1000 reads!!! <3

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I was lying on the bed watching the ceiling which had a faint glow on it telling me that it was almost time for sunrise outside.

I rubbed my burning eyes to relax them. All through the night, I kept waking up after small durations and now the tiredness was making every inch of my body hurt and my brain felt as if it was made of lead.

Quietly, I shifted on my side and picked up my phone from the bedside table. As I pressed the power button, the screen lit up and flashed that it was 5:17 a.m.

I was about to get out from the bed without making any noise but my stomach decided to defy me and growled loudly. Exhaling, I look over to Shay to see if I had disturbed her but found her sleeping peacefully. My eyes narrowed at the area around her closed eyelids which looked puffy and red.

She had been crying.

I decided that I would ask her later about it and left the room, tip-toeing on my way out. I headed to the kitchen to find something to eat. Searching through the cabinets, I picked a packet of foreign looking chips and a bottle of water.

Sebastian was fast asleep on the couch of the central area wrapped in his blanket and looking like a cocoon.

I unlatched the front door and walked out in the fresh morning air.

The sky was just about to be fully illuminated by the sunrays in a few minutes, and the morning breeze felt like bliss against my skin. Sitting on the porch steps, I closed my eyes feeling their weariness.

After sensing the presence of someone, I opened my eyes to find Daniel walking out of the woods with a camera in his hand and his eyes towards its screen. He paused walking and looked up to me.

"Why are you up so early?" he asked walking up to the porch and standing in front of me.

He was still wearing the same clothes as the previous day and his eyes looked a little swollen which I surmised was because of the lack of sleep. His hair look disorganised but he still managed to look cute in a complete 'straight out of bed' way.

"I am usually a morning person," I said and then pointed towards the camera in his hand. "I thought the picture thing ended yesterday."

He scratched the back of his head with a hesitant look. "I couldn't sleep so I went outside to take some pictures."

"So you're into photography? Can I see them?" I asked and then patted the ground beside me signalling him to sit with me.

"They're not anything great or so. It's just something I like to do when I'm bored." He handed me the camera and settled on the steps.

I shuffled through the gallery section of the camera which had around 50 pictures. Some of them were of the early morning sky with birds, some were of the silent looking forests while others showed the beauty of the ocean in early hours of the day. The pictures were definitely way better than what Daniel had said. All of them seemed to have a certain life and looked as if they were captured at the perfect moment.

"You have some real talent in photography. These are absolute perfection, Dan. Especially this one, it's my favorite." I leaned towards him and showed him the picture I was talking about.

The image was taken standing near the edge of the cliff, the same on which we went to the previous day. The sky was still in twilight phase, giving just enough light to make everything partially visible while a huge wave of the ocean was about to hit the shore. The whole scene looked as if it belonged to a glossy photography magazine.

I looked up to find Daniel's blue eyes already staring at me.

Breaking the stare he mumbled uncomfortably, "Yeah, I like that one too."

I nodded my head in agreement not knowing what else to do. Then I suddenly remembered something that I had been planning to say to him last day.

"I am sorry," I said and then paused for a second, "about the cliff. It was really stupid of me to do so."

He moved his head in agreement. "It's quite comical though, isn't it? That about a week ago you were yelling at me for attempting to jump in the water and now you're apologizing for actually doing the same thing."

His face held a faint sad smile.

"Maybe...but these two situations are different. I jumped just out of fun and 'cause I'm an idiot not because something is bothering me."

His gaze was towards the ground and he exhaled at my words.

"I told you that nothing is bothering me. I was just way too much drunk that night. That's it," he spoke sternly, as if warning me not to argue back.

"If you say so," I replied softly. I wasn't looking forward to have another argument either.

"Really? Chips? It's like 5 in the morning. Who eats potato chips so early?" He raised his eyebrows at the packet in my hand.      

"Well there is me to begin with. And for your information, Juliet ate all the fruits so the choice was between this and cereal. Since I was feeling too lazy to pour milk in a bowl, so this was the winner." I smiled putting a chip in my mouth.

Dear God, it tastes so horrible!

"Yeah Juliet has a habit of doing so," Daniel said.

"You guys seem close. Not to intrude, but is she your ex-girlfriend or something?" I said, unscrewing the cap of the water bottle and gulped down the liquid to get rid of the abhorrent taste of the chips.

An amused smile was etched upon Daniel's face.

"As much as I'm a fan of some Jaime-Cersai style good old incest, Juliet is not my ex-girlfriend," he answered taking a chip from the packet.

"Incest? She's your sister?" I asked surprised.

Well, now it did makes sense how Chad was alright with both of them spending so much time together.

Daniel's face contorted in a disgusted expression as he chewed the chip with the unknown flavour.

"Cousin, actually. And that...is horrible," he said pointing towards the bag of chip. He spit out the remaining bits from his mouth and took the bottle from my hands. "Why didn't you tell me it tastes so bad?"

"I know it's awful but I didn't want to be the only one who starts the day with a bad taste in my mouth." I shrugged my shoulders laughing at Daniel's expression.

"That is so very nice of you, Norah," he said sarcastically.

"I know, right? Come on, let's go find something to eat," I said standing up and returning his camera back to Daniel.

"Don't! I'll find us both something to eat. I don't trust your selection in food," he said getting ahead of me.

"Bright boy," I remarked.

We entered the cabin only to a hear crashing sound coming from one of the rooms. Several more such sounds followed and both Daniel and I rushed towards the source of the sound.

Everyone, with the exception of Shay and Liam, was standing quitely in front of mine and Shay's room with their ears stuck to the closed wooden door. The scene would have seem quite funny if there wasn't any world war going on inside.

"What's happening?" I asked everyone who were shamelessly eavesdropping on the heated conversation going on on the other side of the door.

Mike raised a finger and placed it on his lips to shush me down.

"Are they fighting?" I asked in a low volume even though I already knew the answer.

"Dear god! Woman, can't you stay quite for a moment?" Mike commented, giving me a stern look.

"Someone should go inside and stop them," I said, ignoring Mike's comment.

"It's better if you don't. Both of them are really mad right now. They got into a fight last night during the bonfire too," Sebastian whispered, earning a glare from Mike.

After returning from woods, I was feeling really tired and had decided to skip the bonfire and thus I had no idea what Liam and Shay were fighting about.

"Whatever, I am going inside," I said whizzed past through all the people standing at the door. My fingers wrapped themselves around the knob of the door and twisting it, I opened the door.

The scene going on inside was not something I was expecting.

The first thing that I noticed in the room was that Liam was lying flat on the floor, cupping his nose with his hands, a tear lingering on the corner of his eye while Shay stood at the corner of the room, huffing like she might turn into The Hulk any minute.

An open book was awkwardly lying beside Liam with its cover facing up. My gut told me that the book had something to do with what had just went down in the room.

My friends belonged to the loony bin.

"Okaaaaay," I drawled, looking at Shay. "Would you like to tell me what just happened?"

 "No," she simply said and sat on the bed with her arms crossed.

"You need any help, Liam?" I asked after noticing that he wasn't moving.

"No, I'm fine," he started in a low voice and then sending Shay a glare, he yelled while standing up. "But take this effing psychopath out of here!"

And that commenced a new session of yelling. A lot of it.

"I'm not a psychopath! Don't blame this on me. It's all your fault!"

"Yes, 'cause I'm the one who just threw a book at you, right? You're nuts Shay!"

Oh god...

"Stop calling me crazy! You got what you deserve."

"You know what I deserve? A freaking gold medal! For enduring you for so long."

I felt as if I was in the middle of a family quarrel where Shay and Liam were my parents and I was the helpless kid who was being forced to witness it all.

Okay, that's enough!

"Silence!" I bellowed in anger. Both Shay and Liam immediately stopped bantering. Also the snickering and hushed whispers of everyone standing at the doorframe ceased.

Good, silence feels good.

"Now, go to separate rooms and don't talk to each other until you're cooled off," I said and then gestured towards the door with my index finger, "Go!"

Liam hurried out of the room, fuming while Shay squatted on the bed mumbling to herself.

Just 10 minutes with Shay and Liam had managed to make my head throb.

Idiots!

I left the room and made my way to the sitting area. Everyone was scattered around the room, talking and eating. I immediately noticed Daniel's absence along with Liam and Shay.

"Where's Daniel?" I asked as a reflex. It was now forming as a habit of mine to know where he was at all times.

I know, stalker much, right?

As if I cared.

"He got a call and said he had to leave immediately," Chad informed me.

He left? Why? Who was the call from?

I thought of calling him but then concluded that he might feel suffocated with my prying so I didn't make the call..

The rest of our time at the cabin went by uneventfully. We explored the woods some more and around 5'o clock in the evening, we started our journey back to our town.

After returning to home, I spent my time hanging around in my pajamas and contemplating the idea to call Daniel or not.

What if it seems too much? I asked myself.

I had promised him that I would be his friend and I hardly think that friends have the right to track their friend's every move.

But then again, his case was different.

At around 11 at night, I had finally mustered up enough courage to call him.

So here we go.

Daniel's POV- 

I lined my car along with everybody else and waited for the 'go' signal.

The guy in the car besides mine sent a smirk in my direction, his rotten teeth peeking from inside.

I scowled at him and looked ahead after hearing a tap on my car's hood. A girl in a short black dress was leaning against it. With a flick of her hand, she signalled me to turn off the headlights letting her eyes linger on me way longer than I liked.

Whatever happened to decency these days?

Ignoring the looks she was giving me, I switched off both the headlights and the taillights of my Audi.

Soon, everyone present followed and the road started to fall into darkness. Since the place was way out of the city and basically in the middle of no where, there wasn't any street light to provide any sort of luminescence and hence it was the perfect place for this kind of stupid stuff.

I blinked my eyes rapidly to get them to adjust them to the darkness, but it turned to be harder than I thought because of the amount of booze in my system.

Hammered and getting involved in a 'no headlight' race.

Wow, Dad would be so proud.

But as if I gave a shit.

God, I had issues!

I don't know if you can even call them that after they get so big because mine were huge. Infact they were big enough that they were starting to have their own baby issues.

But seriously, why was I doing this? It's not as if it was going to change anything. As if it was going to change what happened or if it was going to change that my own mother had left no stone unturned in making sure that my life remained a complete nightmare. Or as if it changed that the girl I- nothing. It was going to change nothing.

A loud honk came from the side where the array of cars ended which pulled me out of my depressing thoughts. The girl who was standing in front of my car a few minutes ago was holding an air horn.

I put the car in ignition and heard all the cars around me roar to life just like mine.

The girl in the tiny dress raised her hand in her air and counted, "3...2...1..Go!" and the sound of the horn came again.

I pressed the accelerator with full strength and the car rumbled along.

Within the initial minutes of the race, I was way front than everybody else since I could hear only distant sounds of car engines coming from behind.

I was driving according to just my instincts because the darkness outside was so dense that it wouldn't have made any difference if I drove even with my eyes closed.

I kept driving through the street remembering to stick to the right side of the road as the other side had these large rocks scattered throughout. One wrong movement and I would have been on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper for a car crash fatal enough to even put the 'Final Destination' ones to shame.

On second thought, maybe I should 'accidentally' steer the car to the left, I thought.

I shook my head smiling and wondered how Norah would react if she heard my thoughts. I could actually imagine her sitting beside me with her eyes narrowed, lips pursed, and her arms crossed, trying her best to look scary when actually she looked like a cute little angry kitten every time she was furious. But it was her way of speaking that really intimidated me. She spoke with so much determination and strength that it took everything in me to refrain myself from telling her everything.

The screen of my phone on the dashboard lit up and the phone started to vibrate. I craned my neck a little to see the caller ID and a smiled after I saw the screen.

Norah

She must have been calling to ask why I left the cabin in such haste.

I wished I could tell her what she wanted to know. I wished she could know everything without being scared, without being terrified and without feeling sorry for me. But they would remain exactly that - just wishes, not the reality.

I decided on ignoring the call thinking that she would get the message that I didn't want to talk. After a few more rounds of vibration, the phone became silent. But it was only for a few seconds before the vibrations restarted.

She was just not going to stop.

Exhaling, I picked it up from the dashboard and then started to decelerate the car. It was highly dangerous to do though, because any car approaching from behind may not be able to see my car and might run into it, but I still decided to take the risk.

I was about to touch the 'answer' option when I felt a sharp jerk which threw my body ahead. It felt as if every bone in my body was shaking individually.

My car spiralled being out of control and the left front tire rammed against something hard making the car to flip over.

The glass of the windshield got smashed into a million pieces, many of them scarring my skin at various places. My eyes closed in pain as the air got knocked out of my lungs and I felt my body eject out of the car, forcefully. The gravel on the road were digging into my skin. My right hand was still clutching the phone firmly while my left wrist was twisted in an unnatural manner and was throbbing without any mercy. 

I tried to focus on the buzzing of the phone to keep my mind off the pain.

My vision was getting blurry and breathing was becoming a hard thing to do with every passing moment.

I could hear the thumping of my heart in my ears intertwined with the vibration sounds that my phone was producing.

The phone kept buzzing, keeping me awake. It paused for sometime but then the vibrations came back.

After a minute or two, it stopped again. I waited for it to buzz again but it didn't.

After what felt like eternity, every part of me started to slip into oblivion and then all that remained was darkness.

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