-Chapter 2-

Awakening

A sharp clanging sound awoke Jared from his slumber, his alarm clock, on the other side of the room, was alerting him that the day had come. Jared jumped out of bed and hurriedly rushed over to turn the alarm off. His heart was pounding, the almost death like state he was in compounded with the fear that the sound caused within him threw him off balance, going from one extreme to the other was not something anyone should do he thought. He checked the time on the clock, it was 7:30 AM, two hours before his final. Jared rubbed his eyes in an attempt to keep them open, he could feel his body wanting him to move back toward the bed, hoping to get a few more hours of sleep in. Jared resisted the urge and instead hurried to the bathroom, turned on the shower and hopped in. Not giving any time for the water to warm up, he immediately felt cold pellets fettering his back, causing him to reel in shock. He did this every morning to keep him awake. Over the course of the shower, it became more warm and pleasant, finally ending right before it became too hot. Jared reached out for the towel he set last night and dried himself off a bit before stepping out of the plastic and onto the laminate tile. To counteract the steam in the room, Jared cracked the door in order to let some air in, then he proceeded to use the towel to wipe off the condensation on the mirror.

There he was, Jared Knight, the 21 year old man who felt he had died the night before. Atop his head was dirty blond hair which was parted on the left side of his head, it reached to the top of his ears. He had hazel, downturned eyes with strong eyebrows right above. His nose was larger than others and that pointed out fairly far. Right below the nose was a thin, brownish red mustache that's ends reached to the corner of his mouth. Right below his mouth was a beard that covered his chin and was the same color as his mustache. Jared slightly combed his hair and pulled at his goatee. He slowly ran his hand over his neck and cheeks, feeling the short brush of the bristles where he most recently shaved. Glancing down at his body, he slightly frowned but was also somewhat pleased, it had been about a year since he seriously started working out and his body had started reflecting it more, however not as much as he wanted. His chest, back, and arm muscles were more defined and noticeable, however, even though he had lost weight, his pale, flabby stomach was still there. He sighed, but tried to accept the fact that these things took time, even if he wished the results would show sooner.

Jared stopped staring at himself and quickly finished up his routine. He left the bathroom and went to the closet. Since his school year was nearing the end, he had definitely gone lax on how he dressed. The start of the year had him wearing jeans and button-up shirts, he was now lucky to even leave in jeans rather than shorts and he would only touch short sleeved shirts. He decided to wear jeans on his final day of work and randomly picked a maroon short sleeve. By the time he had finished getting ready, it was 8:15, still an hour and 15 minutes till the final. Jared walked to the door of his room and entered the rest of the apartment. The place where he lived was quite small: there was a living area, a kitchen on the side of it, and then a door to two rooms, one of them being his and the other his roommates. It didn't bother Jared at all though, it was much better than living in a dorm where there was nothing but one room and one bathroom to be shared among 4 other people. Stepping into the kitchen, Jared quickly whipped up some oatmeal and a cup of coffee, took it back into his room and fired up his computer. Normally, he might've tried to play a game in the time he had before his class, but he could not risk it now, he had to study. Hastily bringing up some studying material, he looked over it as he shoved the oatmeal into his mouth as if it fueled his ability to think.

Just as he was finishing up one page of the material he had, while also demolishing the oatmeal and downing the coffee, he heard a knock on his door. "Hold on, I'll be there in a minute!" Jared called out from his desk. He was confused, his roommate, and best friend, was usually not up this early and Jared knew that he did not have any classes today. He got up from his desk and walked over to the door and opened it. On the other side was his friend Drew, from his appearance, it was pretty obvious he had just gotten up. Drew had nothing but shorts on, he normally wore his shoulder length blonde hair with a middle part, now it was all over his head, splitting in many different directions. Drew was a bit shorter than Jared, mostly because Jared was fairly tall compared to most others. Drew was also slimmer than Jared, and had sharper features compared to Jared's more roundish ones.

"Hey man, I just wanted to wish you luck on your final today." the words slowly falling out of Drews mouth as he rubbed his eyes. "I know you've been stressing about it for a while now but I just wanted you to know that you got this." towards the end of the sentence, Drew picked up more momentum with his voice and ended on his normal tone.

"Thanks man, I really appreciate it." Jared put his hands out and dragged Drew in for a hug. Drew was somewhat taken aback by this but went along with it anyway. "But, you really didn't have to get up just to tell me that." Jared said pulling back from the hug.

"Didn't have to." Drew said while stretching, still attempting to find his normal everyday self within his body. "I actually got to bed at a decent time last night and my body just kind of naturally awoke me." He was surprised by this fact as he had been plagued by sleeping issues in the past.

"That's good man, I'm glad!" Jared enthusiastically said. "Meanwhile, I got quite the opposite, guess our sleeping luck got changed around or something." Jared said with a half smile.

"Yeah something like that, is that dream still bothering you?" Drew turned his head inquisitively.

"Yup, had it again last night." Jared stretched his arms out wide. "Been thinking about going to a doctor or something about it, I've never really had nightmares until this one." He put his arms down and scratched his head "And it bothers me that it's even reoccurring."

"If you're worried about it man then you should definitely see one, talking to someone really helped me with my anxiety so I'm sure they'd be able to do something about that." Drew pointed out.

"You're probably right, thanks man." Jared said. After that, an awkward minutes passed before Drew spoke up.

"Well, that coffee smells good so I think I'll make me cup." Drew said as he looked back toward the kitchen. "You heading out now?" he said, glancing at the clock on the kitchen wall.

Jared looked down at his watch, it was now 8:45. "Yeah I definitely should, the train is probably going to be absolutely packed today so I should probably leave a little early. Jared walked away from the door to grab his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder, he felt a noticeable weight difference now that all of his books were taken out. Jared then walked out into the apartment, closed his room door and headed for the main one.

Drew was now in the kitchen, fiddling with various buttons on a coffee machine. "Good luck again man, I'm sure you'll do great on it."

Jared opened the front door which led to the rest of the apartment complex. "Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I'll see you tonight." Jared turned back and said with a smile. Stepping out into the brightly lit hallway, he closed the door, not knowing this would be the last time he ever saw Drew.