Nothing's Going to Happen

2

***** FLASHBACK TO THREE YEARS AGO *****

By ten o'clock, everyone was either drunk or getting there. Except me. My parents told me they would let me go to the party if I wouldn't drink. So I didn't.

Amber, however, had a mind of her own. She could barely walk and every sentence that came out of her mouth was pure gibberish. At first I was just going to follow her around but soon realized how stupid that sounded. Follow my drunk, underage friend around in a house filled to twice its limit? No thank you. So I'd called her brother and asked him to pick us up. I was becoming claustrophobic and hot from all the tipsy bodies around. So I dragged Amber outside to wait for Jonah.

It was almost pitch black out except for the single street lamp in the street. I had scanned up and down the road, looking for Jonah's familiar rusted volkswagen. A glint caught my eye and I turned my head to see a shiny silver Mazda sitting outside a house two houses down. I remember wondering who would ever be able to afford a car like that out here. It's not like my parents and I weren't well off. We were perfectly content with our Blue Honda Camry, thank you very much. I looked closer at the car and noticed that there was a person in there. Now call me a cat, but I was curious.

I made Amber sit on the steps as I walked over to a large oak tree in the yard. I was trying to see who the person was when suddenly they got out of the car. I held back a gasp and watched a man around his late 30s get out. He had slicked back dark hair and was wearing dark washed jeans, a black shirt, and had a goatee. He silently walked up to the house across the street from his car with a small duffle bag in his hands. Now, if his intimidating appearance hadn't already sent alarm bells going off in my head, the handle of a knife clearly sticking out of his back pocket should have.

Anxiety swept through me with force. Where are you, Jonah? I had thought frantically. The man rang knocked on the door and waited until another middle aged man opened it. The men exchanged greetings and started talking, right there on the steps. They seemed to gesture to the duffle bag a lot and more and more often, one of the men would shake their heads. I watched as their faces darkened and their poses tensed. Fear shot through me then. WHERE ARE YOU JONAH?! I mentally screamed.

And then it happened quickly. The younger man whipped out the knife from his pocket and before I could, blink, draw a breath, scream, do something, plunged the metal into the other man's stomach. I could only watch in horror as the man collapsed first to his knees, then all the way to the ground.

This isn't real. This isn't real. THIS ISN'T REAL. I chanted to myself.

But everything about the situation was real as the younger man dragged the dead man down the steps and to the side of the house and out of my sight. Then my savior came. I heard the all too familiar sound of the stalling car that Jonah drove. I sprinted to the house, grabbed Amber, and pushed her into the car as fast as I could.

"Mel, what's wrong?" Jonah had said, sensing something was wrong.

"We have to get out of here. Now." I said tersely. And to my great surprise, the Junior listened to me without question and almost pealed out of the neighborhood. But he went the wrong way. He drove towards the Mazda. My heart was practically beating out of my chest as we passed. And then it almost failed me.

The younger man chose then to reappear. Just in time to see us drive past. And to my stupidity, the one decision that may have changed my entire life, I looked at the man. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked like a deer caught in headlights. But in the few seconds that passed as we drove by, he seemed to see through everything. His features relaxed and a grin lit up his face. One that said he knew. He knew what I had seen. The gold tooth visible in his mouth was the last thing I saw before he completely left my sight.

I started shaking uncontrollably. And then the most cliche thought came to my mind. What do they say? Curiosity Killed the Cat.