Casey’s POV
One week has passed, and yet it feels like absolutely nothing had happened. Red acted as if the incident in the mall never happened, and Dakota, well, he’s Dakota. He never mentioned the park before, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to do so now.
The only thing that seems different is how tense the air seems to be at lunch. It’s so thick, I’ve tried poking it with my spork. Even now, I swiped the air with my spork, as if to dispel it.
An earbud popped out as somebody tugged on the cord. I turned to my side to see Red looking at me funny.
“What are you doing?” she questioned.
I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I mumbled, unwilling to admit I was trying to splice through the strained air. It was suffocating me, and Olick seemed to have noticed it too. Yes, I finally had a ship name for Nick and Ollie; Olick. They were always together, doing basically the same thing, so they were practically the same person. A person named Olick.
“Oh,” Red responded before turning back to her food. I just gave a slight shrug, before going back to eating. “Hey, let’s hang out this afternoon,” Red suggested, giving me a smile.
I returned it, nerves starting to pop up. We had hung out a few times this past week, avoiding places like the park and the mall. I was grateful to her for it. “Sure. Where should we go?” I asked, and Red tapped her chin.
“Uh, how abou—“
“I’ll come too,” Dakota interrupted. Red paused, before shooting him a glare and folding her arms.
“Sorry, but you can’t,” she snipped, and I immediately knew where this was going. They had been arguing a lot lately too.
“And why not?” You could tell Dakota was trying to remain calm, but underneath you could just see the anger starting to simmer.
“Girls only,” Red replied snidely.
Olick exchanged a glance, before they stood up. “Uh, I have to catch up on some classwork,” Ollie said nervously, moving to dump his leftovers in the trash.
“I’m going to walk him to class.” Nick didn’t sound nervous, but you could tell that he wasn’t pleased with the situation. He had enough sense though not to butt in.
They left, leaving me between the vinegar and baking soda. They were due to explode any minute now, and there was nothing I could do to defuse the situation. So I sat there, impatiently waiting for them to detonate. Their heated arguments were starting to grate on my nerves, but I still felt guilty because most of the time their arguments centered around me.
“You said that last time!” Dakota hissed.
“Well, sucks cause I’m saying it again,” Red snorted.
“You’ve been taking up all of Casey’s time, and it’s not fair!” Dakota whined, his eyes flashing.
“So? She likes hanging out with me.” I gulped. They were acting like children.
“Well, maybe she wants to hang out with me. Don’t you Casey?” Dakota prompted, and he looked at me expectantly.
“Don’t put her on the spot like that, it’s not fair,” Red retorted, thwacking Dakota on the head with the back of his hand.
“Like you weren’t going to,” Dakota scoffed. “Anyways, I wouldn’t have to if you would just let me have her!”
“Are you kidd-“
This pointless arguing is what finally made me angry. So I picked up my tray, then slammed it down, successfully getting their attention.
“Enough!” I roared. “I’m not some fucking toy, so don’t treat me like one!” I fumed.
They both blinked owlishly at me, before looking down at their trays in shame. I heard them mumble apologies, before I resumed eating, furiously shoving food into my mouth.
The minutes ticked by, each of us eating in complete silence while the cafeteria slowly went back to its normal noise level. Apparently I had slammed that tray harder than I thought, more than half of the cafeteria paused to see what the commotion was about.
It took a bit more than a couple minutes and a few deep breaths to calm myself down. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, praying the bell would ring soon. Red and Dakota seemed to have me trapped in their battle of death glares, and it almost seemed as if I wasn’t even there. They were both totally focused on trying to annihilate each other with their eyes.
I sighed, my pent up anger now gone. All this fighting must have started with that day after school.
The day when those two were talking, when Red mentioned that I thought I killed that jogger. It was only then how true I thought her words are, and how I must’ve. But I’ve been too scared to go to the police about it, hoping that they would’ve caught the killer by now. Spoiler alert: they haven’t, making me even more convinced.
I remember that I had wanted to run away from those two that day, and deny it all. Yet I seemed frozen in that spot, my hearing working despite my legs ignoring my order to move.
They just kept talking about it, quickly escalating to an argument. Dakota was convinced of my innocence, but Red kept pointing out that I knew everything about the murder. I remember that Dakota mentioned that I might have just seen it on the news and forgotten about it, but Red countered that saying that I knew exactly how the murder played out. How this Johanna person died.
The argument ended there, with Dakota being unsure how I knew. That information hadn’t been released yet, until a couple days ago. Since then, they’ve been glaring at each other constantly, and refusing to speak to one another.
I bit my lip, sadness filling in the place where the anger once was. It’s all because of me. They’re fighting because of me. Pushing around my food with my spork, I looked dejectedly at the table, a frown etched onto my face. I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t exactly confront them, could I? That conversation clearly wasn’t meant for my ears, and by pure coincidence I happened to overhear it.
I didn’t want to lose either of them as a friend either. Red stuck with me, even though she barely knew me. She stuck with me as I completely freaked, and we were basically strangers then. Dakota was also an insanely good friend. He’s so caring, and sits with me even if I protest and tell him to sit with his other friends. Then he’d wink and say he likes me better, which would make me all warm and fuzzy inside.
I didn’t want to lose that, I couldn’t. I finally felt normal, and the symptoms were coming less and less. I rarely heard the voices, whether it was because of the medicine, or because I wasn’t so alone anymore. I was hearing real voices from real people. And after all these years, it was pretty damn nice.
I dropped my spork onto the tray, standing up. I can’t lose them, but they’re fighting because of me. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what I can do.
I think that someone up there was looking out for me, for the bell finally rang. I basically sprinted out of the cafeteria, taking the long way to class so that I could have some time alone. I needed to think about this.
On one hand, I just wanted to talk to them about it, and find out exactly what happened. I wanted to get everything out in the open, ask Dakota if he was at the park, what Red heard me say at the mall, and how Olick knew about the fucking pop quiz.
On the other hand, I just wanted to remain in my oblivious bubble and pretend my life was all rainbows and daisies. I didn’t believe in unicorns. I liked – no, loved this feeling that I was just like everybody else, that I wasn’t a schizophrenic, that I had friends who cared.
I stepped into the room just as the bell rang to start class, and promptly took my seat, unable to look at either of them.
I tried to pay attention to the lesson, but I could feel them watching me. Still, I didn’t turn to face them, keeping my eyes forwards and on the teacher. The class seemed to drag on forever, and I seemed to be nervous throughout the entire thing. Maybe it was because I’d have to talk to them about it eventually, or I was just so confused it made me stressed.
“Casey…” My entire body went stiff, my heart starting to pound.
“Casey, we need to talk.” I looked around for a moment, hoping that someone was speaking to me.
A dry laugh sounded only within my head. “Stop being stupid. You know it’s us.”
I practically dived towards my bag, furiously digging through it to find my ipod. God dammit, I was doing so well too, I thought angrily.
“Just go talk to Dakota and Red. They’ll probably be relieved to drop you as a friend.” I felt my fingers close around the small rectangular device, pulling it out. I nearly groaned out loud when I saw that the headphones were all tangled.
“Go talk to them Casey,” the voices goaded. I ignored them and worked on untangling the headphones, but were getting more frustrated by the second. I didn’t even understand how the fuck the stupid headphones could get so tangled.
“You need answers. We know what happened at the park that day.” I gave the headphones a sharp tug, trying to pull them apart. Then my ipod slipped between my fingers, and I swear my heart stopped as it clattered to the floor, face down.
“Miss Adams?” the teacher asked, looking at me suspiciously.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, picking up the ipod, blushing. I knew the class was looking at me, before the teacher called the attention back to her.
“Ha! Look what the bum has done now!” a voice sneered. I bit my lip as I turned the ipod over, scared of what I might see.
The entire screen was cracked. It was completely shattered, a spider web of glass shards. I tried to turn it on, but to no avail.
“Wow, how could you let yourself do that?” another voice cackled with laughter.
“That was the only thing that kept you safe from us.”
“Now we can be with you all day every day.”
“Won’t that be nice?”
“I still have my medicine though,” I whispered, still distraught over the loss of my ipod. It really was the only thing keeping me sane, and it was their fault for making me drop it! I closed my eyes, trying to prevent tears from appearing.
“So? That barely works, and you know it.”
“It’s your fucking fault so shut up!” I screamed at them, wanting them to go away. I finally feel normal, and they come back.
“Casey!” the teacher gasps, and my eyes shoot open. Big mistake. Everyone was staring at me, their eyes wide as if I had grown two heads.
“I-I’m so sorry!” I cried, red from head to toe. Then I stood and ran from the room, embarrassed as hell and still being assaulted by the voices.
“Where are you going Casey?”
“Back to mommy?”
“Aww, she’s crying! How pathetic.”
Silver tears ran down my face as I sprinted, my hand tightly gripping my bag. Nobody can see me cry, I won’t let them. I just need to get home.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, someone shouted, “Casey! Casey wait up!”
I panicked and ran faster. “Go away Red!” I called behind me, trying to get rid of the tears before she could see.
“Casey, what’s wrong?” I gulped. That was Dakota.
“Just leave me alone, I’ll be fine!” by now all of our yelling had caused teachers to poke their heads out of their rooms, and I flew past them, straight towards the main doors.
“No running!” some of the teachers called in vain, but I just kept going.
“Casey!” I heard Dakota call again, before his pounding footsteps got closer.
“Go away!” I shrieked, trying to run faster. Yet my body was failing me, and my legs already felt like jelly.
“Yeah Casey, you tell ‘em. You don’t want to be friends with them anyways.”
“That’s not true!” I screamed at the voices. “That’s not true at all, just leave me alone!”
“Casey, wait!” I felt someone grab my arm roughly, stopping me. I kept my face hidden from them, tears still leaking steadily. “Casey, why’d you ru—what’s wrong?!” Dakota said, alarmed. He forced me to face him, his grey eyes searching my face.
I looked anywhere but him, not wanting to see his reaction when he found out how weak I was. “N-nothing, I’m f-fine,” I hiccupped, my voice cracking all over the place.
“Casey, it’s okay, I’m here for you if you need me.” Dakota pulled me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me. Again, I froze, my body tensing. Then I slowly relaxed in his arms, wrapping my own around his torso.
“D-Dakota,” I whimpered, and I felt my tears starting to soak his shirt. I saw Red standing behind him, panting slightly, but she gave me a smile once our eyes met.
“Shh, it’s okay. I’m here for you – no, we’re here for you,” Dakota whispered into my hair, nuzzling it slightly.
I got that warm and fuzzy feeling again.
.
.
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Well, as some of you might have seen, I'm pretty sure this chapter is bipolar XD thoughts? Oh, and this is longer than some of my others, yay or nay?
But #CASOTA anyone?? like was I the only one squealing at that moment in the end??
Oh and song on the side was shown to me by @blueflower00 and I totally agree with her XD It does remind me of Casey and her situation haha