Words Unspoken

Chapter 20 - Pills

Will's POV

Ping! I shot upright and knocked the phone that was in my hand onto the floor and flipped off the couch in a suckish attempt at trying to catch the phone before it hit the floor.

"Fuck," I mumbled as I groaned and my fingers closed over the phone and rolled over, putting the bright light that was emitting from the phone in front of my face. I laid blindly on the floor, staring at the phone and willed the words on the phone to come into focus. It wasn't that it was dark or anything, sleep was just still in my eyes.

When my eyes finally adjusted, I jammed in my password and stared at the 1 new text message from Avery.

Avery: It's Kaylee's bday in two days. Bring a gift and try not to be an asshole.

I heard myself grunt and reread the message. But before I could even think and reply to Avery's message, I heard footsteps bounding down the stairs and Natalie's face peering at me over the top of the railing.

"Will? I thought I heard something crash-" Her footsteps stopped as she stopped right before me. "Will?" I thumbed back a response quickly, saying something like 'okay' or something before I looked back up at Natalie. No way was I losing the bet to Avery that quickly. The deal was that whoever took more than a minute to respond to a question on text had to do whatever the other person asked.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing on the floor?"

"Nothing."

She reached down a hand and I grabbed onto it, and she hauled me up, still giving me a weird look.

"Who was that?" she raised her eyebrows at me as I shoved my phone back into my pocket, trying to act casual while I was racking my brain about what type of gift I would get for Kaylee.

I shrugged. "A friend."

She gave me another weird look as I sat back down on the couch and closed my eyes. I could feel her blue eyes still staring at me as I tried to think. My eyes shot back open from the uncomfortable feeling it left me and I waited for her to say something. But when she didn't, I said, "What?"

"You don't remember?" she asked. Natalie blinked and looked away and I felt my heart hurt for a second.

"Don't remember what?" I asked slowly, looking up at her.

"It's our anniversary." she whispered so quietly that I almost didn't hear her. I stared back at her with the same blank look I had a minute ago. Anniversary? Since when?

"Anniversary?" I almost asked For what? but caught myself at last minute. She was already upset enough.

"Yeah," she tried to smile at me, but we could both tell she was trying too hard. "We met at that one club with the bubbly drinks that you almost choked on." She stole a glance at me then went back to examining her hands.

My hands felt clammy when I tried to rub them on my jeans. She wasn't playing me like this again. The last time I fell for it, I almost died. And she almost got away with it. She looked up at me again but this time I avoided her gaze and sat down on top of my hands, willing them to stop shaking so badly. Stay seated. I heard myself thinking. She doesn't own you. I tried to stop, I really did, but before I could stop myself, my body wasn't my own anymore and I wasn't walking towards Natalie with my hands outstretched.

They wrapped around her like a blanket and she settled into them and a second later, I heard her sniffle. I tried to tune them out, but like a puppet on strings, I pulled back and put my hand under her chin, forcing her to look up at me. "Hey, look at me." she looked up slowly, her eyes looking all glassy. I ignored it and went on, "I'll make it up to you. We can do whatever you want tonight." I didn't mean a word I said, but she seemed to believe me, so I faked a quick smile at her and loosened my arms which immediately fell back to my sides.