There's a Ghost in This Room, I Think I'll Name It After All of You

Popping a pill in my mouth, I proceeded to listen to Mona’s rant about her alcoholic boyfriend. To be completely honest I could care less about this. I heard this rant every damn day of my fucking life now and I was getting sick of it. So Mona has stupid relationship problems, don’t we all?

I know I do, or did. Thinking of Alex made me think of the rest of the band, which resulted in thinking of Avery. These thoughts led me to pop another pill, easing my pain was much better than dealing with it. Mona obviously noticed I wasn’t listening, so she took action.

“Listen you whore!”

I turned to look at her, successfully swallowing my pill. I gave her the best death glare I could.

“Fuck you.”

“When I talk you listen, got it?”

“No, I don’t go stupid bitch.” I noticed I was cussing more than usual.

“I listen when you talk,” She pouted.

“No you don’t, you talk about your damn boyfriend.”

“Whatever, I’m out. Call you later.” She grabbed her purse and left.

Finally, I thought. Mona was a friend and all, but she was the biggest bitch since my friend in high school. And she was pretty much a bitch. I felt at ease when she left, leaving me to do as I pleased. I decided to check my phone, I had long forgotten about it over the past week or weeks, I lost count of time I spent away from Alex. I looked at it and turned it on. Once it was on, it rang from unread text messages and missed calls, and about ten voice mails. Guess who they were from…

The whole crew I left in a purse to ignore the feelings I had for one boy. I regret that fully and my life isn’t the same because of that. I opened the messages and read a few-deleting the rest. They basically said the same thing over and over and over.

Where are you?

Come back!

Dally, pick up!

We miss you/

You bitchy liars, you don’t miss me. ‘Tis I that misses you…

I heard the latest voicemail and I swear my heart stopped beating.

”Dallas! Please come back! Everyone is a wreck without you! It’s not the same! Please, Alex is too delusional to know you’re not there and he’s mistaken me for you! I almost got raped by him! Please come back!”

Through my tears, I felt the sorrow Avery was feeling as she cried her eyes out in that message. My heart was heavy because I knew I caused the trouble. It’d been a week since that message was left. I had to call her, even if it killed me. I dialed the number and heard the dial tone, she picked up fast and said into the receiver.

“Hello?”

“Avery?”

“Dallas?” Her tone was hushed. It was good to hear her again.