And then I woke up.
A part of me hoped that the past few days had been a dream, but there was no way. It was too real. I sighed, sitting up in bed and rubbing my eyes. Afternoon sunlight was streaming through the windows in my room. Sun in Washington? I savored it. Why did I sleep until the afternoon, though? I'd fallen asleep before nine p.m.. Then again, I heard people saying that if someone is sad or stressed out, they sleep a lot. My eyes wandered to the cute animal calendar on the wall- the 'x' marks indicated that today was Thursday of last week. It was supposed to be Wednesday of this week. I scrambled to my feet in a second, stumbling to the calendar. I rubbed my fingers over the dates, checking for white out. Was this some kind of sick joke? My mind felt like it was spinning. I quietly walked to my door and cracked it slightly, listening to the words as they floated down the hall to me. I heard mom's voice, but also heard Katie's.
"Oh, you know I'll be fine. Yeah, I'll do my homework before the party Saturday, mom." I could practically hear the eye roll in her tone, but that wasn't what I focused on. Before my mind could process what had happened, that I simply had a horrible dream, I was practically ripping my door open. My feet moved as quickly as possible down the hall, until I came into the kitchen, short of breath.
I saw my big sister. Alive, no bruises, standing against the kitchen counter and laughing with mom about something. I stood, frozen, for what felt like hours.
"Morning, Claire- oh, Claire, what's wrong?" Mom was about to get up from the table when I realized I was crying. I ran to Katie, throwing my arms around her waist and squeezing as tight as possible.
"Oh my god, are you okay?" Katie questioned frantically. We may not be best friends like we were when we were kids, but we would be lost without each other, as I discovered in my dream. I decided I wanted that to change. I wanted us to be closer. What if something did happen? What if something will happen when she goes to the party this weekend? Flashes of images of my nightmare bombarded my mind.
"Dow' n'go do the p-rdy this week'nd!" I shouted into her shirt. Katie put her hands on my shoulders, gently forcing me away from her as she knelt down, analyzing my face.
"Dude, calm down. Breathe. What did you say? What happened?" She spoke slowly. I sniffled.
"You can't go to the party this weekend! Please!" I pleaded. My knees felt weak and wobbly. Mom knelt down too, rubbing my upper back.
"What are you talking about?" She seemed genuinely concerned, as if I'd gone crazy.
"I- I had a dream," I paused, and she nodded. "You went to the party, you got in a car with your friends and everyone else died-" I began to ramble, "-and you were really, really hurt and you did die, mommy was there, Quil, Emily and Sam, everyone. It was so real. Please don't go!" I sobbed again, hugging her tightly around her neck.
"Mom, she's never acted like this before," my big sister whispered to our mom. She sounded like she.. actually believed me.
"I know," was all mom could say for a few moments. "I don't think you should-"
"I won't go," Katie cut mom off. "Claire, I won't go, okay? You and I can have a pizza night and watch movies together. I know you have plans to go to the meeting with Quil, he can come over too, or I can go with you guys, okay?" She reassured, smiling a bit, even though I could tell she was upset she couldn't go with her friends Saturday. I knew that tone in her voice, though; she was dead set on not going.
And when Saturday came along, she didn't.
We made friendship bracelets in the afternoon, and spend the early evening painting each other's nails and picking out movies and snacks. Quil came over and watched the movie with us, gladly. He and I would go next month to the meeting. Quil seemed to have no problem hanging out with us, and Katie didn't mind either. Mom ordered pizza, and we all had a great time that night. Up until then, it had been a few years before Katie and I had been in a room together for so long, especially having fun.
Once it got pretty late, around ten o'clock, Quil left to go home. I didn't mention the dream- not yet, at least. We could always tell each other everything, but I didn't want to get myself upset again talking about it when we were having such a good time. I also wondered about another part of the dream- the part where he turned into a gigantic wolf. I brushed it off and figured I'd mention it when I saw him tomorrow. We all went to bed, and I gave Katie the biggest hug possible.
I fell asleep quickly, but woke up to someone shaking my shoulder. My eyes snapped open to see Katie with her cell phone in her hand, frantic, and obviously confused, upset, and just a mix of too many emotions for me to read.
"What time's it?" I slurred, still half asleep, but waking up quickly seeing how my sister was acting.
"Claire," she whispered. "Can you tell me more details from your dream? How did the car crash?" She seemed like she was trying to put something together. Drowsily, I sat up, rubbing sleep from my eyes.
"Um, the driver did some kind of drug that made him see and hear was going too fast and he crashed." I recalled. Her eyes widened.
"How did you know?"
"What?"
"That's exactly what happened. Ryan, Hannah, and David were in a car accident. Hannah's mom just called me. They're all dead," she whispered the last part, her eyes welling up with tears. I froze for a moment. Did I predict the freaking future? In my mild panic and confusion, I hugged my sister as she cried over her friends. I invited her to crawl into my bed and sleep with me, like we used to when either of us had nightmares. She agreed quickly and was quickly tucked under the covers, falling asleep.
"Claire?" Katie mumbled.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks. For warning me. I don't know how you knew, but if you hadn't, I might have been with them right now."
I didn't know what to say.
"Love you."
"Love you too, kid," she replied.
(I'm sorry guys! I had no idea where to go with the story with my original idea of Katie actually passing away.)
