Anthony's POV

I walked down the street to where Julia lived. I knocked on the door slowly. "It's about time you visited!" she said enthusiastically. The last time I was here was about 2 years ago. Her parents greeted my like they always would; Julia's mother gave me a kiss on both cheeks, and her father shook my hand. I always wondered why Julia didn't have an accent, considering both her parents were from France, their accents very strong.

"Vous souvenez d'Anthony, mon ami?" she asked them. (sorry if that was bad french grammar. I try.) "Oui. Anthony, do you still take care of Julia?" her mother asked. "Maman!" Julia cried. "More like she takes care of me," I laughed. "Yep. 'In Soviet Russia, girl take care of boy'," Julia joked, doing a fake Russian accent. (I'm sorry if I have any Russian readers) I laughed again. So did Julia's parents. "Venez ici. Come on," Julia showed me around her house, showing the renovations her parents had made since I had been here.

I saw a picture of Julia standing next to Thomas and Ella. "Hey, when did you take this picture?" I asked. "A while ago. We snuck out together to watch you guys on one of your dates. You see you two in the background?" she asked. I looked closer. Holy crap. They actually took a picture while I was out with Ryan. "I cannot believe you," I said, laughing again. "You don't look like you're very happy. You're kinda glaring at Ella," I pointed out. She shrugged, not looking at me. 

As I made to leave, Julia rushed down the stairs behind me. She fell down the last few stairs and cursed in French. "Julia! Vigie ta bouche!" Her mother shouted at her. "Uh, bye then! Merci!" I said, and walked out the house.

As I went to school the next day, the first thing I noticed was that Ella and Julia didn't look very happy with each other at all. They walked on either side of Thomas, and he was the only person speaking, not noticing the girls staring each other down. The second thing I noticed was that Ryan was nowhere to be found. The weird part wasn't that he was absent, it was that when I texted him, he didn't respond. At all.

Ryan 💕💕

8:32 AM You there?

8:53 AM Ryan?

9:16 AM Hello?

See? He never responded. And he ALWAYS responds to texts, unless it's from an unknown number, of course. This was so unlike him. I tried calling him next. "Hey. It's Ryan. I'm unavailable right now. Call again later. Thanks," was all I heard. I talked to the others. They hadn't heard anything from him either. I started to get nervous. As soon as school ended, I drove to Ryan's place immediately. It was just a large rundown old trailer. What is this kid not telling me? I thought. I knocked on the door. No answer. I only heard shuffling from inside. "Ryan? Are you there?" I asked. More shuffling. "If you don't answer this door, I will personally knock it down for you," I threatened. The door was yanked open. "What do you want?" a disgruntled Ryan asked shortly. His eyes were red, his cheeks tear-stained, his hair, his clothes, everything messed up. "What happened to you?" I asked. "That's none of your business," he answered, and slammed the door shut.

"I can still knock down this door," I said. Ryan opened the door again. "Listen... I DON'T NEED YOU TO TRY AND ACT LIKE EVERYTHING'S OKAY, GOT IT?! HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WORLD?! IT'S ROTTEN! IT'S ROTTEN,OKAY?! And you... you're just trying to act like nothing can happen to you... like everything's going to be perfect. And it's not going to be. Listen to me. None of my feelings have changed for you. I just... really need to be alone right now... okay?" he asked. "Only if you tell me exactly what happened. Then I'll leave you be," I said, and walked inside against his will.

"Okay... fine..." Ryan said, and sat down next to where I was sitting. "Yesterday... something awful happened."