Frenemies ✔

Chapter 8

I couldn't explain why, but I had this strange feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. It'd been nagging at me for a little while and it was starting to annoy me. It all started when I woke up this morning at around four. I went to use the bathroom, and when I came back, that was when I felt that feeling. It felt uncomfortable. It made my stomach hurt as if I hadn't eaten anything in ages. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't fall back asleep. I tossed and turned in bed, could no longer find that comfortable spot. So I went downstairs to make myself a PB&J sandwich to see if maybe that knot in my stomach would go away. It didn't work. I drank a cup of warm milk (which did absolutely nothing for me) and took one of my Mom's sleeping pills. They did help me, but an hour later, I woke up again...with the same strange feeling.

I became a little angry with my insomnia problem. I spent the rest of my early morning just typing a story of some sort on my laptop, and drawing the characters from Pretty Little Liars. Once the sun's rays began to seep into the cracks of my window blinds, I went into the kitchen and made scrambled eggs and bacon for Mom and oatmeal for my grandma. I gave Mom her breakfast, then I went upstairs to give grandma her breakfast. When Mom left for work, I just had this sudden burst of energy. I began tidying up the house (mind you the house really didn't need that much cleaning). All I did was merely sweep the floor, mopped the kitchen floor, organized my Mom's spices in the cabinets. Nothing major. Afterward, I went back upstairs to spend some time with grandma.

We played a few rounds of Go Fish, Scrabble, and Bingo. Soon after, we watched a couple episodes of Family Feud. I think we were around the third episode when my body began to feel worn out. The last thing I remember was that a commercial had come on, and before I knew it, I was sleeping.

As I slept, my mind formulated this terrible and awful nightmare. I dreamt that my friends and I were all at the meeting place where Robbie wanted us to meet. I remember seeing him running towards us with something. He was holding the thing underneath his arm. It appeared to be a person, but it wasn't moving. It was just slumping lifelessly underneath Robbie's arm. I later figured out it was a dummy. I also remember Rocky asking what did he need a dummy for in this prank, but he didn't respond. He clearly wanted us to follow him, so we did. We walked down the old golf cart path I used to take back when I was in the 7th grade. It wasn't how I remembered it. But of course, it's been a little while since I've used it.

It used to look like a hiking trail, with lots of beautiful, green, luscious grass growing on both sides of the trail. Differently colored wildflowers also grew there and, from time to time, I would see deer or rabbits feed on the grass. The birds also chirped and would fly gracefully above my head, searching for the nests. Now, the golf cart trail looked like a jungle. The grass was totally overgrown, the flowers were brown and dead, no sign of the animals or life even, for that matter. Some parts of the untamed grass along the path came up to my mid-thigh. It felt very scratchy, almost like thorns. The grass didn't have the luscious, green color anymore. It was dead brown. Once we reached the golf cart bridge that overlooked S. Merriford Fwy., the traffic was horrendous. I walked over to the overlook just to see the traffic jam. The left side, which was to go north, was okay.

However, the right side, which was to go south, was total chaos. There didn't seem to be anything wrong going south. I just think it was badly congested. I kind of felt bad for those people waiting to get home.

I heard Tori ask Robbie what were we all doing by the overlook. But still, he didn't say anything. I saw him dressing the dummy in casual clothes. I felt annoyed with him not telling us what he was planning on doing to do with the mannequin, so I asked him. No reply. After he was done dressing the thing, he sat it on the edge of the overlook, where the north traffic was coming. It almost looked as if a real person was sitting on the ledge. Suddenly, I felt that strange feeling in my stomach come back again. I was getting a bad feeling about his idea. I looked over at Rocky and Tori. They had the same look, too. I turned my head to look back at Robbie and he had the devilish grin spread on his face. He asked us if we were ready to see his new prank.