RE: The Midnight Man: Chapter 17 Is Posted! Can Nick Escape the Cops???
Ahh memories.
Ahh memories.
Chapter 18- Passing The Hours
Well, Paige Jogan would not be arriving for another few hours. I hoped that she would be able to get here alright, I had not gotten a chance to say goodbye. Meanwhile there were more pressing issues, such as dealing with the grieving Paige.
She sat across from me in an arm chair and sighed. “I wanna know what happened last night, but yet I don't at the same time. It all seems too horrible to be true.”
“Well, it is,” I replied. “And, in all honesty, I don't really wanna tell anymore of it than I already did on the way over here. There's really not much else to add other than the minute details.”
“That's what I figured. I don't wanna put you through telling me what happened anyways.”
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, especially since I had to tell Paige about it just hours after it all happened.”
“She didn't force you, did she?”
“No! Of course not, she's not like that.” I shook my head. “What do you have against her?”
“Well, I don't really have anything against her, it's just that she comes off as preppy, or at least hangs out with those kinds of people. I don't like them,” she said.
“That's no reason to have something against her. I pretty much hang out with them too, it's just a part of high school, and they really aren't that bad anyways,” I countered.
“I'm sure if I talked to her and got to know her I wouldn't mind her. I just never thought you'd go for that kind of person, you know?”
I frowned. “I'm sorry, but I don't know. Are you saying you don't approve of who I like?”
“No, not at all!” she said hastily. “I just don't know her.”
“Well you should try to. She's gonna be coming over tonight anyways.”
“Oh, great. Well, don't tell her I said any of this.”
I laughed. “No problem. What do you have against “preppy” people anyways?”
“Oh where do I begin?”
She paused while I chucked. “Never thought you really had anything against anyone, Paige,” I said.
“Oh, believe me, I do. I'm a moody person like every other teenage girl. I just think that they always think too highly of themselves, that they're spoiled, and they always get what they want.”
I shook my head. “Believe me, Paige actually has a tendency to think lowly of herself.”
“I'm not saying that's her though. I'm saying that's what I think of preppy people in general. But why so? She seems smart and nice.”
“You know, I really don't have an answer for that. She honestly has no reason to,” I replied.
“Like why you think lowly of yourself? I'll never understand that.”
“It's just due to recent events.”
“But you're not that bad, I mean Paige likes you!”
There was a pause as I took a moment to breathe deeply. “But I'll be gone after tonight. I'm not comin' back. I'm gonna have to go into hiding, alone,” I said, making sure to enunciate that last part. “She's gonna forget all about me in a month or two, you know it's true.”
“Yeah, the heart does forget.”
“I don't wanna think about it right now. I'm gonna try and sleep I guess, pass the time faster.”
“Alright, I'll let you be,” she replied, standing up and walking into another room.
I reached into my pocket to grab my iPod. It was at that moment that I realized that I still had my cell phone on me. If the police got a hold of its number, they could track it, I needed to dispose of it.
“Paige!” I yelled. “Get me a hammer!”
She shouted back, “What for?”
“I need to destroy my phone!”
I could hear her opening and shutting drawers, trying to find a hammer. After a few moments, she returned with it. I grabbed it from her and began smashing the phone, and once I was done, I said, “We need to get rid of the pieces. When's your garbage run?”
She thought for a few seconds, and then replied, “Monday.”
“Alright here, put these in the trash so they can't be found. Now, I'm gonna try and sleep.”
She disappeared, holding the shards of what had once been my phone, my lifeline in the modern world. This time, I followed through with grabbing my iPod out of my pocket. I inserted the earphones into the jack and then put them into my ears, making sure that the one with the R corresponded to my right ear.
I sprawled out on the couch, resting my head on a soft pillow that was at the end of it. I clicked the button to turn my iPod on and slid the arrow to unlock it. I scrolled through my collection of 70's and 80's music for a short time before deciding on Journey's Raised On Radio album. Even as the first song began to play, I knew that I would not be able to fall asleep, music playing or not. I could not make peace with my mind, I could only sit there and think.
My mind drifted. I thought of what I would be missing once I disappeared, and yes, this actually included school. I would miss my teachers, especially Mr. Cestaro's quasi-funny anecdotes, as he called them, and even my Spanish teacher just because she actually cared about her students unlike so many in the teaching profession. I would miss seeing my friends, laughing, surviving school one step at a time with them. Heck, I would miss their constant talk of how I was obsessed with Journey, how they were not even a good band, just to know they cared enough to make those statements just to mess with me. I would never get to graduate with any of them.
There would be no more best friends to talk to, well, that one would not hurt as badly because one of them would have been Gopp had things not gone sour with him the day before. But Paige Barenowski, on the other hand, I would truly miss. While I had only become good friends with her since freshman year, it still seemed like we had been best friends for a long time. How odd it would be to no longer have her to talk with.
Oh how many memories I had with her. We actually were a couple for a span of three and a half weeks from February to March freshman year. It had ended poorly, she broke up with me through a note, and actually almost ruined our friendship when she got back together with her old boyfriend just three weeks after she had broken up with me. That would be one thing I would never know for sure; had she used me to get him back, or was there once, truly something there? I do not think I will ever know the answer to that question, nor do I really want to.
Well, time heals all wounds, and eventually everything went back to normal, or however normal anything involving me could be. As it had happened in my dreams, I thought back to when I had liked Paige Jogan at the end of that school year and had almost fallen for short Paige again, which I am not sure why that happened, especially after she had more or less treated me like garbage during those few months. I now have absolutely no desires to have her be any more than a friend.
And then something happened over the summer between freshman and sophomore year. While I actually got a girlfriend, who I would waste about six and a half months with only to find out she was no better of a person than Paige when it came to a relationship, there were two boys now set on dating Paige. After having to deal with them being near my locker everyday once the new school year began (due to our last names beginning with the letter “B,” Paige and I always had lockers near or beside each other), I hated them both.
The first one that I knew about, Matt, was just annoying. There is no other word to describe it, he was immature, which in my book is annoying. However, I could stand him, but the other one, Garrett, I despised more than I have ever despised any human being before. He was a combination of Squidward and Justin Beiber. His voice was high and nasally, he never said anything, and he just looked like one of those terrible people who you just want to punch. That trait right there should have cued me in for what I would have to deal with in the months to come, should Paige choose him. And, she chose him.
At first, I was like fine, I can deal with this, no big deal, her relationships usually went no longer than a month, an amount of time that I could put up with this kid. Then, it turned into two months, and she was already complaining about him, saying she had issues with him. Knowing the way Paige was with relationships, I just waived it off. I said she was being overly obsessive and should back off.
Then the third month rolled around, and they traded phones, which first off is just stupid, but who am I to question love since I rarely have experienced it? He went through her texts, so much for trust. I thought he was at fault as she was telling me this, but it got worse. She had cheated on him with Matt, the second day of her relationship with Garrett.
Well, after sorting all that out, surviving her tears, January and February went by uneventfully. Then in March, things took a turn for the worse. He was referring to her as a psycho girlfriend and she just kept blaming herself for the entire failure that the relationship was. I pointed out that he was just using her bad act of the past to get away with whatever he pleased, but she ignored me. Why listen to the guy who has seen the writing on the wall for the past couple months? She stayed with him.
And, like any other year, spring break finally arrived after weeks on anticipation. This spring break, I got my wisdom teeth out, so much for a great time. Well, by the end of the week, my face was more or less back to normal except for some slight swelling, but that went away by the middle of the next week. It was Saturday night, and I had texted Paige for the first time in a few days since I had been in pain and in a fog due to the Oxycontin I had been prescribed to take. She told me to get my phone, and at that moment I knew that something had gone horribly wrong.
Now, this is proof that I am a terrible person: I actually was hoping they had broken up. If they had, I would never have to deal with that kid again. But of course, they had not. However, like I had thought, something was seriously wrong. She had been hanging out with him that Saturday afternoon, I of course was thinking how could this have possibly gone astray?
Well, since Paige was in the process of losing her house, which her mother got the court to extend the date since she had children in school, Garrett had come over to help pack up Paige's room. Now, Paige had been saying that she had been eating a lot over spring break since she had nothing to do. Apparently the moment he saw her, the very first thing out of his mouth was 'wow, you've gained weight.'
Who, in their right mind, says that to a girl, especially their girlfriend?! Believe it or not, it got worse. He did not help to pack up anything in her room nor when they went fishing would be do anything romantic. He could not get it through his head why she would only want to watch him fish. Then, he said he had to go home early, when in fact he had called his mother to come get him early. And this relationship lasted until September, and when it was done I did a Tebo pose in thanks.
As I lay there on the couch I had to smile. I remember seeing it on Facebook and commenting how anyone would like her status of being single again. And then Gopp, lo and behold, both liked it and said how sorry he was that it ended, yeah right! None of us were sorry, I certainly was not going to lie about that. He was just glad he could have a chance with her now. Looking back, I do not think Gopp was all that I believed him to be, and I do not think I was what others thought I was.
The Raised On Radio album ended, so I decided to go with the album that had started the collection, Steve Perry's Street Talk album. I had gotten it in either September or October of my freshman year and it had started the goal to collect all the albums to do with Journey or Steve.
Anyways, now that my thoughts had been interrupted, where was I going? Oh yes, Gopp. Well, there were multiple times that he had lied, and I knew he was, I just never really said anything. For example, he would always complain that his parents would take away his phone and iPod without reason. However, there were many times when I was over at his house when he would mouth off to his parents, more than I had a tendency to do. No wonder he had them taken away! That, and his grades in school were mediocre at best, and he was a smart kid, I never understood why he never tried any harder than he did.
Before Garrett and Paige had broken up, all he did was interrupt what I was saying to her in an attempt to take her mind off of it. He would remind her of it and tell her how bad it was, then give her a hug and walk away with her before I had even finished my sentence. I should have known at that point that as long as they were together, we could be friends. It was like he expected her to just ignore me completely when he was around. Hello, I'm her friend too and have known her for a lot longer than you have! That is what I was left thinking every time this happened, and it happened a lot.
And then I got to thinking, there is not one honest person in the world and anyone who claims they are is lying. I will freely admit that I do not always tell the truth, but I can assure you that, other than the names, this story is the complete truth. For example, many a time I have texted a girl and they have not responded until hours later saying that she had gone to a friend's house and left her phone at home. But, when going on Facebook during the time she was not texting me, I could clearly see she had recently been online from her phone. Now, do not think this obsessive that I noticed this as it is hard not to since on the app on my iPod there is a bar along the right-hand side that shows one's favorite friends and when they were last on. On multiple occasions, with different girls, I could see they had been online, from their phone, during the time I had attempted to contact me.
The only thing I can say is that I wish they would have just told me the truth that they did not wish to text me. It would have made life so much easier as I would not have to constantly be wondering if they were ignoring me or had a legitimate reason.
At this point, I began to doze off. I would wake up everyone once in a while during which I would change what album I was listening to, and then immediately fall back asleep.
I dreamed while I slept. I dreamed that Paige Jogan found someone else and forgot all about me, which was bound to happen eventually, but the thought of it hurt. Then, I died in another, no one missed me or even cared that I was not among the living anymore. While I cannot stand seeing people grieving over the death of a loved one, this hurt. There was no emotion or acknowledgment that I was gone.
I felt someone tap my shoulder, and I fell from the sky into the house and landed onto the couch. My eyes opened and I could see both Paiges looking down at me. The time had come, I had to say goodbye and summon the Midnight Man one last time. Then, it would be all over. I was ready, ready for my destiny, ready for my future of loneliness. There was no turning back, my chances of not following through vanished the minute Gopp was killed last night. There were no alternatives or loopholes, there could only be one action taken and that was ending the Midnight Man's reign of terror once and for all.
She sat across from me in an arm chair and sighed. “I wanna know what happened last night, but yet I don't at the same time. It all seems too horrible to be true.”
“Well, it is,” I replied. “And, in all honesty, I don't really wanna tell anymore of it than I already did on the way over here. There's really not much else to add other than the minute details.”
“That's what I figured. I don't wanna put you through telling me what happened anyways.”
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, especially since I had to tell Paige about it just hours after it all happened.”
“She didn't force you, did she?”
“No! Of course not, she's not like that.” I shook my head. “What do you have against her?”
“Well, I don't really have anything against her, it's just that she comes off as preppy, or at least hangs out with those kinds of people. I don't like them,” she said.
“That's no reason to have something against her. I pretty much hang out with them too, it's just a part of high school, and they really aren't that bad anyways,” I countered.
“I'm sure if I talked to her and got to know her I wouldn't mind her. I just never thought you'd go for that kind of person, you know?”
I frowned. “I'm sorry, but I don't know. Are you saying you don't approve of who I like?”
“No, not at all!” she said hastily. “I just don't know her.”
“Well you should try to. She's gonna be coming over tonight anyways.”
“Oh, great. Well, don't tell her I said any of this.”
I laughed. “No problem. What do you have against “preppy” people anyways?”
“Oh where do I begin?”
She paused while I chucked. “Never thought you really had anything against anyone, Paige,” I said.
“Oh, believe me, I do. I'm a moody person like every other teenage girl. I just think that they always think too highly of themselves, that they're spoiled, and they always get what they want.”
I shook my head. “Believe me, Paige actually has a tendency to think lowly of herself.”
“I'm not saying that's her though. I'm saying that's what I think of preppy people in general. But why so? She seems smart and nice.”
“You know, I really don't have an answer for that. She honestly has no reason to,” I replied.
“Like why you think lowly of yourself? I'll never understand that.”
“It's just due to recent events.”
“But you're not that bad, I mean Paige likes you!”
There was a pause as I took a moment to breathe deeply. “But I'll be gone after tonight. I'm not comin' back. I'm gonna have to go into hiding, alone,” I said, making sure to enunciate that last part. “She's gonna forget all about me in a month or two, you know it's true.”
“Yeah, the heart does forget.”
“I don't wanna think about it right now. I'm gonna try and sleep I guess, pass the time faster.”
“Alright, I'll let you be,” she replied, standing up and walking into another room.
I reached into my pocket to grab my iPod. It was at that moment that I realized that I still had my cell phone on me. If the police got a hold of its number, they could track it, I needed to dispose of it.
“Paige!” I yelled. “Get me a hammer!”
She shouted back, “What for?”
“I need to destroy my phone!”
I could hear her opening and shutting drawers, trying to find a hammer. After a few moments, she returned with it. I grabbed it from her and began smashing the phone, and once I was done, I said, “We need to get rid of the pieces. When's your garbage run?”
She thought for a few seconds, and then replied, “Monday.”
“Alright here, put these in the trash so they can't be found. Now, I'm gonna try and sleep.”
She disappeared, holding the shards of what had once been my phone, my lifeline in the modern world. This time, I followed through with grabbing my iPod out of my pocket. I inserted the earphones into the jack and then put them into my ears, making sure that the one with the R corresponded to my right ear.
I sprawled out on the couch, resting my head on a soft pillow that was at the end of it. I clicked the button to turn my iPod on and slid the arrow to unlock it. I scrolled through my collection of 70's and 80's music for a short time before deciding on Journey's Raised On Radio album. Even as the first song began to play, I knew that I would not be able to fall asleep, music playing or not. I could not make peace with my mind, I could only sit there and think.
My mind drifted. I thought of what I would be missing once I disappeared, and yes, this actually included school. I would miss my teachers, especially Mr. Cestaro's quasi-funny anecdotes, as he called them, and even my Spanish teacher just because she actually cared about her students unlike so many in the teaching profession. I would miss seeing my friends, laughing, surviving school one step at a time with them. Heck, I would miss their constant talk of how I was obsessed with Journey, how they were not even a good band, just to know they cared enough to make those statements just to mess with me. I would never get to graduate with any of them.
There would be no more best friends to talk to, well, that one would not hurt as badly because one of them would have been Gopp had things not gone sour with him the day before. But Paige Barenowski, on the other hand, I would truly miss. While I had only become good friends with her since freshman year, it still seemed like we had been best friends for a long time. How odd it would be to no longer have her to talk with.
Oh how many memories I had with her. We actually were a couple for a span of three and a half weeks from February to March freshman year. It had ended poorly, she broke up with me through a note, and actually almost ruined our friendship when she got back together with her old boyfriend just three weeks after she had broken up with me. That would be one thing I would never know for sure; had she used me to get him back, or was there once, truly something there? I do not think I will ever know the answer to that question, nor do I really want to.
Well, time heals all wounds, and eventually everything went back to normal, or however normal anything involving me could be. As it had happened in my dreams, I thought back to when I had liked Paige Jogan at the end of that school year and had almost fallen for short Paige again, which I am not sure why that happened, especially after she had more or less treated me like garbage during those few months. I now have absolutely no desires to have her be any more than a friend.
And then something happened over the summer between freshman and sophomore year. While I actually got a girlfriend, who I would waste about six and a half months with only to find out she was no better of a person than Paige when it came to a relationship, there were two boys now set on dating Paige. After having to deal with them being near my locker everyday once the new school year began (due to our last names beginning with the letter “B,” Paige and I always had lockers near or beside each other), I hated them both.
The first one that I knew about, Matt, was just annoying. There is no other word to describe it, he was immature, which in my book is annoying. However, I could stand him, but the other one, Garrett, I despised more than I have ever despised any human being before. He was a combination of Squidward and Justin Beiber. His voice was high and nasally, he never said anything, and he just looked like one of those terrible people who you just want to punch. That trait right there should have cued me in for what I would have to deal with in the months to come, should Paige choose him. And, she chose him.
At first, I was like fine, I can deal with this, no big deal, her relationships usually went no longer than a month, an amount of time that I could put up with this kid. Then, it turned into two months, and she was already complaining about him, saying she had issues with him. Knowing the way Paige was with relationships, I just waived it off. I said she was being overly obsessive and should back off.
Then the third month rolled around, and they traded phones, which first off is just stupid, but who am I to question love since I rarely have experienced it? He went through her texts, so much for trust. I thought he was at fault as she was telling me this, but it got worse. She had cheated on him with Matt, the second day of her relationship with Garrett.
Well, after sorting all that out, surviving her tears, January and February went by uneventfully. Then in March, things took a turn for the worse. He was referring to her as a psycho girlfriend and she just kept blaming herself for the entire failure that the relationship was. I pointed out that he was just using her bad act of the past to get away with whatever he pleased, but she ignored me. Why listen to the guy who has seen the writing on the wall for the past couple months? She stayed with him.
And, like any other year, spring break finally arrived after weeks on anticipation. This spring break, I got my wisdom teeth out, so much for a great time. Well, by the end of the week, my face was more or less back to normal except for some slight swelling, but that went away by the middle of the next week. It was Saturday night, and I had texted Paige for the first time in a few days since I had been in pain and in a fog due to the Oxycontin I had been prescribed to take. She told me to get my phone, and at that moment I knew that something had gone horribly wrong.
Now, this is proof that I am a terrible person: I actually was hoping they had broken up. If they had, I would never have to deal with that kid again. But of course, they had not. However, like I had thought, something was seriously wrong. She had been hanging out with him that Saturday afternoon, I of course was thinking how could this have possibly gone astray?
Well, since Paige was in the process of losing her house, which her mother got the court to extend the date since she had children in school, Garrett had come over to help pack up Paige's room. Now, Paige had been saying that she had been eating a lot over spring break since she had nothing to do. Apparently the moment he saw her, the very first thing out of his mouth was 'wow, you've gained weight.'
Who, in their right mind, says that to a girl, especially their girlfriend?! Believe it or not, it got worse. He did not help to pack up anything in her room nor when they went fishing would be do anything romantic. He could not get it through his head why she would only want to watch him fish. Then, he said he had to go home early, when in fact he had called his mother to come get him early. And this relationship lasted until September, and when it was done I did a Tebo pose in thanks.
As I lay there on the couch I had to smile. I remember seeing it on Facebook and commenting how anyone would like her status of being single again. And then Gopp, lo and behold, both liked it and said how sorry he was that it ended, yeah right! None of us were sorry, I certainly was not going to lie about that. He was just glad he could have a chance with her now. Looking back, I do not think Gopp was all that I believed him to be, and I do not think I was what others thought I was.
The Raised On Radio album ended, so I decided to go with the album that had started the collection, Steve Perry's Street Talk album. I had gotten it in either September or October of my freshman year and it had started the goal to collect all the albums to do with Journey or Steve.
Anyways, now that my thoughts had been interrupted, where was I going? Oh yes, Gopp. Well, there were multiple times that he had lied, and I knew he was, I just never really said anything. For example, he would always complain that his parents would take away his phone and iPod without reason. However, there were many times when I was over at his house when he would mouth off to his parents, more than I had a tendency to do. No wonder he had them taken away! That, and his grades in school were mediocre at best, and he was a smart kid, I never understood why he never tried any harder than he did.
Before Garrett and Paige had broken up, all he did was interrupt what I was saying to her in an attempt to take her mind off of it. He would remind her of it and tell her how bad it was, then give her a hug and walk away with her before I had even finished my sentence. I should have known at that point that as long as they were together, we could be friends. It was like he expected her to just ignore me completely when he was around. Hello, I'm her friend too and have known her for a lot longer than you have! That is what I was left thinking every time this happened, and it happened a lot.
And then I got to thinking, there is not one honest person in the world and anyone who claims they are is lying. I will freely admit that I do not always tell the truth, but I can assure you that, other than the names, this story is the complete truth. For example, many a time I have texted a girl and they have not responded until hours later saying that she had gone to a friend's house and left her phone at home. But, when going on Facebook during the time she was not texting me, I could clearly see she had recently been online from her phone. Now, do not think this obsessive that I noticed this as it is hard not to since on the app on my iPod there is a bar along the right-hand side that shows one's favorite friends and when they were last on. On multiple occasions, with different girls, I could see they had been online, from their phone, during the time I had attempted to contact me.
The only thing I can say is that I wish they would have just told me the truth that they did not wish to text me. It would have made life so much easier as I would not have to constantly be wondering if they were ignoring me or had a legitimate reason.
At this point, I began to doze off. I would wake up everyone once in a while during which I would change what album I was listening to, and then immediately fall back asleep.
I dreamed while I slept. I dreamed that Paige Jogan found someone else and forgot all about me, which was bound to happen eventually, but the thought of it hurt. Then, I died in another, no one missed me or even cared that I was not among the living anymore. While I cannot stand seeing people grieving over the death of a loved one, this hurt. There was no emotion or acknowledgment that I was gone.
I felt someone tap my shoulder, and I fell from the sky into the house and landed onto the couch. My eyes opened and I could see both Paiges looking down at me. The time had come, I had to say goodbye and summon the Midnight Man one last time. Then, it would be all over. I was ready, ready for my destiny, ready for my future of loneliness. There was no turning back, my chances of not following through vanished the minute Gopp was killed last night. There were no alternatives or loopholes, there could only be one action taken and that was ending the Midnight Man's reign of terror once and for all.
