Parallel

1

"No, I'm not going."

"Why not? Wouldn't it be nice to see everyone again?"

I turned on my best friend and looked her dead in the eyes. "You know that I don't. I was happy when I got out." I turned back around and sat on her couch. "And I know that you were happy to leave too."

Jaeden shook her head and smiled. Sitting down next to me, she bumped her leg against mine playfully. "Don't you want to see your sister again?" I sighed deeply before answering. "Not really. I mean yes, we started to get along those last 4 years, but that last fight was it." I stood, unable to stay still. "We're not going back. If you really want to, great, but I'm not going." 

Jaeden stood, nodding. "Ok. But we are going out to night. Maybe pick up some guys. I don't know." She smiled at me. "I'm taking a shower and then we'll head out." She turned and headed to her room, closing the door behind her. I smiled at her door.

We had met in 5th grade but didn't REALLY become friends until high school. Specifically sophomore year. I mean yeah, we were acquaintances. We had friends that were friends but we never really talked. Freshmen year either. We became friends then but it wasn't until that end of the year that we found how amazing life would be with eachother. And now here we are, about 9 years later, still best friends. Not the longest time, but for me, quite long. I was never the best at staying friends with people. I always moved around from group to group. But when Jaeden and I started hanging out, that was it. 

So, the deal with, "come on let's go" "no, I don't want to go"? Two weeks ago, Jaeden ran into a girl we supposably went to high school with and told her about the 5 year reunion that was happening in a few months. Jaeden came home and called me immediately, saying we should go. Yet, she didn't say "Hey Mandy, this is really cool. We should go." but "Mandy come over right now. I need to tell you something". To which I said, "What? Jaeden, is everything alright? What is happening?" To which the response being, "I'll tell you when you get here." So, I grabbed my stuff and drove to her dorm, getting a ticket on the way. And now we are here, me sitting on the couch waiting for Jaeden to be done so we can go see a movie. 

I flipped through the channels on the tv, bored. I clicked on NCIS and sighed when a recurring episode came on. I grabbed my phone and scrolled for a while on various things. Tumblr, 84 notifications. I laughed to myself. The girlblog is still going strong. Instagram, 2 notifications. A few spam posts from people I knew, a Wes Anderson movie edit, the_real_iman. Pinterest, 18 notifications. A bunch of Mark Knopfler pictures, oil paintings, and couples at beaches. I sighed deeply as I opened Tiktok, wondering when they were planning on banning it. 1 notification. I smiled when the first video on my FYP was of Micheal Sheen and David Tennet. I clicked on following and scrolled through that for a while. Haleybaylee, a Padro Pascal edit, a military lady, a bellbottom boy then girl, and a lady teaching Manderin chinese. 

"You ready?" 

I jumped when I heared Jaeden's voice. "Yeah".  I stood and grabbed my bag following her out the door. We walked down 2 flights of stairs and climbed in her car. The drive to the movies were mostly silent, the radio increasing volume every now and then. We parked when there and walked side by side to the ticket station. We stood behind two very tall men who talked quietly to themselves. 

"What should we see?" I asked Jaeden quietly. She looked up at the board, scanning all of the movies. "Let's go see something sad." I nodded, trying to listen to the men's conversation. Their voices were barely loud enough for me to hear. 

"We shouldn't be here Dean. What if something happens?"

"Nothing is going to happen. Just calm down."

"Calm down?"

"Yeah."

The taller one scoffed.

"Look, we know that it only attacks once every other day, and it attacked yesterday. So we are alright. Ok?"

The taller shook his head. "I just don't think it is a good idea Dean. We could be out there hunting it."

"Just enjoy the off time Sammy."

They stepped up and bought their tickets, walking inside. I tried to wipe the confused look off my face as we walked up next. 

Jaeden bought our tickets and we headed inside. "Did you hear the guys infront of us?" I asked her quietly. She shook her head. "No, what were they saying." I scanned the room looking for them. "I'm not really sure. It something weird about hunting and something only attacking once every other night." 

"They are proably just hunting out in the woods. We get a lot of deer here."

I shook my head. "It's not hunting season. You can't. And the taller one seemed a little too paranoid to just be hunting deer."

"Bear problem then. I don't know. It's not our business anyway." She handed the tickets to a lady who pointed us down the hall to our theater. We walked into the dark room and found our seats. I leaned over and whispered to Jaeden. 

"Do you think it's something we should worry about?"

Jaeden sighed. "I don't know. If you can find them after, ask them." She looked at me. "I think you are getting a little too paraniod."

I nodded and turned back to the screen, thoughts flying throughout my head.