Dark Corners / ✓

nine: of confusion and crashes

"You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!" - The Joker, The Dark Knight

"Emmy!" a familiar voice called, making me stop, foot hovering above the step. I paused and closed my eyes tightly, taking a deep breath before turning, "Can I ask you something?"

Griffin Cutkosky was staring at me from right outside his apartment, light blue eyes narrowed, head cocked to the side. I had been avoiding Griffin for the past few days - something that I'm sure he's taken notice of - but now there's nowhere to go. I'm stuck between the top step and Griffin, with no way to make up an excuse.

It's not that I particularly want to distance myself from Griffin. It's that I don't know how to handle him. I watched Griffin install a camcorder on his kitchen island before he was scared that someone had broken into his apartment and turned on his oven, and I don't know how to deal with that. I'm afraid I'll wind up blurting out that Griffin is taking paranoia to a new level and, quite frankly, freaking me out.

"Oh, sure," I smiled tightly, adjusting the straps on my schoolbag and walking up the last step. I dropped my bag in front of my apartment door and walked over to Griffin's, walking into his apartment when he stepped to the side, "What's up?"

Griffin paced the length of his apartment, tugging a vicious path through his messy blond hair with his fingers, pulling at the strands. The sleeves of Griffin's black button-up shirt were rolled up, leaving red, crescent-shaped marks along his forearms. I opened my mouth to ask if Griffin was even okay, but he cut me off quickly. 

"I'm sorry, I know we haven't talked the past few days, but I need a favor," Griffin tugged at the collar of his shirt, pulling the black material away from his neck, "My car is in the shop and Grant just called me because he got in an accident and I need a ride."

As much as I had wanted to spend some time away from Griffin - to think over everything that had happened - I couldn't say no to that. Griffin's brother had gotten into an accident, and I wasn't going to tell Griffin that I wouldn't give him a ride. 

"Oh God, of course," I said, grabbing my keys out of my bag and quickly stepping out of his apartment. Griffin followed me and I unlocked my door, tossing my schoolbag haphazardly into the room and switching it out for my purse, "Do you know if he's okay?" 

Griffin and I both left my apartment, quickly walking to the elevator and clicking the button for the ground-level. Griffin kept nervously tugging his fingers through his hair, cracking his knuckles, or playing with the buttons on his shirt. His dark belt was hanging out of the loops, hanging down the front of his khaki pants, but I didn't say anything.

"I don't know," Griffin swallowed tightly, Adams apple bopping up and down in his throat, "Grant just said he got in an accident and that he's home. He said he was fine, but I don't fucking believe that."

I had known Griffin long enough to know that his anger wasn't at Grant but at the situation, so I just sent him a tight smile, hoping that said all the words that I couldn't get out. I didn't know if Grant was okay - or even what happened - and I didn't know what to say. I couldn't assure Griffin that Grant would be fine because I didn't know.

We exited the apartment complex, taking long-legged strides to my car and getting in. Griffin plugged Grant's address into my GPS and we were off, neither of us saying a word. Griffin was fidgeting and mumbling things under his breath, and I just had no words to say. I turned the radio on quietly in an attempt to make the silence between us less tense. 

I was still caught up on the fact that Griffin had plugged the camcorder into his kitchen, but I tried to force my thoughts away from that. It was just hard to believe that the panicking, anxious boy next to me had been the same one to install a camcorder into his apartment to see if someone was breaking in.