The Path To You

26. Kill you

Connor POV:

I'd never been very good at hide and seek. When I was a kid my best friend Reid and I would play all around my house and whenever I had to hide I always lost right away. My first problem was that I picked the same two hiding spots every time and the second problem was that I could never be quiet.

Right now I really wished for those nonexistent hide and seek skills.

It wasn't that I was hiding, well okay I was hiding, but I was more so avoiding because I didn't want to face the very large problem I had.

There was no hiding and the sound of loud banging on my door proved that.

"Connor don't make me kick this thing open." Nico yelled as he continued to bang against the door.

"I'm not home." I yelled back.

I wasn't hiding but I was sitting on my bed trying to be as quiet as possible with a chair propped against my door keeping Nico out. It was for my own safety really, Nico wasn't one to shy away from violence and I knew I was seconds away from being punched in the face.

"Get your ass out here before I decide to kill you."

"I feel like that decision is already made so no." I argued.

There was a loud slam against the door and I knew Nico wouldn't stop until I stopped being a coward and faced him. Making Nico angry was a talent of mine and I really wished I was worse at it.

"Connor!" He yelled slamming his hand against the door some more.

The guy was persistent I'd give him that. I did feel bad for the situation I had put him in. I'd known what would happen when I told Nico the full truth. I already could picture the anger on his face so I decided to not be the one to tell him. Hiding until he calmed down seemed like the better option.

Well it did until I realized it meant having to listen to him yelling at me through a door for who knows how long.

I couldn't avoid him forever.

"Hey Nico." I gave him my best smile as I opened the door.

"Don't smile at me you coward." He snapped.

"I see you're in a good mood." I joked trying to find some way out of this situation.

"Were you planning on telling me or were you just going to leave without so much as a goodbye?" He frowned.

I didn't really know the answer to that. Telling my other roommates that I was leaving seemed easy. I wasn't worried about their reaction or having to say goodbye to them. But there were two people I didn't know how to say goodbye to and one of them was standing right in front of me.

Nico who had somehow not totally given up on me over the years and had sat by and helped me get the help I needed. He'd done so much for me and I didn't know how to tell him I had to leave.

And if I couldn't get the words out to him I didn't even want to think about how I was going to break the news to Jetson. How was I supposed to tell him that I showed up at his place yesterday and spent the whole night with him and decided to pretend we had more time than we did.

"I'm not good at goodbyes." I shrugged.

"Apparently you're good at saying goodbye to everyone but me." He grumbled.

"Well not everyone."

"Connor, no." Nico's face hardened even more. "Please don't tell me that he doesn't know."

"I haven't exactly told him that I'm leaving yet."

"You leave today."

"Yeah." I nodded.

My parents had given me one night to pack my things up and say goodbye to my friends before they came and brought me home. There was no argument, in their eyes I'd fallen victim to party culture and being in this environment was bad for my recovery.

It made sense but I didn't think being home was any better. Being in that town again might just destroy me but I couldn't tell them any of that. I wasn't ready to speak the truth out loud to them yet. I wasn't ready to see their faces when they learned that they let a monster into our lives. So instead I took the semester off considering I was failing all my classes anyways and I was going home.

"You're so lucky I promised Sasha I wouldn't kill you." I wasn't entirely sure if Nico was joking or not.

"I am lucky that your girlfriend loves me more than you." I teased.

"Go tell Jetson before he hears it from someone else, I'd really rather not send you back to your parents with a black eye."

"What did I do to get a best friend who was so nice to me?" I grinned widely.

"If you want me to be nice stop doing shit that pisses me off." Even though I knew he was mad I could see him softening, he couldn't stay mad at me for too long.

"I would but everything I do pisses you off, I swear you got mad at me for breathing once."

"You were like panting in my ear, it was gross."

"Oh I'm sorry I had a hard time breathing while doing football drills. We had to run like a thousand yards." I argued.

"Not my fault you're out of shape." Nico shrugged.

And now that the anger was gone it felt nice to be able to fall into this back and forth. It felt nice to have a friend again. With all the friendships I'd ruined over the years it was good to still have someone left.

I knew I'd need a serious support system to get me through this. One month sober was great but I'd been in rehab for those thirty days and now that I was out I didn't think I'd be able to do it without people in my corner supporting every step of the way.

Nico wasn't one to say it out loud but I knew he cared about me and I knew he was there if I needed him.