Chapter 17: Nightmare

**Important Author's Note at the end*

---------

A picture of Aaron making a silly face at the camera takes up my screen as I open the snap from him, and I read the text above his face.

You know I'm right.

I smile as I tap my screen to close the picture, and double tap to reply.

I make a 'yeah, right' face at the camera, and tap the button to add text.

Whatever you say, buddy.

I send it and look up across the cafeteria to watch Aaron's face as he sees it.

A smile gradually grows on his face, ending in a huge grin, which causes a smile to grow on my face, too.

He looks up to meet my eyes, and he mouths the words, I do say.

A tap on my shoulder prevents me from replying to Aaron's childish nonsense.

"What are you doing?" Gabs asks with clear annoyance in her tone.

I blink at her. "Nothing," I say before I turn look back down at the lunch table.

My phone vibrates on my lap and I unlock it to see another snap from Aaron, which is a picture of him pouting.

Why won't you sit with me again?

I roll my eyes as I take a picture of myself with a blank face.

Because I don't want to.

This time it's a text message.

Dumbass: why not?

Me: because I don't want to

Dumbass: yes but why not

I ignore him and roll my eyes.

Despite what I told Aaron, I do want to sit with him; anything is better than sitting here with Gabs, who's been on her phone the whole time, and Gracie, who hasn't been talking.

A body plopping down next to mine makes me jump a little bit out of surprise, and I look to my right to see Jacob smiling at me.

"Hey, Jakey," I say, smiling at him. "How's your day been?"

He lets out a groan. "I'm too dumb for school."

I laugh at him. "I doubt that."

He laughs too before looking down at the empty table in front of me. "You're not eating?"

I shake my head. "I didn't bring any money today." The swear jar really robs me of my funds. "And we don't normally have any good food in my house, which is why I didn't bring a lunch."

"Sounds tough," he says. "Do you want to share?" He pushes his tray of food, which contains french fries and chicken nuggets, towards me.

"No," I automatically decline. "No, it's alright. I'll be fine."

"C'mon," he insists. "I don't mind sharing and it's not like I'm going to eat all of this anyways."

I hesitate, and he sighs before he picks up a fry and holds it in front of my mouth. "Open up."

"What?"

"Open your mouth, Cass."

Why do I surround myself with the weirdest people?

"Maybe you really are too dumb for school."

He gives me a blank look before moving the fry closer towards my mouth. "Just open your mouth already."

I shake my head as he groans.

"Why are you so stubborn, I'm not trying to poison you or anything, I just want you to eat the fry and tell me if it tastes good." He stops to think. "Well, actually, since it's school food you might get food poisoning, but, still."

I can't help myself and start to laugh, and Jake quickly stuffs the fry in my mouth.

I glare at him as I chew, and I speak once I swallow. "That was rude."

"I don't care," he shrugs. "Now eat."

I roll my eyes and pick up another fry, but I chew with a smile.

Gabs abruptly stands up from the table. "I'll see you guys later," she says, and without waiting for a response, she walks away from the table.

Gracie, Jake, and I watch her leave, and as soon as she walks out the door, I see Gracie relax.

"So," she says brightly, turning to me and Jake with a smile. "I have a question for you, Cass."

"What is it?"

"Can we go sit at Cole's table?"

I let out a groan and drop my head to bang it against the table.

"Why?" I whine, looking up at her. "He's annoying."

Gracie giggles. "You're so dramatic." Her voice turns pleading. "Please? He asked me and I really want to and I think I like him and I think he likes me but I don't know if I want to be with him and this is a great opportunity to figure that out and I want to be nice to him because he bought me a puppy and––"

"Fine," I grumble. "Let's go."

Gracie smiles at me and she gets up to walk over to the table where Cole, Adrian, and Aaron are sitting. I sigh and move to stand up.

I start walking towards the table, and it takes me a few seconds to realize that Jake isn't behind me.

I turn around to see him staring down at his lunch.

"Jakey," I say. He looks up at me. "Why are you still sitting down?"

He looks at me, confused, before understanding dawns on him and a smile slowly grows on his face.

He walks to me with his tray in hand, and I link arms with him once he's next to me, a smile on both of our faces.

We reach Aaron's table, and I take a seat on Aaron's right, wile Jake takes a seat on my right.

"Jake, this is Cole and Adrian, guys, this is Jake."

Cole eyes him before turning to his right to face Gracie. Adrian, however, who is sitting on Cole's left, remains looking down at his phone, though he did give Jake a nod.

"So, Adrian," Jake says, causing Adrian to look up, for the first time since we got the table, and examine Jake. "Have you ever seen America's Next Top Model?"

---------

I hate school.

I think I've mentioned that before, but, honestly, I cannot stand it.

It's nine o'clock, and I just finished all my homework. Granted, I procrastinated for a while, which is probably why it took me so long to finish, but, I mean, come on. It's ridiculous, and I'm so close to dropping out, and if I wasn't so afraid of what my mother would do to me, you can bet your ass I would.

I crawl under the covers on my bed and get comfortable, closing my eyes.

It isn't long until I'm asleep.

I've never been afraid of the dark.

But this, this overwhelming darkness that makes me feel like just a pair of eyes watching, powerless to do anything, to say anything, terrifies me.

I open my mouth to speak, but no sound comes out.

Or maybe it does, I just can't hear it. I can't hear anything.

I scream and yell and cry, but no one hears, no one comes.

The darkness goes on forever in every direction; everywhere I look, there's just...nothing.

But then, a speck of light in the distance, coming closer.

It gets so bright that I have to lift a hand to block some of it, and it's then that I realize I can hear again, that I realize that I'm crying, that I realize that Kyle is standing in front of me.

Kyle, with his blonde hair and his grey eyes and his heartwarming smile that makes me feel safe.

I try to move closer to him, try to reach out and touch him, to hold him, but my feet are stuck in place.

I look down to see them plastered to a sidewalk, and when I look back up, gone is the friendly Kyle. In his place is the Kyle from that night, the Kyle that hurt me, the Kyle that I forgot, and suddenly he's in a car, yards away from me.

He's in a car speeding down the road towards a white dog. The dog is just standing there, watching the car come closer.

I try to run to the dog, try to scream out, but, once again, my voice is gone.

The car gets closer and closer towards the dog, and right before they collide, I close my eyes.

Sound stops and I open my eyes, only to find that I'm the dog, ad the car has moved back to the opposite end of the road were it started.

I'm the dog stuck on the road, unable to move, doomed to watch as the car speeds closer and closer, faster and faster.

"I'm sorry, Cass." Kyle's voice booms inside my head, so so loud, and the car comes closer and closer, never stopping. "I'm sorry. You have to forgive me." He's yelling now, and all I can do is watch the car. "I didn't mean to! You have to forgive me!"

The car hits me.

I shoot up in bed, shaking and sweating and crying. I want my mom, I want my dad, I just want somebody to hold me, somebody to tell me that everything's alright, that it was just a dream.

Because it felt real, and I can't stop thinking about it, and it won't go away, why won't it go away, why won't it stop?

I bury my face in my hands and cry.

And suddenly I'm being wrapped up in a pair of arms, being pressed against a warm chest that muffles my tears.

"You're okay, Cassie, it was just a nightmare, you're okay," the voice whispers in my ear as I'm slowly rocked back as forth. "It's okay, I'm here."

I sniff. "A––Aaron?"

He shushes me. "Just go back to sleep, you're okay."

I find myself relaxing against him as he moves under my covers with me and holds me close.

The nightmare is slowly fading out of my mind, slowly being forgotten, and the tears start to stop.

The only thing that stays with me is the fear, the fear about something that I can't remember. I don't remember why I'm scared, and that's the scariest thing about this whole nightmare.

---------

Okay, so I might have made a mistake in Chapter 16. I thought I edited it and then remembered that I, in fact, did not do any editing of any kind. So, basically, the chapter got published too early, so when I went to write this chapter, I couldn't figure out how to write it because I, mistakenly, introduced Kyle in that chapter instead of this one. For those of you who have already read chapter 16 I recommend you go back and re-read it for this chapter to make sense because I had to change a lot of the last chapter. Sorry for the mishap on my part, and I'll try to not let it happen again.

—Rose