Paramnesia

The Scandalous Life

•Intro•
•The Scandalous Life•

"Unacceptable!"

Ignoring my phone I went back to my computer screen and turned the volume up just a bit more.

"Unacceptable!"

Quickly glancing at my phone again, I'm not surprised to see Thea's name flashing across the screen. Turning my phone over, my eyes return to my computer screen, pulling my blanket a little tighter around myself.

"Unacceptable!"

Still ignoring my phone, but now getting a little agitated that I picked Lemongrab as my text alert. I would have put my phone on silence, but moving my arm from underneath my blanket was not an option. And so, I continued to ignore the damned thing.

"Unacceptable!"

You'd think being the anti-social otaku that I was, I wouldn't have any friends, or at least not any that used emojis as a second language and texted so much she had her own set of thumb braces. But as an otaku, you take what you get.

"I'm a buff baby that can dance like a man, I can shake-ah my fanny, I can shake-ah my can. I'm a tough tootin' baby, I can punch-ah yo' buns—"

I quickly snatched my phone from beside me and answered it, "Yes?"

"Why aren't you responding to my text messages?" Thea's stuffy voice greeted me in her normally shrill manner.

"I was ignoring you." I answered bluntly.

"Well, did you at least read them?"

"No..." I drew out my answer to an awkward pause.

"Have you watched or read the news?" Thea asked, sounding more and more exasperated with me.

"Ha, you're funny. You don't even watch let alone read the news." I chuckled to myself.

"Was that a no?"

"Yes," I answered, knowing it would piss her off.

She groaned, "So you haven't heard about Greyson?"

"Way to be cryptic. Do you mean rockstar Greyson?" I asked, feeling my interest in the subject peek, but only a little bit.

"Yes, rockstar Greyson, do we know any other Greyson's?" She asked sarcastically.

I knew she wasn't expecting an answer, but she knows how I feel about sarcasm. "I don't know, I've probably met another Greyson since my seventeen years on this planet. You probably have too. Between the two of us we've probably met—"

"Okay, shut up! Have heard about him or not?" I could feel her irritation through the phone.

"No, I haven't even left my bed yet."

"Are you watching anime, again?" Thea asked disbelievingly.

"How did you know?" She's psychic, I swear.

"It's four in the afternoon, Felicity!"

"I'm not seeing your point." I muttered, feeling only the slightest bit of shame. "Just tell me about Greyson, before I hang up."

"Okay," She squealed. "So you know how he beat up those paparazzi guys yest—"

"No." I interrupted her.

"Wait, really? Everyone is talking about it."

"The last time I left my house was when you dragged me to see Inside Out—"

"That was in June!" She shouted.

"I'm gonna hang up soon." I taunted her.

"Okay, Okay, so he beat up those guys yesterday and Tyson and Austin had to pull him off. So now he's getting sued and guess what his manager just released?" I kept quiet, silently processing the information and not answering her question. "He quit Paramnesia!" She gasped as if this was the first time she'd heard it.

"He quit the band?" I couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, and that's not even the best part, he announced he's finishing high school back home!" She squealed. He's coming back? "Aren't you excited, this'll be the first time you've seen him since he left for his tour?"

"I don't care about him or seeing him." My jaw clenched.

"Come on, you guys were best friends—"

"Our friendship ended long before he became famous. I don't want to see him, I could careless about him."

"But—"

"Nope, end of discussion, I don't want to talk about Greyson anymore. He could die tomorrow and I still wouldn't care. Bye." And then I quickly hung up, tossed my phone to the other end of my bed and curled back into my blankets.

•••

It was only three in the afternoon, but my stomach was making weird and disturbed noises, so I decided some food was probably needed. I attempted to go back and watch anime last night, but my thoughts kept circling back to Greyson. It was too hard to read subtitles and think of Greyson at the same time. And since I couldn't stop thinking of him, I had to stop watching anime. It was a restless night for me. I usually watched anime until four in the morning and then I went to sleep for a solid eight hours. At least in the summer time, my school schedule constantly throws me off. But again today, I couldn't take pleasure in watching anime as my brain wandered off into other realms of my mind I hand't thought about in years.

"Hey, Rosebud," My dad greeted me as he stood in front of the fridge.

"Hey, Steve,"I greeted back.

"Have you heard the news about Greyson?" He asked me tentatively.

"Oh, yeah," I waved him off, slightly nudging him away from the fridge so I could see what was there to eat.

"How you feeling?" He had a solemn look on his face.

"What do you mean? I'm fine, I don't care about what Greyson does." If this was going to become my new norm I would officially become an otaku and never leave my room again, except for the bathroom and food. I pulled the milk carton from the fridge.

"Yeah, but an overdose is pretty serious and with all the speculations—" I dropped the milk carton.

"Overdose?" The word felt so foreign and heavy on my tongue.

"Yeah, it turns out the boy was on all sorts of medication, he overdosed last night. We just got word that he's going to be okay, but he had to have his stomach pumped...I thought you said you knew?"

"About him getting sued and quitting Paramnesia, yeah I knew about that, but an overdose...I didn't hear about that." My mouth felt dry, my tongue like a desert. My dad bent down to pick up the now dented milk carton.

"He's gonna recover, but they're still trying to determine if it was an accident or a suicide attempt." He handed the milk back to me.

"You think he would commit suicide?" I couldn't believe it, the Greyson I knew wouldn't ever do that, but Greyson wasn't one to fool around with pills and accidentally overdose. But then again, I haven't seen him in nearly three years, and we haven't been friends since the eighth grade. So what did I know about him anymore.

"It's hard to say. Fame changes people. I just feel bad for the kid, he's gonna need a real friend after all this." My dad said, giving me a thoughtful look.

"I don't know why you're giving me that look, but forget about it." Putting the milk back, I turned around, snatched an apple and quickly made it back to the safety of my room. "I don't care about Greyson." I mumbled to myself as I furiously took a bite of my apple.