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8

After sending Nate my message, I switched my phone off. This was something that I had to do on my own. I had to move on. I know that Nathan would try to stop me, and I didn't want that. 

On the dresser, Jade's phone began to ring. She was still in her closet looking for a necklace and she hollered to me to answer her phone. 

There was no caller ID, and it just came up as an unknown number. 

"Hello?" I answered with a bored tone. 

"...is this Jade?" the voice on the other end asked. He was a guy with a deep voice, but I couldn't recognize the person. 

"Jade!" I hollered to her. "There's a boy on the phone for you!" 

I gave it to her and plopped down on her bed. I had nothing to do, so I just eavesdropped the phone call. 

"How did you get my number?" she asked. 

Her face was white, and she paced the room while biting her fingernails. 

"I blocked your number! Why would you try calling me from a payphone? I never want to see you again!" 

I frowned as I listened to her panic. 

"Stop calling me, Kyle. I meant it." 

With that, she hung up the phone and huffed as she turned to me. 

"I'm sorry," she explained. "That was my crazy ex." 

I gave her a look of understanding and she handed me a beautiful silver necklace with a small bird on it. It was simple, but stunning. 

"This was actually from my ex. I never want to see it again, so you should keep it. It matches your style anyway." 

Once again, blunt Jade stuck again. I wasn't going to argue with her, because it was extraordinary. But it was strange to have a necklace from Jade's ex. 

"You ready?" she pondered.

"Let's get this over with." I muttered, which received a distasteful look from Jade. 

***

As we were driving to the party, Jade reminded me of something. 

"How is your brother going to get to the party? Don't you both share this car?" 

I waved it off. "He's already met a ton of friends. I'm sure one of them will give him a ride. I know he's gonna be there." 

After that last text I sent him, he's definitely going to be there, and he's going to be looking for me. I wanted to avoid him at all costs tonight. He's pretty pissed at me for sure. 

I pulled up to Tyler's place, and it was a freaking mansion! There had to be at least fifteen bedrooms in this house. I could hear people jumping into a pool in the backyard, and the music was blasting. Luckily Tyler wouldn't have to worry about a noise complaint from the neighbors because he practically lived on an estate. The driveway alone was a mile long with trees and grass the whole way. 

 I took a deep breath as I stepped out of the car. I had to get through tonight if I ever wanted to move on. There was a lot of pressure placed on this one party. Jade and I entered the house, and as I looked around the room, I began to feel dizzy. There were sweaty teenagers everywhere. Couples were grinding to the music, jocks were playing beer pong, and I swear I saw a pig running through the house. 

The smell of alcohol filled my nose, and it burned. I had to keep the memories out of my mind if I wanted to get through this. Jade looked at me in concern, and she grabbed my arm. 

"It's okay Nina, I'm right here." she soothed. 

I felt someone tap my shoulder, and I spun around to come face to face with Nathan. Shit. 

He crossed his arms and looked to me and to Jade, and back to me again. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. Now I just had to wait for him to start yelling at me. And it came. 

"What the actual fuck, Nina? Do you have any idea what you just put me through? I've been worried all night! Why are you here? You shouldn't be here!" 

Jade looked on at the two of us, and slowly backed away to excuse herself from being stuck in the middle of an intense argument. 

I cowered away from Nathan, but he came forward to me. 

"I need to take you home." He growled. 

Yesterday, I would have agreed. Yesterday, I would have gone home. But not now. It was time I did something about myself. 

"No, Nathan." I began. "I'm not going to go home with you. I need to move on. I'm not going to wallow all year and be scared to go out into the world. I meant everything I said to you in that text. It's time for me to get out of this damn hole I've been stuck in for so long." 

I didn't wait for him to respond. I spun on my heel and went to go find Jade. I was hoping he wouldn't follow me, but someone grabbed my elbow and harshly pulled me back. 

"Do you want it to happen again, Nina?" he hissed into my ear. 

As tears welled up in my eyes, I looked up to Nathan and slapped him across the face. How dare he. He was stunned by what just happened, and I ran upstairs and into the nearest bathroom and heaved into the toilet. It happened again. I pressed against my temples and tried to calm the dulling pain in my head. I lurched forward and backward into the wall. I clutched the shower curtain to keep myself from falling over, but the rings broke apart and the curtain ripped causing me to lose my balance all together. I clamored onto the floor, and pressed my hands against the cold tile. Why was this happening to me? 

Memories came washing into my head, and I couldn't control myself from crying and vomiting. Why the fuck did I think I could do this tonight? I'll never recover enough to be able to be a normal teenager. I screamed out to the floor, just wished that it would fall through and take me with it. My vision was blurry as I kept screaming. 

The door to the bathroom jiggled, and I tried to calm myself. I couldn't pull myself to say anything or to unlock the door, so I just laid motionless. 

The banging on the door became louder and harder, until the wood broke and a body squeezed in. I couldn't look up at the person. It was probably a horrendous sight to see. 

"Nina?!" the voice called out. "Is that you?!" 

The boy bent down to wipe my face from all the tears and I realized I was staring into a familiar pair of concerned green eyes.