It's Like Monopoly, But Physical.

Chapter Sixteen.

I keep walking down the stairs and head out the front door. I'm still in what I wore last night, but oh well, it's just Van.

When I get to his front door, I take a deep breath and knock on the door. I wait a couple of minutes until someone finally answers, but it's not Van, it's his mom. I guess she's back soon. That's weird.

"Oh, um, hi, Mrs. Taylor," I say nicely.

"Hello, dear," Mrs. Taylor says smiling.

"Um, could you give this to Van and ask him if he could give me my cell phone?" I hold out Van's Blackberry and she takes.

"Do you want to talk to him yourself? He's up stairs packing," she tells me.

"Packing?" I say confused.

She nods, "he's getting away from here for a bit. We're having some family difficulties," she adds.

And my family's not? Why does his mom have to be the good one? "Oh, um, no I'd rather not talk to him. Could you just tell him to drop my cell phone off at my house before he leaves?"

"You don't want to say goodbye?"

I shake my head.

"Did you kids get into a disagreement."

Yeah, I said he's a lying jackass and he disagreed, I answer in my head. I start to give her a real answer, but Van appears behind her. Oh great.

"Abby, can I talk to you for a minute?" Van asks me.

Dude, fuck off!

"I'm going to let the two of you talk," Mrs. Taylor says, walking around Van and back into her house.

Van steps out onto the front porch and closes the front door behind himself. "Look, Van, I'm still pissed at you, okay. A few hours of sleep hasn't changed a thing."

Van nods and hands be my cell phone while replying, "I understand that."

"So you're leaving? That's great, you leave me here alone to deal with this shit," I say annoyed and turn away.

"Abby you aren't the only one who's dealing with this. Sure, I should've told you, I get why your pissed at me, but pushing me away isn't going to make you feel any better. It's only going to make you feel more alone."

"You're so..." I trail off, not knowing what word to use to describe him right now. There are so many in my vocabulary, that are just trying to force their way out.

"Right?" Van says for me.

"Not even a little bit."

"You can keep hating me, but it's not going to fix things, you're just wasting energy," Van expresses then grabs my hand and pulls out a Sharpie from his pocket.

"You keep a Sharpie in your pocket?" I ask confused.

"Yep, there are hot girls everywhere just waiting to call me," he jokes.

I laugh a little, then cover it with coughs. I'm still mad at him, no matter what he says.

Van starts writing something in the palm of my hand while saying, "I'm sorry I hurt you, that wasn't my intention. I should've know waiting to tell you would hurt you more."

Excuses, excuses...

Van leans in and kisses my forehead. "I'll be at my grandparents, if you need to get away. Bye, Abby." Then he drops my hand and walks back inside of his house, without letting me get a word in. ugh, that's so like him, he's such a dick. I didn't even get to say what I wanted to. Well, I have no idea what I wanted to say, but I'm sure that I would've come up with something.

I look down at my hand to see what he wrote. Written in small black letters is, 'Remember those nights are all that counts'.

Why does he have to be completely...sweet when I want to hate him so much? How am I supposed to respond to that? I mean, after all, I did say that even if we did do something completely stupid that all we should do is remember those nights when we just talked. How the hell am I supposed to do that with this dangling over my head? I may have promised that, but he promised to not lie to me, I guess we both broke our promises. I'm done with always forgiving him. Sure, I really want to forgive him, but that would mean that he's right. And he's not right.

I get back over to my house and walk up to my bathroom. I hop in the shower and use a handful of shampoo to wash my hair.

You know what I need to do? I need to distract myself from all of this. From my mom and Van's dad and most importantly from Van. I don't understand how he can just go stay at his grandparents while all of this is going on. I can't just up and leave, well, mostly because I don't have anywhere to go. I'd love to just runaway and forget about this, but you know what? I can't without messing up my whole family.

I pick up my shampoo bottle and put some on my hand. Wait, did I already shampoo my hair? I can't remember, I was too busy thinking about...Van. No, I don't think that I did wash it, I tell myself as I run my fingers through my hair, lathering the shampoo all throughout my hair.

Wait, I did wash my hair already! Crap! Oops. Damn! I can't even stop thinking about Van long enough to wash my hair.

After I condition my hair, I get out of the shower, dry off, and wrap the towel around me.

After I brush my teeth, I walk out of my bathroom and into my closet to get dressed. I put on a pair panties and a bra then pull a pair of jeans off of my hanger and a plain white t-shirt off another.

Once I'm dressed, I walk back into my bathroom and instead of blow drying m y hair, I use a bunch of mousse and scrunch it, making a sexy mess of curls.

I wash my now sticky hands and dry them off with a towel. I walk out of my room and then down the stairs to the kitchen. I head straight for the fridge and see a Van's carton of strawberry milk so I push it behind a big jar of mayonnaise and grab my chocolate milk, which is half empty.

This all happening so fast. Just yesterday, Van and I were friends, now we aren't. Part of me wants to hate him so much, but part of me can't. Don't get me wrong, I plan on staying mad at him for a very long time. I mean, I can't just forgive him for something like this, this quickly, can I? No I can't. I need to stay busy and focus on more important things. Like fixing my moms deranged mind.

How am I supposed to do this? I can't not think about Van. Not only is he like the closest friend I've ever had and I love him for that, but I love him in many other ways too. Like when we argue, I love that. Or when we joke around, I completely love that. And most of all, I love the when we can just hang out and don't have to say anything.