Phantom Love

Phantom Love: Chapter 10

[Okay so I have a pet praying mantis and I'm trying to ween him off of mothes because winter is coming and catching food will be alot more difficult. I'm giving him crickets now, cause thats about the only thing I can get from the pet store to feed him, and tonight is the first night. The crickets are chirping now.. its annoying.... but Davi.. my mantis... wont just eat them already because for some crazy banana reason he doesnt want to leave the top of the container and all the food is at the bottom.... I'm trying to ignore them but hopefully this will somehow make me wrtie better... Random!]

[Nico's P.O.V.]

     When I woke up that bright Sunday morning, I was paralyzed. My body just couldn't move. All of the events that happened yesterday just flooded into me, drowning me, crushing me. To think, just some hours ago I was hunted down by Mike, beat for the last time by my father, saw him get arrested, and.... Shit.

     I rolled out of bed and straight to the floor. I groaned as I pushed myself up and looked outside. My eyes felt like a volcano on the sun just hawked a luggy on them... Eww... Oww! Anyway, I closed the curtains and made my way to the bathroom. I looked at my reflection in decided that I looked just as terrible as I felt. I was paler than usual and I looked half dead with the practically pitch black circles that were under my eyes.

     After slapping my face a couple times and giving it a good wash in the shower, I ended up looking somewhat presentable... almost. I got dressed and walked downstairs, only to be treated to the overturned furniture, broken glass in the corner of the kitchen, and a few blood stains here and there. Ignoring everything, I fixed myself some Raisin Bran Crunch and sat on top of the counter to eat.

     I decided I should go see if Chester was okay, but when I got to their apartment, Chester was one to open the door. He had a cloth wrapped around his head but he acted like he was fine. He told me that Mike was still cooling down and that I should come by again tomorrow.

     I now had nothing to do. I wasn't going to visit my father; he was the last... second to last thing I wanted to think about now. When I called Rose, she said she was busy, and there was still no sign of Roland.

     That left Taylor.

     Driving down his street I could see Heather storming away from his house to her car and taking off in the other direction. I pulled into his driveway and saw him standing at the door, looking off in direction Heather just departed in.

     "Hey."

     He looked at me and smiled. "Hey! Come on in!"

     I followed him into the house and we sat in his living room, which was still a little trashed from the party. For a while we just sat there, staring at the walls, the ceiling, each other. It was Taylor who broke the silence with his random laughter.

     "What?"

     "Nothing, man. It's just... We really got ourselves in some dirt." He wiped the tear from his eye.

     I chuckled, "Yeah, you're right. We really did screw ourselves up!"

     We both smiled until he got serious. "How did we end up like this?"

     "... I don't know... I thought it was just Heather coming between us, but... I think we just both changed. Things happened."

     "Yeah... Hey! You wanna go to the tree house?"

     "Will that thing even support our weights?"

     "Only one way to find out!~" He jumped up and ran farther into the house. I followed him and found him by the opened backdoor with no shirt on. He grinned before he started dancing toward the pool singing, "I'm not your daddy, I'm your grandpa!". He jumped into the pool and swam toward the other end, toward the tree house. He saw that I just walked around the pool to meet him at the other side and yelled out, "Lame!"