//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Of Wubs and Words // by Cavemonkynick //------------------------------// A few days later, I found myself on the roof of our building. I'd wandered up to clear my head but my plans had changed. I checked my phone for the time, twelve minutes past midnight. I should be getting the call soon. I sighed into the gentle breeze that washed over my face. It was cool and refreshing, and it rustled my curly shoulder length hair. My phone vibrated in my hand. I answered. "Hello Bailey." "So are we actually talking this time?" She replied bitterly. "I shouldn't have lost my cool like that," I said, surprised at my own level headedness, "but can you really blame me?" "What do you want Nick?" "Closure," She was silent for a time, so I continued. "I'll never come to terms with what you've done to me. I gave you everything I had to give, made my every decision so that we could have a future, so that you could have a home, and despite all that I'm not good enough." "Nick-" "No," I cut her off. "Let me finish. You tore my heart out Bailey. You crumpled it up and left it somewhere I can't get it back. I've thought really hard about this. Right now I'm standing on the edge of my apartment building, about six stories off the ground. In just a minute I'm going to jump." "What!?" She actually sounded concerned. I was surprised, but I'd made up my mind. I would not have her back out of pity. "I have nothing left Bailey. As I said, all of my plans were for us. I have no future left, and it's your fault. So you are going to listen to me do it." "Why should I? I could just hang up." "You could, but you won't. I know you. You don't think I'll do it. You think this is a desperate attempt to get you back, so you'll listen. You will hear me fall and when I hit the ground you'll know that you did this to me and you'll never hurt another person the way you hurt me." "Nick, this is stupid." "Maybe," I smiled, "but we did dumber things for worse reasons. Goodbye Bailey. Know that I loved you to the very end." And with that I took my last step. Bailey was screaming but her words were drowned out by the wind. The fall was strangely comforting. True my chest was pounding but my mind was free. There was nothing left but to close my eyes and wait for the pain to end. I awoke to the sound of my own screaming. I was covered in cold sweat and curled into a ball in the middle of my bed. "This has to stop," A voice said from the door. "Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you do," I told Vinyl, trying to force the shaking out of my voice. I threw the covers off of me and started towards the kitchen. "Every fucking night it's the same damn thing." "And earlier too," Vinyl added. "You didn't even make it to one tonight." "Great," I mumbled. I plugged the kitchen sink and started filling it with cold water. A coke levitated to my side. "Thanks," I said, grabbing it and popping the top. I sipped at it while I waited for the sink to fill. It had been just over two weeks since the news and the phone call. Vinyl and I had started classes and developed a bit of a routine. The nightmares had started the night after the phone call. In the beginning they were outlandish. Me going to Japan and killing her then myself, or going and killing the other guy, things I didn’t have the means or nerve to do. But now they were getting quite believable and very lucid. I was starting to unravel. My classes were going well at least. They were a welcome distraction and I found myself being more dedicated than I ever was in high school. I'm sure that part of it was simply not having to worry about an overly complicated and utterly useless math class but the the brunt of my favor was due the fact that they made me stop thinking about her. As the sink finished filling I drained the last of my coke and shut off the tap. I pulled my bangs back, took a breath, and then dunked my face in the water. The cold shocked my system enough to shake off the last few fingers of dread that the dream still had wrapped around my throat. Past that the chill was comforting. I didn't come up for air until Vinyl tapped my shin. She'd adopted a suicide watch mentality, not that I'd tried anything but the gesture was appreciated. "Remember our talk about breathing being important?" She said. "I thought we came to the conclusion that it was overrated." I replied, pulling the plug from the sink. "Only when you have to work for it," She passed me a paper towel with her magic. "Pretty sure I'm past that point." "Come on, we're pulling an all-nighter. You can sleep when the sun comes up and your screaming wont wake the neighbors."