Invisible String

until one very specific event happened

"Can't you see you're hurting her? What's wrong with you?" I said starting to feel my blood boiling, but I had to take a step back when he suddenly stopped and walked in my direction.

"I will only tell you this once." He was just inches away from my face.

"Tyler, stop." Cari said from our side, trying to pull him away, but without any success.

"Stay away from my girlfriend." He had a finger pointed right in my face. "If I see you near her again, you'll be sorry, do you understand me?"

I didn't understand anything at all, the only thing I understood was that that guy was crazy and had serious mental problems.

"Tyler, stop it, that's enough!" Cari said, finally managing to get rid of him and almost falling because of the strength she had to put into it.

"Cari, you come with me now." He said, trying to grab her again, but she managed to escape from him this time, almost tripping in her attempt.

"I'm not going anywhere with you. Not while you're acting that crazy."

Everyone at the party was too busy and in their own worlds to notice that something was going on there. The music and the screams of the crowd playing games were too loud to let anyone hear anything.

"You know what? I'm done with this bullshit. Find another idiot to take you home later. I'm sure Shannon here would love to do that." That comment intrigued me the moment it came out of his mouth. I didn't know what the hell he meant by that.

"Great, go, I don't need you here!"

Seconds later he had disappeared through the door and Cari was at the counter taking another cup and pouring herself another drink. I was still in the same place, more confused than ever with what had just happened. I didn't know exactly what to do, all that mess left me with no reaction. I didn't know if I should go after Cari or call it for the night. I wanted to go home, but I also didn't want to leave her alone in that state.

I decided that the best I could do at the moment was to sit for a moment and try to put my thoughts in place. The things Tyler said could mean something that I thought it was impossible for anyone to know: "stay away from her", "she would love to take you home", his anger, the way he only approached Cari the moment I got close to her. My mind went to a spiral when I realized that he could possibly be suspecting about my feelings for her. I thought that was impossible because I had always been very careful not to show anything, but why would he say something like that? There was no other reasonable explanation. All of a sudden my anxiety was over the top and I had to leave that place before having a panic attack right there in front of everyone.

"Shannon." I was opening the front door when I heard my name being called from the inside of the house. "Wait!"

When I looked back to confirm whom that voice belonged to I saw Cari tripping on her own feet and almost falling over for the second time that night. She left her cup on the table and walked towards me.

"What?" I said avoiding eye contact.

"Can I talk to you?"

"I was about to go home..."

"Perfect. We can talk on our way there."

"But I..." I was about to say that that was probably not a good idea, but she was already walking clumsily to the sidewalk. I sighed and closed the door behind me, following her.

The first three blocks we walked in silence, which I thanked, because my stress level was really not helping my anxiety at all. I kept my head down the whole time, with my hands inside the pockets of my hoodie, trying to make myself calm down and relax a little. We were walking in front of a children's playground when Cari took my hand and made me sit on a bench by her side.