Chapter 6

                                                                  ~Wake Me Up~

                                                                         I like to talk.

                                                 That's why I can't karaoke in a private room.

                                                            Those types of shenanigans

                                                          are only good in a public space.

                                                                                 ~

                                                                          Liza Lapira

I come to a halt and turn to look at him, he's rolled down the window and I can clearly see him. Radiant skin, a clean white T-shirt that hugs his body, a vibrant smile, and sparkling blue eyes that are slowly drowning me. Don't understand why that is.

"Are you alright? My apologies I-I didn't mean to scare you," he says and I can hear the sincerity in his voice. I am in awe of how humble he is which is rare for people like him -- young, independent, and extremely good-looking.

He always speaks with so much sincerity and respect and I have no doubt in my mind that he has no intentions of hurting me. I am starting to feel safe around him, slowly letting my guard down which is odd but I like it.

"It's okay," I palm my chest to steady my racing heart, "Just make sure to roll down your window immediately you pull up next time," a breathy laugh leaves my mouth along with the words.

In response, he nods a little while his hand is still on the stirring wheel, "Sure, are you headed home?"

"Yes, why?" I ask inquisitively with my brows creased.

"I'm on my way to pick Melissa up from school, if you don't mind I can give you a ride since we both live next to each other, "

Standing still and wordless, I hesitate a little, not because I don't trust him but because I don't want him to think that I do.

"Sure," I press my lips into a thin line while I stand awkwardly on the side of the road.

When he opens the door for me, I get in and push my hair back after fastening my seatbelt. I'm in awe at how good he's smelling, how clean and fresh his car smells, and how well-organized he is, it's nearly hard to believe that guys like him exist, perhaps he's the only one.

He starts the engine and I lean my back against the seat to get comfortable while I stare at the empty road that's stretching ahead of us. That odd feeling of my heart racing like I just completed a thousand-mile run race has me wondering what's going on. This is the second time that something like this has happened to me. Perhaps I should talk to Mom about it.

"So how's everything at school going?" He breaks the silence while his eyes are still focused on the road.

"It's umm, okay," I chuckle nervously under my breath. I can barely make eye contact with him, and I don't understand why I'm feeling like this. My head ducked down as I roll my bracelet back and forth in hopes of steadying my restless, throbbing heart.

"And how's this small town treating you so far?" I finally speak up after what felt like hours of contemplating whether or not I should strike up a conversation.

"It's amazing," he replies instantly, "I love how small and peaceful it is, at least it's uhh exceeding my expectations," he says while his eyes are still on the road.

I have so many questions swirling in my mind like where he's from, why he decided to move to a small town like this, or Melissa's mom's whereabouts, cause I haven't seen her around— but I don't want to scare him away with my blunt questions.

"I haven't seen or heard from your mother since the night of the Bundt cake, is she alright?" He questions as he turns his eyes to me for a split second.

Looking away, I blink away the hurt that's started forming in my eyes. Thinking about how much she's hurting herself and me without her realizing it is upsetting. As much as I would love to think positively whenever I think about her, I can't, I can't conceal the worry and hurt that consumes me every day.

Urging myself to speak, I lift my eyes to meet his but avert them from him right away and push down the ball of emotions congested in my throat, "She's alright, just busy, most of the time,"

"Hope I'll meet her again," he says and I nod and pull my lips into a thin line in response. Hopefully, maybe she'll have time for you.

Turning on the radio, he presses a few buttons till Avicii's song Wake Me Up starts playing. Pressing on another button, his finger lingers on it till the volume on the radio increases to his liking. It changes the mood in the car wholly and I can't help but sing along, and he joins in.

"Wait you know this song?" I ask in astonishment.

"Partially, so don't laugh if I don't get the lyrics right, okay?" he says joyfully.

Smiling at him with my back resting on the car seat, I reply with a joyful sure knowing so well that the possibility of holding back my laugh is zero.

We drive to Melissa's school with Avicii's song Wake Me Up playing in the car -- some kind of a karaoke drive and I can't help but embrace this wonderful moment.

                                                                          * * *

                                                                       **********

The night is cold and I'm standing alone in the middle of an empty road, silence takes over the night, darkness is engulfing the night and I'm facing a dilemma.

Two separate roads lie in front of me, one goes to the right and the other goes to the left. Turning to look at both sides, I still can't decide where to go, and then abruptly, I hear footsteps from a distance getting louder -- and closer.

Scared, I decide not to turn around, instead, I take a quick glance over my shoulder and that's when I see two shadows behind me. Immediately, I begin to run, moving my feet further away from them and hastily but unfortunately, the two shadows catch up to me and tackle me to the ground in a heartbeat.

I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, kicking, and doing everything I can to escape their grip but the two shadows sadly, are much, much stronger than me.

I feel my chest wall closing in, breathing suddenly becomes hard to do and my legs start to weaken. Feeling defeated and hopeless, I cease to fight and turn my head to look at the faceless shadows hovering above me, and it is then that I see faces forming, though blury, a clear image is forming at a snail's pace.

Terrified at what I'm looking at, paralysis overtakes my body including the muscles of my eyes. I can't blink or look away, and as much as I'm scared to watch, I have no choice but to be still under their grip and watch what's unfolding above me.

I watch silently and am terrified as the faceless shadows slowly turn to shadows with human faces, they look familiar, they're from my past, they are -- my dad and my stepdad.

Steading my breath, my heartbeat eases too at the sight of what's above me, regardless of how much they both hurt me, I feel some kind of comfort beneath their grip, they've hurt me already, what's the worst thing they can do to me? Insidiously, their faces start to contort into scary monsters and fear consumes me right away. I feel the adrenaline rush through my body and my heartbeat accelerates. Instantly, I push them aside with every strength in my body and proceed to run as soon as I get up.

Hearing their footsteps behind me, I keep running and don't turn my eyes to look at them, I'm too frightened and too desperate to get to a safe place that I don't see the stones in front of me until I trip on one of them and fall to the ground instantly.

Petrified, I struggle to get up but to no avail. My elbows are pressed so hard on the concrete and my limbs are weak. I can't get up no matter how much I try and every part of my body aches twice the pain threshold.

Refusing to give up and let this be my fate, I urge myself to fight to the last drop of my blood and just as I'm about to get up, one of the shadows grasps my leg, and right away, I start to kick and scream at the top of my lungs in hopes of a rescue but nobody comes to my rescue, and just when I start to feel that all hope is lost, a phone starts buzzing and I find it as the perfect opportunity to get away from them.

Tossing and turning on the concrete in hopes of getting away from their grip, my hands and legs are bruised but none of that matters.

Suddenly, I wake up to the reality of me tossing and turning on my bed, tears are streaming down my face from the corners of my eyes and my hands are clutching the bedsheets. Blankly staring at the ceiling in the dark with my chest rising and falling heavily, shudders leave my lips while I struggle to gain composure and suddenly, my phone buzzes. Surprised at seeing Tessa's name on my screen at this hour, I pick the call up.

                                                                                                                                 Becca "Hello?"

My voice is laced with concern and curiosity.

                   Tessa "Hey, umm I'm outside your house so can you umm, can you come out right now?"

Her voice quavers over the phone, and I can't help but worry even more. It's unlike her to come over this late but for whatever reason, it must be very serious.

Getting up from my bed, I slide the window open and manifest my Spider-Man skills as I crawl out of the window, and all the way to the ground. Upon sticking the landing, I stand in awe of how amazing that was.

If only someone could have recorded it, pff.

Tiptoeing my way to the front yard, I see Tessa's car parked on the other side of the street with headlights on. I wave at her but she doesn't notice so I walk a few feet closer to her and wave again and this time, she notices.

She locks her car, runs to me, and falls in my arms with force I nearly lose my balance. Her head is over my shoulder and her arms are tightly looped around me -- tears fall from her eyes I can hear her soft sobs behind my ear.

Something's wrong with her for sure.

When she sniffles, she lets go of me and chuckles as she wipes off her tears with her sweater.

"What took you so long, and what are you wearing?" she utters as she drags her eyes to my nightwear in confusion.

Averting my eyes from her to my puffy polka dot pajama onesie that oddly looks weird for an 18-year-old, not forgetting the fluffy tail that comes along with it, I smile shyly at her.

Sinking my teeth into the corner of my lower lip, I exhale sharply, and just as I'm about to say something, she waves it off.

"Don't bother telling me I've seen worse than this anyway,"

"Yeah, I do not want to go down that memory lane," I reply as I clench my teeth and suppress the memory of one of my worst looks from coming into focus.

"I still wonder what you were thinking when you wore that --" Knowing what she's going to say next, I instantly place my hand on her mouth and it is only when she promises that she won't bring up the topic tonight, that I finally remove my hand from her mouth.

"Jeez you don't want to take a trip down that lane do you?" her brows scrunch, "Nobody's even around to listen,"

"I know-I know, it's just that it makes me cringe whenever I think about it." I grimace at the thought of it.

"Well then, thank heavens for an upgrade," she railleries, and I smile in response.

"Enough about me and my weird taste in fashion, are you okay?" concern laces in my voice once again.

Suddenly, her Cheerful and lively presence dissipates, the joy in her eyes, the blush on her cheeks, and the rays of light on her face all vanish in a heartbeat.

"Not really, can we talk about it inside, being out here this late is starting to creep me out," she says as she travels her eyes around the darkness that's surrounding us.

"You and me both," I reply in an instant. I don't want to be caught up in another nightmare.

"You didn't use the front door or any other door on your way here did you?" Curiosity consumes her face as she looks at me with narrowed-slit eyes.

"Nope," I shake my head upon coming to a realization of what I'm about to do, or rather, what we're about to do.

"So how are we going to get in?" The curiosity in her voice heightens following her eyebrows.

Sighing, I turn to look at her with a smirk on my face.

"The same way I got out," Looking up at the roof with my hands resting on my waist, I add, "We're going to crawl up to my room."

Feeling defeated, she slumps her shoulders and follows me back, and after what felt like an eternity of attempting to climb back up, we finally manage to get inside.

We both fall into a sort of lazy sprawl as we blankly stare at the ceiling in the dim light, heavy breaths escape our mouths, our chests are rising and falling heavily, and not a single word has been spoken up until now.

"Remind me to use the front door the next time you bring up this crazy idea of climbing up your room," she says in between her breaths.

Turning to look at her, I see no expression on her face. I can't tell what's going on, especially with the lights so dim, and when she tilts her head away from me, she goes silent.

I wonder what's going on with her.

"What happened?" I break the silence and she holds onto it in response. Waiting for the unknown is nerve-racking.

The silence around us grows louder with every second that goes unanswered, she doesn't turn to look at me, and neither does she let a word escape her mouth. I wait a few more seconds for her response but to no avail.

Lying still with her on the floor, I stare at the ceiling in the dim light, silence fills the four walls of my room and so many thoughts overcrowd my mind. Even though she's bubbly, she hardly talks about her emotions especially if there's a heart-wrenching story behind it.

Upon holding her hand, I gently squeeze it in comfort, I know she won't tell me what's going on until she's ready, and as painful as it is to watch her be this upset, I've grown accustomed to being patient with her, to understand and respect her decision. She'll tell me when her heart's ready to open up, but until then, all I can do right now is hold her hand and reassure her that I'll always be by her side.

Squeezing my hand, she turns to face me -- her face is as long as a fiddle with teary eyes and sealed lips that don't part to let a word out, let alone let a sob out.

When she averts her eyes from me, she turns them to the floor and blankly stares at it as if she's lost in her thoughts, and after a long moment of silence, she finally parts her lips only to let out a soft yawn.

"Perhaps we should get some sleep now," I suggest.

Nodding in agreement, she gets up, and so do I. I follow behind and watch her lay her sweater on the chair and embrace herself in the warm bed cover.

"Hey," she whispers. We're both facing opposite sides so, I don't turn to look at her.

"Hey," I whisper back as my eyes wander around in the darkness.

"What are we going to tell your mom in the morning, I don't want her to start asking questions,"

"Don't worry about it, I got it covered," I reassure her. Even though this is not Tessa's first sleepover, rarely does she come this late unless there's a problem which mom ends up finding out anyway, however, today's different -- for whatever reason, she can't know about Tessa's reason for coming here this late, even I don't know what it is.

                                                                         Lyrics

                                                    So wake me up when it's all over

                                                      When I'm wiser and I'm older

                                                     All this time I was finding myself,

                                                        and I Didn't know I was lost

                                                                              * 

                                                                           Avicii

                                                                            A/N

Thank you so much for getting this far, much appreciated. Don't forget to vote, comment and share. It'd really be nice to hear from you and your honest opinions/thoughts about the story.