Second Shot

The Finale

"Goodnight bro." Nina smiled as she caught Ryder walking into his bedroom since hers was next to his.

"Night baby sis." He smiled back, moving his hand from the door knob and turning to face her. "Did you have fun today?" He asked, anxiously waiting for her answer.

"Why do you keep asking me that?" Nina leaned her hip against the frame of her door. "I mean it's common to ask if a person you're hanging out with is having fun, but not after everything you do with them."

"Fine, next time I want to have a brother sister skip day, I won't bring you." He smirked, leaning against his closed door with one foot.

"Wouldn't be much of a brother sister skip day without your sister." She shot back. She had no idea how true she was.

"I'd manage." He laughed, but he knew he wouldn't.

"But to answer your question, yeah I had fun today." She smile softly. "More than I've had in awhile."

""I'm glad." He used his foot to kick himself off the door using his foot that was propping him up and leaned in for a hug. "Good night Nina, I love you."

He had to refrain from tearing up, he knew if he did she would suspect something was wrong and that could jeopardize everything. He also couldn't feel the pit growing in the bottom of his stomach because of the possibility that this could be the last time he'll ever see her alive. But he had to go back, it wasn't possible to stay.

"I love you too." She hugged him back. "Get some sleep, you're sleep deprivation is getting to you." She smiled, laughing under her breath.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He almost said it as if it were a question. She smiled and quietly walked into her room, closing the door behind her.

Ryder quickly went to his room, not even bother to change out of his clothes and hopped into bed. He pulled the covers up to shoulders and moved so he was laying on his side. He waited for sleep to overcome his tired mind. But the anxiety that came with what he would wake up to kept him from falling into the sweet bliss that was sleep. After tossing and turning for what seemed like years, he finally feel asleep. And for the first time in five years, Ryder got a full night's sleep.

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"Ryder!" A voice shouted, shaking an unconscious Ryder out of his sleep. "Ah shit man, look at this!" The voice sounded muffled, like Ryder was wearing earmuffs.

"What is that?" Another voice came into the room. Ryder heard him sniff something, he was too tired to open his eyes to see who was in his house, and whatever it was they were sniffing. "You don't think he fell off the wagon again, do you?" The second guy asked, dropping whatever it was he was holding on the floor, which shattered on impact.

"I wouldn't doubt, he's been going through a rough patch ever since what happened to Nina." The guy that woke him up said. "Help me sit him up." They both moved and helped Ryder sit up, that's when his eye finally opened.

"Where is she?" Ryder's voice sounded like he had been drinking acid. The two guys, he soon realized to be Jett and Bennett, looked at him in confusion.

"Where's who?" Jett asked, sitting next to Ryder on his left while Bennett sat to his right.

"Nina." Ryder felt like he was going to throw up.

"What do you mean?" Bennett asked, his face contorted in a look of pure confusion. "She's gone." Ryder jumped up from the couch and barely made it to his kitchen sink and threw up into it. The remains of the almost neon blue liquid the man from the night before gave him, evident ever so slightly in his puke.

"Dude, what the hell did you drink last night?" Jett asked once he came up behind Ryder and looked in the sink. "I thought we talked about this..." He sighed, carefully patting Ryder's back as he threw up more into the sink.

"I didn't drink anything last night." Ryder wiped his mouth with the back of hand. "I'm completely sober." He cleared his throat as he ran the water and garbage disposal to break up the vomit in the sink. He cupped water from the faucet and drank some before splashing some onto his face.

"You sure look it." Bennett rolled his eyes. "You heard what the doctor said, you can't drink a drop or else your liver can give up on you."

"I haven't had a drop!" Ryder snapped, jerking himself up, almost falling back, but the guys grabbed him. "I gotta... I gotta go to my parents house..." He struggled to get out.

"Man, you can't go out like this." Bennett looked Ryder up and down. "You'll give your poor mother a heart attack." He continued, Ryder waved him off.

"I'm fine." He blinked a few times to get the grogginess out of his head.

"No you're not." Jett looked Ryder in the eyes.

"Have I ever told you how nice your eyes are?" Ryder smiled goofily at Jett.

"Ugh, you guys are so gay." Bennett joked, laughing as he nudged their shoulders.

"No no no, not gay, Bisexual." Jett corrected with the same joking tone. "And you're not getting out of this that easily. At least take a shower, you smell." Jett pushed Ryder toward the bathroom.

A quick shower and a change of clothes later, Ryder was on his way to his parent's house, hoping that Nina would be there. She'd have to be 23 and in college by now, so there could be a chance that she'd be alive but not home. He pulled into the driveway , his heart felt like it was beating in his throat. He got out of the car and waited for his heartbeat to slow before he could go inside. Once he walked inside, he was greeted by a familiar scene. His mother in the kitchen, baking something, and his father asleep on the couch with a book opened upside down on his chest.

"Ryder, what a pleasant surprise!" His mother said when she finally saw him. "What brings you over to this neck of the woods?" His mother smiled.

"I was, uh, in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by and see what you guys were up to." He thought quickly. "I was on my way home from lunch with the guys."

"Well that was nice of you." She smiled again. "Just in time too, I just finished making cookies. Want one?"

"Duh." Ryder laughed and followed her back to the kitchen. "Um, lemme go wash my hands first." He pointed a thumb in the direction of the bathroom down the hall.

"Alright, but be quick. The cookies are always the best when they're just out of the oven." She put oven mitts on and took a tray out of the oven as she spoke.

Ryder nodded and headed for the bathroom, he then remembered that the bathroom was right next to his old room, which meant Nina's was there too. Instead of turning left around the corner to go into the bathroom, he turned right toward his old room, and where he hoped Nina was. He waited outside, hovering his knuckle over the door. Having second thought and doubt about is the second shot he was given, had failed.

He knocked.

He opened the door after there wasn't a response.

His heart nearly jumped through his chest.

"Why are you looking at me like that, Nerd?"

The End.