Love Is...

-26-

Song: "How To Save A Life" by The Fray

**

"Heather—I met someone else. I'm so sorry," Alejandro's voice echoed in the back of her mind as she walked down the white hallway. Tears blurred her vision, but she didn't care.

"—ther—"

A pained noise escaped her throat. It was a noise she couldn't quite describe.

"—eather!"

She felt like she was swallowing glass, and the glass was slowly cutting her heart open.

"Heather!"

She'd rather be dead.

"Heather!"

Heather jolted, then sat up in her bed. "Heather!" Her mother's sharp voice came from outside her door.

"What?" She answered groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"Why is your door locked? You never lock it while you're sleeping!"

Heather looked at her phone. The time read 2:30 am. She sighed. "Mom, why are you up at 2 am?"

"You didn't answer my question!" Her mom snapped.

"I locked my door because I don't want you barging in here in the morning like you always do!"

Her mother scoffed. "I don't even do that, you liar!"

"Mom, I want to go back to sleep. And you should too," said Heather.

"Don't tell me what to do, young lady!" Her mother stood by her door for a moment, then left anyways, grumbling about what a "bitch" her daughter was. 

Heather groaned, rubbing her forehead. She had a headache, and she felt confused. The last thing she remembered was walking down a white hallway. She was crying about something, and—

It dawned on her that it was all a dream; a nightmare. Another nightmare. Except it wasn't about Chandler. None of her recent nightmares had been about Chandler. They were about Alejandro. It started with a nightmare about him cheating on her with some random girl. Then, her dreams progressively got worse. Last night's dream was about him cheating with Courtney, her own friend. And tonight's dream seemed to have been Alejandro breaking up with her because he fell in love with someone else. Yeah, Heather could've told Alejandro about these nightmares, but she didn't want to upset him. He may think that she was suggesting that he would cheat in real life, and the last thing Heather wanted was for Alejandro to be angry with her.

Heather tried to go back to sleep, but her worries flooded her mind. She reached for her phone in the dark and opened up her Facebook. She went to Alejandro's page and looked at his information to check if he still had 'in a relationship' on there. She smiled when she saw her name next to the little heart. "Of course," she whispered to herself. Her eyes averted down to his friends list. He had 863 Facebook friends. That's a lot, Heather thought. I wonder who he's friends with. Especially which women he's friends with...

Heather clicked on the 'see all friends' button below the preview list and scrolled through the first few names. She recognized a lot of guys that went to school with them and even the Spanish professor. Then, she saw his mother, his dad, and Carlos. She clicked on the first girl's name that she didn't recognize. Daniella Rodrigues. Heather looked through her pictures. She saw one of her and Alejandro's dad. The caption read: 'Had a fun barbecue with my tío Pedro this Summer!' Tío. Tío means uncle. She's a cousin. God, Heather. She sighed, shutting off her phone. She squeezed her eyes shut. Stop being so paranoid! Alejandro loves me. He said that he loves me.