My consciousness returns to me as I open my eyes. I look outside and I see that it's still dark out and it's the middle of the night. I check my phone to see the time and notice it's 2:56 AM. When I unlock my phone I realize I missed a call from James. 

 

'Hmm that's strange James hasn't called me in the middle of the night before.' (Jack)

 

Just as I am thinking this my phone starts to vibrate and I hear my ringtone. 'Incoming call from James. Accept or Decline' my phone screen says. I click decline since it's the middle of the night and I want to go back to sleep.

 

Just as I put my phone back on my bedside table it starts to vibrate again. My phone screen once again says 'Incoming call from James. Accept or Decline'. 

 

Since James has called me now 3 times in the middle of the night, I don't think it's an accidental call anymore. I click the accept call button on my phone.

 

"Hello? Why are you calling me in the middle of the night?" (Jack)

 

"Because umm something happened and umm I don't know how to go about telling you about it." (James)

 

"Huh? What happened? Just tell me." (Jack)

 

"umm. Well umm both your parents were in insane car crashes and umm instantly died." (James)

 

What is James even talking about? I didn't think James would be the type of person to joke about this considering both of his parents died when he was young.

 

"What are you even talking about? I didn't realize you were the type of person to joke about this type of stuff." (Jack)

 

"I'm not joking though just check the news, they just wrote an article about it" (James)

 

"Then send the link to this article then. If it's real you could do that right?" (Jack)

 

I hear a ding come from my phone and a notification pop up from James messaging me. I click the notification and I see the link is from a local news station. I click the link and the first thing I see is the headline 'Married Couple Dies in Separate Traffic Accidents'.

 

I continue to read the article that was released just 20 minutes ago. 

 

'Married Couple dies in separate accidents on the same day. The full information regarding the accident hasn't been released yet. The only information we have as of now is that the couple was working later than usual. As the couple was driving home they got into separate car accidents.

 

Leo was driving home when at 7:26 according to eyewitness reports of the people that were there, a truck driver passed out at the wheel and the driver hit the gas pedal then Leo was hit in a head-on collision and died instantly.

 

Elizabeth was also driving home when at 7:34 according to eyewitness reports, again. A truck driver was driving his truck when all of a sudden the car swerved left and t-boned Elizabeth's car and she also died instantly.

 

That is all the information that is publicly available at the moment. For more information go to *********'s website.'

 

What? 

 

No.

 

That can't be real. Yeah, I'm sure that was just a made-up story, my parents couldn't have died.

 

"Hey James surely you don't believe such a fake story, I mean like it says they both died within 10 minutes and both in accidents involving trucks" (Jack)

 

"I'm sorry Jack, but it's been confirmed." (James)

 

No, no it couldn't have been confirmed. Because this was all fake. Yeah, it's just fake. 

 

"CONFIRMED BY WHO?" (Jack)

 

"It's already been confirmed by police and ambulances, I'm sorry Jack but they did die." (James)

 

Why is James siding with the lies? Surely he realizes that they're lying. How could they have died?

 

"They are lying! Why are you siding with the liars!" (Jack)

 

"Jack, calm down getting angry won't solve anything" (James)

 

"You are siding with liars! I'm ending this call!" (Jack)

 

"N-" (James)

 

I press the end call before he finishes his lies. I put my phone on silent and face down on my bedside table. I go back to sleep knowing that once I wake up my parents will still be alive and sleeping.

 

***

 

I once again awakened and found that it was currently 9:41 AM on Saturday. I checked my phone to see I had missed 28 calls from James after I hung up. As I was getting out of bed I realized my pillow and eyes were wet.

 

'Huh? That's strange I don't remember crying.' (Jack)

 

Just as I am wondering why my pillows are wet, I hear a knock on the door.

 

"Jack! Open the door, it's me!" (James)

 

I hear James yelling from the door so I walk across the house and go open it up.

 

"Hey, Jack… I wanted to come and make breakfast for you since I know you don't make it yourself. Unless you want to be left alone, in which case I could leave" (James)

 

"no.. I don't want to be alone.. Thank you for staying with me." (Jack)

 

James walks into my house and starts preparing to make breakfast for us. I see that he is making some simple pancakes because he's grabbing the pancake mix.

 

Once James is done with making the pancakes he puts them on the dinner table. We both eat in silence beside the sound of chewing.

 

"Are you okay by the way Jack? You don't look that good." (James)

 

"yeah, I'm doing fine." (Jack)

 

"How about we just play some video games to get our minds off things" (James)

 

"ok, yeah let's do that" (Jack)

 

We both put our plates in the sink and then headed to the living room. I clicked on the power button of my switch and then put it on a dock. The television lit up and we started playing super smash bros ultimate. We continued to play into the afternoon until I got a phone call.

 

'Incoming call from Uncle. Accept or Decline'

 

I click the accept button and I hear my uncle's voice.

 

"Hey Jack, since my sister died we are organizing the funeral now. Are you going to come to it?" (Jack's Uncle)

 

"I'll think about it" (Jack)

 

I say that then instantly hang up on him. The death of my parents finally catch up to me. My eyes start to water and I break out into full-on crying. I realize now why my pillows were wet.

 

"H-hey Jack, let's just continue playing super smash bros" (James)

 

"Y-yeah" (Jack)

 

We both continue to play video games into the night only stopping to eat lunch and dinner. Once I'm getting super tired I go to my bedroom and pass out, while James passed out on the couch.