The Thing about Falling ✓

Forty Two • Dreams and Nightmares

Athena

I dreamt of him again.

I had been wearing my nasty, maroon school uniform, the skirt all crinkly from the lack of ironing I had done the day before. My hair was longer and had been French braided, and my lips had been newly glazed with the lip gloss my aunt got me.

It was an ordinary day like any other. There wasn't any big of a difference, to be honest. 

Only how it ended.

We had just gotten out of the bookstore we usually hung out in. We were supposed to be headed home.

Owen had his waves of dark brown all over his eyes again as the breeze grew cold and swept his hair down, making him scowl in annoyance. I had laughed at him as I took out a green hair tie and had tied it back. As ridiculous as he perceived it, he shook his head and sighed, telling me he looked like a vegetable.

Like in all versions of my dreams with this exact scene playing over and over again, Maxie came running from the park in front of the bookstore and into the road, out of the blue.

As far as I remembered, the roads at home have rarely been busy, but this time, in this version of my dream, it was.

There were speeding cars zooming left and right of the road. Maxie was running.

Maxie had always been the excited, happy type of dog. She loved walks and she loved running without her leash too. She was a smart one, who knew her way to the park and back home.

The moment I glimpsed her familiar white coat and her apparent excitement, my eyes widened and in an instant, I left Owen on the sidewalk and ran as fast I could to get Maxie. 

But I wasn't able to get her.

Someone else was faster than me.

Owen.

He managed to get Maxie but he was the one who took the hit from the rushing cars that had been passing by that time.

In that dream, Owen had been thrown off his chair, his body crumpled like old paper as blood spilled out of his head and his eyes had rolled back into unconsciousness. The green hair tie I had tied in just moments ago was still intact, only that it had now been speckled with undeniable drops of red.

I had been frozen in place.

I stared.

And in an instant, felt chills run down my spine as I succumbed to the overwhelming feeling of numbness.

And then, I screamed.

"ATHENA, WAKE UP." I heard someone tell me as spiny fingers held me by the shoulders and shook me awake.

I gasped and rubbed my eyes open, sitting up in Fitz's hard, spare bed as I looked around his dark room until I spotted Fitz himself, looking a bit worried at me.

He was sitting by the edge of my bed, his posture slumped and tired from the previous day's agenda, but worry had been etched along the creases of his face, as illuminated by his Batman nightlight.

I felt guilty for being the reason he barely gets any sleep.

"Shit. Did I wake you again?" I asked, as I sat straighter in my bed, cuddling the pillow I had slept on.

Fitz nodded and sighed.

"Yeah. It's the 5th time this month." he said, as he rubbed his nape and avoided my gaze.

For some reason, I really do feel like I need to move out of Fitz's room before I get caught. Like any college student, he values his sleep more than anything else, and I feel bad for being one of the reasons he has a fucked up sleep schedule.