I’ve been awake for hours. I can’t seem to shut my eyes and give my body a decent rest. My name is Johannes Bettany, Jo for short, and I’ve been tossing and turning all night. Yesterday was Vic’s last day in the neighborhood. I still can’t seem to understand why her family decided to move from a decent neighborhood with decent people to rich town two hours away. It angers me, you know, it’s as if her father didn’t even consider Vic’s feeling when he decided to take that snobby job at Reichter Corp, I used to think he was a cool guy but to see that a little bit of money could make a man jump so high sickens me. But what sickened me even more were the tears running down Vic’s face as she stared deep into my eyes and then kissed me on my cheek close to my lips. The way my body shivered must have surprised her but not completely because you see my relationship with Vic is like none I’ve ever had before. We have this unspoken understanding; were both very aware of our feelings for each other we’ve even pursued them but we have never made it official. I guess she was too afraid to get hurt…and now I understand why. My deep thoughts were interrupted by a vibration coming from underneath my leg.
My heart began to beat fast as I saw the name on the caller id, “Vic!”, I said aloud.
As soon I heard her voice I felt as though she was literally right next to me and everything was as it was before she left.
“Hey”, she said. “I miss you Vic….a lot”. “I miss you too Jo, how have you been?” she asked. “Not so good…since you’ve been gone”. “I feel the exact same way, I was actually wondering if there is any way possible you could come visit me?” she asked.
Without thinking twice I told her yes. As soon as I got off the phone I hopped in the shower, got dressed, and headed out the door. In about two hours and fifteen minutes I was pulling into her driveway. I was greeted by her beaming smile. I jumped out my Toyota, ran over and lifted Vic’s petit body up from the ground. Everything was perfect now. We ate, we talked, and we couldn’t stop looking at each other. It wasn’t until my watched beeped for the seventh time that I realized that it was 7 o’ clock and it was time for me to head back home. She looked at me sadly and said,

“I’ll miss you Jo, I’ll miss you a lot” and kissed me on the lips.
I squeezed her tightly and continued to kiss her, strongly yet softly. I walked out the door before I got too caught up in my feelings and headed towards my car. As I pulled out the drive way I looked at her once more, smiled and drove off towards the highway. I was back home by 9:30 and was ready to hit the sheets but as much as wanted to just close my eyes and drift off into a deep sleep I couldn’t . Once again I couldn’t seem to shake Vic out of my head. My mind kept replaying the events of the day. But finally cheesing from ear to ear I drifted off to sleep around 12:35 a.m.
………………..
It’s been weeks now since I last saw or spoke to Victoria. Not a phone call or text has gone b/w that I didn’t initiate. Every time I call she tells me “sorry Jo I’m busy right now but I promise I’ll call you back in 30 minutes tops, I swear” but she never does. My mind can’t seem to understand what I did wrong; I mean did I even do anything wrong because the last time I checked I hadn’t. It took me two days to decide that I was going to confront her, the first chance I got and that chance was going to be tomorrow. Tomorrow was Friday and I thought it would be the perfect day to go see her. I wasn’t going to lose her without putting up a fight….
Friday morning I woke up feeling pretty nervous. I had a pretty tough night tossing and turning wondering about what would be the outcome of my actions. But I don’t care I have to figure what happened between the span of two weeks. I got out the bed and went into the shower. Once I was done I put on my American eagle jeans, a sweater and a pair of Sperry boat shoes. I brushed my teeth, tousled my golden brown hair and headed out the door. Before I could confront Vic I had to deal with a day of school. The day went by slowly I barely remember it; I was too busy thinking about the trip I was going to take out to Vic’s house. Finally the end of the school day arrived and I was in my car by 3 o’ clock and heading towards the highway. After an hour of driving I stopped to fill up my tank and get something to eat at the seven eleven. I hopped back into the car and continued to drive. By the time I pulled into Vic’s driveway it was 6 o’ clock. I jumped out stretched and began to gear up to walk towards her front door. I couldn’t, my legs wouldn’t let me. I was truly nervous about what was to come. I took a dozen deep breathes and forced my legs to move. My heart was beating extremely fast as I reached up to ring the doorbell. Ding dong, the bell rang and I heard feet shuffling to the front door. I got ready, my palms sweating heavily as I heard the door unlock. Here it comes! I started to regret coming here uninvited I would have ran but it was too late. I came here for a reason and I don’t intend to leave until I get my answer. When the door opened it wasn’t who I expected it would be; instead of seeing Vic’s precious face popping out from the door I saw her mom, Hanna instead.
“Hi Mrs. Hansen, how are you?” I squeaked. “Johannes! It’s so nice to see you again, how is your family?” “Mom and Dad are fine so is Michael, is Victoria home?” I asked.
Her face no longer seemed too happy to see me but instead looked as though she had something to hide.
“Um let me go check” she quietly shut the door.
That was weird I would have at least expected her to let me in since it was pretty chilly outside and it wasn’t like her to act impolite towards me. The door reopened two minutes later but this time it was Vic’s head that popped out.

She gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek, “Hey Jo what’s going?” she asked. I was taken aback, “What’s going on? Well let’s see you’ve basically been ignoring me for the past two weeks, so really the question is what’s going on with you?” I asked.

She began to stutter the way she normally did whenever she lied, “Nothing much, I’ve just been pretty busy you know with school and everything, I miss you though I’m glad you came to see me but you should have called”. “How could I when you haven’t been answering my calls?”
I calmed down Vic was too precious to lose over miscommunication.
“But I’m glad I came too” I said as I reached down to pick her up and kiss her on the lips, “Let’s take a walk”. “Okay” she hesitated and looked at the door and finally shut it. It was pretty cold out so I gave her my sweater. “How’ve you been? We haven’t talked in so long” “I’ve been good” she said simply.
I continued to ask her a couple more question but she continued to answer them simply, one word answers. Our whole chemistry was off. We headed back to her house. I was getting ready to leave when I saw a red sports car in her driveway.
“Your dad got a new car?” I asked.
She just looked on as though she didn’t want to answer my question.
“Vic, please tell me what’s really going on, you’ve been acting strange ever since I’ve been here”.
Then I saw something that truly worried me. Tears began to drip down her cheeks as she looked me in my eyes. Her mouth began to open up to tell me what was going on but before she had a chance a guy came out the house and began to walk towards us.
“What’s going on Victoria?” he asked. He had a look in his eye, a look of jealousy. The motors in my brain began to turn. “Dustan, calm down he’s just an old friend” she said. Old friend? That’s all I am to her an old friend? “Dustan this is Johannes, Jo this is Dustan… my boyfriend” she said looking at me apologetically.
So my presumptions were correct this was the reason why she had been acting so strange so secretive so quiet. She had a boyfriend. It had only been two weeks since I last saw her. Just like that and she moved on. Anger, disappointment, rage, and sadness filled me. Before I could completely analyze my next move, my fist when swerving across my opposite shoulder and all I heard next was a crack.
“Don’t ever speak to me again, were done. Everything we’ve ever talked about everything we’ve ever dealt with together all the feelings we’ve ever had between the two of us, forget about them. This friendship-relationship is done” I stormed off angrily and plopped into the driver’s seat of my car.
I guessed that I must have broken his nose considering all the blood that was gushing out of it but hey I didn’t care. I was just so heated from the fact that I wasted all my years caring for a girl who forgot about me in a span of two weeks. Vic is a cold hearted fiend and it’s time for me to move on with my life, she surely has with hers. I speeded down the highway and was home in record time. I ate some dinner and headed off to my room. I woke up the next morning and took a long jog around the neighborhood. As I was running I realized something. Last night was the first night I was able to sleep restfully… and it felt good.

The End