Jersey High | Grayson Dolan

Three.

My phone buzzing woke me up. I don't remember falling asleep that night. It was Saturday, so why was my phone going off? I picked it up and looked at it, Grayson was calling me.

"Hello?" I yawned

"Hey, sorry did I wake you?" He asked, he sounded kind of sad

"Yeah, but I'm fine. What's up?" I questioned

"I called because I can't find my brother, I've been looking for him everywhere. My mom is out of town and my dad isn't answering my calls. Cameron is at one of her friend's houses." He sounded so worried, and now he was worrying me too.

"Okay Grayson, I'll get there as fast as I can." I told him " Oh and I'm not going to get dressed." I said and silence rose upon us. "I'm going in my pajamas so that I can get there faster, okay?" He sighed in relief

"Okay. Just get here as soon as possible." He exhaled and I hung up. I grabbed my phone and my Adidas slides. I practically ran out the door after leaving a note on the fridge for my mom before I left. I quickly skate boarded over to Grayson's house. He was standing out front.

"Hey. Where do you think he could've gone?" I asked

"I don't know, the last I heard from him was before I went to bed. He said he was going down to get something from the store. He seemed suspicious, but I didn't think anything of it." He told me. I thought about the closest store around here. The sun still wasn't up yet. My eyes still tired from waking up so early on a Saturday morning. Grayson had an idea. He suggested we search the area on foot first, then go further with his car. When the sun rose, we would go into the forest. He said that Ethan usually asks him to go everywhere with him. He said that he always brought his phone and this time, he didn't.

After searching the neighborhood, Grayson and I started driving further in his car. We stopped at a few stores, no sign of Ethan anywhere, all I knew was that he looked like Gray. We went back to Grayson's house until the sun came up, then we went out to look for Ethan in the woods. Everything that went on was a blur, until Grayson yelled

"Jordan I found him." by the sound of his voice, what he found wasn't what he wanted to find. I ran over to Gray's voice as he kept calling my name. I finally reached him and looked over to a sloppy looking Ethan sitting on the ground under a tree. His backyard not that far away, still in eyesight. He had blood coming out of his arm, He had just been stabbed. The knife marks were harsh and all I could do was stand there in shock. The pain must've been excruciating.

He looked like he passed out from the pain. Grayson picked him up and carried him all the way back to the house. He immediately called his dad, as he had woken up just before we started to search the woods. He was talking as I sat down and stayed with Ethan, disinfecting his arm and wrapping it up in bandages. When I had finished I started to make soup, Grayson still on the phone with his dad, then his mom and finally his sister Cameron. I finished making Ethan some soup, as he started to wake up.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, handing him the bowl of soup.

"Yeah, thanks. umm, who are you exactly." Grayson turned around after he had finished his calls.

"She's my friend, nobody else answered the phone when I couldn't find you, so I called her." He answered

"I'm Jordan." I said

"Okay. Nice to meet you, Jordan. Why did you bring me soup?" I looked at him and then Grayson, confused

"B-Because of y-your arm." I stuttered

"Oh, right." He replied

"Where did you go last night E?" Grayson questioned

"I went to grab some chips, the truth is I was going to meet a girl and I wanted to bring her some stuff, I got jumped on the way there. I got thrown into the woods. Some guy with like blond hair stabbed my arm and I passed out." He was so calm about it. How could somebody be so calm about just getting stabbed?

"Did you recognize the hair?" I asked, thinking I could help out with finding out who it was.

"Yeah, actually. Gray knows him too." I raised an eyebrow and looked over at Grayson, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Who?" I asked, looking back over at Ethan.

"Jake? It could be he said something about, "I took his girl" but I didn't take Ariel from him, he doesn't even know her." He explained. I shook my head and placed it in my hands.

"He was talking about me." I spoke quietly, they looked at each other and then back at me.

I took a deep breath. "On the first day of school, he kissed me and I didn't want to be in a relationship with him, I started hanging out with Grayson the next day and I guess since you both look the same, he thought that you were Gray." They both listened so well. Grayson came to pat Ethan on the back.

"Sorry, man. I didn't know this would've happened." He apologized

"Grayson, you don't need to apologize, this was my issue from the beginning. I know that I shouldn't trust people that I'd just met." I reassured them. I picked up my phone, my head at my feet. I felt so bad that I caused all of this. Everything that happened was my fault.

I started putting on my slides on and heading out the door, with my board in hand when Ethan stopped me.

"This isn't your fault." his hand was on my shoulder, I looked back up at him. "If you didn't want to be with him, that's not his decision to make. It was my choice to go out last night , without anybody there, and without my phone. I couldn't call Grayson or anyone else." He kept talking but all I did was shake my head.

"If I didn't let him drag me up to the roof of the school this would've never happened. This would've never happened if I had just stayed in Wisconsin, now I'm bringing negativity and drama into both of your lives." My eyes filling with tears as I shook the words out of my mouth.

"That might be true, but he led you up there in the first place, HE kissed YOU!" Grayson exclaimed.

"It's not like he can have whatever he wants, if you're not fully into it as he is." Ethan added

"I let him get away with it though, I never want to hurt his feelings, let alone anybody else's feelings. I kept thinking I would hurt him and clearly I did. The day he kissed me, I didn't kiss back, he didn't get the message and kissed me again. He went around telling everyone that we were dating and even posted it on his YouTube channel, I've been getting comments about it all day." I was getting worked up and left.

Grayson tried to chase me out, Ethan slowly walking behind him, as he had lost a lot of energy from all the blood lost from his arm. Before he could get to me, I quickly skated off, listening to my music, almost bursting into tears. I know I can't bring any more pain into their lives. I think I'll stay away for a while.