Chapter One

   It was late in the night - or very early in the morning, depending on how you see it - when I woke up in the driver’s seat of my black ’97 Volkswagen. My brown hair was wet from sweat and I inhaled and exhaled quickly, uncontrollably. I’d been having nightmares again, about my girlfriend. Well, ex-girlfriend, who became my ex due to a deadly car accident. That’s the reason I sat in the car then. I was thinking about her, sitting in her car with her curled hair blowing with wind - she always kept the window just slightly opened -, before it happened. Until I eventually fell asleep.

 

   I decided to get out of the car. I wasn’t tired anymore, anyways. I went home and took a long shower, after which I got dressed and, before I knew it, it was time to go to school. My parents were sleeping, so I walked. On my way to school it started raining, so I ran.

 

   Thankfully, school wasn’t far, or else it would have been quite dumb of me to walk there. However, dumb seemed to be all I’ve been since Katelyn… You see, Katelyn had been my first ever girlfriend and we were the couple, until she died, only a few days before our first anniversary.

   “Hey there. How’s my favourite bitchy-boy doing today?”

 

   That was Sarah, Katelyn’s best friend before she died. She used to be nice, but since that day, she has been kind of mean. I guess she blames me for what happened since Katelyn was driving to my house the night of the accident.

    Sarah used to have long blond hair, but she cut it. Katelyn was always telling her she would look better with short hair, so I guess I'm not the only one who's hurt...

   “Not okay, Sarah, not okay…”

 

   “Good,” she replied with a grin. Her short hair was caught up in a barely visible ponytail, the way she always used it now, while her tired hazel eyes didn’t quite meet mine.

   I fought the urge I had to hit her. But what could I do, really? It wasn’t like I didn’t blame myself as well. I wish I would be one of those people who had post-traumatic amnesia. But of course not. I was simply stuck with a depression, a really bad therapist and sleep-privative nightmares.

 

   Sarah started talking again, but I left. I wasn’t in the mood for that. I met Patrick, my best friend, on the hall.

   “Hey man!” He said.

   “What’s up?” I asked. I didn’t actually wanted to know what was up but it seemed to me like it was a nice thing to say.

   And then we started talking about our usual subject " videogames. It’s not that it was an interesting topic, but between Katelyn and videogames, I preferred videogames. And Patrick knew it.

 

   Lately, Patrick seemed to be my only distraction but, just as lucky as I was, Patrick had Calculus in the first period, while I had History - with Sarah. So, when the school bell rang, and Patrick left with an “I’ll see you at lunch time, Daniel, try to survive until then,” I made my way towards squared-torture. Sarah was impatiently waiting for me outside the door to make sure she could sit beside me.

 

   So, there I was; history lesson - possibly the most boring lesson of all human history - and I was sitting beside de person that probably hated me the most in the entire school. As I said, I was so lucky!

   Sarah kept bothering me the whole time and I was becoming so mad at her that all I wanted to do was to shout that it was not my fault; that is had been just a coincidence. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t because I didn’t believe that. So I sat there for the whole time and when the bell rand, I was the first person to leave class.

  

   Second and third period went by pretty quickly, as I first plotted different ways of killing myself, and then, when I ran out of those, I plotted several ways of killing everyone else around me who reminded me or her.

   But Patrick had told me to survive until lunch time, and I’d already let Kate’s parents down - even if they didn’t blame me, I could see how hurt they were when her father looked at me with those green eyes that she’s inherited - and I wasn’t about to let anyone else down in the next aeon.

   So, when third period finally ended, and I entered the dining hall, Patrick was already there waiting for me, and he waved when he saw me coming in. Deciding I wasn’t really hungry, I didn’t stop to buy anything, and went straight to our table.

   “We’re going out tonight, and we’re sleeping there!” He stated, before I even got the chance to sit down.

   “What?!” I asked, wondering if he was going nuts, or if he was just lacking food.

   “Yeah! And Sarah’s coming too!”

 

   “I seriously hope you are joking, because if you aren’t, I’m going to hit you!”

   He stared at me for a while. I noticed his new haircut. Now he had dark hair in a military style. I guess it's not so different from how it was before but Patrick liked to change, even if it was a really small change. After a few seconds he said:

   “I know you don’t get along with her, but it’ll be fun! Jack found an abandoned house in the woods near his house, so we’re going there tonight.” Jack was a friend of Patrick. I never really talked to him, but he seemed okay.

   “And why do we need Sarah?”

   “You know why! She is his girlfriend’s sister.”

 

   “Actually, I did not know why. Because 1) anything that’s got to do with Sarah strangely interests me, and 2) couples make me feel sick " always kissing everywhere you look.”

   Couples didn’t really annoy, me if it weren’t the fact that the reminded me of Katelyn, of how it felt to hold her in my arms, or to have her lips pressed against mine.

   “If you want me to, I could just blind you,” Patrick replied, showing me his fists, and they were big fists. “I promise you’ll be problem-free.”

   “Ah,” I said, “Very funny. But I think I’d rather have your hands off my face. I’ve seen how you play ‘The Last of Us’.”

   “I still survive longer than you.”

   “That’s because I’d like to know how it feels to be a zombie.”

   “Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Harris. Just say you’re coming with us.”

 

   “Fine! I’ll go! But don’t expect me to be nice to her cause I won’t.”

   “I don’t care if you are nice to her or not. I only want you to come with us.”

   “Yeah, fine. Who’s coming?”

   “You, me, Sarah, Jack and Lilly.” Lilly was Jack’s girlfriend. I never talked to her either.

   “Okay. Now, let’s eat!”

   So we ate and left for our afternoon classes. Thankfully none of them was with Sarah so I guess you can say it was a good afternoon. At four o’clock my mom picked me up while I was trying to come up with an excuse so that my parents would let me go that night. Especially because the next day was my father’s birthday…

Author's Note

same as for the book itself. please tell us what you think (:
(PS. What's in Italics was written by Cris, the other part was written by Is.)