Chapter 3
Naomi
After Nico got his cheese fries and I got my Frosty, we went to our old elementary school’s playground. We sat down on the swings to eat.
“I’m gonna miss this place after we graduate in less than 2 years,” Nico said.
“I can’t believe we’re already juniors. It feels like yesterday when I met you and Ruby,” I said, grinning at him. He groaned and covered his face in embarrassment. See, when we were in kindergarten, Ruby and I quickly hit it off and became best friends. Then, her mom had to relocate to Britain for 3 years for a business opportunity. A couple of days after Ruby left, Nico saw me kicking around a soccer ball by myself.
“You can play soccer?” he said, surprised. I cocked my head to the side and put my hands on my hips.
“Yeah, I can play. I bet I’m better than you, too,” I challenged. He laughed.
“None of the boys can beat me,” he said proudly.
“Okay, then take the ball from me,” I said with a smirk. He looked at me doubtfully. He jogged towards me and stuck his foot out to take the ball. I nudged it to the side with the outside of my foot and he stumbled. He tried and tried to take the ball from me, but I kept it just out of reach. Once we were both out of breath, he held out a T with his hands.
“I quit, you win,” he said breathlessly. I stuck my tongue out at him and in the split second I looked away from the ball, he took it.
“Hey! That’s not fair!” I yelled. He picked it up and held it over my head. He was a good 5 inches taller than me (and still is).
“Give me my ball before I have to hurt you!” I threatened.
“Oh, no, what are you going to do to me?” he taunted. I kicked him in the knee and he dropped the ball.
“Ow!” he fell and held his knee. I felt bad and helped him up.
“Are you okay?” I asked when he winced in pain as he stood up.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, puffing his chest up. I rolled my eyes.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Guess,” he said with a smile.
“You look like Nico di Angelo from the Percy Jackson books, so I’m gonna call you Nico,” I decided.
“Mohannad! Come play with us!” some random kid yelled from across the field.
“Wait!” he called back.
“So your name’s Mohannad?” I said.
“Yeah, but you can call me Nico if you want. What’s your name?”
“I’m Naomi,” I said, outstretching my hand. He shook it.
“Want to come play with me and the guys?” he asked.
“Okay, but you guys are gonna lose,” I giggled.
“We’ll see about that,” Nico said. Nico and I became best friends and I couldn’t wait to introduce him to Ruby. Once I did, they hit it off immediately, and eventually fell in love.
“Man, we’ve had a lot of memories here,” I said.
“Those monkey bars are where Ruby fell and lost her first tooth, that slide is where I hid and scared you both on our first Halloween together, and these swings are where you swung so high, you flew right off and broke your arm,” he said, recounting our memories.
“Hey! You didn’t scare us!” I said.
“Sure, I didn’t,” he said, patting my shoulder mockingly. I took one of his fries and threw it at him.
“You got cheese in my hair!” he yelled, jumping back. I laughed so hard my sides hurt.
“Oh, it’s on,” he said, grabbing a fistful and throwing them my way. Anticipating it, I swung myself to the side, hanging on to the pole that held the swings. I stuck my tongue out at him as all the fries hit the ground. He shook his head and smiled at how silly I looked.
“Okay, the joke’s over, hold the chain steady so I don’t crash into you when I let go,” I said, clinging on tighter. He rolled his eyes and made sure I didn’t go crashing into his swing.
“You wouldn’t survive two days without me,” he said.
“Mhm, you’re acting like you could,” I said, drinking my Frosty. He laughed at that. We sat in silence for a bit before Nico broke it.
“What if this changes everything?” he blurted out.
“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.
“You getting this part. I mean, we have less than two years left until college. After that, we all go off on our separate paths. If that wasn’t bad enough, now you’re leaving,” he said, running his hand through his hair. I put my hand on his knee.
“Hey. You do know that no matter what I do, or where I go, it’ll always be with you and Ruby, right? You guys mean more to me than anything. You’re always there for me and I’ll stop at nothing to do the same,” I said softly. There are some things they don’t know, a voice whispered in the back of my head. I clenched my jaw. Not now, I told myself. Nico gave me a small smile.
“Thanks, Naomi. That meant a lot.”
“Of course, you big dummy,” I said, leaning on his shoulder.
After Nico went back home, I snuck into my backyard and climbed up to the treehouse we made in 3rd grade. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but the inside was cozy. There was a space heater and string lights strung around the room. I had three lava lamps and a $100 box TV that was mainly for show. There was a mini-fridge and a small desk with a jewelry box. Recently, I added a bean bag chair in the open corner. I looked through the windows and closed the mini curtains. I crawled over to the mini-fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. Then, I went to the jewelry box and opened it, my hands shaking slightly. I need something strong today, I thought as my hand hovered over the box. I stopped and quickly patted my back pocket to make sure the note was still there. I grabbed two fentanyl pills and the last thing I remember is my head hitting the floor.
I don’t know how long I was out but it wasn’t long enough for the effects of the drugs to go away. I stared at the ceiling of my treehouse in a daze, my eyelids heavy. What’s in my hand? I think. I look over and I see a bottle of water.
“Drink, drink, drinkity, drink,” I say quietly as I fumble with the cap. I finally get the water bottle open and drag myself upright and take a couple of sips. The pounding in my head comes to a stop. I hum to myself as I take out my phone.
“Let’s play some music!” I whispered faintly, slightly swinging my head side to side. I played the first song in my recently searched and put it on loop. Go Hard 2.0 by Juice WRLD comes on. I struggle to keep my eyelids open as I look through my text messages.
“Wowee, I have a lot of texts,” I giggle. I scroll through them until I see 3 texts from “Queen of England.”
“Let’s call the Queen!” I droned. I click on her contact and accidentally click FaceTime instead. She answered immediately.
“Hey, Naomi, what’s up?” a blond teenager said. She was cuddling with a guy with brown hair who looked familiar.
“You silly goose, you’re not the queen of England!” I playfully scolded. They both looked at me quizzically.
“Naomi, are you okay?” she asked. I tried standing up and hit my head on the ceiling and dropped my phone. I quickly picked it up as they both looked at me in alarm.
“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” I said, brushing off their question and slumping my head against the wall. The guy looked closer.
“Are you in your treehouse?” he asked, giving me a confused look.
“I don’t know, are you in my treehouse?” I drawled. The mini curtain caught my eye.
“Oooh, there’s a window. Let’s see if I can fly! Bye, person who’s not the queen of England!” I hung up on them before they had a chance to react. I opened the curtain and tried wiggling out. Just as I was about to fall, my foot got caught in the branches.
“Oh, well, I guess I’ll just hang out here then,” I said. Since I couldn’t hear my music anymore, I decided to sing my favorite part of the song.
“It’s easy to say I been losing my mind for a couple of years so I turn to the drugs, Percs lean, pour it up, morphine got me numb, you pull me out that wreck, so I’m forever involved,” I sing while swaying my head. I see someone walking by, so I start waving. All that movement shook me free from the tree and I hit the ground.
“I didn’t feel a thing!” I say slowly. The person looked over.
“Hello? Are you okay?” he asked. I stumbled forward.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I say, in a daze. He squints at me and looks at me in bewilderment.
“Naomi? Is that you?” he says in astonishment.
“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” I said, leaning on the front fence. He frowned.
“Did you hit your head?” he asked. I giggled.
“No, did you?” I said, tapping his nose. He looked at me, completely confused.
“Are you sure you’re feeling alright?” he asked.
“I’m feeling better now that you’re here,” I said flirtatiously. I stuck my hands in my back pocket and felt something.
“Um, well, that’s nice to hear,” he mumbled. I ignored him and pulled out the note from my back pocket.
“Oooh, let’s read this note!” I said joyfully.
“What note?”
“The note I found in my pocket, silly! I can’t read ittt,” I pouted. Everything looked blurry. I gave it to the guy and he started reading it out loud.
“‘Hi. If you’re reading this, I’m probably high. I somehow made it out of the treehouse and found this in my pocket and wasn’t able to read it, so I gave it to you. Please get me somewhere safe and preferably away from my house. Love, Naomi.’ Shit,” he muttered after a pause..
“Wow, I wonder how high I am,” I whispered loudly, squinting at the night sky. He took a breath and looked me in the eye.
“This is gonna sound weird to you, especially in this… state, but can you come with me?” he asked.
“Normally, I don’t let boys take me home after the first date, but I’ll make an exception for you,” I said coyly. He blushed and clenched his jaw. I climbed over the fence and he put an arm around my shoulders.
“Sorry, I just want to make sure you don’t fall,” he stuttered. I batted my lashes at him and leaned on his shoulder, wrapping my arm around his back. I started singing Wellerman as he led me off to wherever.
“There once was a ship that put to sea, the name of the ship was Billy of Tea, the winds blew up and her blow dipped down, oh blow, my bully boys, blow,” I sang. He gave me a wary look, but cracked a grin and started singing the sea shanty softly with me.
“Soon, may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum, one day when the tonguing is done, we’ll take our leave and go,” we sang together. I nodded at him approvingly.
“Not bad, rando,” I said, patting his back. He gave me a half shrug. We walked about half a mile and made it to a hotel.
“I’m going to need you to stay quiet, okay?” he said.
“Like a spy mission?” I whispered back.
“Uh, yeah, it’s like a spy mission,” he said cautiously. I squealed with excitement.
“Okay, don’t worry, I can be a super good spy,” I whispered cheerily. He put a finger to his lips as we entered the lobby.
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