Madness

Chapter 8: A Wake-Up Call

Chapter 8:

"Give me a goddamn minute!"  Tess choked out.

Those were the words that pulled Noah out of the darkness. Like a sudden punch to the gut, Tess' voice pierced his eardrums. The black void surrounding him had slipped away to the vast shrubbery of a forest he knew all too well. Large white Oak trees shimmered under the moonlight, their lush green leaves an unusually bright green. Everything, Noah noticed, had a faint aura surrounding itself. The trees, the long blades of grass, the shimmering sky; everything was layered in a coat of glaze that seemed to worsen with each glance. This prevented Noah from looking too close. 

However much the atmosphere appeared fake, he wasn't prepared for how very real Tess looked amongst the haze. But the Tess standing before him was different. She wasn't the Tess Noah had seen laying limp in the hospital bed, letting despair eat away at her. She wasn't even the Tess that had paraded the hallways of Huntsville High, making people flinch under her glare. Noah couldn't place his finger on what it was that made her different from all the facades that came before. Somehow he just knew.

She stood amongst the puke covered bushes that lined the small clearing; exactly where Noah had left her the night of the party. Tess' leather jacket had come unzipped, revealing the pink camisole and her heaving ribcage underneath. Her blue jeans were stained, but with alcohol, not blood. Tess' hair was loose, drenched with cold sweat. Her head was cocked to the side, those feverish eyes boring into him.

"Tess?" Noah took a cautious step forwards, his hand outstretched.

"Did you not hear me the first time? I need a minute to puke in peace without some weirdo watching me," she spat at him, outraged. Noah had been wrong. This was and would always be the Tess he had fallen out of love for. The girl who threw his friendship in the trash like Noah was nothing more than a piece of garbage himself. He told himself the anger welling up inside him was reasonable. Noah would turn around and stalk off before she could throw any more insults at him. That's how it was supposed to happen; Noah was supposed to leave. Instead, he took a step forward.

Tess had her back turned as she tried desperately to get ahold of herself. But Noah no longer seemed to care. His body had gone numb, to the point that no matter how much his thoughts screamed his limbs wouldn't listen. They moved forward without permission, closing in on the space between him and Tess. "I was just trying to be nice," Noah told her. The sound of his own voice startled the boy, mainly because it didn't sound like his voice.

His response was enough to hold her attention, but Tess didn't bother turning around as she responded, "I'm sure you were trying to do a lot more than be nice."

"How can it so hard for you to understand why Jamie would rather hook up with your best friend than you? I understand every time I hear you open your mouth."

This time, she did turn around. "Excuse me?" Noah called Tess a hurricane, but despite all the anger burning in her blazing eyes, she was nothing more than a passing storm in that moment. Her shoulders were hunched, her posture all wrong. She felt weak and that weakness was starting to wear through the cracks.

Noah took another step towards the girl. She stumbled back for the first time, something close to fear had flickered across her face momentarily. "You don't have the right to talk to people the way you do," Noah said, his tone drained of emotion.

"But you do?" She asked, her words dripping in sarcasm. Noah glanced down at her hands to find them shaking. She followed his gaze and quickly shoved them in the back pockets of her jeans. "I've had enough of this conversation. I'm going back to the party, so don't you dare try to stop me." But Tess made no effort to follow through on her empty threat. Noah blocked the only pathway out of the clearing. She would have to come closer if she wanted to leave.