Visions

Chapter 3

24; Lies, Lies, Lies 02/18

I got home after work. I live in an apartment with my girlfriend. We've been together for about three years. I put down my bag when I entered and took of my shoes. I hear laughter coming from the bedroom. I take of my jacket and while hanging it on the coat rack, I notice another coat. I walk to the living room where I see two glasses of wine and clothes lying on the floor. I follow the track of clothes to the bedroom. The door was slightly open and I push it open further. My girlfriend and my colleague were in bed together. Out of anger I grab my gun lying in one of the drawers of the closet. They hadn't noticed me yet and I took advantage of that. They did hear the 'click' of the safety on the gun and turned to me. The man ran to me before I could fire. He tried grabbing the gun. We ended up on the ground. He was still trying to grab the gun. My girlfriend was screaming for us to stop. The man grabbed my hand and tried to point the gun away from him. It was pointed to me when he pulled the trigger.

"I found it. Look!"

Nick and I have been searching for articles that resemble my stories online for about an hour.

I looked at the article and it was indeed the same story.

"You still believe they aren't connected?" He asked me.

"I don't know Nick. This is a lot to take in right now." We were sitting next to each other at one of the computers in the library. I was reading in my diary while he looked up the stories on the internet.

He put his hand on mine. "I know but I'm here to help you now." I looked at our hands.

"Why? You could be doing about a thousand other stuff right now. Why would you help me?"

"Because you need it."

"I needed it last year too, yet you weren't here for me then. What changed?"

He retreated his hand. "I misjudged you and I want to make things right."

"You don't need to do all this to make things right. A simple sorry would've been enough."

"Maybe I just want to help you." He looked me in the eyes and there was a comfortable silence between us.

"Really, Nick? Her? You break up with me for her!" Nick rapidly closed the articles on the computer and turned to Carly, standing behind us. "I would get it if she would've been pretty, but the freak? Really?" I looked at my lap, Nick noticed and took my hand again. This took me by surprise and I turned my head to him. He was looking at Carly.

"Well she is pretty. Now that I think about it, she's even prettier than you." He smirked while saying this. Carly's facial expression resembled one of those funny cartoon characters' with the steam coming out of their ears. Well, maybe not that bad.

"Have you even looked at her. She's a freak, Nick! You dumped me over a freak! This is unbelievable!"

"She's not a freak." He stood up, still holding my hand. "The reason you call her one is because she's prettier than you, smarter than you and definitely more likeable than you and you just didn't want her to take your precious place."

Carly stormed out of the library and Nick sat again. He let go of my hand and opened the articles again. There was a silence, not a comfortable one yet also not an awkward one.

"So, you broke up with her."

"I thought we discussed that a few days ago."

"I'm sorry. I just thought she broke up with you." He looked at me.

"Why would you think that?"

"I don't know. You were mad that day, I just thought it was because your girlfriend broke up with you."

"I was mad because she's a drama queen and I was sick of it."

"And you had just figured that out that day?"

He laughed. "I figured it out the day she called a girl who walked into me a nerd. And later it got confirmed when she held the same girl down with her heel on the girl's back in front of everyone. I started laughing. He looked at me with a confused expression. "Why is that so funny ,Cam?"

"It's funny because one day prior to all that, you took my best friend out of my room because he couldn't hang out with a freak like me."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's fine, you made it up to me by letting me see Carly's face when you told her I'm prettier than her. That was hilarious." We both started laughing.

After our fit of laughter it was quiet. "We should probably head back to our rooms now, it's getting pretty late." He stood up after shutting down the computer.

"Yeah, we should. I'll see you later?" I stood up and started walking to the exit. He caught up to me.

"I'll walk you to your room."

"I can manage, Nicholas. I'm a big girl."

"Why do you keep calling me that? Everyone calls me Nick."

"But Nicholas, you should know by now that I'm not like everyone else." He laughed. After him persisting on walking me to my room for a while, I caved in. We were walking to my room in silence.

"You wrote something else in your diary too."

"What do you mean?"

"You wrote something about my beautiful biceps." While he started laughing hysterically I started to blush massively. I was so embarrassed. He was done laughing and continued. "You also wrote how big of a jerk I am." I averted my gaze from the floor and looked at him, he was looking right back at me.

"Is that why you're doing this?"

"I told you already, I'm doing this to help you. Reading what you thought of me just made me realize you were right and I had to change."

We arrived at my room and he turned to me again. He gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow." He turned around and started to walk to his room.

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