Undergraduates [h.s]

Preface

"I'm so sorry, I tried to warn you..."

A familiar voice rang through my ears, vibrating in my eardrums as I tried to respond to the attempt of comfort. A pair of arms were wrapped loosely around my shoulders, cradling me as I rocked my body back and forth. My knees were curled up tightly by my chest as I pressed my lips into my kneecaps to try and stop the noises of despair, the gasps, the sobs and the whines from falling from my lips.

How did this happen? How did it get to this point? After weeks upon weeks of bickering and fighting, was the contentment we shared in between still not a good enough reason to commit and show some loyalty?

"Mel...Mel are you listening? You need to listen to me, I know-"

You know nothing. I thought to myself. You don't know what it feels like to have your heart ripped open and left on the floor to bleed in a pile of all the other problems, arguments, sins.

"...just try and understand tha-"

I looked over to the girl holding me close; my dearest friend was trying to comfort me, and I just stared at her, wanting it all to stop. I couldn't even hear her anymore, her words had all melted into one another until all I could hear was muffled sounds that didn't quite fit with the way her lips were moving.

A large knot rested at the top of my abdomen and didn't intend on leaving any time soon as I gasped desperately to try and catch my breath, but it wasn't even possible anymore; this was the kind of crying you can't control no matter how hard you try. My damp hair stuck to my forehead covered in small beads of sweat and more tears raced down my cheeks as my vision blurred more and more until eventually, my friend's face disappeared and everything was black.

"Mel!" Another muffled voice called, and before I could respond to anything I found myself in a house. House? I didn't recognize the house at first, a jar full of white chrysanthemums sat on top of a dark wood chest of drawers with a drawing of a building framed above it...my drawing?

I heard a laugh, the most wonderful sound echoed through the bedroom I found myself in, a cackle which no human being could possibly ignore no matter how much they tried. It was the kind of laugh which made your chest rise almost in a quick spasm as your heart leaped to the sound of someone's pure happiness.

It was the most familiar laugh I knew, the one I could lie down and listen to for hours on end, simply because I loved seeing him this content and hearing him express it through laughter gave the same contentment to me.

"Mel, come in here this is great!" I heard the familiar voice exclaim from the en-suite. This voice was the reassurement that the pain I felt earlier was not real and that this was reality. I was not sitting in a dorm room crying the hurt away with my friend comforting me.

A wide grin set from one of my cheeks to the other, my eyes wide with excitement to see what it was he was going to surprise me with this time. Another video of someone voicing over a cat that he found funny? A different way he's styled his hair which actually turned out to be hilarious? For him at least, he was always so easily amused.

"Mel?!" His clear english accent called again, this time with a questioning tone as I began to stride towards the open door, a gentle breeze brushing over me from a window left open a little more than normal.

"I'm coming!" I raised my voice slightly to assure him that I was on my way.
"What is it?" I inquired with a large smile on my face, however when I walked through the doorway, the room was empty? I looked around the entire room but there wasn't anything or anyone in sight.

"Mel!" his voice called again, still somewhere in the room?

"Harry? Where are you?" I asked, my smile fading and my eyebrows furrowing as I kept glancing around the room.