My Ex-Best Friend

Chapter 1 (Rewritten)

The obnoxious shrill of a phone ringing pierced through the deafening silence of Brendon's room. It was like a long, sharp needle, puncturing his eardrum. His brain vibrated in agony.

"Stoooopppp," Brendon moaned into his pillow.

It didn't stop.

Brendon scrunched up his eyes and tried with all his might to use the Force to silence the phone.

   It still didn't stop.

    Brendon reached out blindly, groping the table's surface to find his phone.

    "Hello?" he mumbled while massaging his temples. He had never experienced such a relentless throbbing in his brain before.

    "Babe, it's me."

    Brendon grumbled something along the lines of, 'What do you want?', unable to summon the proper enthusiasm for his girlfriend. Her normally sweet voice sounded like hundreds of hammers banging against the inside of his skull.

    "Lovely to hear you too, dear. How've you been?"

    Brendon was in no mood for her sarcasm. "Is there a reason you're calling me at such an ungodly hour?"

    "It's one o'clock in the afternoon." Melanie huffed, her patience already wearing thin. "And it's not just me trying to reach you. Ian's been asking where you are."

    Brendon's eyes snapped open, and he sat bolt upright. The head rush he got, though, forced him to squeeze his eyes back shut for a moment. "What did you tell him?" he asked through the pain.

    "Just that you haven't been feeling well." Brendon sighed in relief. He was in no position to be confronted by his best friend.

    "I don't like lying to him," Melanie continued. "I won't ask what's going on between you two, but don't drag me into it."

    "First of all, you didn't lie to him. I honestly don't feel good," Brendon said defensively. He could practically see his girlfriend rolling her pretty, blue eyes. "And there's nothing going on between us."

    "Is that why he wasn't at the party last night?" Melanie asked.

    Pink crept up the back of Brendon's neck, threatening to consume his face. There was a very good reason why he couldn't invite Ian, but he sure as hell wasn't going to tell his girlfriend.

    "You know Ian doesn't like parties," Brendon said, trying to justify his actions. "There was no point inviting him when he would have turned it down."

    Melanie knew there was no point arguing with him. He was as stubborn as an ass. "I have to go," she said instead. "See you tomorrow. Love you."

    "Love you too," Brendon said, and the line went dead.

    Brendon was about to collapse back onto his double mattress when a foul taste began rising in his throat. He threw off his covers and darted to the bathroom. Falling to his knees, he hurled everything from the night before into the toilet.

    "You're disgusting."

    Brendon picked his head up just enough to see his little sister standing in the doorway, arms crossed and a pinched expression across her face.

    "I'm sick," Brendon groaned.

    "No, you're hungover," Kayla corrected. "Just because I slept over my friend's house last night, doesn't mean I don't know you threw a party. I'm fourteen, not stupid." His sister paused before admitting, "But the state of our living room and the passed out drunk on our couch was a lot of help."