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Author's Chapter Notes:
may I just say that there's a reason why Nick didn't just get rid of the phone in the first place?
2014

I stare at my phone as if it’s a foreign object, daring it to vibrate one more time. Do it, you little sucker, and I’ll surely throw you out the window. I should have done that a while ago, cut off all strings that were firmly attached to me and my old life. I did that mostly, and now the only thing that remains is my incessantly stirring iPhone that seems to desperately alarm me about stuff I have nothing to do with anymore.

It’s been quiet for some time now though, and I can’t help but immediately wonder if that’s a good, or one of the bad signs. With my luck, it’s probably the latter.

“The hell are you doing?” My brother walks into the kitchen, holding one of the stray cats that live around the neighbourhood.

“Nothin’ much,” I reply with a sigh, staring at the cat that hisses at me. I think it sounds like it is accusing me of something.

“Figures…” Aaron mumbles before putting the animal in the sink. The cat is one second too late to figure out what’s coming next and before it can jump out of the basin, Aaron sprays it with ice-cold water, rinsing the sand and mud out of the feline’s fur. Now it’s my brother’s turn to be hissed at. He agilely manages to stay out of reach of the animal’s vicious paws.

“Sit still, you worthless hairball,” Aaron hisses back in turn, “Gotta get you cleaned up for a change.”

My mouth is hanging open as I watch the strange exchange between cat and brother. “’s That your cat?” I question, astonished.

“Don’t be stupid, it’s nobody’s cat!” he states matter-of-factly.

“Then why are y-”

BZZZZZZ….

We both turn our attention to the dining table suddenly.

The phone buzzes three more times before Aaron bothers to ask tauntingly, “Aren’t you going to see who it is?”

I give him a deathly glare, and stay seated. “I don’t have to,” I answer coldly, “I already know who it is. She’s been calling ever since I moved in.”

Somehow, Lauren seems to think I’m the one in trouble.

I’ve tried to explain things to her, tried to make her understand why I moved back in here with my family, tried to even get her to go with me, but she didn’t want to have any of it. So I walked out on her, on them, on everybody really, and came back to those I’d never thought I would make amends with.

Oh jolly, weird world.

The pissed off street-cat eagerly jumps out of the forgotten sink, hissing its little head off, as Aaron stares at me and the phone, an eyebrow raised. I don’t want to let it show, but I start to get real agitated when the buzzing doesn’t seem to stop. It has never been this persistent and I hesitate for ten more seconds before I grab it.

AJ, it said. I frown deeply, feeling my heart hammering in my throat. Out of all four, they have never bothered to call me after their falling out. To be honest, AJ was the last of them that I expected to pick up his phone and call me. Not in the least because we shared some words that last day that are still branded into my brain.

Flaming anger sears through my veins as I accept the call, my mind keen on telling him once and for all to not ever call me again. I don’t really get a chance to do that as AJ spews an entire waterfall worth of words over me, not caring to take a breath in between. “You’ve gotta come, you’ve gotta come! Something’s happened, you have to get here, I can’t explain over the phone, there’s no time, we’re all meeting up in Indiana, get there as soon as you can!”

There’s so much I want to scream at him, the repressed anger I’ve held inside for over five weeks slowly boiling towards the surface. How dare he telling me what to do?

How dare he not taking my absence seriously? How dare he calling me? Instead I mutter, “W-what?”

“You! Get your ass over here! It’s finally happened, there’s no way back anymore, and we could use your help!”

His words do nothing to reassure me and I lifelessly let myself fall back on the creaking kitchen chair. “D-did he do it?” I choke out fearfully.

For the first time since I picked up the phone, AJ goes quiet and I hear him sigh. “Y-yeah,” he stammers quietly, “there’s no going back now. There’s a conference in two hours, we-”

I don’t hear the rest of what he’s got to say. I drop the phone unceremoniously on the table and stare into the distance with wide open eyes. Faintly I notice Aaron watching me closely, as if he’s trying to figure out what just happened. Although he intently listened to the whole conversation, I can assume there wasn’t much information he could filter out from it. He knows better than to confront me about it though and quietly shuffles out of the kitchen, the stray cat still hissing in his now gloved hands.

I don’t know how long I sat there before I decide to get my car keys and give up this silly attempt at cutting everybody I know out of my life. I had hoped, dreamt that maybe, just maybe, this wouldn’t happen if I were to be away. That maybe, if I left, things wouldn’t get worse than they already were. But as it turns out, it doesn’t mean squat what I do. Because this time, it’s not about me, it’s not in my control. I’m just outside, out of charge. I can’t change a whole damn thing about the situation and that is what hurts the most.