Another Friendship Ruined

(Jayden)

I hurtled down the sidewalk trying to reach Vienna's house. Sadly, I forgot who lived on this street.

"Where do you think you're going?"

It was dark so all I saw was a silhouette of a skinny girl with short blonde hair, and guess who it was.

"Well well, hello Rachelle," I said.

"And Chloe." said the second figure.

It was so dark I didn't realize she was there.

"What do you two want?" I asked. "And how did you know I was out here?"

"Sydney, she's been our secret spy for a while now," Chloe said.

I couldn't tell if she was smiling or not, but the way she said it made it sound like she was.

"First of all, no she hasn't, second does either of you have a flashlight?"

Rachelle took out her phone and pointed it at my. "You're coming with us."

"Only if you can catch me!" I sprinted down the street as fast as I could. "Only a couple more houses," I said to myself.

Rachelle and Chloe chased after me.

I saw Vienna's house, I saw almost there.

Rachelle caught up and was about to tackle me but I moved out of the way.

Chloe helped her friend, giving me the time I needed to run away.

I reached Vienna's house and knocked on the door. "guten Abend."

Vienna stood there, a bandana was wrapped around her long brown hair. "Mom is waiting for you inside, come on."

I hurried in but not before checking that Rachelle and Chloe were gone. We walked up the stairs and into the living room, but instead of a living room, it had been turned into a full on bedroom.

"So my mom went a bit overboard with the decorations but you'll be sleeping here," Vienna said.

"This is a huge step up from my mattress at Sydney's house," I laughed hopping onto the twin size bed. "The sheets are so soft." I was so mesmerized that I didn't notice Vienna's mom come in.

"You must be Jayden Davis."

"Thank you for welcoming me into your home Mrs. Bauer," I said.

Mrs. Bauer smiled, "I've been waiting for this day to come."

"I think I'll be less than that, like a transfer student," I commented.

"Vienna darling, bring Jayden the present," Mrs. Bauer called.

Vienna nodded and ran into the room down the hall. She returned with a large box. "Here mom."

Mrs. Bauer handed it to me. "This was for Vienna's older brother, but he died from cancer a couple years ago."

"I'm sorry," I had no idea, but Mrs. Bauer urged me to open the box. Inside was a new gaming laptop with a gaming mouse and headset. "Wait, are you being serious?"

"I told mom that you were into gaming and besides, you write online so it's perfect for you."

"Aw, thank you Vienna, Mrs. Bauer," I said.

Mrs. Bauer took the laptop and placed it on a black wood desk. "You know how to set this up, right?"

I nodded and took the keyboard and mouse from Vienna. "Just let me plug this in and… done."

The laptop's keyboard lit a bright turquoise. "I can't wait to use this!"

The next few weeks were amazing. Vienna and I spent most of the day at the mall eating sushi and buying writing supplies. But on one specific day, something interesting happened.

"I found this news article, here check it out," Vienna handed me her phone.

"Rachelle Turner publishes new book The Ringed Mistress," I read aloud. "You're not eating that Ebi, right?"

"The Ringed Mistress, let's go check to see if the bookstore has it," Vienna handed me the nigiri.

"Ok, let's go," I grabbed my coat and stood up.

We slowly made our way to the bookstore. On the way however, I was being given dirty looks from everyone.

Huh, that's weird. I thought, but I thought nothing of it.

We reached the bookstore and to my surprise, there was Rachelle, next to a stack of books.

"So, you saw the article," Rachelle said.

Vienna reached out for the book.

Rachelle tossed one to me, "Read it, I think you'll like it."

I took the book from her hands and opened it. The first word I saw was Jayden Davis.

"You used my name in your new book?" I asked. "Why?"

"You see, this story is loosely based on the two of us," Rachelle cackled.

"That would explain the looks," I said under my breath.

Vienna didn't hold back, she let out as many insults as she could think of.

Rachelle seemed offended by it.

"Vienna, let's just go work on our things, ok?"

Vienna took a deep breath. "Good idea."

"So what exactly are you working on?" Vienna asked.

"Short story from when I was a kid, it's only a couple pages, but I thought it would be a good idea to dust it off and send it in as a kids story," I answered.

"Alexander Anderson and the Ace Formula, interesting," Vienna said looking at my screen.

"It's an old book, I went through a norse mythology phase," I handed Vienna a stack of papers.

"Do you want me to look over it?" She asked.

"That would be great, just set those over there and I���ll print out the new copy."

Alexander Anderson had been the first character that I had made. Along with Alexis Anderson, Chase Blake and The Elves of Elftemist. Those are what started my writing career.

"Jayden!?" Vienna said slapping me on the back.

"I, um what?" I stuttered.

"Mom wants to know if you wanted a door from the main hallway to here," Vienna said.

"Oh, sure why not," I told her.

Vienna nodded, she quickly hurried into the kitchen.

Once she left, I heard a quiet buzz. Over the past couple days, I had been ignoring my phone, but this time, I had to answer. I reached under my pillow and found one of Vienna's. I had gotten a new SIM card so my old friends couldn't contact me, but I had used one of Vienna's old phones to store my old SIM card when all of this blew over.

I looked down at the phone, "Sydney Liu," It read. Part of me wanted to just chuck the phone across the room, but the other half wanted to answer. I decided to answer the call, it might have been important.

"Hello-"

"Jayden Davis, you are in big trouble!" It was Sydney's mom.

"Listen, I'm done with you and your family, stop treating me like a child," I said.

"We are your foster parents-"

"And I'm my own man, I have a girlfriend now and I intend to keep her," I argued back. "Don't call this number again."

"Maybe I can persuade you?" A familiar voice said.

"Mom?" I gasped. "Wait, how did they find you?"

"Your father saw your name on the news, Jayden Davis, has a nice ring to it," Mom said.

"I'm sorry for everything Chris."

That had been the first time in a long time that I had heard somebody call me that.

"How did you know Jayden Davis was me?" I asked.

"Your father's friend is a cop and he searched the database and there you were."

After all these years, I was talking with my real mom, but I couldn't forgive her. "I'm sorry, but I can't call you my mother."

"Why not Chris-"

"My name is Jayden Davis, Christopher Hodges is no more."

"Chris wait-" There was no point in letting her finish.

I set the phone down and ripped out the SIM card.

(Ito)

"I'm off to work Ito-Chan, be safe!" My mom called.

I wasn't exactly paying attention. I had been watching Anime and was right in the middle of the finale.

Sydney and Sean had been asking if I saw Jay.

I hadn't seen him but I said that I would look for him. I did see Vienna at the mall the other day, but she looked occupied so I let them be.

Sean had graduated and had started to work at a fast foods restaurant. I would visit him every once in a while on his breaks and we would talk.

He told me how Sydney had recently gotten into an argument with Jay and how she had joined her friends in the writing battle against Jay and his girlfriend Vienna.

I just wanted to stay out of this. All this talk about revenge, it was such a stupid thing to get mad about. From what I heard, Sydney's friend asked out Jay who said yes but then canceled on her, then said friend got mad and decided to get revenge. I mean, that is such an unreasonable thing to get mad about.

I would have thought that Jay would have reached out to me, but for some reason he hadn't.

I wanted to tell him that he had every right to be mad and that Sean and I support him. I also wanted to meet this Rachelle and kick her in the shins.

As I was left in my train of thought, I thought to myself that it might be a good idea to go visit Jay on my own. Only problem with that idea was that I didn't know where he was staying.

My train of thought was interrupted by my phone. "Tanaka Iwasaki," it read.

Tanaka was my pen pal from Manchester. We met up once in Kyoto but that was the only time we had seen each other face to face. Did she want to meet up? Only one way to find out.

"Tanaka-Senpai?" I said into the phone.

"Ito-San, how are you?" Tanaka squealed.

"I'm great, what about you?" I asked.

"You sound so american, where's the accent?" Tanaka asked.

"You don't have one either," I snickered. "If I didn't know any better, I would say that you weren't Asian."

Tanaka laughed, "you're so funny."

"Runs in the family I guess," I had to ask, she lived nearby so maybe, just maybe I had a chance. "Do you know a Vienna by any chance?" I asked.

"Vienna Bauer, yeah lives a couple blocks down from me," Tanaka said.

"Can I have the address?"

I met up with Tanaka near her house. She wanted to see me rather than just let me go on my own.

"Ito, it's so great to see you," Tanaka squealed.

"You too, so where's the house?" I asked. I just wanted to go and find Jay.

"Down there, do you want me to come with you?"

I nodded dismissively. We made our way down the street.

Tanaka was talking about how excited she was to see me.

I ignored her and continued on my way.

We reached a large house. The paint was a radiant red and it had a beautiful roof. I knocked on the door. I could hear footsteps and a crash.

The door opened and there was Jay.

"Ito-Chan, what brings you here?" Jay asked. "Who's this?"

"Hello, my name is Tanaka Iwasaki," Tanaka shook Jay's hand.

"Nice to meet you," Jay said, pulling his hand from Tanaka's grasp. "So what are you guys doing here?"

"I'm here to talk to you about Sydney," I said.

Sydney's name seemed to tick him off cause he gave me the cold shoulder and shut the door.

Tanaka stood there dumbfounded. "Well that was rude."

I patted her on the back reassuringly "He's not usually like this, but at least I know where he lives now."

We stared into the wooden door for a few minutes before it opened again.

"Can I help you?" This time however, it wasn't Jay. A young girl stood at the door. She looked around the same age as Jay. She had long brown hair and smooth skin. She was the definition of a perfect girl.

"Um, we were wondering if we could see Jay," I said.

"Yeah, of course." She closed the door. We could hear here hurry up the stairs.

"I guess we'll see him again," Tanaka commented.

I nodded, but my mind was lost in a different place. Who was that? I knew that Jay was living with a girl named Vienna, but was that her? "Tanaka-Senpai, is that Vienna?"

Tanaka didn't answer.

"Tanaka?" I asked, tapping her on the shoulder.

"What, oh Ito-Chan, what's up?" She asked

"Is that Vienna?" I asked.

"Of course silly, she's the only other teen here," Tanaka said.

"I just wanted to check," I said quietly.

The door opened and there was Jay, "You're guys are obviously not leaving, come on in."

We walked into the house. It reminded me of my old home in Japan.

"Anyways Ito, I heard you and Sean are in a relationship," Jay said.

Tanaka squealed, "You didn't tell me that!"

"It wasn't official or anything," I stuttered.

"Sure sure, anyways how's Sydney?" Jay asked. He seemed different, when I first met him, he was more happy and joyful. Now however, he seemed to be more depressed and moody.

"Jayden, are you alright?" I asked.

Jay nodded, "I'm fine Ito."

I wanted to punch him for lying to me, he wasn't fine. "What's bothering you?" I asked.

Jay sighed, "Sydney, she's just like the others."

"What do you mean like the others?" Tanaka asked.

"Chloe, Rachelle, Sydney, they're all the same," Jay said. "Just a bunch of idiots."

"Do you really think that, I mean you said it yourself, Sydney was nice to you," I said.

"Was she though, maybe she was just like Rachelle, waiting to pounce."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Jay was turning into the exact opposite of what I thought he was.

I noticed he was becoming more pale the more we talked.

"Jay, you're turning pale." I said.

"What are you talking about?" Jay asked.

"Just lie down," Tanaka suggested.

"No no, it's fine, I'll be fine." Jay said.

"Jay, lie down-"

Jay's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed onto the floor.

Jay-, Jayden?" I shook him but he didn't move. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. "Tanaka, go get Vienna!"

Tanaka nodded and hurried off.

I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed nine-nine-nine. Come on Jay, I thought. I needed to get help.

Vienna and Tanaka rushed into the room.

Vienna fell to the floor when she saw Jay's pale face. "Jayden!"

He couldn't die, not like this.

Vienna took Jay by the hand, "He'll be fine," she said.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"My mother's a doctor, she taught me some things."

What luck, maybe he'll make it out of this after all.

"Can either of you drive to the hospital?" Vienna asked.

Tanaka nodded, "I'm eighteen, do you have a car?"

Vienna tossed a pair of car keys into the air. "Down stairs in the garage good luck."

"Aren't you coming?" I asked.

Vienna shook her head, "I need to make a call."

(Chloe)

I had always wondered what would happen if Jay and Rachelle had gotten together. I always imagined Rachelle dragging him around and going shopping together. But the reality of things was harsh.

With Jay and Vienna on one side and Rachelle, Sydney and I on the other, it was only a matter of time before things got ugly.

Rachelle and Sydney had been discussing trying to save enough money to buy a little office so they could start writing more intensely.

I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wanted to protect my friend, but maybe we pushed it too far. I couldn't tell Rachelle that though.

She thought of me as the tough one and I wanted to live up to that expectation.

"Did you guys hear?" Rachelle asked.

Sydney perked up from under her desk. "What happened?"

"Guess who's in the hospital?" Rachelle squealed.

"Who?" I asked.

"Jayden freaking Davis himself," Rachelle hopped onto the desk. "I say we go and pay him a visit."

"And who's the informant?" I asked.

Rachelle giggled to herself. "Vienna."

"Wait, Vienna Bauer?" Sydney asked.

That wasn't right, why would Vienna tell Rachelle of all people.

"She said that she wanted me to visit him in the hospital," Rachelle smirked, "I want to give him a piece of my mind."

"Did she say what was wrong?" Sydney asked.

"Low blood pressure or something, not too serious." Rachelle exclaimed.

"Well, I say we just stay here and work," I suggested.

"I agree, I'm almost done with the illustrations for the Crystal Ring," Sydney handed me a sheet of paper with a drawing of an elf holding a ring.

"Wow, this is really good!" I squealed.

"Thank you, I really want to show this to Jay when we go visit him," Sydney hugged the paper.

"I thought you two weren't on speaking terms," Rachelle said.

Sydney placed the paper down, "I feel really bad, and I want to make it up to him."

Rachelle stomped her foot on the ground. "I thought you were on our side!"

"I am," Sydney said, "But that doesn't mean that I can't be nice to Jay, Chloe why don't you come with me."

I wasn't sure. Rachelle might be mad if I did, but on the other hand Sydney would be lonely. "Um, sure."

Rachelle groaned, "Fine go, I'll be waiting here."

Sydney grabbed her drawing pad. "We're walking there so we'll be gone for a bit."

Rachelle nodded. "Go on ahead."

We rushed out of Rachelle's house and down the street.

But there was one question that was stuck in my head. Did Jay want to see me?

The last time I saw him, I chased after him and tried to pounce on him. I mean, that was not a good place I wanted to be in.

Sydney noticed me falling behind a bit. "Are you alright?"

I shook my head, "I don't think Jay would be happy to see me."

Sydney patted me on the head, "Just apologize, maybe he'll forgive you."

"Jay isn't the forgiving type," I sighed.

Sydney giggled, "You just haven't talked to him in a while."

Was she right, were we wrong about Jayden? No, there was no way that we were wrong. "I think I know how he is."

"I guess we'll find out then," Sydney smiled.

"Yeah, I guess."

We reached the hospital in no time.

Sydney went up to the front desk to go talk to the nurse.

I sat alone in a corner not wanting to cause a ruckus.

I overheard someone talking about something that I found interesting.

"Did you know that the latest book written by Miss Turner actually hit the bestseller list?"

"Yeah, but Mister Davis has been doing quite well too."

Interesting, I thought to myself. It seemed to me like many people were taking sides.

Both sides had their fans, but both had their haters.

"I know Jayden Davis!" I blurted out.

The two girls stared at me. "You do?" They said in usion.

"He's just upstairs," I told them.

"What, what happened?" One said.

"Chloe, come on let's go," Sydney called.

I stood up from my seat and hurried off. I didn't want to leave that conversation, but Jayden was waiting.

We got into our elevator and started going up.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked.

"Yep, just follow my lead."

The elevator doors opened and we walked into the hospital. It looked like your average hospital. Stretchers on the side. A hard floor you know.

We reached the room Jay was staying at.

"Remember, stay cool," Sydney said.

I nodded, I needed this.

Sydney opened the door where we found Vienna talking to Jay.

"Knock knock," Sydney said.

"Who is it?" Vienna called from the bed.

"Sydney and Chloe!" Sydney opened the door completely and ran into the room.

"Oh, it's you," Vienna seemed disappointed. "He's asleep so be quiet."

"Who were you talking to?" I asked.

"You must be Chloe, Jay has said so much about you, just not great things," Vienna shook my hand.

"Nice to meet you," I said.

Sydney placed her hand on Jay's shoulder, "Will he be alright?"

"He'll be fine, nothing too serious," Vienna told her.

Sydney sighed with relief.

"Although, something happened," Vienna said.

"What, what?" Sydney asked.

"On his way to the hospital, he fell and cut through a nerve," Vienna winced.

"Wow, he's accident prone," I chuckled.

"I know I keep asking this, but will he be alright?" Sydney asked.

"He'll need to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life."

"It was that bad?" Sydney was astonished.

Vienna nodded, "There was a piece of glass outside of the hospital, when Ito and her friend brought him in, he slipped and his leg was cut almost to the bone."

"Ouch, that's got to hurt," I said.

"They had to do surgery, that's why he's asleep," Vienna explained.

"A wheelchair huh," I said to myself. "Have you told Bianca?"

"Who now?" Vienna asked.

Wow, did Jay not tell Vienna about Bianca?

She was a huge part of his life and he didn't tell his girlfriend?

See what I mean now? He doesn't regard his friends.

"Let me just call her," Sydney said.

"You sure, I mean do you think Jay would want her to know?" I asked.

"What's gotten into you, why do you care?" Sydney laughed.

She was right, we seemed to be switching roles.

Vienna nodded towards Sydney, "Go ahead, she deserves to know."

Sydney put her phone up to her ear, "Bianca, hey it's Sydney."

Vienna smiled at me sweetly, "Listen, I know you and Jay haven't had the best relationship, but cut him some slack."

Was she asking me to forgive him?

"I, I can't," I turned my head in shame. "He's hurt my friends too much."

Vienna closed her eyes and nodded slowly. "That's understandable."

"I'm sorry about this," I said.

Vienna stood up. "It's fine, I'm going to go get some water."

I sighed, how could I be so stupid.

I stood over Jay's limp body. Even though we had been through so much, I couldn't forgive him.

"Bianca's on her way Chloe, let's go before she comes."

We said goodbye to Vienna and went back to Rachelle's house.

"You've been rather quiet since we left, is everything alright?" Sydney asked.

I said nothing. There was no point of telling her. At least, I didn't think there was.