Forever's Not Supposed to End

Matthew's point of view

I finished the word I was writing and set the pen down.

I leaned back in my chair and read over what I had just written.

Nathan needed to see this. Now.

I stuffed my notebook in my backpack and my shoes on my feet, then headed out to my identical twins apartment.

It took me under ten minutes to walk. I was meeting my friend for drinks, but not until much later, Nathan and I would have hours to work on this song.

I let myself in without knocking and immediately wished I hadn't.

"That's just disgusting," I sighed, shaking my head.

My brother was sprawled out on the couch, one hand holding a joint to his lips, the other down his pants.

"Knock much?" he said sarcastically, reluctantly removing his hand from his pants and hitting the remote to turn the porno on the TV screen off.

"Well... can't you like, do that in your room or something? Or lock your door?"

"No, and no." He tipped his head back and took another hit from the joint clamped between his fingers.

"'Cause I'm not gonna knock, and you know it," I said, poking my tongue out at him and walking into the kitchen.

I helped myself to a can of beer from the fridge and slumped down on the other couch, putting my feet up on the coffee table.

"Check this out," I said, pulling out my notebook and flinging it at him.

"Actually, wash your hands before you touch that," I said, grimacing as I remembered where his hand had been.

He muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "go fuck yourself" and went into the kitchen. He came back a few moments later wiping his wet hands on his pants.

"Can I touch your precious notebook now?" he asked, smirking.

"Yeah. I wrote something awesome, its on the last pages."

He flicked through my notebook casually, he'd read all the lyrics in there before. He reached the last page that was written on and stopped. I watched his eyes flicking back and forth, watching them get slightly wider with each line.

"She really broke your heart didn't she?" he asked, looking up at me. He took another hit from his joint. I wished he wouldn't do that, it made me feel like a failure of a brother that I couldn't keep him off the stuff.

"Into a million fucking pieces," I said, swigging from the beer and trying to push her out of my mind. I'd wasted way too much of my time feeling miserable about her.

"This is good. This is really good," he said, tapping his foot. I could practically hear the cogs turning in his brain as he made up a melody for my words to fit to.

"Now that its over,
I'm moving on,
I've got a life of mine to live,
Now that its over
I'll walk away,
I'm moving on," he sang quietly to himself. He stubbed out the last part of the joint in the ashtray on the table and pulled his legs up onto the couch, crossing them.

"I hate to say this dude, but its been six months... you need to make like the song and actually move on," he said, reading over the lyrics again.

I nodded. I knew I needed to move on from her, but it was so hard, I really thought it was going to be forever. I felt that familiar pain in my chest as she crossed my mind.

"Fucking... bitch," he muttered to himself, picking up a pen and starting to edit my lyrics furiously.

I jumped onto the couch he was on.

"Nathan, you can't change these, I want them to stay the same," I said, trying to take the notebook back from him.

"But I'm making them better."

***

Almost five hours later and we had a very rough version of what could easily be one of the catchiest songs we had written for the band.

"It sounds a little too... pop," said Nathan, changing things again.

"No. Its perfect. Now seriously, I gotta go," I said, agitatedly shifting my weight from one leg to the other. I was supposed to be meeting my friend in ten minutes and I was going to be late unless I left right away.

"Get outta here, I got this," he said.

"Sweet. I'll see you tomorrow? We gonna go to The Attic? Lay down some crazy beats?" I asked. I loved going to our rehearsal spot just Nathan and I. We rarely got anything done that was useful, but we had so much fun while we were there.

He laughed.

"If it makes you happy."

"You know it brother!" I said, heading for the door.

"Hey, make sure you close the door to the building on your way out? Somebody left it open all night last week..."

"That was not me!" I protested angrily.

"Alright, alright, I believe you..." he rolled his eyes at me.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said, grinning and closing the door behind me as I left.

I practically skipped all the way down the six flights of stairs to the ground floor.

I let myself out and closed the door firmly behind me. As it clicked closed I heard another sound in the distance.

A sound that made my blood run cold.

It was a woman screaming, an ear splitting, blood curdling, terrified scream like something out of a horror film.

My head whipped round and I listened carefully for the sound, to try and tell which direction it was coming from.

I heard her scream again. My heart was pounding.

The sound was coming from the end of the block.

I did the only thing I could do, and ran towards the sound. I sprinted, as fast as my short legs could carry me. I cursed myself for being so out of shape as I started to pant heavily after just a few seconds.

I reached the end of the block. There was a large man pinning a woman against a chain link fence, his hands closed around her neck, her face bloody and terrified.

"He's going to kill me!" she screamed. I felt a massive rush of anger towards the man. What kind of pathetic piece of shit wails on a helpless woman?

I sprinted right into the man, knocking him away from her.

"What - the - hell - is - going - on?" I panted.

They both started yelling at once.

"One at a time!" I said, holding up my hands.

Neither of them spoke. The woman clutched her neck, the man paced menacingly behind me.

"Look buddy, this is a public place, there's people and witnesses everywhere, you should probably just run along," I said to him, trying to not show how terrified I was by the situation.

"I'm... I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry man, please don't call the cops," he said, backing away a few more paces.

"Don't give me a reason to," I warned, my hand going for my cellphone in my jeans pocket.

"Wait! I swear! I never meant to.. it just got out of control! I'm gonna walk away, you don't need to call the cops."

"Walk away," I said firmly. I must have looked retarded. Even the woman was taller and bigger than me. Some dumbass 5 foot 6, hundred and twenty pound midget getting involved in something he really shouldn't have.

The guy turned and started to walk away. I turned to the woman.

"Are you alright?" I asked her. My hand slipped into my pocket and unlocked my cellphone. I hit the 'nine' button then the 'one' twice. My thumb hovered over the green call button, just in case...

She nodded, trembling slightly.

"Are you gonna be OK? Do you want me to walk you home?" I offered.

She shook her head.

"Are you sure? I mean, its no bother..."

She shook her head again.

"Alright, suit yourself, try and stay out of trou-"

Something solid made contact with the side of my head. I felt a crunch, then fell to my knees.

The scene twisted grotesquely to the left, my vision distorting, pain like I had never felt before overwhelming my senses.

Then everything went black.