Me and my best friend Andrew used to be super close. We hung out nearly every single day, facetimed frequently, and always had each other’s backs. He was everything I could ever ask for in a friend, and we had a bond that no other people at our school could replicate.
School just started back up again, and I’m in my senior year now. We had been friends for 4 years at this point and we were excited to finish school together. He even told me that if anything ever happened between us, he’d be hurt and never be the same again. Something along those lines.
The first day of school was when everything changed, though, and I think I need everyone’s help.
However, the day before was a normal day. Andrew had come over to hang out on our last day of summer vacation and we had just started playing Madden on my Playstation. We weren’t talking too much yet, as my mom was in the kitchen right next to us, watching us play. She eventually brought a bag of Doritos to the couch for us to share before going upstairs.
As I leaned down and reached my hand into the bag to get a chip, Andrew became comfortable again and started talking. “Do you ever just… Never mind,” he said, his eyes fixated on the TV.
I looked up at him, laughing. Over the years, he had gotten bulkier, and he was now just an inch taller than me. I grab a chip, putting it into my mouth, and started chewing. “What were you gonna say?” I say, still laughing. I unpause the game, throwing the ball to one of my team members.
Andrew shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing. It’s not important,” He responds to me, aggressively tapping the buttons on his controller.
“Dude, you can tell me. It’s okay,” I reassure him. I made a touchdown on him in the game after saying that, much to his dismay, as he sat back on the couch, groaning. I laugh, patting him on the shoulder. “You suck,” I playfully said. I see Andrew start to crack up, looking at me.
“You got lucky. Let’s run up another game,” Andrew sat back up as I started to set up another game. Andrew stayed silent for a few moments, shaking his head. “It wasn’t important, really,” He said, going back to what I said earlier.
I raised an eyebrow. “Whatever you say, bro,”
As we played, focusing on the screen intently, Andrew’s phone buzzed in his pocket. I paused the game again as Andrew set his controller down, pulling his phone out of his pocket. I saw the blue screen turn on and light up his face as his eyes gazed over a text. Andrew sighed as he turned his phone off and got up.
“I gotta go, bro. My mom wants me to come home,” he said. I was disappointed, but I checked the time. It was 6 PM, so I understood.
“Oh, alright,” I say, a little bummed out. I put my arm out and dapped him up before he walked to the front door.
As he made it to the front door, he turned around and pointed at me. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school, don’t pussy out on the first day,” he said, trying not to laugh.
“Fuck you. You already know I’m not missing the first day of our last year,” I responded, snickering a little bit. As Andrew put his hand on the doorknob, he put his hand up into a peace sign, then flicked his index finger down, keeping his middle finger up, flipping me off. It was a running joke we had going on. He walked out the door a second later.
That was the last normal conversation we ever had together.
He didn’t call me for the rest of that night, which didn’t alarm me at first, as I spent the rest of the evening setting up my backpack and setting an alarm clock on my phone to use for the whole school year. I was ready to get back into the routine, as I was used to it after 3 other years of high school.
The next morning I woke up tired but in a good mood. I was nervous for the first day of school, but I showered, brushed my teeth, and got dressed- leaving me with 10 minutes of free time before the bus came to pick me up. I got my phone from my charger and scrolled through my social media’s for the remaining time I had.
As I scrolled, I was confused when I saw that Andrew had unadded me on Snapchat.
It struck me as odd, and I decided to shoot him a DM about it on Instagram. I opened his profile. I was blocked. I also realized his profile picture and bio were different. His profile picture was just a black screen and his bio said “I must go in.”
I was even more confused now. Why would he do this? It had to be an accident. I decided to just text him and ask, to see if it was a mistake or not. I sent him a text, but as it was sent, the text turned green and never said it was delivered. He had blocked me on iMessage as well.
“The fuck?” I muttered to myself. I felt myself begin to get a little scared. Did Andrew cut off all contact with me? Did he not want to be friends anymore? I didn’t know, but a part of me was still trying to convince myself that it was just a mistake and that I would ask him at school. I heard my bus pull up to my house, and I swung my bag over my back and ran down the stairs, and out the door, walking toward the bus.
When I finally got to school, I decided to find Andrew before first period started. There were 4 minutes left, so I didn’t have a lot of time. I roamed the halls, looking around for him, saying hi to other friends along the way. 1 minute before the bell for first period rang, I gave up and looked at my schedule. I had math for first period.
I practically jogged to the class, looking for the room it was in, breathing a sigh of relief when I found it. I opened the door and walked in, seeing nearly every seat occupied as the bell rang. I saw the teacher typing something down on her computer. I saw an empty seat and made my way to it, making sure to not bother anybody.
I won’t bore anyone with the details of this class. Unfortunately, we had a review quiz on our first day, and worst of all, it was worth points.
The test wasn’t that hard, but there were still several questions that I didn’t understand and forgot how to solve. I hate to admit this, but I had to sneak my eyes onto the kid next to me’s paper to get the answers. I wrote them down quickly and quietly sighed when I was finished and turned it in.
When the bell rang, signifying the end of the period, I quickly got up and exited the class. I checked my schedule. I had Social Studies next period. For the 5 minutes we had for passing time, I tried searching for Andrew again, but still did not find him before class. I started getting frustrated as I quit looking for him so I could go to my next class, making sure I wouldn’t be late.
I couldn’t focus in that class. So far, my first day back at school wasn’t going that great. This class period was mostly spent with the teacher running over school guidelines and the ground rules of his class, but I couldn’t bring myself to be interested. I wanted to find Andrew and ask him why he was blocking me on everything. I was scared for our friendship most of all.
The bell rang again, and I left the class for my third period. I checked my schedule again and saw I had English as my next class.
I didn’t bother looking for Andrew at first, partly because there wasn’t that much time for passing period to find him, and also because I wasn’t confident that I would. I didn’t even have him in any of my classes yet.
I walked towards the hall that my class was in, checking my schedule again to make sure I had the room number right. As I looked back up to see where I was going, I saw Andrew in front of me, his back facing me.
I was caught off guard at first, but then I saw it as an opportunity to finally ask him. I tapped him on the shoulder, trying to get his attention.
Andrew turned around, looking a little irritated but when he saw me, I saw him form a smirk. I went to ask him what the deal was with him blocking me but before I could, he interrupted me and said “You think you’re funny, huh?”
I look at him, confused. “What are you talking about?” I respond. Andrew takes a step closer to me, nearly getting in my face. I shiver, as it seemed like his eyes were blazing right through me.
“I know what you’re going to ask me. Here’s my answer. I’m not trying to be your friend anymore,” he said. My heart sank when he said this, but he continued by saying “But I want to play a little game. I want to see how you go about this year with me not being your friend, but your enemy,” He then leaned his head over to my shoulder, whispering into my ear; “I’ll be watching you,”
“Andrew, cut the bullshit,” I try laughing, but I slowly stop laughing when I realized he wasn’t laughing back. Andrew shoves me back a couple feet, surprising me and nearly making me lose my balance. Andrew gets closer to me as I look back at Andrew, more frustrated.
“The fuck is your problem?” I said, my voice trembling halfway through my sentence. Even though he was my best friend, this was starting to make me a little afraid. A crowd of people started to form around us. I looked around at the people circling us in shock.
“I’m not fucking around when I say that,” Andrew said, this time more antagonistic, but still calm. “I wanna see what you got first,” Andrew puts his hands up in a fighting stance. I knew what was possibly going to happen, and I looked around for a teacher in sight, but there were none around. It was absent from any adults.
I stare back at Andrew, putting my hands up, surrendering. “I’m not trying to fight you, I just don’t understand-“
Before I could finish my sentence, Andrew threw a punch directly into my face, nearly knocking me down and whirling my head to the side. It felt like a boulder was smashed into my face. I spat out blood upon the impact of it.
I got back up and put my hands up. The punch was painful, and I was terrified of what Andrew would do to me next. “Please…” I started pleading. “If this is a joke, it’s going too far, man,” I saw Andrew shake his head after I said that. I saw him pulling his arm back for a punch, so I acted upon instinct, swinging my hand and punching him across the face, catching him off guard and stunning him. I didn’t want to do it, but I had to defend myself.
The crowd of people around us started saying “Ooooh” as I did that, almost shocked that I did anything. I saw Andrew look back at me, in approval, but also in anger. My heart started hammering fast. What did I just do?
I acted upon instinct again and went to throw another punch, this time Andrew was able to easily dodge it. Before I could even react, Andrew grabbed me and lifted me up. I tried saying something, telling him to chill, but Andrew didn’t listen and slammed me down to the tiled floor, in front of a crowd of people. On the first day of school.
I groaned as I lay on the ground, and kids started laughing, patting Andrew on the back, as if they were proud of him for turning on me. Andrew laughed at me and waved at me, saying “Good luck on your mission, old friend,”
What mission? My mission on going throughout the school year without my best friend? What did he mean that he was going to be my enemy?
As I was going through these thoughts, I felt someone lightly put their hands on me. I looked up and saw a girl trying to help me up. She was extremely pretty. She had long black-ish hair and luscious dark green eyes- I snapped out of it quickly and slowly made it to my feet as the bell for third period rang. I was late.
“Shit,” I said, looking around. There were still no teachers or adults around. None had seen the fight that had just happened between Andrew and I. I saw a teacher walking across another hall mere feet away from me. I saw her look at me, yelling at us to get to class.
The girl that had helped me up put my arm around her to help me stand. She looked at me. “Do you need help walking? I can-“
“No, it’s fine, I can walk,” I say, wincing, accidentally interrupting her. The girl removed my arm from her shoulder as I stood on my foot, holding onto my back. The impact Andrew’s slam had was HARD, and my back felt bruised.
“What class do you have?” The girl asked me as we started to walk together in the hall. I take a deep breath, taking in the back pain.
“English,” I say, nervously saying, trying to navigate where the class was. I saw the girl’s eyes light up.
“No way! I have that class right now, too,” She said. I smile a little bit. “Oh, my name’s Mia, by the way,”
“Cool. I’m Ryan,” I say back. Yep, that’s my name. Feel free to address me by that in the comments.
Mia smiles as I say that, then points behind me. I turn around and see the class we were supposed to be in. I laugh a little bit and go to the door.
“Hope the teacher isn’t mad at us for being late,” Mia giggles. I raise an eyebrow at her as I open the door, and we walk in. As we walk in, the teacher stops her sentence and gives us a look as we come in. The rest of the class awkwardly stares at us. I felt uncomfortable as I walked towards a seat.
Anyway, I’m getting off track. Mia and I made sure we sat next to each other in that class, as we had just become friends. We even had another class together; Science.
The rest of the day went fine. I didn’t see Andrew again for the rest of that day, so that confirms that we don’t have any classes together, which, after the encounter we had at school, I was glad. I don’t know what’s wrong with him now, but I’m terrified of him now.
After school, I started walking to the busses, heading towards the exit door of the school. I took a quick look behind me and saw Andrew, staring at me, following me.
I started getting timid as I pushed open the doors quickly. As I got out to the bus area, I decided to take a right, away from where my bus was to see if Andrew would follow me. I took the right. I looked behind me. Andrew was still following me, this time walking faster toward me.
I started getting more frightened. I looked around me to see if anybody was noticing me getting followed, practically stalked, but nobody did. Everyone was standing around laughing, unbothered. I was always antisocial so I was too scared to ask anyone for help. As Andrew kept following me, I felt impending doom fall over me, like the walls were closing in on me.
As Andrew got closer, I didn’t think as I started sprinting away, running towards my bus. I felt Andrew close behind as people started turning around to see the commotion. I saw my bus in the near distance but I still felt Andrew getting closer, saying my name.
The bus doors were still open and before Andrew could grab me I practically jumped onto the bus, to the surprise of my bus driver. I checked to see if Andrew came in. He didn’t. He was just giving me a dead stare, smirking. As I walked farther down the bus to find a seat, Andrew followed my move, looking through the bus windows to continue staring at me.
I steadily sat down in a seat, closing my eyes in comfort as there were 2 kids sitting in the seat next to me, blocking Andrew’s view from looking in. Even though I felt safe, I still knew his eyes were laid on the window, trying to look in after me. He was like a psycopath now, this wasn’t the old Andrew.
When the bus came to my stop, I got off in a rush and walked to my house, which was just around the corner. As I got off, I started getting the weird feeling of being watched as the bus drove off. Anxious, I started skimming over my surroundings, feeling like someone was going to jump out of a bush and attack me at any moment, but that never happened. I nervously pulled out my phone and texted my mom that I was home, since she was going to be at work for another few hours. When I unlocked the door and walked in, a dreadful feeling came over me as well. I noted it and started taking short glances around the house.
I didn’t know what I was trying to find but there was nothing, however, the feeling remained. Something felt wrong. I walked up the stairs and went up to my room, almost collapsing on my bed as I turned on my phone. I checked the time. 3:46 PM.
I opened YouTube, the feeling of something not being right remaining, making it hard for me to enjoy the video I was watching. Halfway through the video, I got a notification from Snapchat. I had received a message from Andrew.
I immediately opened Snapchat to view the message. I was hoping Andrew had come back to his senses, but part of me also knew it probably wasn’t good. I opened the snap and looked at the message.
Andrew had sent me a picture of my house.
I froze. I know Andrew has been over to my house multiple times, but how could he be here? I stared at the message for what felt like hours, not knowing what to do. Do I call the cops? No, I wasn’t going to do that to Andrew. But an even bigger question I had was, was Andrew actually outside my house, or was he just fucking with me?
I started slowly getting up from my bed, making my way to my window, which was covered by my curtains. My window faced the front yard and driveway, so I’d be able to see if Andrew was there or not. I was scared, I didn’t know what I would see, and I almost pulled my hand back in utter fear when I reached for the pull rod.
I was shaking when I pulled the rod down and opened up the curtains. I looked outside, nearly screaming when I saw Andrew standing out in my front yard, staring directly up at me. His eyes didn’t look normal. They looked baleful.
I pulled the curtains close and stepped back, horrified. All I could do was reopen Snapchat and message Andrew back; “What the fuck?”
A second later I received a new message. I opened it. It was a picture of me in math, clearly looking at somebody else’s paper, cheating. It was taken outside the class, through the tiny window in the door. He had taken a picture of me.
Before I could respond, Andrew sent another message. It read; “If you don’t come out here, I will send the photo to the teacher and show her that you cheated. You don’t want to take an F, do you?”
I stared at the text in disbelief. He really took a picture of me without me noticing, and he was going to blackmail me?
He sent another message soon after. I hesitated before pressing to view it. I looked at the message. He had sent the password to my iCloud. Along with it came the message “Your iCloud password will also be all over the internet, so everyone will get access to everything you have. So what’s it gonna be?”
I looked at my closed window, my mind racing with so many thoughts. It felt as if I had deaf and the only thing I could hear was my heartbeat. I wanted to go out and confront him, but I also didn’t. I was too afraid to. He was supposed to be my best friend, why was he doing this?
I hovered my fingers over the keyboard, not thinking as I typed out the message “No.”
I regretted sending that because I knew what the consequences would be. My iCloud would get hacked, and my life would potentially be ruined, and if I changed it, he could most likely just get the password again.
As I stood and contemplated, I heard a loud bang downstairs on the front door, followed by loud yelling that was definitely Andrew. It startled me and made me nearly jump out of my skin. Andrew sent me another snap a minute later. I opened it quickly. It read; “You think I’m joking? I’m not fucking joking. Get the fuck out here Ryan or I’ll ruin your god damn life.”
I reread the message over and over, trying to get a grasp on what I should do. I wanted to stay inside and be safe but deep down, I knew that it was best that I went out to see what he wanted.
Panicked and baffled, I walked out of my room and down the stairs, heading towards the front door.