Five Nights with You-NoochZahHutt

Day 3

I walk into a completely insane party in our apartment. Well, Preston's apartment. I close the door and count to ten. They'll all disappear; I'm just having hallucinations. There's still a party when I walk in again. I ignore anything and duck around everything. I find Preston by the corner of the room with a girl doing god knows what to her face.

"Preston!" I shout because that's how loud I had to be. Preston looks up, his face covered in lipstick and asks what. "What? What?! You tell me! What the fuck is going on?"

He drops the girl and stands up. "Chill," He says, "it's just a party Brandon. A place where you socialize and not talk about murderous possessed robots and creepy dreams."

So I say, "Yeah, I don't think I like this any better than Bacca's. I might walk back there. And by the way, are you drunk?"

"Come on, Brandon. Loosen up! Have some fun! You need to once in awhile."

"Answer my question."

"Would you kill me if I was?" Preston laughs.

"I guess I won't, but this place is a mess, y'know. And I really want sleep and stuff."

"Sleep is for the weak!" Preston screams. Everyone looks over and cheers. This is what happens when Preston gets a day off.

"Really, Preston. Can't you just end the party or something?"

"Fucking have some fun! Come on, let's dance!" He starts dancing to a magical music only he can hear, and I shake my head mumbling about the insanity of my only friend. This party makes me uncomfortable; they always have. Well, as long as I've remembered.

Everyone's laughing, everyone's happy, including me. They're all staring at the little boy running around, balloons attached to his wrist. I look up and try to read the balloons, but everything is blurry, hard to read. It's a memory, after all. He runs up to me and smiles. I finally get to read his balloon. 'Happy Birthday!'

I find myself sitting in a chair alone. The party's gone, but what remains of it is still scattered across the floor. Garbage, dropped change and keys (I could take those), and a passed out Preston with penises and nyan cats drawn with markers on his cheeks. I go to the bathroom. I don't know what is happening to my brain. I splash water on my face. The cool water calms me down somehow. When I look up again, I see a horrifying thing. My entire face is covered with blood. Not my blood, I know somehow.

"No!" I hear someone scream. I hear Preston yell too and runs into the bathroom. What's wrong, he asks.

"What do you mean?" I question.

"You screamed."

"I didn't."

"Yes you did. And god, what the hell happened last night? My head hurts like hell." He looks at himself in the mirror. "And the fuck happened to my face?"

"Aftermath of a party," I answer. He nods, remembering

"So what happened? Why'd you scream?"

"I don't know. I was washing my face off 'cause I had this weird memory, and I just saw my face covered with blood." Preston nods to say continue. "That's about it, really. I saw blood on my face, and I screamed."

"Honestly, Brandon. I think you should quit this job and, like, get a therapist or something." I stare at him.

"Really? Wow, I see how it is; you think I'm insane too," I scoff. Preston puts his hands up in defense.

"It's not that. Honestly. I just want you to be okay, and I don't think this job is helping."

"You don't get it! I have to stay with him! He's... He's..." I stop. I don't know what Mat is to me, but I just feel like I can't leave him. "He saved my life; I owe him."

"It is not a he, and you really can't owe a robot, possessed or not," Preston says. I stare at him. If looks could kill, I'm sure he wouldn't be standing there with that look on his face right now.

"He saved my life by attacking one of his friends."

"So? It's a robot, Brandon. Yes, it's possessed by a person's soul but does it really matter? You don't know the guy, the guy doesn't know you. All he did was fight off a robot; I'm sure you could've done that yourself."

"I do know him," I blurt out before questioning what I said myself. Preston looks just as confused as I am.

"Oh really? You spent a total of 12 hours with him, and you know him so well? Wow, amazing." Preston shakes his head. "You know what, Brandon? I'm done arguing with you. Get out; I need to wash my face."

I leave the bathroom and start cleaning everything up. It's quite a mindless task, really. All I'm doing is picking something up and deciding whether to put it in a garbage bag or the box of lost things that I'll keep. It's a good task to be d0ing when you want to think.

"Mat! Wait up!" Someone calls. The boy turns around to stare at me. "I'm waiting, Brandon. Speed up!" "We all should hurry up; they're in the restaurant already," Another boy says. "And no matter how much I hate this place, a party's a party!" "That's the spirit," Someone says; his voice sounds like mine. A party, how exciting. The first boy grabs my hand and starts pulling me forward, an action he does very often.

"Brandon!" Preston shouts. "Stop it!"

"Stop what?" I look down and find I'm putting the bed sheets into the garbage bag. I pull it out. "Sorry."

"What is wrong with you?" Preston whispers. "Get ready, it's almost 12. You've been cleaning for 4 hours now!"

"I have?" I ask and look at the clock. I have indeed as it's 11:10. Time flies, doesn't it? I drop the garbage bag and the box.

As I'm bending down to pick it up, Preston says, "Forget it. You're just making a bigger mess. I'll clean it up."