Here We Go Again

It had been three days since I moved into my apartment. I had gotten almost all the furniture I needed for my place minus a few small things here and there. The things that I asked my mom to send over still hadn't arrived yet, so my closet and bedroom were still pretty bare.

I just finished taking my iron supplements in the morning when I heard a knock on my apartment door. I stared at the door in confusion, but looked through the peephole anyway. I inhaled and then exhaled when I opened the door.

"What the fuck, Nicole? Why didn't you tell me you were back yet?" Chris asked loudly as he barged past me into my place.

"Yes, Chris, please come right in," I replied sarcastically as I shut the door behind him.

"Seriously, Nicole. You have got to start telling me these things," he continued. He took a quick glance around him before he turned to me. I offered him a small smile to help calm him down. The slightly angry expression on his face was soon replaced with his usual carefree smile. "It's good to see you," he said as he pulled me into a hug. I hugged him back before we pulled away from each other.

"It's good to see you too," I replied. "How'd you find out I was back anyway?" I asked him.

"Walter called me and told me that you already bought the place. And he was wondering if I had stopped by and seen you yet," he explained. I nodded in understanding. "I see you got some furniture in already," he said as he looked around the room again.

"Just a bit," I said as I leaned against the kitchen counter.

"Am I the only one that knows you're back?" Chris asked as he walked into the kitchen and started rummaging through the cupboards.

"Other than my family and Erin, yeah, you are."

"Have you been eating well?" he asked as he opened my fridge. All that was in there were bottled waters, orange juice, a couple of apples, yogurt, and a loaf of bread. Chris turned to me and gave me a look. "I'm gonna go ahead and assume no," he said as he closed the refrigerator door.

He was right. I still hadn't been eating well. Not only that though, but the nightmares I started having a few weeks back had been getting worse. While I hadn't been sulking in my room as much, I still didn't have much energy to do anything. Nor did I even want to do anything.

"I've been distracted trying to get this place together," I lied as I gestured to the apartment.

"Uh-huh," Chris said as he continued looking around the place. "I hate to ask this, but are you going to see Will yet?" I tensed up at his name.

"I don't know," I replied. "How is he doing?" I asked.

"Are you just asking to be polite or do you really want to know?" Chris asked me. I opened my mouth to reply to him, but found no words. I closed my mouth for a second or two before I finally replied.

"I don't know," I said honestly.

"Well, I don't know what to tell you. I haven't spoken to him ever since I found out you guys broke up," Chris replied as he picked at his fingernails.

"What?"

"Yeah, I haven't talked to him. Did I fail to mention that? I also probably forgot to mention that I punched him in the face," he said as he looked around himself.

"You what?" I asked in shock.

"I punched him."

"Why?"

"You know bloody well why."

"What the fuck, Chris?"

"What? You can't get mad at me for that."

"Like hell I can't. You punched your friend in the face!" I exclaimed.

"He deserved it!" Chris argued.

"Yeah, maybe. But you still shouldn't have done that. He's your friend."

"Psh. Not after this," he muttered under his breath.

"What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"We're not friends anymore," he clarified as he stared at me. I stared back at him before I replied.

"Are you fucking serious? You're not friends with him anymore because of me? That's stupid."

"It's not stupid."

"You're ruining a friendship that has lasted for years over a girl. Chris, he's your best friend. Of course it's stupid."

"Why are you mad at me?"

"Because what you're doing is stupid."

"He hurt you, Nicole. And you still want me to friends with him?"

"Exactly. He hurt me, not you."

"You're so frustrating. Ugh, fine! I'll still be friends with Will," he said with an exasperated sigh as he crossed his arms over his chest. I smiled at him as I patted his shoulder.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" I asked him and he rolled his eyes at me. "Now that that's settled, I need to ask you for a favor. I need help with something."

"With what?"

"With Will," I said. He gave me a confused expression before he spoke up.

"Is that why you wanted me to patch things up with him?" he asked.

"...yes," I replied. He rolled his eyes at me before he replied. "That's just one of the reasons."

"Okay, what do you need help with then?"

"So here's the deal," I started as I turned away from Chris and walked towards the living room. I began to pace as I replied. "As you can see, this place is pretty bare. And my bedroom and closet are even more bare."

"Yeah, and?" he asked.

"My stuff from California hasn't arrived yet and I need my other things."

"Okay, and?"

"And this is where you come in. I left some of my things like my other SIM card back at my dorm room."

"And you don't want to see Will," he said in understanding.

"Exactly."

"So what do you want me to do then?"

"I need you to make sure he's not around when I go there and get all my things."

"That sounds easy enough."

"Alright then," I said as I faced him.

"When do you want to do this?"

"Well," I started as I glanced at the time on my cellphone. "Since it's break and it's pretty late in the morning, Will is probably finished with his morning run and already had breakfast. I don't know how long he'd be in the room for the rest of day though. We'll just go tomorrow morning while he's on his routine run."

"Why don't I just ring him up now and hang out with him for a bit?" Chris suggested.

"Nah, it's okay. I don't want to trouble you too much. Plus, I was gonna go to the shops today and get a bit more things for the apartment."

"What time does he go on his runs?"

"He likes to leave early, but not too early. He's usually out of the room by 7 AM for his run."

"Okay then. Tomorrow morning it is. Would you like some company while you go to the shops?"

"That'd be great actually," I said as I grabbed my purse. "Let's go," I said before we left my apartment.



The next morning at around 6:45, Chris picked me up from my apartment. It was pretty early in the morning, so there weren't too many people awake yet.

It was almost seven by the time we got to the dorm building. Chris was headed to the elevator before I grabbed his arm.

"Not the elevator," I said.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Will might be in the elevator by now or if he isn't, he might see us when we leave the elevator. Let's take the stairs," I explained.

"Right," he replied as he followed me up the stairs. I hadn't taken the stairs before and I never realized how five flights of stairs were so tiring. After passing the second floor, Chris took my empty suitcase that I brought along for my things from out of hands and carried it the rest of the way up. When we got to our floor, I made him call Will before we left the stairwell. "Hey, Will," Chris said as Will picked up the phone. "Yeah, sorry I haven't talked to you in a while. I was pissed at you for what happened." It was silent on Chris' end for a few seconds before he spoke up. "Oh, of course I'm still pissed at you. But you're my best mate." It went quiet for another few seconds. "No, I'm not apologizing for what I did. You deserved that punch in the face." I could faintly hear a laugh from Will's end. "Anyway, what are you doing right now?" I glanced out from the stairwell and noticed the room door open. "You're going on a run, huh?" Chris asked as I pointed out to the room door. Will emerged from the room, wearing running clothes and running shoes and his cellphone up to his ear with his key card in his hand. "Oh, because I was going to say we should hang out," Chris said. I looked over at Will as he replied.

"It's nearly seven in the morning," I heard Will reply from the hallway.

"Right," Chris said. "Well, later today then."

"Yeah, sure," Will said as he walked towards the elevator. "Well, I'll talk to you later then."

"Yeah, bye then," Chris said before he hung up the phone. We both watched as Will entered the elevator before we left the stairwell.

"Okay, let's hurry up," I said as we walked down the hall to my room. I grabbed my key card from my purse and opened the door. I grabbed my empty suitcase from Chris before I entered the room. "Stay out here and be my lookout in case he comes back," I told him.

"You don't need help with getting your things?" he asked.

"No, it's fine. I got it," I said before I closed the door.

I turned to the room and took a deep breath. I walked towards my bed and tossed my suitcase on top of it. I flung it open before I turned to my wardrobe. I opened it and grabbed all my clothes that were on hangers and everything else that were in the drawers. I untaped my calendar that was in there and tossed that into my suitcase as well.

I walked over to my bedside table and started putting what was in there into my suitcase. I finally grabbed my other SIM card and put it into my purse before I took all my shoes out from under my bed. I went to the bathroom and grabbed all the things in there that were mine. Then I did a final sweep around the whole room and grabbed anything else that was mine and put it into my suitcase. I zipped up my suitcase before I looked around the room. Initially, nothing seemed touched or out of place after I grabbed all my things. I figured Will wouldn't notice that I came by and got my things until he walked into the bathroom and saw that my noticeably visible things from there were gone.

I dragged my suitcase to the door and made sure I didn't leave anything behind. I opened the door and Chris turned to me.

"Got everything?" he asked me. I nodded at him.

"All clear?" I asked him.

"Yup, all clear," he replied. I nodded at him again and brought my suitcase out of the room. Chris grabbed it as I closed the door behind me. I glanced at the time on my phone and noticed I was only in there for about half an hour.

"Let's go," I said as we walked towards the elevator. I figured it was safe to take the elevator now that Will was on his run.

"I feel like a spy," Chris said with a laugh as we entered the elevator. I laughed at him.

"You were only the lookout. I did more of the sneaking than you did," I replied.

"Hey, the lookout is useful too," he said. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Let's just go," I said as the elevator doors opened and we made our way to his car.





As I walked into my room after my morning run, a strange feeling overcame me. I furrowed my eyebrows as I walked further into the room. Nothing about the room seemed to be out of the ordinary, so I tried to shake the weird feeling. I grabbed a water bottle from the fridge before I walked over to my bed and sat down on it. As I drank the water, I stared at Nicole's wardrobe. I set the water bottle down and stood up and walked towards it. Every so often ever since Nicole left, I would look inside her wardrobe and sit on her bed, just staring at her clothes. Sometimes I would feel her clothes and I could still get a whiff of her scent on them. When I opened the wardrobe though, I was surprised to find it completely empty, the only thing left behind being hangers. I stared at the empty wardrobe in shock. I moved the hangers in confusion. I turned around and glanced at the rest of the room. If her clothes were gone, what about the rest of her things?

I knelt to the ground and checked under her bed to see if any of her trainers she left behind were still there. They weren't. I stood back up and checked her bedside table to see if it was empty or if it still had her jewelry, SIM card, and other little things she left behind. The drawers were empty. I quickly walked to the bathroom and checked the cabinets and drawers for any of her things. Her bubble bath soup, her bobby pins, her hair ties, a wristband, anything else she left behind. I found nothing though.

I left the bathroom and searched the whole place to see if anything else she left behind were gone too. From DVDs to books. And they were. Everything that belonged to Nicole was gone. It was as if she never lived here in the first place.

I fell back onto the couch, defeated. As I thought about her things being gone, I realized that meant Nicole was really gone. I breathed out a sigh. As I ran my hands through my hair, I heard a knock at the door. I stood up and answered the door.

"Hi, Will," Ann said with a smile on her face. She placed a chaste kiss on my cheek before she entered the room.

"Hey, Ann," I said, slightly out of it as I closed the door behind her.

"Something wrong?" she asked as she looked at me. I took a quick glance around the room before I looked at her. If all of Nicole's things were gone, I guess it really was official.

"No, nothing's wrong," I said with a small smile.

"Okay, well, are you ready for breakfast?" she asked me as she glanced down at what I was wearing. I glanced down at myself and realized I was still wearing my running clothes and shoes.

"Not quite yet," I said with a small chuckle. "Let me take a quick shower."

"I'll just wait here then," Ann said as she sat on the couch. I nodded at her and walked towards my wardrobe. As I grabbed clothes and a towel, I started to wonder who came by to grab all of Nicole's things.