You Only Get One Shot Do Not Miss Your Chance to Blow

Hayley’s POV

I snapped my phone shut and ran around the room looking for my things. I didn’t know what happened or what will happen but whatever Jon did, it made her cry.

I’ve been her best friend forever and I know for a fact she doesn’t cry unless the pain is unbearable. And when I say pain, I don’t mean ‘break your arm’ sort of pain. The kind of pain that is so agonizing that makes your heart want to burst.

I remembered in fifth grade… we were both in Kevin’s backyard out by the creek

-----“Just cross it, it is easy! I do it all the time!” said Kevin.
“No! I told you I don’t wanna! Leave me alone Kevin, or I will go get your mom!” I whined. The truth was I was scared to wade through the creek to the other side barefoot, I thought the fish would eat my feet.
“I will go get one of my dad’s lumber and we can use it as a bridge to get across, okay?” Kevin went off running to his dad’s shed on the other side of the yard.
“So when are you going back with your dad?” Emily asked out of now where. It took me off guard, “In two days but I will be with you every second of it, I promise” She smiled back and we hugged.
Once Kevin got the lumber put in place, Emily was the first to jump on. She was so confident, I loved that about her, she wasn’t scared to do anything and took everything as a challenge. Her own personal goal was to beat everything that put up a fight and to obtain everything she couldn’t have. I wished I could have that certainness in me.
Emily started to place one foot in front of the other and held her hands out to the side for balance as she walked across the board.
In a blink of an eye, we saw Emily’s confident body walking across the board, fall into the creek with a loud crack as her leg bent the wrong way and her arm smacked the board when she fell. I ran in the water yelling her name forgetting my fear of fish to help my best friend.-----

It turned out that she had broken three bones, two in her leg and one in her arm. And the whole seven hours we were in the emergency room together she did not shed one tear. And I must remind you she was only eleven.

I have only seen Emily cry once through the past 19 years of her life. So whatever Jon did was big. No, not big. Colossal, to say the least.

I finally retrieved my shoes from under the bed along with the back of my earring that had gone missing.

I finished putting on my second shoe, they were bold red flats with a rose on the toe. Emily got them for me as a gift when we were in high school so they were a little tight but they were adorable and it was the only thing that contrasted my green and white, floral baby doll top.

I quickly darted out the door barley remembering to grab the room key.

Brendon’s POV

We all noticed Jon’s uneasiness. He didn’t joke. He didn’t talk. He didn’t laugh. He even struggled to crack a smile. Something was eating at him.

I knew something finally clicked in his head because when I turned around from picking up the lamp I knocked over, his eyes grew big.

At first his eyes were just big, but then I saw anger and hatred, that soon turned into pain. And wetness rimmed the bottom of eyes, the tears almost ready to spill over.

He got off the bed and flew through the door.

As soon as the door slammed Ryan looked up at me with his mouth hanging open. I don’t know why, but when he plays, he keeps his mouth open.
I walked over to him and shut his mouth and told him to stop doing that because he looked like a doofus.
“Ha. Ha.” He said flatly. “What’s up with Jon?”

“I’m not sure, but he looked pretty bad. He was fine this morning.”

“Ever since breakfast he has been weird…,” Ryan started to fade as he went into his own thoughts and a trance took over him. I smiled to myself and turned around to grab my shoes and walked out the door to find Jon.

“Whoa, where ya goin Bren?” Spencer came up behind me and scared me so much that I let out a scream.

My face grew red and I covered up my mouth quickly just hoping the guys didn’t hear my squeal-scream

Unlikely. Ryan came over laughing at me and grabbed my cheek, “Aw, little Brenny-Poo got scared.”

“Shut up, ass crotch”

They laughed for a second, but were interrupted by a door that slammed out in the hall.
I jumped just as high as when Spencer scared me, or more. Ryan and Spencer looked at each other with smug grins and then burst out laughing even more loudly.

I rolled my eyes and sneered at them, then stepped out into the hall way with Spencer following behind me and Ryan behind him. As soon as I turned toward the elevator I knocked right into someone.

“Hayley?” I offered my hand to her after she landed right on her butt.

She looked up at me questioningly, then as if she remembered who we were, smiled and got up. “What’s up?”

“What do you mean “What’s up”,” she scoffed. We were all taken aback by her tone of voice. Just a second ago she smiled and acted all friendly and then the next second turns it right back around and snaps at us.

Ryan, Spence and I just stood there looking at her strangely.

“Don’t act like you don’t know what’s going on,” she retorted. We continued to look at her, dumbfounded. She got tired of waiting for a response and walked away towards the elevators. The truth was we didn’t know what she was talking about.

The doors started to close on the elevators and Ryan quickly shot his hand in the door, catching it before it closed completely.

“Have you seen Emily?” She asked worriedly but with sincerity. I exchanged frightened glances with Ryan and Spencer. She was shocking me with her mood swings.

“Nope, have you seen Jon?” I rocked back and forth on my heels and she said shook her head. We explained what happened the past 20 minutes and she pretty much told us the same thing in return about Emily. Except that Emily was a girl…. Yeah.

“She said she was in an alley somewhere across the street…” She looked all over as soon as we made our way through the lobby and out the front door.

“Oh! Yeah right over there!” Ryan pointed across the street and jumped up and down and Hayley laughed at his ‘cuteness’ so she says.

“We’ll come with you and talk to Emily if you’d like?” I rolled my eyes at Spencer’s politeness.

“Sure, something’s up and I don’t know what it is!” We all made small talk about the situation as we speed walked across the street. Hayley only almost got run over twice by taxis speeding down the road and Ryan only got hit once, well tapped by a stopping car, while “saving” Hayley from getting run over. Spencer and I just laughed at the situation.

We were walking fast down the sidewalk about to turn into the alley, doing the kind of speed walk that actually makes your hear rate go up. When we stopped we were all breathing hard.

But the sound of all of our breathing was drowned out when we heard yelling. I could tell it was a male and female having an argument. We all stopped before turning into the alley and listened to what was going on.
I didn’t actually figure out who it was until I heard Hayley say Emily’s name under her breath.

I started getting worried. I mean after all, there was yelling and I heard trash cans getting crashed over. She could be getting robbed or beaten or raped! I mean really? An alley. Who wouldn’t think that?

Then I heard another familiar voice, “I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING AND YOU KNOW IT!!!”

“OH CUT THE FUCK! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!! YOU RUINED MY FUCKING LIFE!”

What?