Take Care of Yourself, Please.

Zaid wasn’t invited Nuiz texted to Syazee. So we’re walking I guess.

At the drop of a hat, Syazee replied.

Dang. Seriously? Fine then. See you at your house at 6? Lenni’s party isn’t until 7 and the walk to her house is pretty far.

Fine by me.

…

It was five past six when Syazee arrived. “You’re late,” Nuiz told her as she opened the door.

“Great, thanks for the warm welcome.” Syazee replied with a cheeky grin. Nuiz smiled and shook her head. “Now c’mon. 35 minutes ‘till the party starts and we don’t want to be late now do we?”

Nuiz got out of her house. She was wearing a casual black shirt with black jeans and a cap that said ‘Australia’. She had her hair tied and was wearing black boots.

Syazee, on the other hand, was dressed real proper. She was wearing a white dress and had her hair curled. She was wearing white heels as well.

“This isn’t school prom, yah know.” Nuiz told her as she put her hands in her pockets. Syazee looked at Nuiz attire and laughed.

“Oh so you think you’re dressed better than me? I mean, look at you. You’re dressed up as if you’re a mechanic.” Syazee told her. Nuiz laughed and said, “An Australian mechanic.” As she tilted her hat a little.

“Besides, boots don’t work for mechanics, mate.” Nuiz said again but this time with an Australian accent. Syazee pushed Nuiz with a laugh.

“But why wasn’t Zaid invited, though?” Syazee asked, her voice dropping. Nuiz looked at her and saw that she was blushing. Nuiz pushed her a little and told her, “Because, in freshmen year, Zaid told Lenni that her chair looked like a boat once in carpenter class. Lenni was literally called ‘boair’ for a month.” Nuiz laughed at the end of her sentence, remembering how Zaid told her the story of how he pissed off a freshmen on her first year.

Syazee laughed along and said, “So that’s why I heard some guys calling her Miss Boair.”

“That’s also probably why she got out of the carpenter class after a few months last year and changed to some other class.” Nuiz said again with a grin.

“Better not say anything about the ‘boair’ later at Lenni’s party.” Syazee advised with a laugh.

“Yeah no kidding.”

…

It was 5 minutes before the party when Nuiz and Syazee arrived at Lenni’s house. The crowd was building up though so Nuiz and Syazee quickly got into the house.

They saw Lenni in the living room surrounded by people. She looked pretty hung-over and she was telling some probably fictional story of her life as the people surrounding her were laughing. She saw Nuiz and Syazee.

“Frieeeeends!” She literally shrieked drunkenly. The two friends looked at each other and decided to walk away.

“Hey, I’ll see you out of the house at 9, aye? We can leave by then I think.” Syazee told Nuiz as she walked away. “Okay,” Nuiz said, but she knew Syazee had already gone too far for her to hear her.

Nuiz went into the kitchen to get away from the blinding lights. The kitchen was lit dimly and a guy was in there. It was Lenni’s older brother Andrew who was obviously one of those jerky jocks.

“Ayy…” He said when he saw Nuiz in the kitchen. She took one look at him and saw that he was fairly drunk. He begin walking over to her and Nuiz ran out of the kitchen.

“Freak.” Nuiz mumbled to herself. She was offered a drink by Hailey. She took the glass and drank it down straight away.

Suddenly, somebody put their hand around Nuiz. This startled her and she turned around to see Damian holding bottle of wine in his hand.

“Hey Mikayla.” He mumbled drunkenly, his voice giggling as he spoke. Nuiz rolled her eyes and said, “I’m not Mikayla, I’m Nuiz.” Though she half expected Damian to understand a word she was saying. I bet I might have to even speak a different language with these people, Nuiz thought.

“Yeah right Mikayla, you ain’t running away from me again, not anymore… Hehe…” Damian said as he tried his best to keep up with Nuiz who was fairly annoyed by all the drunk zombies in the house. She walked faster until Damian could no longer see her.

Nuiz glanced at her wrist-watch and saw that it was only a quarter past seven. She rolled her eyes. I need to get out of this house, she thought.

She got outside to the backyard and saw someone sitting on a swing that was tied to a big tree. He was wearing a red plaid shirt with black jeans and sneakers. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbow, showing off half of his arms.

It was definitely James, a friend of Zaid’s. His hair shined a blue-black shine in the night sky. Nuiz walked over to him.

“Nuiz, hey.” James said, smiling at Nuiz. He scooched over to make space for Nuiz to sit next to him. She sat down and the two were quiet.

“What’re you doing out here? The party’s inside,” James asked her. Nuiz looked at him and back to the night sky. “I should be asking you that,” She said. “I found you out here alone. Where’s your girl Layla, by the way? Wasn’t she invited?”

James looked at Nuiz and to the dark night sky. Nuiz just kept on looking at him, waiting for an answer.

“We fall in love with the people we can’t have,” James said after a while, looking at Nuiz as if he said that just to reassure himself.

“You guys over?”

“Can you not ask?”

Nuiz nodded and the both of them looked up at the night sky. “Where’s Zaid by the way?” James asked Nuiz after a long moment of silence.

“Wasn’t invited. The ‘boair’ case, remember?” And with that, they both laughed. Then, they were quiet again, just looking at the night sky. Suddenly, Nuiz thought of something.

“Git Gud?” She mentioned, looking at James. James looked back at her and the both of them just stared at each other for a whole minute.

“What?” James suddenly blurted out as he laughed. Nuiz was embarrassed and didn’t know what to say.

“I’ve been getting these notes from some person who calls himself Git Gud.” Nuiz told him, still embarrassed. James stopped laughing and took her seriously.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, honestly.” James said with a chuckle at the end of his sentence. All Nuiz did was smile weakly at him and looked up to the night sky.

“But since we’re talking about it, how does he give you these notes or letters?” James asked her.

“By leaving them in books.”

James suddenly smiled and sighed. “Love lives between the lines, aye?”

Nuiz grinned and asked, “C’mon, I’m sure you’ve done something just as dumb.”

James laughed for a bit before telling her, “I have actually, with Layla. Paper airplanes, though.”

Nuiz laughed and repeated, “Paper airplanes?”

“Yep, good old paper airplanes.”

Nuiz looked at him, obviously wanting to hear more so James went on and on about his paper airplane love story.

At the end of his story, they were both quiet, just staring up at the night sky again. It was just such a beautiful night that they couldn’t look away.

“I somehow find this relaxing,” Nuiz mumbled suddenly. James glanced at her and back to the night sky.

“You must have nyctophilia.” James mumbled an answer. Nuiz heard him and looked at him. “What’s that?” She asked.

“A person who loves the night or darkness.” James told her. Nuiz said oh and just stared at the night sky, letting herself relax for a minute.

…

Soon it was just Nuiz on the swing. James had went back into the house. Nuiz saw Syazee from a window and saw that she was dancing like mad.

It was half past nine by now. The two friends were supposed to leave half an hour ago but Syazee insisted that they stayed for a little while longer. Nuiz decided to text Syazee.

I’m going home. See you on Monday.

She got up and started walking back home, her hands in her pockets and her boots making a satisfying sound as she walked.

Suddenly, Nuiz felt her head aching. Her steps got slower and slower until she just collapsed onto the sidewalk. She didn’t know what to do, she just sat there on the sidewalk. Soon, she was lying down on the sidewalk, her head aching.

Before everything went black, the last thing she saw was a guy in a blue t-shirt in glasses hovering over her asking in a British accent, “Are you alright? Hello? Nuiz? Nuiz!”

And after that, everything went black.

…

To be continued in: Found on the Sidewalk.