Some Kind of Magic

“Just fucking leave, Travis!” Vanessa screamed as tears streamed down her face yet again that day. “I don't know what's going on with you, but this is wrong. You love Alicia, and if there's a problem you need to go back home and talk to her”, she screamed eyes filled with anger and fright. The boy just looked at her, his eyes empty, his body slightly shaking.

After minutes of just staring at the brunette girl, Travis shut his eyes tightly and bowed his head. “I need something to drink. Do you have any here, I'll take anything.” Travis whispered glancing up into the girls eyes. When he saw the stress and fright in her bright eyes, he sighed, feeling worse about himself and walked over to her, his arms up cautiously.

When she didn't scream or push him away, he wrapped his arms around her and rested his forehead on her shoulder, squeezing his eyes shut, trying to clear all of the raging thoughts in his head. He knew that deep down he loved Alicia, but now he was questioning his own motives. Did he love Alicia because they got along, and they were perfect for each other, or did he love her because she was an easy, beautiful, blonde, who was dependent on him making him feel like a stereotypical man?

Grunting, Travis pulled himself off of the girl and looked into her eyes that were much more relaxed now. “I'm going to go run and get some liquor”, Vanessa simply nodded at this and walked over to her couch and sat down, letting out a heavy sigh and pushing her hair out of her face. “Do you want anything in particular?” Travis eye's met those of the girl on the couch and awaited her reply.

His words sinking into her head, Vanessa flashed back to the last time she drank. Sure, she was loose and had a lot of fun, but that night she did something that she did not want to do, and it only created unnecessary drama. Now if she drank, and all of those things happened again, she wouldn't be able to live with herself. This was her best friends boyfriend. She couldn't imagine doing something so, horrible.

“No, I'm fine. Not much of a drinker anyway. I'll just... make sure you don't do anything stupid”, she blurted out and then stood from the couch and sighed heavily. Pinching the bridge of her nose and then running a hand through her hair stress-fully, she walked out of the room and down the hall to her bedroom. “Be careful”, the girl called down the hallway giving Travis the hint that she had nothing else to say and he could leave to get his alcohol.

Front door slamming shut, Vanessa dropped her body onto the bed and shut her eyes. She didn't understand how this was all happening to her. In the last two days, she had managed to be stalked by her ex, get the one person on the face of the Earth that probably loved her to leave her life for good, get beat up by the same ex that stalked her, and kiss her best friends boyfriend. If there was a record for making the most fucked up decisions in a short period of time, she would have won; hands down.

Dropping back onto her bed, she grabbed her cell phone and clicked the top button. When the screen showed up informing her that she had five new text messages, she sighed heavily and sat straight up. After a small wave of dizziness, she slid the lock button across, typed in her pin number, then clicked on the small messaging icon. Four were from Alicia, and instead of reading them, I decided to click on the one with the number I had never seen before.

Hey Nessie, I just wanted to let you know that Zachy is great in bed. I don't know why you would let him go. Either you're a huge bitch, or really fucking dumb. Hope you're happy, have a great night, Hun. - x0x0x

After reading that message a few times, anger quickly filled the Vanessa veins, and as her head and heart filled with anger, she quickly scrolled to her contacts, found Zach's number, and clicked send. Breathing heavily she stood up and walked over to the living room where the huge window looking over the city skyline was.

Three rings, and a groggy voice filled the other end of the phone. “Hello?”

“What the fuck is your problem, Parise?” The girls voice was loud and as it went through the phone, the boy on the other end sat up in his bed, the sheets falling from his bear chest. As he glanced around the room, he remembered the horrible date he had earlier. He went out, found a girl, ended up getting wasted, and then cried to her about Vanessa the whole time. Eventually the girl took her home and told him that he could call her any time.

Laying back in bed, placing his hand on his chest, he blew out a stream of air and shut his eyes. “What could I have possibly done to you now?”

“What could you have done? How about what your little fucking whore had done. Listen Zach, I understand that I was a bitch to you, but I only wanted to see you happy. Now wanting to see you happy results in you having your little fucking skank text me about how great you are in bed? I mean are you fucking seventeen, Zach?”

The boys eyes were the size of hockey pucks as the voice came through the phone, rocking his brain, making his heart thump loudly in his chest. “Vanessa, I have no... What are you talking about?”

“I'm glad you took my advice Zach, but I have enough shit to worry about, I don't need your little girlfriend texting me all the time. If you think it's going to make me go crazy or make me miss you, then you're wrong, because this is only making me hate you.”

“Well then what does it matter! If you hate me... I... What was the number?” Zach asked as he pressed the button on his phone to put the call on speaker. Scrolling down to his contacts, he clicked the new name, Becca, and watched her number show up. Seconds later, Vanessa read off the number like she was peering over Zach's shoulder reading it from his phone.

Speechless, Zach shut his eyes and tried to think back to when she could have possibly got that number. Then, as if someone pressed play, a memory from that night came into his head. They were at the bar, halfway through the drinks, the time where Zach just started talking about Vanessa. During one of his silent breaks, Becca asked for his cell phone. About five minutes later, she handed him his phone. He asked if he had to put his number in her phone, and she informed him she had already done it. She was lying, she probably got Vanessa’s number and text her then.

Groaning loudly, Zach jerked his head back and slammed his free hand into the bed. “Vanessa I am so-”

“Listen Zach, just keep your fucking whores in line, alright? I don't need any more fucking shit!” Vanessa screamed through the phone, a hint of tears in her voice that Zach quickly caught onto. Although he told himself that Vanessa was his past, he couldn't help but feel his heart drop at the sound of her crying.

He asked what was wrong, and instead of a reply, he heard a familiar voice in the background. Staring at his wall for a minute, he cleared his throat and asked Vanessa if she could give the phone to Travis. Silence consuming the too, Vanessa inhaled, her breaths trembling, and after a short period of static, Travis's voice cam through the other end of the phone.

“Yeah, Zach?”

“What the fuck are you doing there?” Zach growled in a low voice, his words dripping with venom. “Do you know what time it is? Why would you be at her place so late at night, what-”

Zach was cut off by the sound of Travis laughing on the other end of the phone. When he was done, he waited a moment to see if Zach shut up, and then cleared his throat. “Listen Zach, I came to Vanessa's house because she stopped answering her phone, and Alicia, her best friend didn't give a fuck about her, and I felt like someone needed to check on her since there was no one else left.” Zach held back the defensive screams he had piled in his throat. He didn't abandon Vanessa, she told him to leave her alone. He would never...

“I came over and her face was all beaten up, there was dried blood on her lips and in her mouth, on her forehead and under her nose, and she passed out in my arms after she barely made it to the front door. I found out that she was dumb enough to go visit her ex because he wanted to talk things over with her. Then I call her best friend, and she yells at me because I'm spending time with Vanessa and not with her. Vanessa's a big girl and can take of herself. Well obviously, she can't”

“Hey!”, a small girls voice echoed in from the background noise of the conversation. As the boys stopped speaking, Zach sighed heavily and pictures Vanessa sitting there on her couch, her bright blue eyes filled with happiness and a smile on her face. Shifting in his bed, he jerked his head back and then say up in his bed, his brown eyes examining everything in his room as it slowly moved. He was obviously still a little effected by his alcohol consumption.

After a few more minutes of silence, Travis cleared his throat, and in a low tone informed Zach that he wasn't sure if he could stand living with Alicia any longer. Then, a few seconds later, after a series of shut doors echoing into the conversation, Travis took a shaky inhale and shut his eyes not believing what he was about to tell his best friend.

Sitting down on the curb in front of Vanessa's house, Travis pinched the bridge of his eyes and bit down on his lip. “Zach, I kissed her.”

Zach stood motionless on the other end of the phone. His eyes were wide in wonder and shock, his mind had hit a standstill and the only thing showing that Zach was alive was the slow and heavy beat of his heart pounding like a sledge hammer to the inside of his chest. Was he dreaming, hallucinating maybe. That girl could have slipped something into his drink, maybe that's what all of this was, a huge fog created by his mind.

“Alicia?” Zach spit out, still not capable of believing what Travis had said.

“No, man. I kissed Vanessa alright, and she kind of kissed me back, but only for a millisecond, hell, she might not even have. It might have been me. I was just so stressed and angry over everything, and she was there, and her eyes and-”

“I got to go”, Zach breathed into his phone, trying to hide the heavy erratic breathing that was rocking his chest. The anger running through him was almost to the point of pain. Every inhale he took, he wanted to just scream and cry and direct all of his pain toward Vanessa for making him this way. Before that night where he helped her after her, at the time boyfriend, beat her up, he was perfectly fine. He was perfectly content looking at girls and having nothing to compare them to. But ever since that night, all Zach had done was put them up against Vanessa, and every time a huge red ex came up over the other girl. He only wanted Vanessa, but how could he want something that caused him so much pain.

“Zach!” Travis screamed as he slammed his phone shut and threw it down against the bed under him. Thoughts rushed through his head making his vision blurry. After a few minutes, he sat down on the edge of his bed, pressed his face into his hands and let out a small sob. No matte what he did, Vanessa was never going to leave his life, and not having her made drove him insane.

- - - - - - - - -

“I told him”, Travis whispered as he walked up to the brunette sitting on the couch, staring at the floor. As his words sunk into the air, her head slowly lifted until her bright blue eyes were zeroed in on his. “I told him Vanessa, I felt like I had to.”

“You told Zach?”

At that moment, Vanessa's phone rang through the silent living room. As they broke the gaze, Vanessa glanced at the lit up screen and felt her heart stop beating all together. Limbs shaking, eyes already filled with water, she grabbed her phone and ran to her room. As Travis screamed for her, she let out a small sob and slammed her bedroom door shut and locked it. With a short inhale, she answered the phone.

“Zach?”

There was no sound for a moment, and then it all broke lose. “What have I ever done to you, Vanessa? I always tried to do everything for you. You push me away, and away, and then you tell me to go find someone because you'll basically never love anyone, then you go and kiss... You fucking kiss my best friend?”

Shaking her head, the brunette let out a sob and squeezed her eyes shut. As the boy continued to yell, all she could do was shake with sobs and weep. How is this all happening? How is this all happening at once? She thought to herself as the boy continued his screaming. Once he was done, Vanessa opened her eyes and listened to the heavy breathing on the other end.

“Zach”, she whimpered and listened as silence crept through the phone. “I didn't... I told you... I'm so sorry. I didn't really kiss him, but I know you don't care. I'm so sorry, Zach. For everything I mean, I'm not worth all this. I hate that you get angry because of me. I may never show it, but I love you too, I love you so much that I don't want you to have to put up with me”, she cried into the phone, and as she listened to the silence on the other end, a thought came into her head and spread like wildfire, killing every thought until that was the only thing she could think of. How perfect it was, how everything would finally be fixed. “Goodbye Zach, I'm sorry for everything again”, she whispered into the phone, her voice oddly calm. Just as Zach was about to speak, she hung up the phone, and then peeled off the back panel and took out the battery. Leaving the phone and batter neatly on her messy bed, she grabbed her moccasins and one of Zach's sweatshirt and walked from her room and into the living room.

Glancing around, seeing no sign of Travis, she walked out of the house and into the cold air rolling in off of the Hudson River. Glancing toward the water, she inhaled slowly and started walking to the water. Down passed a bunch of houses there was a small deck like thing that went out into the water. Under the deck where the waters crashed against the shore, there were a few sets of jagged rocks that if you jumped into, were bound to kill you.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Vanessa! Open the door, will you?” Travis screamed as his fist pounded on the wooden door of Vanessa's bedroom. “Come on, Vanessa, I talked to Zach, we have this all settled out, he's coming over, you two need to... Vanessa?” He screamed stopping his long speech when there was no sound at all coming from behind the door.

Inhaling slowly, Travis turned the knob and pushed the bedroom door open. Walking over, he looked over at the cell phone lying on the bed, the battery right next to it. As he picked them up, he glanced around the room and quickly ran over to his phone.

Breathing heavy, body entering an extreme state of worry and shock, he used his shaky fingers to dial Zach's number. As it started to ring, Travis sat down on the couch and listened as his cell started to beep. Pulling it away from his face for a moment, he took notice as the incoming call coming from Alicia. Nibbling on his bottom lip, he hit ignore and waited for Zach to answer the phone. When he did, Travis stood up and walked over to the huge window, hoping he would see the brunette girl walking around.

“Travis, what?”

“I don't know where she is.”

“What! What are you talking about? What do you mean?” Zach screamed, his voice almost shaking with urgency.

“She's gone.”