The Storms Of August

Chapter Eleven: You Don't Need Nobody Else

It was headed towards eleven o'clock when she stopped by. She hadn't come knocking on my window or stumbling goofily on my roof since she knew about my afternoon with Joe nearly two weeks before, of which was nearly immediately and I'm willing to bet Joe rubbed it in her face the second I got out of his car. Ever since then she changed. She and Joe stopped speaking entirely three days later, after I saw them arguing in the hallway when I left class to use the restroom. I tried to catch what they were talking about, but all I heard was a furious Joe yell "Don't blame your blind eye on me, Demi. You couldn't see what's there and that's on you" as she stormed down the hall with cemeteries in her eyes and funerals in her footsteps. Every day at lunch she would leave soon after Joe sat beside me if she even showed up. She only spoke to me in history and between classes when Joe wasn't around, which was not often due to our closeness becoming more along the lines of relationship standards. Even then, she was tense. It was she wanted to talk, but would turn to stone if she looked me in the eye. The Demi I had gotten to know over late night snacks of gentle speech covered in honey had slipped into a shadow of herself. No one else mentioned it besides calling her irrational and out of her mind, but I was worried. I'd only seen her on her usual midnight cruise on a low riding board once, and she wasn't even moving. Instead, she stood with her board in hand under a streetlight as she stared at my house. In particular, she seemed to be looking at me and what I was struggling to understand as I kept my eyes on her through my window. The strangest part about it was she stayed there for nearly fifteen minutes and then simply hoped on her board and rolled away.

Night had settled but it was still early for her, so early in fact that I could smell the distant memory of what she used to when she stood where she did. Clouds loomed overhead with the infant of winter air kicking the leaves of the maple to the ground while Demi shifted foot to foot on the shillings of the roof. Just like the space around her, she dressed entirely in black and bared nothing in her fists but a handful of rage. With the pool of light that got passed my torso, which hung halfway outside, I could see the expression on her face. Smoldering embers burned in her hickory brown eyes while a clench jaw kept her from completely losing it in the darkness. She looked so black, so enclosed in her emotions I thought she would continue to stare at me until she set my house on fire by spontaneously bursting into flames. However, after she was sure nothing but smoke would hold hands with her words Demi said, "Come with me".

"Where," I asked.

"I'll explain on the way there," she said shortly. Like always, I followed. I grabbed the closest sweatshirt to me and hopped out my window, tossing it over my shoulders before following her quick footsteps on the limbs of the tree with ninety percent less grace. I tip toed across my lawn and into the fast car that sat running with the headlights off. The two of us quietly rolled along the empty street until we cleared my house, when she turned on the headlights and began driving at a normal speed. The clever bowl of her jaw that used to carry words so sweet was now jagged with sharp razors of thought and speech. Her tongue was roughed up from when she had to bite down the razor blades and swallow them like pills covered in Tabasco sauce. Her eyes were cold as she glared at the street ahead, one hand lazily keeping control of the sports car like she didn't give a damn whether we spun out or not. I wasn't a fan, but the effects of fear withdraw with practice and sitting with Joe in his car provided a shield that limited my anxieties to a numb itch in the back of my mind. "We're going to the grocery store".

"For what?" I asked quietly.

"Supplies".

"For what?" I repeated.

"Revenge".

Clearly not in a talkative mood, I gave up on getting answers from her and texted Joe instead. " Do you know what's going on?"