Tragedy

First Chapter.

"So we call this a day?” Andy asked, and I felt others’ eyes all on me. This was all too sudden. It was 4pm; I usually called it a day at 7pm.

“Yeah.” I said, turning my back against them and keeping my stare on the wooden floor of the attic, yet no voice came out of me. All I could make was a nod and I could hear them starting to vacant the place.

“What’s wrong?” I felt Nick tap my shoulder and it sounded more of concern than of curiosity. I guess I was still not good at hiding emotions, I never was.

“Nothing.” I sighed, my mind rattling, trying to make a good reason for the sudden change of mood. “I’m tired. We’re all tired—and Jon is sick.”

I expected him to ask further because obviously there was something wrong. But Nick knew better, and all he just said was “You sure?”

“Yes.”

When the attic was finally empty except for me, I sat on the couch for a few minutes. Panicking voices were still ringing in my head. I felt awful, like someone just punched me so damned hard on the stomach and the fist still stuck in there. It suddenly felt so hard to breathe.

“Ry—what was it? Who called?” Jon went back. He’d gone earlier with the rest but he came back. I wasn’t surprised. I knew he’d come back. He probably just waited for the others to leave. I knew he had sensed something was beyond wrong.

“Jon. It was Crystal Smith—” and as I answered his question the fist in my stomach felt as if it shot up to my throat. I saw the surprise in Jon’s expression and I couldn’t help it. I lowered my head and rested it on my palm trying to hide my face when my eyes started stinging.

“Why? What happened? What’s wrong?!” He asked, rushing to sit beside me. I knew he was curious and at the same time worried. We hadn’t talked to Spencer, or his sisters, or to Brendon for more or less a year now, and them calling, and me acting like this—this sure may be confusing Jon so much right now.

“That’s the matter, Jon! I don’t know what the hell was wrong!” and that was it. I completely lost it. Tears were rolling down my cheeks like it was the end of the world. I looked at Jon and he wasn’t saying anything. “They were panicking, Jon! Like there was fire, or a bomb explosion, but she seemed okay except that she was panicking! It sounded awful, you know, and I wanted to know what was going on but she couldn’t say it right. Couldn’t they have just calmed themselves down first before calling me?!”

And before I knew it I was struggling with words. Jon rubbed my back and told me whatever it was it couldn’t have been that bad. But how could I believe him? Even he who didn’t hear Crystal’s and everyone else’s panicking voices was worried like hell!

“Could you make out anything she had said though?” He asked.

I tried calming myself down. Breathe in, breathe out, I told myself. “All I could make out was they, I don’t know who they were, but they were in a car accident. And she, Crystal, she was in the middle. And Spence was in the back, and Bren--… Brendon… was in front. And Crystal was okay. She was fine. Or I guess she was. And she kept repeating—Crystal kept on repeating Spence was in the back. Spence was in the back. And she kept repeating Brendon was in front. Bren was in front. And she was crying so fuckin’ hard. I didn’t know what it meant!”

“We—we could just call her again, Ry. Ask her, let’s ask her again. They’re probably in the hospital. We’ll go there. See them. Call her, Ry.” Jon stood up and I could see his arms trembling.

“I don’t want to, Jon. It sounded terrible.” I handed him the phone and when he’s got an answer all he said was, “This is Jon. What happened? Alright, alright we’ll go there--where are you? Got it. Okay, we’ll be there—Ry, and I we’ll be there.”

And he hung up. He stared at me for a few seconds, expecting me to ask him anything, but I didn’t, so he just gestured for me to follow.

Next thing I knew we were already on the road not knowing what the hell to expect.
♠ ♠ ♠
Please comment. :)