SHOOT

CHAPTER 3

I woke up to Piel's worried face. I could still feel my body shaking from the effects of a nightmare. I put my hands on her shoulders to steady myself due to the terror I felt. Pure terror.
My breath came out in short pants as I gasped, greedily taking in the much needed air. Breathe in and out, in and out , I chided myself.I stared at the bed willing the dinner I just had that evening to stay in my stomach while still struggling to keep to the breathing routine.

"Smoke..." She called when the worst of it seemed to have passed. I lifted my eyes from the bed and looked at her lips.

"Look at me in the eyes smoke" I couldn't look into her eyes,I knew what I would find there, sorrow, concern,worst of all,pity.
I couldn't stand the pity.

"What's going on?" She asked.
"Noth..." I was cut short before I was able to mumble the word successfully.
"Don't smoke!...just...don't okay?"
"Don't what?" I whispered.
"Don't say nothing!,you've been having nightmares for the past month non-stop"

I kept quiet mostly because I didn't know what to say. She gently held my hands that were still on her shoulder for support. I retrieved my hands immediately as if burnt and she looked down at her own hands before looking back at me with an expression I couldn't quite read.

"Is there something I should know Smoke? I mean,I'm your best friend and you know everything about me" I gave her a look.

"Well almost everything! What? Don't look at me like that,you are at the end of the short stick right now!"

I gave her a droll stare."short stick? Really ?" I got up from the bed and made to leave but a hand on my wrist stopped me.
Piel stood up too.

"Smoke are you okay?" She asked softly.
"I'm fine" She shook her head at me .
"Look at me in the eyes and tell me that you are fine" I stared her dead in the eye.
"I'm fine"

* * * * * * * * * *

Piel was ignoring me. I know I probably upset her by not opening up to her but she is overreacting. She's acting like I don't even exist. At a point I expected her hand to actually pass through me. I sat at the table in the kitchen with my laptop placed on the table top. Piel walked in and took a glass of water and was about to leave again until I called out.

"Piel" She stopped but didn't look back.
"Piel what's going on?" She snorted and I narrowed my eyes .
"Did you just ask me that question?"
"Well yeah"

"Oh really!" The smirk was gone.
"I know I probably pissed you off by shutting you out a bit" She snorted again but I ignored it.

"But that can't be the reason why you are acting like this, there must be something else, right?" If it was anybody else I wouldn't give a damn about the fact that they are ignoring me except If I'm really at a disadvantage. But this was Piel, we're meant to be friends and true friends don't stay angry at each other for too long. Right?

"Wrong ,there is nothing else ,why can't you just open up to me ,smoke? until you do so, things will remain like this".
"Are you putting a condition on our friendship" I asked incredulously,this girl was unbelievable. In response,she stuck her nose high up in the air.
I had had enough.

"Thats pretty childish, don't you think?" She brought her head down pretty quickly.

"Excuse me!"
"You're excused"
"Did you just call me childish?"

"Aww shucks,now your hearing is gone too" I pouted with an air of fake sorrow.

"Childish"she muttered and pinched her nose. "childish" she said again "That's what I get for trying to help a best friend who is an ingrate" I didn't give her the benefit of an answer.

"Smoke! You had a nightmare, a nightmare!"
" I could have remembered it perfectly fine on my own but thanks for the reminder though" I said drily.

"I get that you are entitled to your own secrets and all but I want to help you." She said
"You only help people that have a problem" I replied
"Well okay then,if you want me to spell it out for you,I will. You have a problem Smoke,a problem!" I narrowed my eyes at her.

"I don't have a problem"
"There goes the denial"
"I think I would know if I had a problem,thank you very much" So now she was a therapist too. Nice.

"Denying it won't make the problem go away, you have got to grow up and face your fears. stop being such a baby". I got up.

"Grow up and face my fears huh?" I stood up and circled her, stopping when I was standing right next to her, then I whispered in her ears ."You know, that's pretty rich coming from you." She wheeled around to face me.

"What do you mean by that" Her face was devoid of any emotion but her voice shook a bit at the ending.

"You have a lot of problems Piel, your boyfriend is cheating on you and we both know it no matter how much you try to deny it. Your parents are there,on the other side of the World wondering where their daughter is ." Her lower lip wobbled and I continued.

" So don't feed me that crap about growing up and facing my problems. If anyone here should be growing up,it's you". She gasped loudly.

"Smoke!" She said,tears filling her eyes." How could you?" Great! Now she's making me feel guilty.

"What? Oh,so you get to say a lot of shit and it's okay but when I talk it's not. Huh?" Judging by her face I don't even think she heard me.

Suddenly she straightened up and left.

"Piel" I called out. She stopped but did not turn to look at me.

"You left your glass of water" She clenched her fist and turned to face me.

"You're a heartless, selfish and stone cold bitch"
" Oh I know darling, it's a pleasure to be what you never could" I said with a bow. She clenched her hands so tight that her knuckles turned white. I chuckled and she turned to leave.
Immediately she was gone, my face dropped. She was right, I was a heartless, selfish and stone cold bitch.
What have I done?

Don't worry,
I'm still very much alive and healthy ,and back from the dead.🧟🧟
So basically,this chapter is just a filler, the girls needed to have an argument to set the story in motion and form a solid basis and kinda just make it a little bit more interesting.
If you think that the argument didn't make sense 🤷 just drop your comment and I'll be sure to look at it.
So see you later
(You know how they say it's not a good bye but it's a see you later 😜)
Kaddie