Chester Bennington - Unusual Neighbor

Ups and downs, but always end up together

I felt nothing when I woke up the next morning. The ringing tone of my phone woke me up, and I prayed that it wasn't Chester so early in the morning, otherwise, I'd be even more pissed off.

Rene was on the ID.

I glanced at the clock. 7:21 A.M.

I let out a groan and yawned.

"Hello?" I grumbled, massaging my eyelids.

"Ana? I'm sorry to wake you up, honey."

"Did Chester asked you to call me?" I went straight to the point. There was no need to circle around the reason for her phone call.

"Yes. He called me yesterday, it was almost midnight. He was in the middle of the street, crying so much..." I felt a tear running down my cheek.

"Is he safe at home?" I asked, my heart tightening at the thought of Chester roaming through the streets like that.

"Yes," I heard her smiling through the phone. Even though he hurt me, I couldn't help but worry about him. "I told him to go straight home, that I'd talk to you for a while to make sure you were alright. Are you? Alright?"

"I don't know..." I breathed out, exhaling the air I had trapped inside of my lungs.

"I'm so sorry, Ana... I love my brother with all my heart, but he can be so hard... It's frustrating, really."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"You know he didn't mean any of what he said, right?"

"I know. Which is worse for me, Rene. He said it to hurt me. If he really thought that way, at least he would be telling me the truth. But he lied, he lied to hurt me. And he did it."

"Chester uses that as a defense mechanism. If he hurts you first, you can't hurt him with the same intensity."

"I understand. I know him better than he intends."

Someone rang my bell suddenly. My first thought was Chester, obviously.

"Did he told you he was coming here this morning?"

"I told him not to. Why?"

"Someone rang the bell."

I heard Rene groaning on the other side of the line.

"I'm sorry - I told him to give you some space. Please, don't push my brother away, he needs you. He is so much better now that he has you. You have no idea..." She hesitated, sighing deeply again. "I wish he told you what happened so that I can talk to you openly... Please, I beg you. I'll beat his ass if he hurt you again, but please, don't leave him."

"Hey," I said with a weak smile on my face as I walked to the door. "I'm not thinking about breaking up with him. But he needs to learn that he can't treat me like that and expect me to be ok with it because he has problems."

"I know... And I'm all in favor of punishing him and teaching him a lesson. But he was really messed up last night. I bet he didn't sleep one bit. I think he had his lesson learned when he saw you running away..."

"He told you that?"

"Between sobs -- yeah. It broke him."

I stood at the door and peeked through the peephole. It was him, just as I presumed. Before opening the door, I told Rene that I'd call her back later. Then, I narrowed my eyes when I looked at him with a wounded expression.

"May I come in?" He said with a shaky voice that made my heart tight. I shrugged and turned my back on him, leaving the door open.

I turned on the coffee machine with my back turned to him the whole time. I did everything I could not to look at the man that my heart ached too much for.