You and I collide

I stretched out on the couch luxuriously as the guys argued over which movie they were going to watch
“Do I even want to know?” my dad asked as he came in through the door carrying four pizza boxes.
“Nah, just raiding my closet. Turns out I have loads of prissy shit still in there.” I said laughing. He looked at me a little surprised but seemed to shake it off.
“Kay guys, I got meat lovers, pepperoni, more meat lovers and cheese.” My dad called from the kitchen, they all got up and ran to the kitchen eagerly
“Geez, guys, didn’t you all just down like three hamburgers each and now you want pizza? It’s a wonder you all aren’t obese.” I called after them walking at a normal human pace.
“Yeah, well, you’re a girl we don’t expect you to understand.” Eric retorted piling his plate high with pizza. I rolled my eyes and took a piece of meat lovers.
“I still think we should watch quarantine.” Troy said as the guys put in one of the saw movies.
“I think I’m going upstairs.” I said getting up as soon as the first scenes played out. I still had my horrible fear of horror movies
“oh c’mon, are you sacred.” Eric called out taunting me
“Yes,” I answered getting up. Cole grabbed my hand.
“I need to get changed, I’ll go up with you.” he said, I nodded trying to block out the noise from the movie. I ran up the stairs and closed the door to my room, I was still terrified of horror movies and other scary things, at least that much hadn't changed . I changed into a pair of loose cotton pajama pants and a tank top and sat down on my bed at a loss to what I was supposed to be doing. My door opened
“You never did like horror movies, did you?” Cole said closing it silently behind him, I nodded and gave a faint smile. He sat down beside me and opened up his back pack.
“Want to do Arabella 101?” he asked,
“Sure, why not.” I said sitting cross legged on my bed. Cole brought out a stack of photo’s and held one up,
“Who are these people?” he asked I tried to search through my fuzzy memory but found nothing,
“These people are Kat and Mat Or the twins.” Cole explained, the names rang a bell in my mind as stared at their grey eyes and sandy hair.
“These two saved my ass one time didn’t they?” I asked, Cole nodded
“Yeah, they’ve saved all of our asses at one time or another. They’re pretty protective of you though, usually because you always looked like you were in a daze, it took you like five minutes to respond to anything, like a really old computer. The guy had a broken nose, leg and three ribs all thanks to them. Now, what about this picture?” he asked holding up a picture of an athletic guy who looked Italian or Hispanic.
“Gabrielle?’ I asked remembering a guy like that from my dream. Cole nodded enthusiastically
“Yeah, he’s one of the best athletes in the school. No one actually really knows why he hangs out with us. He’s good as a friend, but no self respecting girl would ever go out with him, remember that.” He said, I nodded he held up another picture “what about this one?” my memory clicked with this picture, this was girl named Rebekah, she was my friend. Sometimes when I would surface a little from my haze we would talk, she was a poet, and I, a song writer. Two kindled spirits.
“That’s Rebekah Collins, she’s my friend. She writes poetry.” I said Cole’s face lit up.
“Awesome, you remember her. She would probably be crushed if you didn’t.” he said laughing.
“Now, I wonder if you have any old school stuff around, like essays?” he half asked me half asked himself.
“To the closet!” I said getting up and opening the doors clothes piling out in an avalanche. I dove in and surfaced with a box labeled school “Well that was annoyingly easy.” I said as I opened it up and took out a bunch of note books labeled grade nine. “Wait.” I said all of a sudden “My birthday is on the 1st.” I said “am I turning sixteen?’ I asked looking at Cole almost in shock. He nodded
“Yeah, why is that a bad thing.” I shook my head
“No, I’m just glad I didn’t miss it.” I said laughing to try and brush it off. He smiled as well; I opened up the note book and flipped the pages. Almost all of the margins were filled with lyrics and phrases.
“These are all really good.” I whispered to no one in particular.
“You’re really good at writing lyrics.” He said “All you really have to do is read all of these note books a bunch of times till you have the basics down.” He said, we sat in an awkward silence for a few moments until we realized we actually had nothing to do anymore.
“Want to go downstairs?” he asked, I shook my head urgently. I wouldn’t sleep for a month if I went down there. “Wait I know, people you need to avoid at all costs.” He said grinning, I rolled my eyes as he pulled out a picture of me and my old friends, all of them had mustaches and uni-brows sharpied on. I laughed
“You remember these bitches right?” he asked
Yup, bitch one bitch two and mega bitch,” I replied laughing, he held up another picture that had a crane ready to drop on this guys head.
“Hey isn’t that Scott?” I asked remembering the guy I had dated vaguely before I had totally lost all incoherency
“Yeah, this guy you really do want to avoid at all costs. He broke up with you but for the last few weeks of school he really wanted to get with you again. Probably got tired of his hand, but anyways, just stay away from him.” Cole advised. I nodded
“I have no inclination to even go near him.” I responded, Cole’s cell began to ring in his pocket; Cole flicked it out and started to laugh as he read the text.
“It’s from your brother.” He said “It says: You two had better be on separate sides of the room when I get up there, fully dressed.” I laughed and placed the note books on my bed I shoved everything back into my life threatening closet.
“Get in.” I said grinning as I gestured to my closet
“Are you sure something won’t eat me?” Cole asked
“No guarantee’s” I said as we heard foot steps coming up the stairs “C’mon.” I said shoving him in I climbed in beside him and pulled the door shut.
“What’re we doing?” Cole whispered into the hot darkness.
“Shush.” I said placing a hand across his mouth as my door opened.
“C’mon you guys, I know you’re in here. Cole? Arabella? You guys are in here, we heard your voices.” His confused tone made me almost vibrate with silent laughter. I felt Cole’s lips curve into a smile underneath my hand.
“They’re gone.” I heard Troy say,
“I guess they are.” Eric admitted. I heard my door close. I put my eye up to the crack between the doors and looked around the room.
“I think they really left,” I said quietly as we both tried our best to keep from waking the entire neighborhood with our laughter. “What time is it?” I asked, Cole’s watch lit up the darkness
“Almost ten o’clock.” I thought for a moment,
“If we could get them from the front room you could sit on the couch, like you had never left.” That would confuse them beyond hell. I laughed but it caught in my throat when the closet door was opened and I heard someone rip a chain saw to life. A blood curdling scream left my throat as I dived back into the closet behind Cole. I began to shake too scared to sob. Uncontrolled laughter caused me to look over Cole’s shoulder in curiosity. Troy was standing behind my brother holding a chainsaw my brother had the handle of my closet door in his hand and was staring at me laughing as Troy turned off the chainsaw.
“Not funny,” Cole muttered, as Troy left the room to put the chainsaw away
“The pizza is almost gone,” Eric said nonchalantly as he left the room.
“You alright?” Cole asked, I nodded and stiffly stood up and sat down on my bed.
“Can you leave?” I asked trying to make my tongue work again, he nodded
“Alright, I’m going to leave.” He said
“Look through your school stuff and the pictures.” He advised as he closed the door. I walked over to the light switch and plunged the room into darkness, slumping against the wall I started to cry. What had happened today? I had realized a whole year of my life had disappeared, I had had an emotional breakdown, learnt about my new life, had fun with friends, and then it all plummeted down the toilet again with another breakdown. Was life always this horrible and confusing? Was something that simple really going to push me over the edge?