The Trap

It was a Tuesday afternoon when we got the call.

It was a Tuesday afternoon when we got the call.

"I knew I shouldn't have been so hard on them,"  I heard her say.

"Don't worry - it's not your fault, Mrs Daniels." I could hear the sounds of sobbing and comforting on the answering machine. I doubted she even remembered she was on the phone at the time.

"Oh," She cleared her throat, "Is this Vinnie?"

'Yes', I felt like saying, but knew that she couldn't hear me anyway.

"Nat's gone." The machine beeped 'end of message' and I instantly called Nat.

I found that I actually had a message from him on my phone. One I'd missed, or never heard.

It read, 'Bro, I love you. Nat'.

"Vinnie?" He answered.

"Yeah...what's going on? This isn't your way of telling me you've got feelings for me, is it?"

He laughed a long, loud laugh, "No. Of course not."

"Because seriously, there is no 'us'. " I wanted to cut off any dreams or fantasies he'd ever decided to have of me, and stop him in his tracks on any possible future relationships he imagined us having, if that was the case.

"Dude, I'm not gay."

"Alright, alright." I started, "So, what's it about?

"I'm just going to miss you, that's all."

"You're scaring me...you're not dying, are you?" 

"What? No. Listen," The phone was now very full of static and it became hard to hear, "We had to leave."

"Why?" I asked, able to hear less and less by the second.

"It's Bee. She's-" And then a loud whining noise, before the phone went very, very silent.

"Email." Was the last thing I heard before the connection terminated and this conversation was cut short.

I sat, and sighed on my bed. He was gone, and it didn't seem like he'd be coming back anytime soon. It almost felt like a hole in my heart. Nathan was my best friend. Someone I felt the closest to within the group, and now that he was gone, I had no idea what I would do. You see, he was what held us all together. Not just a leader, but he was the glue. And without him, we were broken. Apart.

And I was pretty sure that had been drunk talking when Jon had forgiven me for Lacey at the party, and Chris acted as an echo to Jon and Nat - he'd be following Jon for sure.

It's like I said, I don't know why I was friends with the boys. Maybe because I sought their protection, the belonging feeling.

And now without it, I was exposed.

Monday was going to be a very long and quiet day for me. I could feel it.