The Story of Us

by Rebecca Harner

  Apparently, those guys who were in my room used to be my friends and we were all a part of an organization called 26 MGMT. I was also famous on a social media app called Vine and I had millions of followers on my Twitter and Instagram accounts. My mom showed me pictures of me at the meet-and-greet events, my Vines, and Violet.

  Violet was the beautiful girl who ran out of my room. Supposedly we were dating for a couple of months. I felt bad for her. She fell in love with me but I don’t remember a thing about her. I knew she must be going through a really hard time. If only I could do something to make her feel better.

  “All right, Mr. Grier, you’re all set.” Dr. Lodt came in and startled me from my thoughts.

  “Oh . . . right. Thanks, sir.” I held my hand out for him to shake it and he gladly responded.

  “Just be extra careful you don’t do anything that could harm your head. The hospital near you will schedule checkup appointments for you. In the meantime, just try to relax. I can’t imagine how much stress you may be feeling right now,” he told me.

  I nodded and he led me through a bunch of hallways to meet up with my mom and Skylynn. I picked up Skylynn and set her up on my shoulders. She giggled as I walked across the parking lot, bouncing her up and down.

  My bags were already packed and we headed straight to the airport.

  The flight was a horribly long experience. I mostly was asleep during it, but Skylynn was too excited and kept waking me up.

  We finally landed in North Carolina, and by the time we got home it was five o’clock in the evening.

  “What’s up, man?” Hayes said as he walked out of the house to greet us.

  “I’m fine,” I told him.

  “You’re lucky today is Friday and you don’t have to go back to school until Monday,” he said as he grabbed Skylynn’s stuff and closed the car door.

  “Yeah, I’m not really excited about going back to school.” I walked into the house and it looked pretty much the same. A few new decorations here and there, but nothing major was different.

  Will came running down the steps and looked extremely different. “Life sucks for you, doesn’t it?” he asked.

  “You grew a beard? I see you have been working out more,” I told him.

  He looked at me like I was a freak before walking past me. “Yeah, he is going to hate life,” he yelled out as he walked into the kitchen.

  I ran in after him. Food. I hadn’t had any good food for a while. Hospital food didn’t soothe the stomach. I grabbed a bowl, cereal, and some milk and pushed them over to where I was sitting.

  Hayes scooted closer to me and looked around to make sure no one was listening. “Hey, I know you don’t understand anything, but you really need to talk to that girl,” he said.

  I just shook my head and ignored him.

  “Nash, she lives right next door.”

  “Really?” My eyes grew wide. Pretty girls like her didn’t move to our area very often.

  “She is in love with you and you are in love with her. You told me that she was the one, Nash,” he whispered to me.

  “Look, Hayes. I don’t want to hurt her.” I set my spoon down and pushed my chair away from the table.

  “You guys have been through so much,” he yelled at me. Now everyone in my house was staring at us.

  “I can’t just start acting like the guy who I was. He isn’t here anymore. I can’t just act like I love this girl when I can’t remember a thing about her. I won’t be able to make those stupid Vines or whatever they are called. Just let me be,” I yelled back at him. I stood up and was about to walk away to my room when a figure stepped through the hallway, causing me to lose my balance and nearly fall on top of the person.

  “Sorry,” she managed to say. It was Violet. I looked back at Hayes, who just sighed.

  I pushed past Violet and ran upstairs. I slammed the door shut without thinking twice. What was I going to do?

  Violet

  My heart jumped when Nash slammed his door shut.

  I glanced over at his family but then immediately turned away. “I’m sorry. I’m just going to go.” I started to turn around to walk out but Will grabbed my arm.

  “No, it’s okay, stay,” he said.

  “Well, I just wanted to come over and tell you guys something,” I slowly said. They all were just staring at me, waiting for me to speak. “Um, I think it’s best that I stop seeing you guys.” I felt the tears start to roll down my face.

  I heard them all gasp. “What?! No, you can still visit us,” Mrs. Grier said.

  I shook my head. “I still care about Nash and I know me hanging around here is going to aggravate him. I don’t want him to see me as the clingy ex-girlfriend he doesn’t know.”

  “But sweetie, you are like family to us,” she argued.

  “And I thank you for welcoming me into your lives. You guys are such caring and loving people. Whomever Nash falls in love with later on is going to love you guys as much as I did.” By this time, I was full-on crying.

  Skylynn ran over to me with tears rolling down her face. “Please don’t leave us. Nash loves you.”

  I picked her up and she buried her face in my shoulder. “Maybe one day he will again, but not right now.” I set her down and gave everyone hugs. They were all so sad to see me go, especially Hayes.

  “Bye, guys. I love you all so much,” I managed to say through my tears.

  I headed down the hallway, but something in me made me stop. I looked up and saw Nash looking over the balcony, staring at me. He started walking down the steps toward me and I ran out the door.

  Nash

  I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on their conversation, but I couldn’t stop myself.

  “I still care about Nash and I know me hanging around here is going to aggravate him. I don’t want him to see me as the clingy ex-girlfriend he doesn’t know,” I heard Violet tell them. She still cared about me, even though I was putting her through so much pain?

  “But sweetie, you are like family to us,” my mom said. I guess she really was important to all of them.

  “And I thank you for welcoming me into your lives. You guys are such caring and loving people. Whomever Nash falls in love with later on is going to love you guys as much as I did.” I could hear her crying and that just broke my heart.

  By now, I was standing near the railing. I wanted to hear every single word they were saying down there. I heard Skylynn crying.

  “Please don’t leave us. Nash loves you,” she said to Violet.

  “Maybe one day he will again, but not right now,” she responded to her.

  Violet said good-bye to everyone and I could hear Skylynn bawling and my mom crying as well.

  I saw Violet start to walk out the door, then stop and turn around. We made eye contact for a couple of seconds before she broke away and ran out.

  “Wait!” I called after her. I bolted down the steps and ran after her. “Violet, wait!” I shouted. I saw her running on a trail that went through the woods. Damn, she could run really fast.

  When I finally caught up to her, she was sitting on a bench that was across from the lake. I remember going up there all the time with my family for picnics. That was a long time ago, though.

  I slowly walked up to her and sat on the other side of the bench. I looked up and her face was wet from crying. She never turned to look at me, she just stared out at the lake.

  “What do you want, Nash?” she finally broke the silence.

  “We need to talk,” I told her.

  She shook her head and looked down. “There is nothing to talk about.”

  “The last thing I want to do is hurt you even more. I know that I must’ve cared about you so much and you meant so much to me,” I told her.

  “Just stop. Stop saying those things.” She got up from the bench and started walking away. />
  I jogged up to her and grabbed her arm. “You can’t ignore my family. I can tell how much they love you and how much you love them.”

  She laughed a little bit. “So you were listening in on our conversations.”

  “Umm . . .” I looked down and kicked something underneath my feet.

  “Look, I was in love with that Nash. I loved him so much that my heart hurt. Seeing Hayes and the rest of your family breaks my heart. I need to move on,” she said. She looked up at me but I couldn’t stand to look at her. Seeing such a beautiful girl who used to be in love with me being so sad, it broke my heart.

  “Besides, you have more important things to deal with right now. I can keep your fans busy for now, but not forever. I know it’s hard, but sometime you are going to have to try. You were so important to them, it’s unbelievable,” she went on.

  “We can still try to be friends, you know. Maybe one day I’ll be able to love you as much as I did,” I told her.

  Violet

  “We can still try to be friends, you know. Maybe one day I’ll be able to love you as much as I did,” he told me as I looked up into his eyes. I missed those blue eyes so much. I wanted to just kiss him and never let him go. But I had to. I had to let him go.

  “I have to go. Bye, Nash.” I turned around and walked away from him. Walked away from the life we used to have. I had to move on, he was just going to hold me back. A part of me wanted to turn around and run into his arms, but I knew he wouldn’t be there to catch me. I had to just keep walking and I didn’t dare look back.

  I was back home in about five minutes. Hayden was on the phone with someone but hung up when I came in. “Hey. Where have you been?” he asked.

  “Just had to talk about a few things,” I told him as we walked into the kitchen. He grabbed me a box of mac ’n’ cheese. “I’m guessing you want me to make these?” I asked him. He tossed me another box.

  “Please,” he begged me.

  “Fine, but you are doing the dishes.”

  He nodded and sat at the table. “So Dad left about an hour ago, had some conferences or something in DC,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes. “Of course he did.”

  “I don’t believe him,” Hayden said. I nodded along with him. We all knew what he was actually doing.

  “Where’s Mom?” I asked him.

  “She has the night shift tonight, so she won’t be back until late morning,” he responded. Didn’t surprise me. We talked about Hayden’s life for a couple of more minutes while we ate our dinner.

  “So, enough about me . . .” he went on. “What are you going to do on Monday?”

  “Go to school. Just pick up where I left off, since the meet-and-greets are done for now.” I poked at the rest of my noodles and eventually shoved the bowl away from me. “You don’t have to go, you know. Mom is seeing some lawyer tomorrow night in New York. She would never know. I mean, people would obviously understand.”

  “I’ve never skipped school, Hayden—what if I get caught?” I liked the idea but I didn’t want to get in trouble with the school.

  “You won’t get caught, I’ll stay home with you. We have a virus or something.” He had that devious look in his eye. He skipped school a lot back home and never got caught. Our parents were away too much to even realize anything.

  “Fine. We shall skip school.” I jumped up from my chair and grabbed the dirty dishes in the sink.

  “I thought I was—” he began to say, but I cut him off.

  “Just forget it, I got it,” I assured him. He nodded and left the kitchen.

  I had never done anything this rebellious, so I felt like a complete criminal. It was nice to embrace my bad side. Enough with that goody-girl, she was long gone.

  Violet

  I was in a deep sleep. Something that I’d not had in a long time.

  “Violet, wake up!” I heard Hayden say to me. He was shaking me but I ignored him. “Nooo.” I rolled over and kicked him in the side.

  “What the fuck, Violet? Someone’s at the door for you, but just forget it. I’ll tell Cameron to leave,” he said while walking out my door.

  Cameron! I bolted up from bed and ran downstairs to our foyer. “Cammy!” I screamed while running to him.

  “Hey, Violet!” He picked me up as he hugged me.

  “Why are you here?” I asked him when he put me down.

  “I wanted to surprise you!” he said.

  “Of course you did.” I smiled at him and he set his bags on the floor. Wait, bags? “Umm . . . Cam. How long are you staying?” I asked him.

  “However long you want me to. I’ve been really worried about you and my parents told me to come. They already talked to your mom and she’s fine with it,” he told me.

  “Yeah!” I jumped on him and he threw me over his shoulder. “Hey! Let me down.” I started kicking and hitting him but it was no use. He ran around my house with me screaming. After about two minutes of this, he finally put me down on the couch.

  “So, how’s my best friend doing?” he asked. I was trying to stay strong for everybody, but he always saw straight through that.

  “It’s hard,” I told him. I was looking down and twiddling my thumbs.

  “Have you talked to any of them?” he asked.

  I nodded. “I told all of them I couldn’t see them anymore.”

  “What? Violet, why would you say that?”

  “Because it hurts too much! Everything reminds me of him and I can’t take it anymore. I’m moving on—it’s over, Cameron!” I yelled. He tried to grab me but I pushed him away. I walked straight to my room and jumped into my bed.

  Once again, I began crying. I heard a couple of knocks on my bedroom door but I didn’t get up. I felt someone sit on the end of the bed.

  “I’m guessing you weren’t planning on going to school today.” He chuckled.

  I laughed too. “You guessed right.” I sat up and grabbed his hand. “Look, I’m sorry for snapping at you. I’m just tired of talking about it.”

  “It’s okay, Violet. I understand you are still very fragile about the whole situation,” he said, still looking down.

  “Why don’t you date anybody?” I asked him.

  “Haven’t really found any girl I’ve actually connected with yet. Almost everyone else I meet just cares whether I put them in a Vine or not.” He finally picked his head up and looked at me with sad eyes. “If I do, they’re already taken by someone else. You know, ever since that day at the hospital, I felt some type of connection between us. I don’t know if it’s a sign that we are meant to be really good friends, or something else.” He stopped. “It’s been driving me crazy and I need to know exactly what relationship we have together.” He started leaning in and I didn’t pull away. I was having the same feelings of connection that he was and I think we both needed to know.

  I wasn’t nervous, but I was scared of what I was going to feel. What if he liked me but I didn’t feel the same way about him? All these thoughts were racing through my head before our lips finally met.

  He didn’t kiss the same way Nash did. He was more gentle and moved slowly. Nash was always forceful, which I loved, but we never had simple kisses.

  Cameron was simple. Cameron was sweeter.

  Violet

  “No!” I screamed. I sat up in my bed and checked the time. It was 4:23 a.m. It was just a dream. I put a hand over my heart and let out a big sigh while falling back on my bed. Thank goodness it was just a dream.

  “Are you okay?” Hayden swung open my door and ran toward me. That definitely woke me up.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bad dream, that’s all,” I assured him. I saw relief go through him and he relaxed.

  “You know, it’s so hard being your older brother!” he told me as he fell on the floor.

  “Wow, thanks. And you’re such a
walk in the park.” I threw a pillow at him and he acted offended. He started fake crying and flailed his arms and legs on the floor. “That’s it, have a tantrum.” I started laughing at him.

  “Oh, Mom is coming home later this morning, so our little plan is canceled,” he told me as he walked out my door.

  “Nooo,” I groaned. I threw the covers back over my head. There was no way I was going to fall back asleep. I needed to call Cameron.

  After five rings he finally picked up.

  “Hello,” he answered quietly. I must’ve woken him up.

  “Hey, it’s Violet,” I told him.

  “Oh, hey. Is everything all right?” He immediately perked up and was talking clearly.

  “I have a question,” I began.

  “And I have an answer.” He chuckled.

  “Funny.” I gave him a slight laugh. “I just want to make sure that you understand our relationship. I love you, but as a brother . . . nothing more than that,” I slowly told him.

  “Violet, I don’t like you that way. I see you too much as a sister,” he told me. Thank God.

  “That’s good. It’s just I didn’t want to put the wrong idea in your head. That’s all, then,” I told him.

  “Wait, you woke me up for this?” He laughed.

  “Sorry. Good night, little Cam,” I told him in a baby voice.

  “More like good morning. Bye, Violet,” he replied.

  “Bye! Text me later,” I responded before he hung up. Well, that was a relief.

  Nash

  I didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. I was beyond nervous about school the next day. I wondered what everyone was going to say to me.

  “Nash, I’m leaving. C’mon!” my mom yelled up the steps. Apparently, I used to drive myself, but I don’t quite remember how to drive. Pathetic Nash, right?

  I ran downstairs and slipped on my Sperrys before heading out the door. I hopped in the front seat before Hayes beat me to it. He complained the whole way there about how much he hated school, saying he thought it was useless. My mom just rolled her eyes and I was trying to hide my smirk.