Chapter 1

A/N: It's my first story guys! I hope you all like it as much as iv'e liked writing it :3 Your feedback would be much appreciated!

Gatsby. That's a name I know well. Ever since the start of the summer the name has constantly been on my mind, but not just the name. No, more importantly the man himself. We have grown to be quite good friends over the past months, I would say best friends seeing as he does not really have any other friends. Yet he has been on my mind this week more then the entire summer.

That fool Mr. Wilson shot Jay when I had left for work that painful day, making it one of the worst days of my life. When I came running after hearing the gunshot I thought he was dead, laying there lifeless in the water. But when the butler and I pulled him from the pool and his eyes were still open, trying to hold onto the last bit of his life, I knew there was still hope. "Call the medics for Christs sake!" I shouted to the butler, who was just staring at Jay, stunned and in shock. I guess that broke him out of his trance as he raced up the stairs and into the house.

"Ni-"

"Don't speak Jay, save your energy. Your going to be just fine I promise." I said, trying to give the most reassuring smile that I could. I hoped I said that with more confidence then what I was feeling because I thought I was going to break down right there due to the worst possible incoming thoughts entering my mind.

I took hold of his hand with both of my blood covered ones, sticky from his bleeding wound that I was trying to apply pressure to. I gave him a gentle squeeze letting him know that I was still there with him, hoping that it would give him some sort of comfort.

All he would do during the time that we waited for the medics was stare into my eyes trying to find some answer he was looking for which still alludes me. When the medics finally came ten minutes later and he was lifted into the car he could only say one thing before the doors closed.

"Daisy."

As the car drove away I stood there in complete shock of what could be the last thing he would ever say. That shock soon turned to anger as images of Daisy flashed in my mind. My cousin who tampered and manipulated everyone's lives and let her money clean up the mess. I soon found out from the butler that she had never called Jay that day and it shook me to the core to think that the one thing in Gatsby's life that gave him happiness had rejected him, and that could possibly be the last feeling he ever felt.

"Left no address?"

"No."

"Say when they'd be back?"

"No."

"Any idea where they are? How I could reach them?"

"I don't know. Can't say."

Daisy had chosen Tom over Gatsby and had actually left the country. I made the phone call during the first week that Jay was in the hospital, sitting in the chair right by his bed. When I hung up all I could think about was when and how I would tell Jay about it because I knew that his world would collapse when I tell him.

The bullet had just missed his heart by an inch. The doctors said that if it were any closer he would have been instantly killed. I immediately thanked God or whoever was up there and squeezed harder on his lifeless hand, tears spilling down my face.

I was right in making the comment that I was his only friend, because in the two months that he was in the hospital no one else came to visit him. Only me. I would stay by him every day, reading to him, hoping that he could hear me and I could make him feel less alone. The doctors kept him sedated for almost the entire time that he was there; he finally got off the drugs a week before he was admitted to leave the hospital.

I was sleeping the first time he awoke from the drugs and found him staring at me in deep thought.

"Gatsby your- your-" I could barely get a word out of my mouth. I was trying so hard to hold back the tears and happiness that was creeping up my throat.

His expression softened as he turned his gaze from me to the ceiling. "Daisy's gone isn't she?" I had played this moment in my head over and over trying to come up with an uplifting explanation but at that moment it left me, and all I could come up with was "Yes."

"I see." His answer was clipped and had lack of any emotion that I could detect.

"I mean maybe she left so she could get some fresh air so she could think abou-"

"That's enough old sport. Its over."

I could hear sobs as he said that, yet I knew he was doing everything he could to hold them back. In almost an instant they were gone and he looked over and stared into my eyes looking for something. Suddenly his face turned into relief like some weight had been taken off of his shoulders and he gave me a gentle smile.

"But your still here old sport." he said with what sounded like complete awe.

"I'll always be here for you Gatsby, that's what friends are for." Saying that I felt an urge to touch his face and feel the stubble that was there from days of nurses forgetting to shave him. I suppressed the urge but it only blossomed when he gave me that smile. The smile that made you feel like it was only you and him in a room full of people. The same smile he gave me the first night I met him at his party.

After that day I went to visit him every day that week, and yet every day he closed me out more and more. It almost seemed that he did not want to be near me anymore, afraid. Every time I would put my arm or hand on his bed to rest it he would stiffen up and his breath would catch in his throat.

The day before he was scheduled to be released a note was given to me upon the arrival of me entering the lobby. It read:

Old Sport,

I am having my butler pick me up from the hospital tomorrow. I will need some rest when I get home so please don't bother knocking.

Gatsby

It has been a week since I received that note and I've been a mess ever since. Jay hasn't even attempted to contact me since then and I have the feeling that he does not ever want to talk to me. I constantly stare out my bedroom window at night looking up at his house, somehow trying to find an answer for all this. Only one has come up and it's been slowly bringing me down with it.

Jay probably just wants to leave this place and forget everything about it. With Daisy, being the light of his life, gone he has no reason to stick around. Knowing she isn't coming back he most likely has not even thought of me, seeing as he only used me to get to her.

If he is not going to make the effort of even trying to care about me, then why should I care about him? I need to get over him and realize that I was just the bridge that connected him and Daisy. With her gone those no reason to keep ties with me.

Getting up I look at myself in the mirror and I look pale as a ghost. Pinching my cheeks I add some color to them and I guess that would have to do for now. I pick out my best suit for work; a dark gray with a white dress shirt, black tie, black shoes and matching belt. Brushing my teeth and slicking my hair into place I open the door into a new day.

With a resolve to forget about Gatsby I confidently walk out of my house and to my car with a feeling of freedom. Looking out over to the towering mansion it brings my mood down a notch knowing that Gatsby is in there probably making plans of where to live next. Suddenly a person is standing in one of the windows that I was looking at, but the curtains are drawn so all I can see is a figure. Figuring that it's just one of Gatsby's maids or servants, my mood goes down another notch and I climb into my car. Not a good start to your day Carraway. I just need a distraction to bring me to my upbeat mood again. With the click of the radio I slowly back out of my driveway and into the open road. Freedom.

Yet I can't help but feel that that the entire time that I was backing out and driving down the road that I was being watched. Intensely watched. Shoving it from my mind I sit at my desk and start on with my new day.