You're Always Out Of Reach

The Smell of Alcohol

I arrive at Clara's house, and knock on the door.

She opens the door slowly, and peeks at me from the dark house, "hey," I say.

Clara whispers quietly, "I...I don't think you should come over anymore..."

I stood there confused, "what do you mean?"

"It's not safe here..."

"What do you mean, Clara? What's going on?" I step closer to the door, concerned.

"Kai..."

I push the door open and suddenly Clara isn't there anymore, I step forward then fall through the floor.

I fell through the floor?

I hit the ground hard and looked up to where I fell.

Clara looks down at me from the house above, her face covered in bruises and blood, she smiles and starts cackling.

"Goodbye, Kai." She said,

And then it got dark.

I woke up in a cold sweat for the second day in a row. Why are all my dreams about some messed up stuff? I get out of bed and head to the bathroom to take a shower. Maybe that will calm me down.

I stand under the steaming water and look at the wall. Thinking about what might happen when I get to Clara's house. I wonder what the inside of her house looks like, I wonder what her room looks like.

I finish taking a shower and get dressed for the day. I turn on my phone and check my messages.

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1 new message

(Clara) Good mornin, you can come over whenever

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I turn off the phone and put my shoes on, I don't need breakfast because I ate way too much last night.

I pick up the notebook from my floor before heading to my car and googling her address.

After a few minutes of driving I pull up to her house and walk to her door. I feel hesitant to knock on the door after what I dreamt about but I knock anyway.

I hear a quick clang from inside the house and quick footsteps. Clara quickly opens the door, and smiles at me.

"Heya," she greeted.

"Hey," I looked past her shoulder and into her house, the living room was a mess, which is surprising for someone like Clara.

She notices my line of sight and laughs awkwardly, "just ignore the living room, I didn't want to move any of my dad's stuff."

"Oh I understand."

"Here, come in," she moves so I can step in, "uhhh we'll just walk past the living room quickly, we'll just stay uhm in my room." She starts walking so I can follow her.

I step in the house after her and the smell of alcohol hits me in the face like a brick. I cough slightly and cover my nose, the whole living room reeks of the smell.

Clara quickly heads up the stairs and I follow her, she kind of walks fast, "s-sorry, it's just. Uhm-" she thought about what to say about the smell.

"No it's okay."

"Yeah.."

We reach her room and she opens the door, I walk in and take a deep breath. Her room smelled like lavender. I looked around, the walls were a light shade of purple, her bed had black comforters and pillows. It was rather clean, she had a wooden desk on one end of the wall, next to a closet. The desk was scattered with papers, which I assumed was her weird nerd work for school. She has a night stand next to her bed with a vaporizer. It's not what I imagined a teenage girls room to look like if I'm being honest. There's no posters of like...boy bands, or whatever girls like. No makeup, or nail polish, or clothes all over the floor.