Oscar pounds his fist against Pierre's door, his stomach in knots. He can barely wait one minute before he tries knocking again. He bounces between his toes and his heels, desperate for the other male to open the door and greet him. He crosses his arms, shaking his head. He's nervous, his whole body shaking. Then, he sighs and knocks again.
"Perry?" Oscar calls out. "It's Oscar. Open the door."
Oscar leans in to put his head on the wood just to hear someone moving in the Apartment. He steps back and knocks again. After a minute, Pierre cracks open his door just enough to stick his face out. When he sees Oscar, he tries slamming the door but Oscar moves closer, blocking it with his body. He pushes in, confused and scared for his friend. Pierre backs up as Oscar shoves the door open, raising an eyebrow in concern. When he sees the state Pierre's in, his heart drops.
Pierre's eyes are bright red and tears stain his cheeks. He looks like he didn't sleep and spent the majority of the night crying. Oscar approaches Pierre before the latter can push him away and drags him into a hug. Pierre shakes in his arms as he sobs, his arms finding their place around Oscar's waist. He sobs a couple times, seeking comfort in Oscar's grasp.
"It's okay," Oscar whispers. "I'm here and you're okay."
Slowly, Pierre's tears stop and he looks up to meet Oscar's gaze. Oscar lets Pierre go and grabs onto his face, pulling him into a kiss. Pierre drops his hands to Oscar's hips as they kiss, keeping his boyfriend close to him. After a minute, they separate staring into each other's eyes.
"What happened? Are you okay? Your voicemail this morning freaked me the fuck out," Oscar tells him.
"Voicemail?"
Oscar pulls out his phone and opens his voicemail, playing the message Pierre left him in the early hours of the morning.
"Oscar? Oscar, please answer your phone. Don't do this. Please just talk to me."
Pierre's mouth drops open and his heart starts to beat out of his chest.
"I didn't leave you that last night. I didn't call you."
"Yeah you did." He checks his call history. "Missed call from Pierre Duvall at 1:28 am. At that time with the message you left, fuck I thought someone broke into my place and start sending you breakup texts from my phone. I didn't know what was happening and I was worried about you. I had to make sure you were okay."
"I just had a really freaky nightmare last night. I don't think I woke up and called you."
"Well regardless of what you think you did, this message was left on my phone from your number. Baby, just, what happened?"
"It was just a bad nightmare. My entire room was plastered with rejection letters from absolutely everyone. And from universities, workplaces, everywhere. Baby, it was basically a series of my worst nightmares coming true."
Tears start running down Pierre's cheeks. He looks down to avoid having Oscar's gaze. His boyfriend approaches him and pulls him into a kiss, putting his arms around Pierre's waist. After a minute, he breaks the kiss.
"How about this," Oscar suggests. "Why don't you and I go through your entire room and make sure that there's nothing in there so you know it was just a nightmare? You're okay. I promise that you're okay."
Pierre nods, tears in his eyes. Oscar presses a kiss to his cheeks then walks past him, entering Pierre's room. Pierre sighs and slowly follows him. When he gets in there, he sees his boyfriend already going through the room.
"Baby, we're going to settle this easily," Oscar promises. "This was just a nightmare and this is all going to be over."
-13-
Pierre sits in his desk chair, his entire body shaking. Oscar steps off the bed with one foot and drops down onto his butt on the edge of the bed. He stands up and approaches Pierre, dropping down onto his lap.
"See? Nothing happened," Oscar whispers. "It was just a nightmare. I promise you that your parents didn't show up last night, there were no rejection letters plastering your room, we were not texting about you last night while we were all asleep, we weren't ignoring you, and most importantly, I did not turn into a demon and dump you. I promise you that everything is okay."
Oscar tilts Pierre's face up and kisses him. Once Oscar pulls away, he cups Pierre's face and stares into his eyes.
"Are you going to be okay? Do you need me here or can I head out to run my errands?" Oscar asks.
"Go do what you need to."
Oscar pulls Pierre in for another kiss then gets up and leaves Pierre's house. His eyes scan around the entire room as he listens to his front door open and close. He grabs his phone and unlocks it, first going through the texts and noticing nothing there. Then he goes into his call history. Sure enough, there's a call to Oscar around the time that his boyfriend claimed that he called him. He feels his heart racing. If it was all a dream, how did he actually manage to call his boyfriend in his sleep? He starts walking towards the door when his foot slips, almost taking him to the ground. He drops to his knee and grabs the piece of paper he slipped on. He slowly turns it in his hand, realizing it's a rejection letter from the university he and all his friends are all currently attending. His breath catches in his throat, gagging him.
"Oscar?" he calls out.
He immediately leaves his apartment, heading for Oscar's place. As he goes to walk past apartment thirteen, Hensley halfway steps into the hall. She's standing in the doorway as Pierre goes to pass her. As he's staring at the paper, he doesn't notice her. He slams his shoulder into hers, sending her face-first into the doorframe. He stops, turning to her as she steps back from the wood, covering her nose with her hand and closing her eyes.
"Oh my God Hensley. I didn't see you, I am so sorry. Are you okay?"
"It's fine. I'm fine," Hensley sighs, taking her hand away from her face to look for blood. "May I ask why you are running through the hall like a charging bull?"
"I just, I need to talk to Oscar. Something happened last night and it's less wrong than I thought it was."
Hensley sighs and steps back into her apartment, beckoning for Pierre to follow her. He does so, not wanting to anger the girl he just injured. The door swings shut behind him as Hensley grabs onto a tissue to stop her bleeding nose.
"So what happened last night?" she asks. "You seem kind of off."
"I had a really fucked up nightmare last night and I guess I accidentally called Oscar last night. I can't really tell what actually happened and what didn't. I found a letter that I thought was just part of my nightmare but was real."
"Do you mind if I look?"
Pierre holds the letter for her to take as she pulls the tissue away from her face. She grabs the letter from him, quickly running her eyes over the words.
"How old are you, Pierre?" she asks.
"Twenty-two."
"Did you take any gap years before entering university?"
"Not intentionally but yes."
"Second year?"
"Yeah."
"Pierre, you would've gotten this letter in one of the years where you weren't accepted to university. Look at the date."
She turns the letter for Pierre to see and, sure enough, she's right. He takes it back and crumples it up, shaking his head.
"Why do you still have that?" Hensley asks, wiping her nose again.
"I don't know. I'm a hoarder with issues."
Hensley swipes it away from him, tossing the ball between her hands.
"I'm going to do you a favour," she tells him. "You are not taking this out of here. I have a paper shredder for school stuff and I'm getting rid of this for you. I won't make you divulge your inner psyche but whatever your issue is, this is stimulating it so I'm helping you. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Don't go bugging Oscar. If you're stressed, go home and relax. It's too early for alcohol so go have some tea and relax before you bulldoze someone else."
She holds her arms out and beckons for Pierre to hug her and he does so. She rubs his back a couple of times, trying to calm him. After she releases him, he turns and leaves her apartment, heading for his place. He grabs onto his door handle, then turns and knocks on Carter's door. After a few moments, she opens the door, tugging on her sweatshirt to cover her stomach.
"Hey Perry. What's up?" she asks.
"I need to talk to you."
She nods towards her place, stepping back so he can come in. He walks past her and she lets the door close behind them.
"Can you text Yumi and get her over here? Something really fucked up happened last night and I need to talk to you guys about it. Oscar already knows what's going on but I don't know if I should say something to Jade or not."
Carter nods and goes to get her phone from her room. Pierre walks into her living room and sits down, his body shaking. He can hear Carter talking on the phone, something in her voice concerning Pierre. After she hangs up, she peeks into the living room then goes to the door to wait for Yumi. Pierre plays out every message from the night before, hearing their voices saying the texts.
"Can we please agree that we need to get rid of Pierre and replace him with Hensley? I'm sick of him and this new girl seems like a breath of fresh air."
"I mean I'm down. He's kind of getting boring. She seems more exciting."
"We can finally get rid of that loser."
"Pathetic little reject."
"Took you Ladies long enough to realize that he's toxic male energy."
Pierre puts his hands over his ears, slightly rocking. He shuts his eyes, closing himself off from reality
"Shut up," he pleads. "Shut up, shut up, shut up."
"Why the fuck are you here? I don't want you here. No one wants you around."
"We don't want you around us anymore. We took pity on you last year which is why we became your friends. We found someone better so we don't need you anymore. Get the fuck out of here and get the fuck away from me."
"Are you scared yet? Are you ready to pay the ultimate price for your incompetence? For the time of ours that you've wasted with your presence?"
"Shut up. Please," he begs, the entire night before playing out in his mind.
He jumps as hands are placed on his shoulders. He looks up to see Carter on her knees in front of him, concern written all over her face. Yumi is standing by the entrance to the living room, staring at Pierre with one hand over her mouth.
"Perry, what the fuck is going on?" Carter demands, her nails digging into his shoulders.
"We need to be smarter," Pierre curses. "We have to cut all contact with Hensley and Apartment Thirteen and move the fuck out of the city."
"Okay. I like the first two but number three kind of freaks me out. What happened, Pierre? What is going on?"
"What's going on is that Apartment Thirteen has its claws dug so deeply into all of us and no one else is going to realize until it's their turn under the knife. It was my turn last night and now I need out. I don't even want to go back to school next week. I just want to transfer universities and get the fuck out of here."
"Okay, what the fuck happened to you last night?" Carter demands. "Oscar's been the one rattling off the warnings about the history of Apartment Thirteen but now you're suddenly further off the deep end than he is."
Pierre sighs and starts breathing heavily, trying to compose himself. Carter sits on the couch next to him, rubbing his arm while Yumi takes a seat on the other couch.
"Guys, last night, I was forced to face my worst fear, continuously, head on. It was like Apartment Thirteen knew what to do to fuck with me and how to wreck me. I want to run. I'm scared. And I think Hensley is in on it. I think she's working with the apartment to mess with us. She knows. They're in cahoots."
Carter and Yumi exchange a look as they listen to Pierre's ranting. While they have their own concerns about the apartment, something about his story is making everything worse.