CHAPTER 1- NIGHTMARE
He leans in close. He takes my hand in his. He puts my hand over his heart. He says he never wants to loose me. He leans closer. He nibbles on my earlobe. He starts to whisper to me. I can feel the heat of his breath and the brush of his lips on my skin. He's saying something to me, but I can't hear him. I can't move. All I can do is sit and watch and wait for unspeakable terror to find me. He starts to pull away. Tears fill his eyes. He turns to run away, but stops and I hear him say "I thought you loved me Danny," and runs away. My world shatters.
I sit straight up. I'm drenched in sweat. My hair is in a bundled mess on the top of my head. I brush the tangles from my face and realize I'm crying. I feel myself being pulled onto a lap by strong familiar arms. "It's OK. I've got you. It was just a bad dream. You're safe now. You're safe now," a familiar voice soothes me. He smooths my hair down with his hand as I cry on his shoulder. "You're safe. You're fine. You're safe."
I stop crying and climb out of bed. I look at my Rock Star Jimmy alarm clock on my dresser. 3:00 am. I still have four hours till I need to get up. Alex, my boyfriend for five years now, is staring at me with concern. "Danny, are you OK?" his voice is just above a whisper. He's using the tone that means he knows something is wrong.
"Ya, I'm fine. I just had a nightmare. That's all. I'm fine," I say more to myself than to him. He gets up and wraps his strong arms around my shoulders and kisses the top of my head.
"You're shaking," he whispers in my ear.
"I'm cold. It's freezing in here. Not to mention I'm only in this nightgown you got me," I say heading back to my bed.
"I know. And I must say you look really good in it," he says eyeing my sleepwear with his one-of-a-kind cocky grin.
"Stop it," I'm blushing.
"What? You know it's true," he pulls me into his lap on the bed. We joked around and laughed till we passed out many hours later.
I wake up to a bright light shining on my face. I turn over and crack my eyes open a little. My room is flooded with light. I open my eyes all the way and look at my clock. It's 11:00 am! I slept in 4 more hours then I was supposed to! Alex is gone. "Probobbly's in class," I mutter. I get dressed and dash out of the girl's dorm. It is, naturally, empty. Everyone's in class. "Everyone but me," I was so going to kill Alex. He probbobly woke up and turned my alarm off. "He's so dead." I walk down the hall and grab my book bag from its hiding place and the lunch bell rings sending everyone running down the hall. I run to the class I will have after lunch, Sophomore Spanish 3B, and put my bag in my chair. I head to lunch with thoughts of murdering Alex with a fork running through my head.
I get through the never ending lunch line and head towards the table where me and my friends have claimed as our's. My friend, Jace, has cornered Alex as usual trying to get him to tell the latest "adventure" between me and him from the night before. I mask my face against my most recent anger and stalk forward. I get to the table and immediately start stabbing at my salad and stuffing the forkfuls in my mouth. "Morning Sunny D," Alex greets me with my nickname, people call me that because I start every day off with a Sunny D, and gives me a weary smile. I ignore him and open my Sunny D bottle.
"Wow, Alex. What did you do to her? She's so pissed," Jace smirks, finding amusement in it.
"I don't know," Alex tells him with a shrug.
"Wow. What happened here? Why's everyone so hostile and quite?" my friend Amber says joining our little group.
"We're not being hostile. We're just waiting for you," I say shoving another forkful of salad in my mouth and moving over.
"Oh, that's sweet," Amber says giving me a hug.
"Ya, so Alex, thanks for waking me up this morning," I say sweetly but giving him the stare.
"What? I didn't wake you... Oh," he says shrinking back away from me.
"Ya."
"Ok, well I'm going outside," Jace says picking up his tray and heading for the door.
"I'll go with you," Amber says getting up too trying to avoid being part of the fight that was brewing.
I stare at Amber. "Trader," I hiss. She runs away in her high-heel stiletto boots. I turn my attention back to Alex but only for a moment. Then I go back to stabbing at my salad.
"Danny..."
"Don't. I've already thought of stabbing you with this fork. Don't make me put my thoughts into action," I say warning him. He shuts his mouth and we sit in silence for several minutes. Finally we hear a deep seductive voice.
"You know, Alex, if you find it boring or dangerous here you can always come join me and the rest of us at our table," I don't have to look up to see that the girl behind the voice is Faye. She's been after Alex ever since me and him got together. She likes to play games with guys who have girlfriends.
"What do you want Faye?" I practically spit the other girl's name out like poison.
"I'm just offering poor Alex here some comfort, or fun. Since you seem to be giving him neither," she says stroking his back.
"Get your evil, manicured hands off him," I growl under my breath. "Now," I say raising the fork.
"Oh relax Danny. We're all friends here. Right, Alex?" She purrs his name like a cat. I let a growl go from deep down in my throat.
"Enough! Both of you! Just stop!" Alex startles us both by choosing that moment to speak and was yelling at us. "Faye, go cause trouble somewhere else. Now!" he shouts. "Danny, we'll talk later. Meet me in our usual place when you're done eating," he gets up and heads off to who knows where.
Me and Faye sit there, staring at each other for several moments. "Don't even think about it Faye. He will never go for you. He's with me, and he always will be," I say breaking the silence.
"Oh you poor, naïve girl. He will come. They always do. I always win," she says with a hair flip and twitches away. A little time later when I'm done eating, I go to find Alex in our usual place. I find him by the tree with no effort what's-so-ever.
I walk up to him and clear my throat, "Hey," I say with ease.
"Sit," he commands not looking up from his hands in his lap. I sit and look at him letting him get his thoughts together. Finally, still not looking up from his hands he starts to speak, "Danny, I'm confused. One minute you act like you're about to stab me with a fork then the next you're screaming at Faye to not even say my name. Please help me understand," he whispers the last part, almost to tears.
"Yes, I was mad at first but, when I saw the way Faye was looking at you... I snapped back to reality. Back to what was more important at the moment."
"You didn't even look up," he's strangely close to his snapping point. I have never seen him like this before.
"I could hear how she was looking at you in the tone of her voice. I didn't need to look up! As her enemy, as your girlfriend, I can tell the way any girl looks at you just by the tone of her voice," I'm almost screaming. I'm hysterical. Nothing today has gone right.
"Danny, calm down. Take a deep breath. Take a minu..."
"Don't tell me to calm down. I'm calm! I've never been more calm in my life!" I'm screaming.
"Danny. Listen to yourself. You're hysterical. Just take a minute to relax and calm down," he says rubbing my arm. I take a deep breath. I can't breathe. I begin choking. I'm coughing. Alex pulls me close and rubs my back and holds me tight. I begin crying. "It's OK. It's fine Danny. Everything is just fine," he soothes.
I move away from him, "You're not mad at me anymore?" I say staring into his eyes.
"No. Not anymore," he says calmly. He stands up and pulls me into a calming, secure hug of comfort. "We better head to class," he tells me.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Why didn't my alarm go off this morning?" I ask him as we head back to the school.
"You woke up last night after having a bad dream and..."
"I remember that," I say.
"And you looked so tired. I decided to let to sleep in and I'd take rap for you if anyone asked," he says at last.
"Oh. I didn't think about that," I say back to him.