Cursed

Chapter Nine

Today is the first day of Winter Break, but it doesn't feel that way. I'm sitting in my rocking chair, facing the large bay windows, a mug of coffee clutched in my hands. It's dumping snow outside, which is fairly typical of Massachusettes. It looks like it's sticking to the ground too. I must over this, sipping gently at the piping hot coffee.

Behind me, Addie stirs in my bed. No shocker, she's still asleep. She spent the night, relieving Erik. Except, she doesn't know he spent the night the other day. I should have felt bad about keeping that a secret, but Erik and I hadn't even talked about that. Plus, I didn't know what to even tell her. There wasn't a right way to tell Addie that Erik had spent the night because she would try and make it out to be something it wasn't.

It's so bizarre to think December is half over. It can't already be December seventieth? Can it? That means Daniel has been gone for twenty-four days.

Daniel.

My heart still squeezes painfully whenever I think about him. I try my best to not think of him, but sometimes it's inevitable. He will always be on my mind; a permanent fixture on my life. We weren't together, in fact, I don't think we were even friends, but I still cared about him. Things had just gotten really complicated.

I grabbed my phone and opened it up to Daniel's contact. He probably won't answer. Why would he? He hadn't before. Except, maybe his mom had told him that we talked and I knew he was gone. Against my better judgment, I hit "call" and listened to the ringing.

He won't answer, I kept telling myself.

Except he did. It clicked on, but he didn't say anything. I looked at my phone, making sure someone actually answered. Why isn't he saying anything? I open my mouth, about to ask, "Hello?" but I stop myself. Another second goes by and still nothing.

My thumb hovers over the red button, ready to end the call. I click it at the same time I hear a muffled "hello?" Great, that looks really weird. I drop my phone and it skits across the wooden floors, making a lot of noise. Why had I done that?

"What? What! I'm up." Addie was awake now. I must have looked guilty because she asked me what was wrong.

"Nothing, I'm just a complete idiot." She waited for me to explain. "I called Daniel." I cringe as I tell her. She doesn't look surprised. I sit at the edge of my bed.

"I'm sorry, you didn't leave another voicemail did you?" She puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Addie, he answered." I stand up. My legs shake slightly. "Or at least, I think he did. The phone acted like he answered, but then I went to hang up and that's when he said something. I am so screwed!" I flail my hands around. Why was I so stupid? I definitely shouldn't be trusted to have my phone. I stare at it, still resting on the ground. Addie follows my gaze and picks it up.

"There," she says after clicking a button. "It's off, so you don't have to worry about it. Plus, Daniel isn't even in Massachusettes!" I sigh, she's right. I don't have anything to freak out over. Daniel is gone and he isn't coming back.

"You're right, okay crisis averted." My mind still wandered to what had just happened. It probably was an accident that he answered -- that's all.

Addie did a great job of distracting me. We worked on homework, which somehow she made really fun. After being in a coma, I had a lot to catch up on. Although, after a couple of hours I think we were actually ahead of the class. Eventually, we went downstairs and made sandwiches for lunch. It felt like a normal day, minus the whole Daniel incident. Erik didn't even come up, it was a great afternoon. In fact, nothing really significant happened.