Girl Next Door

Brian groaned as he sat up in the bed. It was the Twenty Eighth of December, and he had nothing to do. He actually wished to stay in the bed all day. It was better than facing the reality of his life. He had been back home for three days, and he hadn't decided on what he wanted to do about the Michelle situation. She had phoned him nonstop and begged to come back, but until he could figure out if that's really what he wanted, he wasn't telling her anything.

He didn't want to be miserable anymore, but he also didn't want to endure the shit that she put him through. He was sick of the constant bickering and fighting. He was sick of walking on eggshells with what he said or did. He was sick of being a guest in his own house. A man should be able to say or do whatever they want in the privacy of their own home, but with Michelle around he had to censor everything he did or thought.

She would take the smallest thing to heart. If he thought a girl was hot on the television, and made a comment about it verbally, then they would be at each others throats for hours. If he didn't do everything that she wanted, when she wanted, then they were at each others throats. He just didn't know if the relationship was really worth it anymore.

A bad feeling came over him as he tossed his legs off the side of the bed. He shook his head, trying to shake the feeling with it. He didn't know why, but he felt like something was happening today. Something bad and not right. Shaking his head, he stood up and stretched his tattooed arms high above his head. He knew it was probably nothing, and he was just stressing over the whole Michelle issue.

As he walked down the stairs, he noticed how creepy the house was without any noise. Normally Michelle would have every TV in the house blasting with her various reality shows. It was something that got on Brian's nerves. He really didn't understand why a television should be on, if you weren't watching it, or even in the same room. It was just a waste of electricity.

He walked into his kitchen and over to the counter. He grabbed a silver package of pop tarts, and then placed them into the toaster. He placed his hands on the counter and stared out the window as his food heated. He gazed at the clouds for a moment, they were moving at a quick pace across the sky. It looked rather unusual and beautiful at the same time. He watched them for a few more moments before reaching over and grabbing his first pop tart of the day. It was hot, so he shuffled it from one hand to another allowing it to cool down. When it was finally cool enough he raised it to his mouth and tasted the iced blueberry goodness.

Walking inside the living room after finishing the two pop tarts, his eyes landed on the entertainment center and saw that it was just after twelve thirty in the day. A sick feeling suddenly came over his stomach. He felt the need to vomit but held it in. What the hell was wrong with him? Why did he feel so sick and paranoid today? He felt like something was happening. Something that he had no control over, and would be life changing.

Kylie sighed, as she sat up in the bed. It was nearing one in the afternoon and she only had two more days left in her apartment. She really didn't want to leave now that she had returned back to it. But, she had made promises to her mother and Cyrus. She knew neither of them would allow her to back out of her decision. She ran a hand through her unwashed blond hair, and then decided she might as well climb out of bed and begin packing things away.

She decided to start with her CD'S and DVDS first. She knew she wouldn't be needing them anytime soon, and if she did, they were only a cardboard box away. She began putting the DVDs first. She had a lot of them, so it took awhile to get them into the box safely. She then moved on to CD'S. She picked up one CD and glared down at it.

The cover of the CD caught her attention, and then she starred at the band name. Rolling her eyes slightly, she stood up and walked over to the trash can. She dropped the CD, which had been titled "City Of Evil" into the trash can. If either of her brothers knew she had went out and purchased that CD then she would never hear the end of it.

After she finished packing away all of her CD's, she moved on to clothing. That was going to take awhile since she didn't really know what she wanted to keep or toss. She started with two piles. One of the piles were named "keep" while the other she titled "discard". She looked at every article of clothing carefully, debating if she wanted to keep it, or place it in the discard pile for the goodwill. She ended up discarding a lot of clothing. Mostly because it was old or just didn't suit her taste any longer.

Brian had fallen asleep on the couch, and woke up to the phone ringing. He had a horrible dream, but couldn't remember anything about it. He just knew it was a bad one. As he picked up the phone and held it close to his hear, he could hear crying in the background. Burrowing his brows together, he looked down at the caller ID and discovered the call was coming from Val's cell phone.

"Val?"

"Bri. . ."

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"It's Jimmy, Bri. . ."

"Jimmy?" Brian asked, thinking about his insane best friend, "What's going on?" He asked, not knowing why she was crying. What had happened? Had their been an accident? Was someone hurt? A million thoughts began running through his mind, and the bad feeling from this morning returned to him. Only it was a thousand times more powerful than this morning.

"He's gone." She whispered.

He had heard her, but he shook his head, not really absorbing the information in. Who was gone?"

"What?" He asked.

"Jimmy. . . He's gone." She repeated again, a little bit clearer.

"What are you talking about, Val?"

"He. . . passed away, Brian. . ."

She continued to talk, but he couldn't hear a word she was saying. She couldn't be telling the truth. Jimmy was only twenty eight years old. He couldn't be dead. Brian wouldn't believe what she was saying. This was just a bad dream that he was going to wake up from.

"Are you coming?" She whispered.

He didn't know if it was a nightmare or not, but he finally found his voice and told her he would be there. He didn't even know where 'there' was, he just assumed it was Jimmy's house. He didn't know anything. All he knew was that he didn't believe anything she had to say right now. This could not be true. His best friend could not be dead.