Stacey really wanted me to go with her to that beach party. I thought that her annoying me all day long was the end of it. I should have known better because she is now calling me in the middle of the night.

“Come on!, it’s going to be sooo fun!! You need to move your ass out of that gloomy house of yours and touch some grass.. or sand in this case, ” She said with her typical whiny voice.

This would have been okay if she didn’t know that I was working on my Art project and that I couldn’t afford dwelling. For god sake! The deadline is in two days!

“I told you a hundred times that I can’t, and I’m starting to get a feeling that you don’t pay attention when I am talking to you,” I replied.

“Come on! Of course I do, we are besties remember?"

“Sadly I do. Worst decision of my life,” I whispered to myself.

“I heard you! You cunt! But seriously you really need a break, even your drawings became weird lately. You know what?! I will get you home whenever you feel like it.”

“And?”

“What do you mean?” she said pretending to be innocent.

“Spell the beans. What’s so interesting about this party?”

“Well… Brian will be there and i really need some moral support.”

Of course Brian was there, he recently transferred to our high school. Since then all she talked about was somewhat related to that brick-wall of a human being. He is an okay guy from the little I knew of him, but seeing her so obsessed over him worried me. The last boyfriend Stacey had was a dick that enjoyed partying a little too much, nothing wrong for a teen. However, when he got wasted enough; he tended to make out with everything that had a heartbeat.

One of her first boyfriends- jasper I think - was caught dealing drugs in the school grounds, he went straight to a juvenile detention center; she was devastated for…a day or two before bouncing back with another asshole.

All of this to say that my friend tastes when it comes to the opposite gender was questionable at best. So the fact Brian seemed like a good dude freaked me the fuck out.

“Soooooo?!....” she cried in my ear which pushed me to bring the phone down.

Maybe I should go with her. Professor Donovan asked us to draw 'an impactful scenery' for our final assignment. I have been stuck in this project for days, hopefully an hour or two out could bring up new ideas and help my creativity.

“Two hours at most, and you buy me ice cream on our way back,” I said.

“Deal. It’s going to be awesome! maybe we could find you a Romeo and… “

“Don’t even think about it,”I interrupted. Her trying to match me with guys was an awful idea, especially knowing which type she's usually attracted to.

“So? When are you coming?” I asked.

I barely finished talking when I heard a loud honking noise coming from the front of the house.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“You were outside the whole time, weren't you?”

“Guilty.”

“Why did you make so much noise? What if my dad was home?”

“But he isn’t. You told me he was on some business trip… You see! I actually pay attention when you talk.”

Oh yeah, I told her that? The problem with making up so many stories about my family is that with time I forget half of them, in this case it wasn’t a complete lie my dad was indeed not home. However Stacey didn’t need to know that. No one did.

“Give me five minutes to get ready.”

“Okay, I am so exited Brian will be there and I….” I hung up the phone and grabbed a simple gray t-shirt and a black jean from my closet.

After I finished tying my shoes, I closed my painting tubes and covered my unfinished charts. While passing through the corridor leading downstairs, I heard a weird clicking noise coming from behind me.

I couldn’t hold my self and glanced at the door of his room. The sound came from there.

He is here. He is here.

No, he is not. Surely dad was far away wasting his money in some pub, there is absolutely no reason for him to come home tonight. The last time I saw him was when I came back from school days ago, he was already in his car when I saw him. He drove away before I could reach the house.

I was walking toward his door without even realizing it, I moved my hand from my side and reached for the handle.

Honk! Honk!

The sound startled me and I pulled my hand back. Not today. I can’t be having delusions so soon after taking those fucking pills. This is just some weird noise that houses made.

I got out as quickly as I could, toward Stacey's car.

***

It was too loud in here and I hated the sand. Of course, Stacey ditched me the second Brian showed up and I was left near a bonfire surrounded by people I didn’t know, they were looking at me like they would at priest in a whorehouse. I seriously began questioning my decision to come here.

“Laura is it?”

I turned to my left and saw who was talking to me. Greg Boilie from History class. Seriously, how can you not be sure of your classmates names when it has been months already?

“Well… depending on what you want, I might or might not be Laura, ” I said.

He looked at me with his wide brown eyes, brows arched up and an awkward smile on his egg-shaped face.

“Well. Humm… sorry to bother you, I just wanted to say that I took a look at some of your paintings in the last school exhibition and I thought they were beautiful the way you can capture emotions in them is amazing.”

Compliments? I can take those.

“Thanks,” I said giving him a genuine smile

“ I also observed something that keeps showing in your paintings; it looks like some sort of pattern.” He said while keeping eye contact, like he was searching for a reaction. Greg reached for his pocket and pulled a piece of paper from it. After folding it he gave it to me.

It was just a blank piece of paper. Nothing special about it.

“is this a joke? ” I said barely holding my irritation.

“No. of course not, it’s very subtle. Sometimes it’s drawn in the corner of the portray and in others it’s in the eyes, some have it in the shape of clouds or shadows … do you really not remember drawing them? Is it not your signature or something?” I gave his paper back to him and replied. “it’s not funny.”

Greg took his time to put the paper back in his pocket, then when he looked back at me he had worry written all over his traits.

“I know it may sound crazy but my older brother used to scribble the same patterns. He wasn’t a painter or an artist but every time he had a pencil in his hand, being during class or at home he drew these same shapes.”

Usually Greg wasn’t this weird. He was pretty popular in school all things considered, wasn’t the typical “football player attractive ”, still girls found his nerdy demeanor cute and boys enjoyed his company well enough. So why was he here talking about some conspiracy theory surrounding some patterns that I couldn’t even see.

“Why don’t you ask your brother about it? I am sure he can give you more information than I could.” I said, before turning to the party and searching for Stacey with my eyes. Greg was beginning to go crazy on me and I didn’t like it.

“My brother disappeared four years ago. The police couldn’t find anything about his whereabouts.”

It was grief then. After losing someone they love people try finding reasons when there was none. Shitty things just happened no matter what we did.

“I am sorry. I didn’t know for your brother Greg but I really need to find my friend and get going,” I said with a sorry look.

Greg came closer and grabbed me by my forearm. His grip was tight and it kept tightening.

“You don’t understand! When I confronted my brother about his scribblings he couldn’t see them too… soon after he vanished from the face of the earth."