Just Friends. (A falling in love with my best friend story)

Chapter 25: Not Saying Goodbye.

   Parker's POV:

I woke up the next morning to my mother screaming from Genna's room. I bolted out of bed tried to run, but since I was dizzier than a drunk in the mornings, I ended up falling twice. I was terrified that Genna had killed herself from the fight we had. God, I shouldn't have been so furious with her. I ran into the room, and felt myself sigh with relief that Genna wasn't there lying dead on the floor or hung from the ceiling or something. But what also wasn't there was all her stuff, everything.

        "Holy shit." I said. My mom looked over her shoulder at me and frowned disapprovingly, but was too terrified to really care at the moment.

        "I can't believe she packed up and left! Where could she have gone!?!?" Mom asked, sitting on the bare mattress. 

That was what I was thinking myself. Where did she go back to? I immediately thought that she may have gone back to her dad's, but she wouldn't do that.

        "I think she ran away." I said. Dad walked in and gave me a gentle slap upside the head.

        "Well no duh. This is the exact same thing that happened to Toby. She had a fight with someone she trusted and ran off." He said, giving me a heated stare. I started to feel guilty but then straightened up.

        "She obviously didn't trust me enough to tell me first." I said angrily. Mom looked at me sympathetically.

        "It was a huge surprise to us too dear, but at least you didn't have to catch her in the act like we did. Why don't you run over to her dad's place, just to make sure she's not there?" She suggested. I didn't have the heart to tell mom that I already knew she wouldn't be there, so I nodded and walked out.

As I left the house, I remembered something. Yeah, I did catch her in the act. At least without knowing. The morning I had found her with blood on her arms. My dopey morning self stupidly believed that the razor simply "slipped". Even if it had slipped, it wouldn't leave a mess like that.

I walked to her dad's house and knocked on the door before walking in. Her dad wasn't sitting at the table with empty bottles next to him any more, but he was actually just walking out with his hair wet and some clean clothes on, looking like he just showered and shaved.

        "Mr. Skyes! You're...not drunk!" I said surprised. He gave me a humorless smile.

        "For now. I only recently remembered during one of my hangovers that getting drunk was what got me into loads of trouble a long time ago." He said. I nodded, and looked around for any sign that Genna might've been by.

        "Umm...has Genna visited recently?" I asked, trying to keep my tone light. He frowned, confused and shook his head slowly after a moment.

        "No, not that I know of. Why, is something wrong?" He asked. I gestured for him to sit down and so did I, but I immediatley stood back up and started pacing.

        "I have something to explain. Something that'll probably get my ass kicked." I said to him. He narrowed his eyes at me.

        "Am I going to need the bottle for this?" He asked, probably not even kidding.

        "With all due respect, you're probably going to need to be coherent for this one." I said. He then laughed bitterly.

        "Okay. Explain away." He said.

I then started to go into the whole story about the whole huge fight and my parents already finding out and me waking up to her gone from the house. Throughout the story, I saw Josh (Mr. Skyes) slowly get more tired looking, his face sagging and fear and sadness filling his eyes and expression.

        "......and I- I should've been a better friend. I shouldn't have lashed out at her like that. I'm a fucking jackass. I won't be surprised if she never speaks to me again." I finished, slumping at the table and feeling the need for a bottle myself.

He was quiet for a long time before he said "So. She's ran away." as if asking about the weather; in a completely emotionless tone. I looked up and saw that he had a wave of nostalgia over him.

        "Yeah. And we don't know where." I said. He started laughing, laughing so hard I started to ease myself out of my chair to see if I had driven him mad and needed to make a run for it. But he stopped laughing and waved at me to sit back down.

        "I'm sorry son, it's just that....God I swear she's an exact replica of her mother. She reacts to everything in pretty much the same way." He said. I smiled weakly, knowing now why Genna was pretty much half alive now, it was as if part of her had died.

        "Now, i'm not saying how you reacted was dumb, because it was. But you can't make the same mistake I did and wait to run after her just because you're afraid she'll reject you. It'll probably push her into the arms of another guy, no doubt." He finished bitterly. I gave an exasperated sigh.

        "Josh.....Genna and I aren't Toby and you. I honestly don't know if I have a future with her. When we were dating...it didn't seem right. For the week and a half that we did anyways." I said with great care. But he didn't get mad, he just smiled at me.

        "I know that. And no, you probably ruined your chances of having a future with her a long time ago. But that doesn't mean you can't remain friends with her." He said, giving me a fatherly-disapproving look. I scratched the back of my neck uncomfortably.

        "But...where would she go? I don't even know where to start? She could be anywhere." I said. He sighed.

        "Knowing Genna, she doesn't like to be too far away from home so she's still somewhere in the city. Just ask around to see if she has any friends that might know of her whereabouts. That's the best you can do. Try her phone, but she's probably changed her number." He suggested.

He seemed fairly level-headed about this.

        "You're not overreacting like I thought you'd be." I said truthfully. He shrugged.

        "I know my daughter." He said simply. I nodded, not even daring to question this. So I said goodbye and left, totally not ready to crush my mom's spirits in the fact that she's not home.