I smirked.

She couldn't wait to be rid of us, mainly me.

"It was nice... talking to you, Neala," I lied.

It wasn't nice, it was both torture and amusing as hell.

Neala swallowed. "And you, Darcy."

Bullshit.

She was physically sick just saying that.

I stood up, turned and walked to the door, opened it and stepped outside. I quickly scooped up the pink wrapped box and held it in front of me as I walked down the hallway not waiting for Sean, who was still back in Neala's apartment probably getting his arse chewed out for bringing me by.

I didn't care though because I pulled one over on Neala for a change.

I got the doll, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

Ha-ha-fucking-ha.

I stared at my hall door and wondered what the hell just happened.

Sean was always weird and came over to my apartment at random times, but Darcy, that eejit never stepped foot in my place for good reason... until today.

Why?

He was even... nice to me.

He smiled at me a few times, too.

Not a grin or a smirk, an actual smile.

"I don't get it," I muttered as I locked my front door and backed away from it like Darcy could burst back through it at any moment.

Why was he here?

I know it wasn't so we could 'start getting along with one another' like he claimed. Even Sean, who was all for us getting along, gave Darcy a funny look when he said that. Like he knew, just as well as I did, that what Darcy was saying wasn't remotely true.

I could see right through Darcy's bullshit, but I didn't understand why he'd said the nonsense he did. I didn't even understand why he was in my apartment in the first place. Everyone, apart from Darcy, was sick of our feud. I knew he liked it, I knew he looked forward to seeing me just so he could piss me off. He was demented.

"Something's not right," I said aloud, and began to look around my apartment.

I had no idea what I was looking for, but I searched anyways.

I spent most of the evening searching for something and after finding nothing I gave up. I got a glass of water and drank it as I leaned against my kitchen counter exhausted from trying to find something out of place.

Maybe Darcy did just want to try and smooth things over and I was just being paranoid.

I shook the silly thought away. There was no way in hell Darcy Hart would willingly want to befriend me. Like I said before, he enjoyed our feud and random arguments so I wasn't buying him suddenly wanting to be best friends again. He was up to something, and I just had to find out what.

I was tired, and just as it hit ten o'clock I found I couldn't keep my eyes open. I decided to call it a night and turned everything off in the apartment and double-checked the front door and windows were locked before I headed to bed. I relaxed under my covers and unwillingly retraced Darcy's steps in my head from the moment he entered my apartment with my brother. He came inside and went to the bathroom, but I searched that room from top to bottom and nothing was out of place. When he came out of the bathroom he didn't leave the living room and I was the one who went into the kitchen to get him a glass of water.

Whatever he did, he did in the time that I was out of the room.

The crazy side of my brain said I was overreacting and simply hoped Darcy did something wrong so I could throw it in his face. While the logical side said I was right to be wary. Darcy took every opportunity he could to piss me off, even if it was something little. I really doubted he would miss a chance to mess with my apartment now that he finally gained access to it.

I knew he did something, I felt it in my bones.

I sat up in frustration when my mind wouldn't allow me to sleep, and then got out of bed when my body began to overheat. I stomped out of my room and down the narrow hallway into my living room where I turned the lights on and, once again, looked around for whatever it was that Darcy did. I closed my eyes and thought back to Darcy's movements. When he came out of the bathroom he stayed in the living room with Sean while I got him some water. He was sitting next to my Christmas tree when I came back into the room.

I walked over to where he was seated and sat down and looked around my living room trying see saw from his perspective.

"What am I looking for?" I thought aloud.

I was seconds away from giving up when I glanced down to the presents I'd wrapped earlier that day. I tilted my head and stared at them. The colours weren't right, I had three blue presents, one red, one yellow and one pink. I widened my eyes and quickly pushed off the couch and fell onto my knees as I pulled the presents out from under my tree in search of the pink wrapped box.

The doll.

Where was it?

Where the fuck was Charli's Blaze doll?

No. No fucking way!

He wouldn't.

Wouldn't he? my mind taunted.

"Darcy!" I snarled and pushed myself to my feet.

I spun around and placed my hands on top of my head and screamed.

He robbed me! The callus bastard came into my home and robbed me blind... and I think my bloody brother helped him.

Neala: 1 Darcy: 1.

"Dead. They're both so fucking dead!" I growled in anger.

I was going to get that bloody doll back and destroy Darcy in the process. There wasn't a place on Earth he could hide from me. If he wanted a war, I'd bloody well give him one.

Let the games begin.

"What do you mean Darcy stole from you, and that Sean helped?" I rolled my eyes at Justin Hart, Darcy's older brother, even though he couldn't see me.

Justin was my brother's best friend, and pretty much my adoptive big brother. I liked to call him 'Wise One' because he was only seven years older than me and yet had the mind of a pensioner. I don't mean he was forgetful, I just mean he is a very smart man and knew stuff normal people in their thirties probably wouldn't.

"I mean exactly that, Justin. Yesterday while I was at home minding me own business your bastard of a brother came into me apartment with my bastard of a brother, and stole me Christmas present for Charli!"

Justin sighed into the speaker of his phone as he accepted what I said as truth. Hearing this sort of thing wasn't a far-fetched idea when Darcy and myself were involved. In fact, things like this happened so often they were probably tiresome for everyone else to hear.

Scratch that, I knew for a fact they were tiresome for everyone to hear.

The entire village was more than likely feed up with our feud.

"Is it possible that he is just messing with you? It is Darcy after all."

I scoffed. "No, we've been fighting over this present since yesterday-"

"What?" Justin cut me off. "Since yesterday? What do you mean?"

I groaned. "It's a long story."

Justin made his trademark God-save-me-from-Neala-and-Darcy sigh. "When you and Darcy are involved in something together it usually is. Come over to me house and tell me about it - I'm chilling with Dustin until his ma is home from work."

I had nowhere better to go so I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Okay, I'll be over in ten."

Justin only lived a few minutes down the road from my apartment complex in a small housing estate just outside the village. I visited often because I currently was out of work for the moment so it meant I had nothing else to do. I wasn't a dead beat, I had a job, a great job, at the Holiday Inn as a receptionist, but the hotel was currently under construction. A year and a half ago the owners decided to rip the old hotel down, and rebuild a brand new bigger hotel in its place. I'd get my old job back in the New Year once the hotel reopened on January 3rd, it's guaranteed, but until then I was seeking unemployment payment from welfare just to help me get by. It's shite money, but at least it was something.