Hollywood and Vines (A One Direction Fanfic)

Chapter 14 - I Am the Vine

June 21

I dreamt of Zayn last night.  I was alone on the street, fumbling about.  Everything was a blur.  The blobs passing me by, the dismal grey of the sidewalk.  

I remember calling out for Zayn.  Though he was not clear, I knew him to be in the distance, watching me indifferently with his hands in his pockets as a tight smile stained his face.

I grabbed for him.  I grabbed for his wrist but my attempt resulted in my fingers grasping the palm of my hand instead.  I dug my nails into my palm, thinking that the harder I clutched, the better the chance I would have of grasping Zayn's wrist.

"Zayn," I'd slurred.  "Help me."

 A muted scream broke from my lips when the concrete sidewalk melted into an icy abyss of water.  My heavy body sank beneath its surface instantly.  I gazed through the raging waves to Zayn, reached my hand for him to save me, but he didn't.  He let me sink.

When I awoke, I found myself gasping for breath.  I jerked upward to a sitting position and slouched, watching the rolls of my stomach bunch together.  Thrashing my head to my pillow again,  I pushed the stray strands of hair away from my face.  When l glanced to my right, I saw that Allie's bed was empty.  We shared a room since Tom and Christina had only one guest room.  I listened for the faint voices of Allie's family from the other room.   

I sat up again and rubbed my eyes with my arm.  After, I shrieked when I found a furry mess of black and white laying shiftlessly on the end of my bed.

"Holly?"  called Christina from the kitchen.

"Sorry," I grumbled.  "Just the dog."  I slithered out of bed.  "Now shoo.  Go away, you stupid . . .."  My lips sealed tight when Allie entered the room.  

"Is everything okay?"  she frowned.

"Yeah," I breathed, leaning on a nearby dresser for support.  "The dog just scared me.  It was on the end of my bed."

Allie grimaced.  "Oh, ew.  So you don't like dogs, either?  Guess that makes two of us."  She clapped her hands together and Louis came scuttering across the floor to my step sister.  "Come on. Lou.  This way."

I groaned when a headache penitrated my brain.  The pain throbbed fiercely.  Why must I always wake up with a headache?

"Uncle Tom made breakfast!"  Allie exclaimed.  "He makes really good scrambled eggs!"  When I was slow to reply, I felt her hand on my shoulder.  "Are you okay, Holly?"

"Yeah," I mumbled.  "Just tired, I guess."

"I'm sorry.  Maybe some eggs will wake you up.  Or you can go back to bed, if you want."

I glanced over at the clock on my end table.  "Woah.  It's 10:30 already?"

"Yeah,"  Allie laughed.  "That's okay, we haven't been up that long, anyway.  You haven't missed much."

"Oh . . .."

Louis barked.

"Hush!"  Allie scolded.  She grabbed him by his neck and dragged him out of my room, muttering, "Ew, ew," 

My phone bleeped, notifying me with the fact that @Harry_Styles and @NiallOfficial had started following me on twitter.  

How oh, so kind of them.  Even though I had ruined Niall's night, he still followed me.  I found this strange.

Curious, I picked up my phone, clicked on twitter and tapped on my mentions.  I knew that this was not wise because of the rumours that circulated about me last year, but I wanted to see if any of my followers had noticed my new followers.