Drifting

Chapter 2

After school, Michael heard a knock on his door and opened it to see Nick who walked in, closing the door behind him. He flipped down on the couch before he began to speak,

"Dude, I didn't see you today. I guess we don't have any classes together, although, I do have one with the prude you hate so much." Michael mentally flinched when he heard Nick say that. He didn't hate Taylor, and he knew he never would, he was just angry about who she had become. And no one had the right to call Taylor a prude, not after what happened. As he recalled that night he became angry. He clenched his fists at his sides, but tried to remain calm.

"Don't you dare call her that." Michael snapped at Nick. Nick just put up his hands defensively.

"Chill.", he said slowly, "Since when do you care about Taylor Samuels, anyway?" Michael shook his head and calmed down, reclaiming his usual demeanor.

"I don't." He lied, "It's just been a rough day I guess. I must be tired or something. Anyways, I skipped school today, which is probably why you didn't see me."

"Michael, you skipped the first day of school, and are going to skip the second too?"

"Who's going to stop me?" He motioned towards his empty house. His mom and dad were always at work, or on long business trips.

"Good point."

"I might miss Wednesday too, oh and you know, the rest of the week."

"What am I going to do with you?" Nick asked, shaking his head.

"Skip with me?" Michael asked, optimistically.

"I would, but I can't. Unlike you, my parents are going to be onto me about just missing tomorrow, let alone a whole week."

"Ugh, you're no fun."

"No, my parents are no fun."

"None of you are any fun." Michael joked, a grin spreading across his face.

"Thanks man." Nick said back, smiling as well, before punching Michael in the arm playfully.

Later that night Michael, in a cruel twist of fate, relived that night in a dream.~

~It was late, well it was only 10:00 P.M., but to seven year old Michael and Taylor it had seemed very late, and they were still hanging out.

"Let's play hide and seek." Michael said.

"Won't that be boring with just the two of us?" Taylor asked. Michael' and Taylor's parent's were business partners and were away on a trip for work, so they were staying with a family friend and doctor of both families named Mrs. Macci who was out at an emergency appointment with one of her other patients.

"No, it'll be fun. We'll just g-" Michael started to say, but was interrupted by the front door opening.

"Did Mrs. Macci get home early?" Taylor asked naively and ran to the door, but Michael was skeptical, and stayed behind.

"Taylor, I'm not sure that-" but Michael was once again interrupted, but this time by Taylor screaming.

"Help! Michael!!" She screamed, but Michael was frozen with fear, he couldn't make himself come to Taylor's rescue. Instead, he ran into the kitchen and hid inside a counter. He heard two sets of footsteps. Taylor's screams were muffled now, as if something was being held against her mouth, but he could hear two very clear, male voices. Their footsteps were heavy, and he knew they must be grown men.

"Go look around for that Michael!" One of the men barked at the other.

"Don't worry Dan, nobody else is here. Whoever Michael is, he left her here all alone." His voice had an evil softness to it when he continued. "But don't you worry babe, we're gonna take real good care of you."

"Yeah, don't worry darling, we're just going to show you a good time, for the first time." The first man spoke again.

Michael had to cover his mouth so that he wouldn't scream.

He heard the men walk upstairs, and he assumed they were carrying Taylor. He climbed out of the cupboard and saw that the coast was clear. He was tempted to run out the front door, but he heard loud noises upstairs and more muffled screams from Taylor. He couldn't just leave her, so instead he looked for a knife, he had checked a few drawers before he looked in one and saw a cold, black, gun. He picked it up with shaky hands, he'd been to the shooting range with his dad before and knew how to shoot it, but this was different. If he used this it would be people, not targets. But a continuous sets of thumps and more muffled screams from upstairs made up his mind. Those men were evil, his young mind thought they were torturing her, and they were, but not the way he had imagined then. With shaky breaths he began to walk upstairs, the gun in front of him. He walked up to the door the noises were coming from and creaked the door open quietly. He saw a sight he had never imagined he'd see. Taylor was lying on the bed, with the men on top of her, all of them naked. They were to distracted to notice him so he walked up behind them, praying he wouldn't trip, and held up the gun, lining it up so that he'd shoot one of the men, careful to keep it away from Taylor. He pulled the trigger and there was a bang. His ears were ringing. He lined up the second shot while the other man was stunned. Bang, more ringing. Shortly after, the police were there, the neighbor's had called them when they heard Taylor's screams. They walked into the house to find Taylor, wrapped in a blanket, and Michael curling her up in a hug, they were both crying next to the bodies of the two men.

"It's going to be okay." Michael remembered one of the cops saying, he knew that they said more, but he couldn't hear them over the ringing in his ears.~

Michael woke up in a cold sweat. He could still hear the ringing sometimes, after dreams like that. He remembered that the days following the accident were miserable. He had to relive that awful night over and over to explain to cops, judges, juries, and his family what had happened, but no one ever looked at him the same. Not even his own parents. He was a killer. But he didn't have it as bad as Taylor, he knew that. Taylor had been molested. She had to go through the same process, but instead of being called a murderer, she got called soiled, ruined, unpure. She had been molested by those two men. People pitied her, they said she'd never be perfect again. She became shy and very isolated, she didn't want to be noticed by anyone ever again. She no longer talked as much. And while she changed in that way, Michael had changed in a completely different way. He became guarded, he put up a wall, he became snarky and cold.

Their friendship was never the same after that and pretty soon they drifted apart completely. Then they continued to drift and began to resent and ignore each other. Truth be told, as much as Michael hated to admit it, he missed her, every single day of his life, and he hoped that next door, Taylor was missing him too.