Hate

Junior

A/N:
•This takes place two years after the first chapter (the second chapter happened the summer before this one)
•This is all made up, blah blah blah.
•This one's a little darker than the other two.
•Hope you enjoy: :]

I sleepily wake up at 3AM to my phone going off.
Dan thinks I'm just usually awake in the middle of the night. I'm really not, I've been sleeping a little better lately, but I turn his ringtone up loud so it'll wake me up if he needs me. He hasn't been doing well. I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but he's been significantly quieter and his skin has been pale and he doesn't eat much anymore and he's always, always falling asleep in class and at lunch and at my house and anywhere else. I'm worried about him. I even told my dad, said that something's not right with him and what the hell do I do but Dad said he's probably just stressed about midyear exams.

I don't believe him. Something's wrong. I know it.

Putting my hand over the speaker so I won't wake anyone else up, I yawn and give myself a second to wake up before I answer Dan.

"Hello?"

"Hey. You weren't sleeping, right?"

"Nope," I lie. "What's wrong?"

"I...I don't know."

Well, that's better than the increasingly angry nothing!s I've gotten this past week or two.

"Is something wrong, though?" I ask.

"Y-yeah."

"Hey, are you crying? It's alright."

"It's not..." he mutters. There's some other emotion in his voice besides the tears. Fear, maybe? I can't place it.

"Will you talk to me about it?"

"Not over the phone."

"Okay. Maybe in the morning we can talk before-"

"Now. Meet me at Starbucks," he cuts me off.

"Look, we'll be at school in like four hours, we can-"

"Listen! Listen to me!"

I jump back from my phone.

"This is important," he whispers. "Please."

"Alright, alright. Let me get some clothes on."

"Yeah, okay." Over his voice, I hear a siren and the wizzing of wheels.

"Are you outside?"

"Um...yeah," he says.

"The hell are you doing?"

"Just walking. I-I'll see you in a minute."

I don't like how his voice shook there. I don't like it.
He hangs up and I hastily throw on jeans and boots and a jacket, running a hand through my hair to smooth it down. As carefully as I can, I sneak down the stairs and slip out the door, locking it behind me. Then I try to be silent while I get in my car and start it up and drive away...hopefully my parents would just hear it as a random street sound.

I don't know how many times I've been out this late alone. Not many. It's sketchy around here, Dan knows that, why the fuck is he just walking around by himself at three in the morning?

Once the short drive to Starbucks is over, I finally go inside the warmth and light of the place, open 24 hours a day. Dan's not here, in fact, no one's here besides an exhausted-looking young woman working the counter. I order a coffee for myself and a cookie for Dan and he will be eating that cookie and I will make sure of it. Then I sit down to wait.
After maybe a minute or two the door opens and Dan comes in, looking like hell. I'm not convinced he's completely awake, that's how tired he looks. He scans the room for me and then comes over to sit down across from me at the table I chose in the very far corner, down a small alcove away from the rest of the shop.