“I’m fine.”
-Amy
-------------
Stepping off the airplane, I instantly felt a wave of happiness that I couldn’t help but express without a smile. I looked over to Julia, who was also smiling. I walked down the terminal into the baggage area, where we all stood waiting. It’s hard to think it’s only been a week, when in some ways its felt like a lifetime. In the taxi on our way back to school, I watched as we passed the mountains and green trees. The excitement inside of me was building up as we got closer and closer to the entrance.
“Right here is good,” Matt told the taxi driver as we stopped in front of the school entrance. He handed him the fare, and we all got out to grab our bags. Stepping back onto school grounds, seeing so many familiar faces, made me sigh in relief.
“It’s almost dinner,” Julia looked at her watch. “Sign in and put our stuff away; meet back in twenty?”
“Sure thing.”
“It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Kyle and Andrew,” Julia said as we made our way up to our cabin.
“Yeah,” I nodded.
“We’re going to have to catch them up on all they’ve missed.”
I stopped, making Julia stumble a bit and look back at me.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“I was just… what exactly are we going to tell them?”
“Everything?” Well, I thought…” Julia looked at me and put down her suitcase.
“Right, right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Amy… does this have anything to do with Tim? And Andrew?”
I put down my suitcase too and sat down on it. “Maybe.”
“You can talk to me, you know that.”
I shook my head. “I’d tell you if I knew myself what I was thinking. It’s just, me and Andrew have a rough past when it comes to discussing Tim. He basically called me a slut for the whole thing.”
Julia sighed. “I think Andrew has some troubles of his own… He deserves to know everything that happened over break, he’s only involved in this because of us. But if he says anything to you, tell me. I’ll give him a little talk.”
“Julia-”
“He can be an asshole, I know.”
“That we can both agree on. But I can handle Andrew. Just the nerves, ya know?” I got back up. “Come on, we’re sitting in the middle of the path anyways. Maybe we can finish dinner early and head down to the beach to talk or something…”
“Maybe you and Andrew can head down to the beach and talk.”
I shot Julia a look and started walking, while she laughed behind me. Dinner was bound to be one thing- interesting.
***
Sitting back in the dining hall could never have felt better. Julia and I got our food and sat down at our typical table. Johnny and Ethan decided to sit with us, since it was the first night all seven of us would be seeing each other again. Kyle came in behind them, and the three of them were smiling and laughing. It was great seeing the them reunited again.
Matt and Andrew joined us last. Andrew sat down across from me, and I couldn’t help but suppress a smile. “Hey you.”
“Hey yourself.”
“All of us together again!” Matt raised his glass of water. “To surviving this last week.”
“I’ll drink to that.” I raised up my glass.
“Wha-?” Andrew looked confused.
“We’ll explain later,” Julia help up her glass too.
“Cheers!”
The rest of the dinner felt like something I hadn’t had in a while. We traded stories and laughed as if nothing was wrong. Andrew teased me relentlessly; it was weird to think I actually had missed our hateful banter. It was all going good until it came to dessert.
“So,” Kyle leaned into our side of the table. “I’m sorry I never got to Skype you guys back, we had some internet troubles at my house. Did you solve everything with your dad?”
There was a silence as we all traded looks.
“What’s he talking about?” Andrew demanded. “And what was this Matt was saying about surviving the week?”
“Andrew…” Matt started. “I don’t think we should tell you in here.”
“Did something happen!?”
“Yeah… It’s no big deal. Well, I mean it was but it’s over now.”
Andrew looked at me. “Those three texts you sent me, you never bothered to mention something was going on?”
“Don’t blame her, we didn’t tell you because it wouldn’t have done you any good. You just would’ve sat at home and worried.”
Andrew sighed and picked at his dessert with a fork. “Great. But you told Kyle? No offense.”
“None taken.”
“Amy will explain it all to you,” Julia piped up.
“What?”
“After dinner.” Julia looked over at me, giving me a look. As if this was my chance to make it right when I talked about Tim.
“Right. Sure.”
“Fine,” Andrew took a bite of his pie. “But I want the whole story.”
“Then the whole story you will get.”
***
We headed out to Center Circle to talk, where there was less of a chance of being heard yet we could still feel like others were nearby.
“Are you okay?” He looked at me.
“What do you mean?”
“Something happened to you over break.”
“I’m fine.” I sighed. “Well, I think I am.”
“Are you sure?”
“I don’t think you’re going to rest easy either after I tell you something.” I started to play with my cuticles and inspect them a little too closely. “Prepare yourself.”
“Oh god.”
I took a deep breath. “Mr. Grey is still alive.”
“Damn.”
“Damn? That’s really all you have to say?”
“Well I’m kind of freaking out inside right now!” He took a deep breath. “Do you know for sure? Did you see him?”
“Not exactly… But we basically spent the whole entire break trying not to die.”
“Are you really being sarcastic with me right now? How was I supposed to know you guys were ‘dying’ when nobody bothered to tell me!?”
“Calm yourself,” I rolled my eyes. “Once you hear the story I don’t think that will be your main concern anymore. We were just a bit busy to go around playing storyteller at the time.” I went on to explain the whole story with Mr. Grey’s little game on saving Matt’s dad. “In the end I think he won. I mean, Simeon ended up in the hospital and Matt was devastated. Matt and I ended up in the hospital too, but it was minor. I still have nightmares about it though.”
I realize I was admitting this more to myself than I was to him.
“His car, driving up to us in the dark. I had seen it coming, yet it hadn’t really registered in my mind before the whole car flew into the railing and glass was raining down on us.”
Andrew was quiet. I think he knew I needed his silence so I could keep talking.
“There’s more. Ethan and Johnny received a DVD in the mail. It was this movie, Joyride. They thought it was a warning we had missed about the car crash. The next day Matt had got Mr. Grey on the phone and told him to leave us alone. Mr. Grey strangely agreed. Several hours later, Kelly was kidnapped.”
“Kelly…?”
“Yes, Kelly being Matt’s ex who was tormented by Tim. Tim, who you know…”
“Amy, I’m sorry about what I said…”
“I didn’t finish.” My voice has gotten stone cold for some reason. I cleared my throat, continuing the story. I told Andrew about what happened in the hospital room, how Mr. Grey had gotten my phone and given me a pill to make me forget it all. I told his about how we went from motel to motel searching for Kelly, until we did eventually find her.
And finally, I told him about how Tim was killed. “Maybe he was an asshole…” I whispered. “A big, fucking asshole. But he was my first. And he’s also dead. And I don’t know how I feel about that or why the hell I am telling you any of this. But I’m scared. And don’t tell me there’s nothing to be afraid of, because I damn well know there’s a shit load to be afraid of right now.”
Andrew put his head in his hands and took a deep breath.
“So basically our teacher is back from the dead,” I decided to crack a joke
The corner of Andrew’s mouth didn’t even twitch.
“I know it’s a lot to take in, so I’m going to go…” I got up to leave.
“Amy-”
“I’m all right. Really. Life goes on.”
He got up and grabbed my arm before I could go. “I know I haven’t been the greatest company, but if you never need anybody to talk to, or just anybody to listen, I’m here. Ok? And I did worry. I still worried all vacation about what was happened to you guys.”
I smiled. “It’s weird, seeing the nice side of you.”
Andrew made a face. “Yeah, nice-guy Andrew doesn’t usually last very long. I hate you, leave my presence at once.”
I laughed as he waved me away.
“Nice to have ya back!” he yelled as I flipped him off.
_____________
Heyy guys! I want to write more but it's dark and it's impossible to see the keyboard and it's just a struggle :P
Yay Kyle and Andrew are back<3
Also I have no clue what's going to happen in the next part... ideas?
Peace.
xx
Ella
Comment, vote, fan<3