The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side (NOT FINISHED)

Chapter 8

I open the door to our apartment and Carathea runs over to greet me.

"Oh hey Cara! What are you doing here?" I ask, curiously.

"I was just in town and thought I'd stop by."

"Oh. So you saw-"

"Yeah. It's terrible!" She interrupts me.

"Yeah I know. I wonder what could've caused it. It could've been a weather thing, arson... You never know." I finish.

Even though it's raining, it could have easily been lit on fire a while ago. It could have started inside and made its way up, but we won't know for a while, as it was pretty hard to see from where everyone was standing.

I look at Cara, look at Sarah, look back at Cara. Cara breaks the silence. "So did you finish packing for tomorrow?" She says.

"Yeah! Actually I did. It took quite a while because I pretty much packed everything." I smile at her and she returns the favor.

"Good! I'm glad." She smiles even larger than she already was. Like she was excited. I'm not sure as to why she wouldn't be excited, but the fact that she actually physically shows that she is excited hypes me up for the trip.

I signal her to follow me with the throw of my head, and I lead her to our living room. We both sit on the couch next to each other. I ask her about what we're going to do on the trip. Apparently, we are going to go to the beach everyday because there is a 3 day event. That is why we are going during those specific days. She doesn't want to tell me what the event is, but she knows I'm going to love it. Now I'm overly curious.

"Thanks for letting me stop by, but I was just coming to have a short check in on you. I should get going." Cara says.

"Okay! Yeah! Thanks for coming! I was so bored." We both laugh.

She loses her balance as she gets up from the couch, but eventually she regains it and she walks to the door, waves goodbye, and she's gone.

Not even two seconds later, I hear shouting in the hallway. What is going on? I sprint to open the front door just in case something somehow happened to Cara. It didn't sound like she was in pain though, it just sounded like she was yelling at someone. Who?

I quickly open the door, panting, and I see Jonathan. Ugh. Why is he here?

Jonathan is Christian's older brother. He does nothing except get into mischief with his friends. They never show up alone, but this time, it's just himself. I wonder what his problem is.

"What are you doing here? How do you even know where I am now?!" I exclaim at him.

He's just standing there, shocked, with his mouth wide open. I can see the ends of his crooked top teeth. He lets out a little sound, but it's not nearly a word. If anything it's, "uh". I continue to yell at him asking, "Where did you come from?!" "Why are you here?!" "Speak now!". There's nothing I can do to get him to speak. He looks traumatized. He sits down on the dark red hallway carpet and rests his head on the beige walls. I sit down across from him, hoping to figure something out.

He finally lets out a word. But not enough to give me any information about what happened. "You..."

"I...?"

"You... Ch- Ch- Chris... Christian."

"What? What about Christian?" I take a second to listen to what he has to say, but nothing comes out. The same scared, surprised face comes out. The same one he had before. "What about Christian?!" I'm yelling now. I don't know how else to respond. Cara quickly runs away, like she doesn't want to be part of this.