Lessons learned

Chapter 27

Abby taps her fingers against the wheel of my car in beat with the music filling the small compact space. I sighed and shuffled down in my chair and looked out of the window watching all of the many lap posts lighting up the motorway. I leaned my head up on the glass and gently let my eyes flutter close, today has been an extremely long day and I'd rather not remember any of it.

'Hey now, do you go falling asleep it's only eight o'clock, the night's just began.' Abby playfully scolds me before pushing my shoulder lightly. I lift my head from the window and look back at her, she's looking straight ahead and a small smile is placed on her face.

'What are you so happy about?' I groan.

'Just excited.' She shrugs and turns the radio up, a smooth soft song plays and she cringes, changing the song quickly. This time a loud rock song plays out and her smile returns.

'Where are we going Abbs?' I asked defeated.

'Nowhere important.' She briefly looks at me before returning her eyes to the road.

'Well how long will it be until we get there?' I ask, needing details.

'About two hours, an hour and half if this dickhead in front knew how to actually drive.'

'I'm really not in the mood to go traveling.' I confess and she laughs slightly.

'Well I'm not going to let you sit in your dorm feeling sorry for yourself now am I?'

'I wish you would.' She rolled her eyes and I bit down on my bottom lip.

'Shut up, we're here to have fun.'

I rolled my eyes and sat up in my seat.

'I spy with my little eye...' She begins, looking around the car.

'Abby no...' I protest.

'Something beginning with...D.'

'I don't want to play.' I yawn and look away from her.

'Go on just guess.'

'No.'

'It's not that hard, come on.' She nudges me and I sigh before complying.

'Dashboard?' She shakes her head.

'Inside or out?' I ask and she giggles. 'Not telling.' She can legit be such a child when she wants to be.

'Erm...driving wheel?' I guess uncertainly.

'What the fuck? No one calls it a driving wheel.' She laughs and I actually find myself smiling, but not for long of course.

'Fine, diver's seat?'

'Nope.' She smiled still looking straight ahead. 'Then I give up, tell me.' She nodded.

'D for the dickhead driver in front.' I let a small giggle escape from my lips but quickly tried to recover before Abby noticed.

'Ha, I made you laugh.' She said successfully.

'Damn it.'

'See don't you feel better already?' She teases, I send her a harsh glance before replying. 'No because all I can think about is what they're doing.'

She nods and pulls out her phone, she briefly takes her eyes off of the road allowing her to press a number on her key pad, letting the phone ring.

'What are you doing?' I ask grabbing the phone from her hand, she instructs me to put it on loudspeaker, I do so.

'You want to know what they're doing right? So I'm ringing them.' She simply explained listening to the constant bleeping of the ringing phone.

'Er, hello?' Peter answers and I look panicky at Abby.

'Hey Peter it's Abby, what you doing?' It will always surprise me how blunt she can be. 'Hi Abbs, I'm just hanging out with James and Logan in the dorm, what's up?'

Abby looks at me with a smug smile playing on her lips, I roll my eyes and place my head back on the window.

'Nothing much, I was just wondering.'

'Oh okay, where are you? I went by your dorm earlier and I couldn't find you.'

'I'm out and about.' She tells him focusing on the road. I want to scream as he continues to talk, his voice tries to sooth my growing ache but I won't allow it.

'Well, have you seen Nic?' I sit up straight at the mention of my name, I look over at Abby and her mouth is agape.

'Why?'

'I can't find her anywhere.'

I want to speak up but I need to know what else he's going to say.

'Why are you trying to find her, is she alright?' Abby asks in fake concern.

'I don't know if she's okay that's why I'm trying to find her. I've done something really stupid and I've hurt her and now I'm worried because I have no fucking clue where she is. After she ran away from me I went by her dorm to find her but I couldn't. I asked Indiana and Calli but they won't even talk to me.' His voice was full of worry and it seemed like he was on the verge of tears.

Abby looked at me silently asking me if she could tell him where I was. I gently shook my head and looked straight ahead, if I'm going to suffer than so will he.

'I'm sorry Peter I haven't seen her.' She sighed, and I breathed out controlling the tears that slipped away into my lap.

'Then where the hell is she Abby?' His voice became frantic and I heard a crash in the background. 'This is all my fault.' He whispered to himself.

'I don't know Peter, but maybe you should just stop trying to find her, if she wanted to be found she would call or text someone.'

'Fine, but if you see or hear from her call me okay?'

'Sure.' Then she ended the call so I didn't have to listen to anymore, she quickly turned to me her mouth open in shock.

'He's right.' I nodded as my voice cracked.

'Huh?'

'It is all his fault.'

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Lesson learned; it's okay to cry, it's okay to feel sad and depressed and sometimes it's important to realise that there is nothing that you could do. Sometimes, just sometimes not everything is your fault.