This is now back to Nebraska's point of view

Chapter 14

A soothing hand rubs my back as tissue after tissue is passed to me. When I had woken up earlier, I found Haley sitting right next to me talking on the phone, with her back turned away from me. The time told me that it was a little past midnight, making me wonder why Haley is still awake since she's told me countless times before how much she cares about her beauty sleep.

Haley turns around after hearing me shuffle before telling me the news that I slept through. Turns out, Tony's mother died in the operating room a couple hours ago. Even though the news hit me pretty hard, I know it isn't anything compared to what Tony must be feeling right now. He and his mother are extremely close; they talk at least three hours each day. Going from that to never seeing her again is going to be pretty rough for him.

"My mom doesn't know I came here so I gotta go now. But hey, don't worry about it too much. Tony's a strong guy, he'll get through this," Haley assures me, patting my back a couple of times.

"It doesn't matter how strong he is. The death of someone close to him, his mother, is enough to bring even the strongest to their knees," I mutter, lying back down on the bed since I was sitting up. She gives me a shaky smile before starting to walk away and suddenly my situation hits me. "Don't go," I whine, hugging the pillow closer to my body.

I don't know how, but Jason somehow managed to eat shrimp, the one thing he's deathly allergic to. He didn't eat a lot of it but it was enough where my mom had to go to the hospital with him right after dinner. I only found out after my mom called me around nine after apparently cursing at the food company for not putting the right labels on the food packaging and how she'll sue and all that. By then it was too late to beg her to go to the hospital with them.

"I'll lock the door and all but I really can't stay. My mom's already starting to have empty nest syndrome since we're graduating in about five months so I gotta go calm her down or else she'll demand that I go to the community college here," she says, before closing my bedroom door.

I quietly leave my bedroom and wait by the end of the hall while waiting for the sound of the front door lock to click. It's only when I hear the clock along with the sound of Haley's car engine a few minutes later do I finally return back to my bed. I clutch my pillow tighter against my body and close my eyes. The sooner I can go to sleep, the sooner morning comes.

Suddenly the doorbell rings making me jump in shock and fall out of my bed. I land on my left side and groan in pain. Dang it that hurt! I stand up and slowly make my way towards the door, rubbing my side along the way.

I peek through the hole and frown seeing Layton on the other side. What's he doing here? I turn the lock and open the door only to see him grin at me while I'm still staring at him in shock. Wait, how does he know where I live? Did I tell him? Everything that happened at the mall is a little fuzzy to me.

"Uh..." I trail off, not really knowing what to do. What does one say in a situation like this? Do I slam the door on his face? Do I invite him in? Ugh, where is Haley when I need her? She'd know what to do. Suddenly every creepy note and action the stalker has done replays in my head making me close the door a little. After all, it is past midnight and he's standing on the other side of the door looking wide awake. "Do you need something?" I ask, shuffling my feet nervously. What kind of person just shows up at someone's door after midnight? Did he even expect me to be awake? Haley did but she's my friend. Are Layton and I even friends?

"I found this and a...friend told me that it belonged to you," he says, handing me a small bracelet. "That's how I knew where you lived by the way, she told me," he adds, after I gently take the piece of jewelry from him. It's mostly chains but on the other side, away from the clip, is a small gray gemstone. As soon as my finger passes through, the gray-clear stone shines this dark color of orange making my eyes widen. Ooh, is this one of those mood bracelet things?

"Wow, thanks," I say, putting it around my left wrist. My eyes widen again seeing the orange glow slowly shift so this pale, white color. For some reason, I feel like I've seen it before. But that's impossible since I would definitely have remembered owning something like this. "Who did you say you got this from again?"

"I um...I don't remember her name," he says, almost sounding like he's about to stutter. I give him a suspicious look but return my attention to the bracelet. I can't deny how stunningly beautiful it is, but why does it look familiar? He did say that someone told him it belonged to me but I don't remember owning it before. Maybe I lost it when I was younger, way younger.

"Well thank you, for returning it to me," I say, giving him a grin. He smiles and looks around while I tap the hard wood of the door. What now?

"So, I guess I'll be going now," he says, turning his back towards me.

I clear my through and push my glasses further up my face. "Would um, w-would you like to come inside?" I ask, trying to ignore how awkward I made the invitation sound. I mean, Layton is really nice to return it to me in the middle of the night. And it's really cold due to the winter so maybe he should have a cup of warm chocolate to heat him up before I send him on his way? That's a humanitarian thing to do.

He turns back around and cocks an eyebrow. "It's after midnight. Are you sure your parents are okay with it?" They're not here so why not?

Wait, why am I doing this? I know him a little but that doesn't mean I should be inviting him in? He's still a stranger. But some people do invite their dates over without knowing them well- wait but he's not my date! Ugh, why did I even suggest that? The lack of sleep is really getting to me.

"I'm just really tired, sorry. Um, have a good night," I quickly say, closing the door before he says anything to further my humiliation. Letting out a soft sigh, I lean against the door and rub my forehead. I really need to rethink my priorities.

Deciding that a good night's sleep is what I need, I walk back towards my bedroom with the mindset of getting it.

***

As soon as I open my eyes, I find my brother's happy face right in front of me. I smile through my tired eyes and sit up. "Hey Jace, how are you?" I ask, rubbing my eyes.

"Mommy says the doctor says I'm better now," he replies, looking through the pages of my history textbook. I have no idea why he even likes going through the textbook, seeing as I don't even like the subject. Just because I try hard in that class to keep my A doesn't mean I enjoy the process.

"That's good," I nonchalantly reply, stretching my arms before grabbing my glasses from the nightstand.

"I like your bracelet. It's pretty," he says, leaning over and grabbing my wrist to get a better look.

I smile while looking at the gem that's shining a light turquoise color. "Thank you. It's one of those mood ones I think where it glows according to your mood," I explain to him.

"What does that color mean?" he asks, pointing to the gem.

I shrug, not quite sure of the answer. Most bracelets like that usually come with a paper explaining the colors but I guess I lost- er misplaced it. "Not sure. I'm feeling happy right now so maybe that's it. Wait, Jason do you remember me ever having this?" I ask.

His eyebrows furrow in thought before he slowly shakes his head. "No." Okay, so that means I probably lost it when Jason was really young. So maybe I lost this bracelet when I was around eleven or ten.

But if so, then who returned this bracelet to Layton?

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Yeah I know, this chapter isn't really that great. I was sick for the first half of this and I had writer's block for the other half.