for war. 

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sup guys! once again sorry for the long wait but it's only been a week so close enough lol, you guys know the drill by now, comments are open to anything you wanna say and don't forget to vote if you want!! chapter 19 will be up as soon as I have time to update haha, thanks for being so patient! love you guys

- gilinskyshigh