I Knew A Boy

Over the course of the next few days my sister started acting really weird -she seemed withdrawn, and would always be up in her room on the phone, talking to who, I didn't know. Zack started to act funny as well. Whenever I'd pass him in the hall, he no longer greeted me with a smile and a head-nod. One glance at me, and he would look emotionless for a fleeting moment before training his eyes ahead of him as he passed. I felt almost like I had done something wrong, but what it was I didn't know. There couldn't have possibly bee something I'd done to Zack. I'd never do something to intentionally hurt him.

That week, between the night my sister was among the missing and the next thing that I remember all too clearly, seemed like one huge blur. One large insignificant blur that didn't matter. Except for one thing - I stopped spending my lunch periods down that secluded hallway that I shared with Zack and his friends. It was too weird, the silences too awkward. I didn't want to deal with that.

I heard the honk of a car horn as I finished getting ready for school. Nick must have been waiting outside for Ashley and me. I left my bathroom, seeing my sister in her room across the hall, looking straight ahead into her vanity mirror as she straightened her hair.

I quickly grabbed all my things and stuffed them into my school bag before making my way downstairs. Much to my surprise, Nick wasn't waiting in the kitchen like he always was. I glanced out the window above the sink to see him in his car, staring straight ahead, his hand gripping the steering wheel until they were white as chalk. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and then left the house. Nick must have seen me out of the corner of his eye because he looked my way, rolling down his window as I approached.

"Why didn't you come inside today?" I asked softly to him. I saw his jaw clench as he looked ahead again, his eyes narrowing.

"Doesn't matter. Tell your sister that if her ass isn't out here in five minutes, we're leaving without her," he spat.

"... Is everything alright?" I solemnly asked. I'd never seen Nick so angry in the entire eight months I'd known him.

Nick sighed deeply before he turned and looked at me. I looked in his eyes and saw not only anger, but sadness. "Did you know....," he started, before taking a breath, "...that your sister cheated on me?"

My stomach instantly coiled itself into a knot. She did. She really did. "N-no," I stammered. I hadn't known for a fact, but had only just a feeling she'd done something wrong. "...With who?" I dared to ask.

"With that fucking dirt bag Zack Baker," Nick growled, and the knots in my stomach tightened. I felt like I was going to be sick. The boy I was in love with....fucked my sister. "She told me last night," he finished after pausing a moment, and then we heard the back door slam shut and Nick looked past me. I turned and saw Ashley walking toward us, that same blank expression in her eyes that I had seen earlier.

"Get in," Nick said quietly to me, and I did as I was told, climbing into the backseat as my sister slid into the front. Just looking at her made me sick. The entire ride to the school, she looked straight ahead, staring at the road as if nothing had even happened. She didn't even pretend like she was sorry for what she had done. I just wanted to reach over the back of her seat and hit her upside the head, not only for myself, but for Nick as well. Lord knew how he must have been feeling about the whole situation - a whole lot worse than I did.

It seemed like a long bit of silence before we finally pulled into the school parking lot. I walked behind Nick and my sister and saw as we entered the building that my sister tried to slip her hand into his. He quickly jerked his arm away, snapping his head in her direction and shooting her one of the meanest glares I had ever seen.

It was horrible when we got to the hall full of lockers. Students were there. They watched on as they saw Nick reach his locker and just swing his fists at it. The clanging of his fists against the metal echoed down the hall and everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. I heard him let out a guttural, primal scream. I'd never seen Nick act like this and it honestly scared me half to death. I just wanted to run to him and hug him and tell him everything was going to be okay.

And then it got worse. Zack Baker himself had come down the stairs at the end of the hall near Nick's locker.

"Baker you better pray for your life!" Nick screamed at him. Even from where I was standing twenty feet away I could see Zack's eyes widen; he looked like a deer in the headlights as Nick jumped at him, swinging his bloody fists. Nick got one good punch in, right in Zack's eye, before one of Nick's senior friends was able to grab him and hold him back.

"I swear to God, you will pay for what you've done! I hope you fucking die!"

"Nick, stop-" Ashley started, trying to keep her voice down.

"No - don't you dare fucking speak to me. You can rot in hell with him for all I fucking care," Nick growled at her before pulling out of his friend's grip, punching his locker in anger once more , and running up the stairs Zack had just come down. The halls were deafening me with their silence before people began to get back to what they were doing.

I watched unmoving as Zack and my sister shared an awkward glance. "Sorry..." I heard my sister mutter, and Zack just shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded his head, turning and walking down the hall. We made brief eye contact as he passed me and I saw the spot under his eye already red and starting to swell.

I ran up to my sister's room after school and threw open the door. Ashley was lying on her stomach on the floor, watching the television in her room. Another thing she had that I hadn't. "How the Hell could you do that? " I asked her through gritted teeth.

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Shut up."

"No. You've gotta be out of your mind to pull shit like that."

"Don't cry just because you love him and he loves me," my sister snapped, evil shining in her eyes and venom dripping from her words.

My heart stopped beating. "W-what?"

"You know," Ashley said as she sat up, " you really should hide your diary a little better. I know all about your feelings for Zack, and now, so does he."

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling my blood run cold.

"I told him. He said he's sick and tired of you always hanging around him... He finds you annoyed really," she answered with a sick chuckle.

"How could you do that to me? How could you read my diary?" I stammered, feeling tears brimming my eyes from the words she'd spoken.

"How could you sit out my door and listen to me and Nick, huh!? How about you answer that one, cuz you better believe I read that part," she screamed at me, quickly getting to her feet. "Now, I think a little punishment is in order for that," Ashley said, a sick smile on her face. "Hope you're not squeamish around your own blood."

She reached out to her bookstand and pulled out a small kitchen knife she had there, that I knew she cut herself with.

My eyes widened - my sister was crazy and partially unstable in the brain. I took a step backwards into the hallway.

"Come here you little bitch!" my sister screamed as she came for me. I turned and ran down the hall until I came to my room. Hastily I opened the door and turned to slam it shut, seeing my sister still running after me, just about at the door. I slammed it shut in her face and locked it, taking a few steps back from it. I could feel my heart beating wildly.

That wasn't the first time she'd chased me with a knife.