Maniac {Sal fisher}

Absence

𝑰𝒇 𝒊 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖
𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆
𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆

A drop, a small spill on my vanity.
"Fuck." I mutter, picking up the spilled liquid blush. I continue my makeup as quickly as I can. I probably shouldn't be doing so much makeup just to hang out with my two closest friends. But I enjoy doing it.

My phone vibrates against my white vanity. I pick it up.

"August, I'm outside." Is what I hear my friend willow tell me in her usual happy voice. She's always been so happy. I don't know how she does it, always having a smile on her face.
When she was 9, she lost her mother. And yet, she still manages to wake up happy no matter what.

"Alright. Give me 2 minutes." I reply, in my usual calm tone. I hang up and go back to my makeup. I sometimes worry about willow. About our friendship. Not just me and her, though. Me, Willow, Charlie, and Larry.

I guess I should explain this before anything else.

When we were all dumb 9 year olds. We all went camping, there was an old motorcycle in this garage, so as the idiots we were. We messed around on it. Charlie hopped onto it and started pretending to drive it. Larry had turned around and found its key. As he put the key in the bike, Charlie went forward immediately. And unfortunately, out walked willows mom.

Charlie ran her over with the bike, unaware how to stop it. And now he's unaware of how to stop the guilt. So is Larry. They both blame themselves.

Willow had to stand there and watch as one of her best friends ran over her mom. Yet she wakes up every day with a smile on her face.

I hear a car horn from outside my house and I take it as a sign to finish up my makeup. I pick up my bag and exit my room. Today's a Saturday. So me, Willow, Charlie, and larry are all hanging out. Charlie is my brother. I'm glad I have a good relationship with my brother. We used to not. We'd fight every day after what happened with jenny. Willows mom.

But not anymore. We hang out a lot now, with Willow and Larry too. Sometimes, sal, Larry's brother, comes with us.

Me and sal don't talk often. We never have. We don't really get along, so there's no point. I knock on charlies door.

"Willows here." I call. He opens his door and we leave the house soon after. I spot willow outside in her car and I give her small wave.

Larry's in the passenger seat, so I sit in the back with Charlie.

"Where are we going?" I ask Willow. She smiles as she starts her car.

"I wanna get food, then we're going to Larry's." She replies, and we start the short drive to get food. I check the time on my phone. 1 pm.

It starts to rain, and I look out the window. We pass a park and I see ashley campbell walking somewhere. Ash is one of Larry's friends. I've never really met her properly, though.

5 minutes later, we arrive at a small shop. Nockfell doesn't really have much to do in it.

"I wanna get like a scary amount of monster." I joke.

"Bitch, you already have that, like in your room on your desk. More then me. And that says a lot." Larry laughs.

We leave the car and enter the store.
We walk over to the drinks.

"Can someone tell me how much these two things are?" Charlie says, holding up an ice cream and a diet coke. He's horrible at math. I mean, I am as well, but not as much as Charlie.

"Wait, remember when I dropped you onto your head when we were little. I think that explains a lot." I joke.

"Yeah, you did that a lot. I think I was literally there when you did it once." Willow laughs. We pay for our food and drinks. We go back into Willows car, and she starts the drive to the Addison apartments.

We get there soon after. I step out of the car, smiling at Larry. We enter the apartments. I don't really like this place, I'm glad me and Charlie don't live here.

We get into the evaluator, which is probably my least favourite part of the apartments. There's a small green light in the middle of the room that attempts to light up the evaluator. We make our way down to the basement, where larry lives.

Larry opens the door to his apartment and we walk in. I've been in his apartment a couple of times before. I wave to Lisa as i enter Larry's bedroom, Lisa is like a second mother to me.

Larry flops onto his bed.
"I'm so tired." He sighs. I chuckle softly.
"Its literally 1pm" I reply. Larry sits up straight in his bed.

"Yeah, but I fell asleep at like 5am." Larry groans. Willow sits on a beanbag in the corner of his room, I sit in the one beside her.

"What the hell were you doing at 5am?" Willow laughs.

"Literally, your mom." Larry jokes and Charlie laughs.

"Her grave is like 40 minutes away from your house, bro."

Am I the only one in this room with common sense? I glare at Charlie and larry, they stay laughing. I look over at Willow, and to my surprise, she's laughing as well. Her reaction was delayed, as if she had to process what Larry and Charlie had said.

I had to as well. I seem to be the only one in this room who's not laughing. I mean, Charlie and larry were technically the ones who killed jenny, Willows mom. They aren't really in any place to joke about it.

But here we are.

They move onto a new subject, I zone out. I wonder how willow really feels. I know she's not happy all the time. But she makes every one thinks she is.

And everyone believes her. Everyone expect me.

I notice willow fidgeting with her rings, brushing her short blonde hair away from her face.

We all stayed in Larry's room for a little while, and Willow was still smiling no matter what jokes Charlie and larry made. I think back to that joke. Yeah, maybe it was just a dumb joke. But we never joke about jenny. We never even mention her.

I never knew jenny. But I know that willow loved her. She told her everything. It wasn't like most people with their parents, not telling them anything and keeping secrets. She loved talking to her mom, telling her every little thing.

Who does she talk to now?

{A/N: ahhhh, helloo!! IM SO EXCITED TO POST THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THIS NEW STORY 🩵 sorry that this chapter is kinda short, ill be making the rest longer I just didnt wanna make the first one to long :]  updates probably won't be as often as they were for my last fanfic but I'll try to update each week! Hope you guys enjoy and thanks for all the support
🫶}