Sell Your Soul

I walked out of the patio doors and set down the bag of liquor on the cement stones beside the cooler. I took a deep breath and looked around at everyone. How come I had to fall for the insane woman who made me so furious but feel so alive at the same time?

"How's it going man?" Zack smiled at me as he gave me a hug.

I patted his back before pulling away and sighing, "not bad, I guess."

Zack nodded his head, "Nicole told me April's in a bitch. Sorry dude."

"I'm just here to have some fun. Beers in the fridge, chips are wherever Nicole set them. Room in the cooler for this?" I asked as I picked the bag of liquor up again.

Zack nodded and then turned back to the BBQ to check on lunch.

I let out a deep breath and kneeled down, sticking my hand into the LCBO bag and pulling out a couple bottles. I burried them in the ice the best that I could concidering that the cooler was already beyond stocked for our barbeque night.

"Hey Matt."

I turned around and looked towards the pool. Rhi was walking towards us. Her legs glistened in the sun from the water. I never even saw that she was at the pools edge when I made my way outside.

She straightened her turquoise wife-beater and whipped her hands off on her shorts before giving me a hug. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

I nodded my head. How come Brian couldn't just grow some balls and ask her out? She was one of the most down-to-earth people I knew. Even if for some unknown reason she said no to him, he couldn't hate her for it. She was too sweet.

"Where's Steph and Nicole?" I followed her to the cooler and grabbed a beer for the both of us.

"Thanks," she smiled. She leaned to her right to look past my arm and bit her lip. "Umm, to be honest. I'm not sure. I don't even know if Steph is here yet?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Nicole helped me carry stuff in when we got here, but that was the last time I saw her."

Rhi nodded her head and looked down at her feet. She let out a light sigh and played with the can of beer in her hand.

A grin made it's way on my face, "what?"

She let out a small laugh, "I'm sorry, but where's April?"

I took in a deep breath and blew the air out between my lips as I shrugged my shoulders. "I have no idea."

She raised her eyebrow, "did she come?"

I nodded my head. "We had a few words inside... I wouldn't be surprised if she had taken off after, Rhi."

She nodded her head and then patted my shoulder. "Well, I think that this calls for a search party. You look for Nicole, and I'll make some calls to try and find little Miss. Stephanie."

I laughed and shook my head. "Alright, I'll take the inside."

I made my way through Zack's patio doors and looked around on the first floor. There was no sign of anyone, or any animal at that. I took the front stairs up to the second floor and looked in all of the rooms, but still I couldn't find Nicole.

When I had made my way back to the first level I threw my beer can into the receycling bin and grabbed another from the fridge. I opened the front door to just look out and see if Steph's car was in the driveway.

Nicole sat on the front lawn with her knees drawn up midway to her chest, a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

"Those will kill you, you know."

She let out a light laugh. "Like you haven't done things that could kill you Matthew Sanders."

I chuckled, "shut up. Steph here yet?"

She shook her head. "She called a while ago. She's running late and will be here eventually." She narrowed her eyes, "April left though."

I nodded as I sat down beside her and pulled my knees halfway up to my chest and rested my arms on them. "Yea, I figured that."

I felt incredibily anxious. I knew, somewhere inside of me, that something was completely wrong. April was a fool and careless, but I knew that wherever she was, it was going to cause a lot of problems and shit was about to hit the fan.

Why didn't I back out then? Did I honestly think that I could actually affect someone so much that they'd completely change themselves for me?

Yea, right.