Insidious.

I'm halfway down the block when Seth catches up to me. His hand reaches my shoulder and out of breath he says

"Wait up, man. We need to talk."

It's pathetic really because we aren't even friends. He's just some guy I know through another guy who may have met him through some other guy I don't even know.

"About what, dude?" I ask. "I don't... we aren't even friends. Why are you calling me at the crack of fucking dawn asking to hang out? How did you even get my number?"

"Greg gave it to me," Seth tells me, resting on his knees.

I look at him and shake my head. I don't know what to say to him because so far, he's been a pretty nice guy and I've been a bit of an asshole. Granted, he hasn't been a perfect almost friend, but I at least owe him a short conversation or something like that.

"Okay," I say, rubbing the back of my neck. "I- I'm sorry for being such an asshole earlier. I promised you I'd hang out if you took me to see Rachel, and you did. You took me to see her."

Seth sort of half smile and reached out to shake my hand. Reluctantly, I take it but only for a few seconds before I let go.

"Let's go back to your car, yeah?"

Seth agrees and we walk back to the car. We hang out for an hour or so before I pretend to be tired and ask him to take me home. The truth is, Seth is really pretty boring and a huge fucking flamer.

"Dude... Zach... we didn't even get to hang out, man! I thought we were gonna do a couple of bumps later."

He pulls out a small zip lock bag and his key ring. I look at him for a minute, bewildered, and then smack the bag out of his hand.

"You're a real piece of work, man. I real piece of work.," I say standing up and brushing the dust off of my pants. "I'm not gonna sit here and get hit on by some weirdo fucking drummer who can't even think of a good band name."

Seth eyes me up and down and waves me off. "Fine. Whatever. I thought... you send mixed signals, you know? I think you're a cool guy who might just you know... wanna mess-"

I walk out before he can finish his sentence. He isn't worth my time.

~*~

When I get home I'm lying on the living room floor staring at the ceiling. I want to call Tommy back and leave another message. I want to tell someone, even if it is a machine, the whole story. I want something or someone to know so I'm not keeping everything to myself.

But I know he will answer because Seth more than likely told Greg and Greg more than likely told Tommy about what happened tonight.

Everything happened tonight, or at least it felt like it.

Sitting in that living room with whatever was left of Rachel was like reliving everything all over again. Slapping her across the face, sleeping with her, burning grilled cheese sandwiches...

Ignoring her calls after I left.

Not listening when she tried to follow me out the door.

Taking no notice of the men climbing up her front steps.

When I open my eyes I'm looking at my sister's face and the ceiling. I sit up and turn around to face her.

"What's wrong with you?" She asks.

I shake my head. "Nothing. I was just thinking. What do you want?"

She smirks and points at the front door. I follow her finger and see Harlow looking at me with a look I can only describe as disappointment.

"Harlow wants to talk to you."