Chase You

44; camping I

It shouldn't be this difficult, should it? Why was I so afraid to meet up with my former best friend?

My hand started trembling, I could barely reach up to the doorbell, I felt absolutely pathetic. Honestly, why was I so afraid?

Ben snorted from behind me.

"Shut up." I hissed, turning to face him. All he could do was purse his lips together, and keep from laughing, but he was snorting out of his nose and he couldn't hold back his cheeks from widening, even with his mouth closed.

"What if he hates me?"

"Flynn, I'm sure he's received many bruises in his life before, and if I recall right, he's given you a giant one on your face in school." 

"I didn't know he'd hit his chin so hard on the chair!"

"Oh really? You didn't? What did you expect?"
He raised his brows and crossed his arms. I frowned at his cockiness, and with this new surge of anger, I slammed my finger on the doorbell.

Moments later, it was Zach's mother who answered. She remained blissfully unaware of everything that happened in school, and just knew that Zach and I fell out, but her face glowed once she saw me.

"Oh, Flynn!" She smiled, "I haven't seen you since Christmas!"

I grinned, "it's been a while."

"I'm glad you're here, everyone's sat in the kitchen." She stepped aside to let us in, Ben offered her a friendly smile.

If only she knew.

I followed her through. Zach's house looked rather different to mine. The living room was the first thing that you walked into, then there's a small hallway and the staircase was large, made of mahogany and stone. After the fourth step, there was a small platform, then the rest of the stairs up to the top went the opposite direction from the first four. Past the staircase, opened up to a large kitchen with solid oak built-ins. All beige. There was a small loveseat in the corner.

As we walked through, I saw everyone sat around the dining table. Dad had already arrived in the morning to help everyone get their camping gear ready, so he was now enjoying a cup of tea. Zach's father tried his best to entertain everyone, clad in his best camping gear, he kept everyone amused with old camping stories. They were always the same, but he explained it with so much zest every single time. 

The room fell silent once everyone spotted us. Faces I hadn't seen in years looked at me in confusion. Not only was Zach, Liam and their father around, so was his uncle and a couple of his cousins, they almost seemed unrecognisable since I last saw them because they had now reached puberty and were almost six feet tall. Zach has a family of giants.

"Well shit, he's finally grown a beard." Zach's uncle said. Livening up the atmosphere. Everyone laughed. Amongst all the chatter, I heard someone else ask whether it was real or not.

Zach stood up, and looked at me like some sort of blood thirsty animal. His eyes, one of which was bruised thanks for me, drilled holes into my face. His smile, completely fake and slapped on as if he was the joker, frightened me to the core. I tried my best to hold back my snicker as I remembered how he got the large bruise which tinged his skin with blue and purple pigments. It was truly a spectacle.

"Flynn."

"H-hmm?" I swallowed.

"I'm going to kill you. Come here!" He gripped my shoulders with merciless strength, he lifted his knee up, gripped my hair with one hand and all I could do was close my eyes and hope it passed quickly.