A Second Chance

"pizza? perfect."

Sara

I dreamed about where I would be if Papa never hurt Samuel and I. If he'd let us go. I'd probably be with Jess, having the life of our dreams. We'd be eating ice cream every night, going to University, and being Best Friends Forever. We could have been holding hands, walking down the mall, shopping our hearts out. We would have dyed our hair matching colors, like we wanted to. We could have gone to the concert we'd been waiting for. We'd be happy. But that didn't happen. In my dream, I decided to call her as soon as possible. Maybe now we could live that life.

I could feel someone moving from under me. I forgot I had fallen asleep on Luke. He probably left, thinking I was a freak. Oops. I slept on, dreaming about the life I could have had. But then I remembered, if I did have that life, I would have never met Luke, Ashton, Calum, Michael, or May. But did they really matter in my life?

What if they stopped Jess and I from moving to New York, like we wanted to? What if they start getting mean, like Papa did? I knew they wouldn't, but what if I was wrong about them? What if May was right about them? What if they all were lying? What if Jess was like them too? But Jess would never turn on me like that. She was the second person I could go to when I was sad. But that was before Papa started to be aggressive.

What if everyone, including May, was lying? What if they all wanted me dead? What if I was the one messing up their lives? What if I deserved to be hurt by Papa? But then, what did I do wrong? What did I do to deserve being hurt? Well, actually, I could make a list. But what if I was the one going crazy? What if I was overthinking everything? What if I was the one who was messing everything up for myself?

I couldn't take the endless possibilities. The questions, the answers. I wanted to wake up. But I couldn't feel anything. It was like my mind was the only thing present. I tried to yell, scream, cry. Nothing worked. I just wanted to wake up. I felt everything shaking, everything was rumbling. I tried to move, but I couldn't. I tried yelling again. I could hear myself. I tried crying. I felt tears going down my cheeks. I tried opening my eyes. I could see Luke standing in front of me, shaking me.

"Sara! You ok?" He said, and stopped shaking me.

"Y-Yes." I stuttered.

I felt light-headed. I wanted to cry. Did he really care? Did anyone care? Was it all my fault? Or was I the one going crazy? I realized I was crying. I was sobbing, actually. Luke hugged me tightly, and I cried into his shoulder. He rubbed my back, and said, "It's okay now. Don't worry." I cried for what seemed like hours. I finally stopped once I realized I was laying on Luke's chest again. He was stroking my hair as we laid silently. I felt a tingling feeling in my stomach. I probably needed to puke.

Luke

She started to cry, yell and scream. The others came in and saw she was having a nightmare. We all tried to wake her up, but nothing was working. I shook her, and she finally woke up, sobbing.

"Sara! You ok?" I asked her.

"Y-Yes." She stuttered.

She sobbed into my shoulder, and I hugged her tightly, rubbing her back.

"It's okay now. Don't worry." I told her.

She kept crying for what seemed like hours, and I had moved our position to her laying on my chest again. She finally stopped as I started to stroke her red hair. It was a red-orange mixture, but mostly red. After a while, she jumped up, and ran out the room. I followed her until I realized she had gone to the bathroom. I walked back to my room, and laid in bed, sighing. I covered myself with my blanket. I realized I had slept the entire day. I couldn't go back to sleep.

I rolled over onto my stomach and closed my eyes. I instantly fell asleep, surprising myself. I didn't dream of anything. I was just floating in darkness for a few seconds, until I was woken up by Sara.

"You fell asleep." She said. "For a long time."

"Yeah." I yawned.

I took a moment to look at her face. Her bruises and cuts were healing fast, and I could see her chocolate brown eyes much better now. She smiled at me. Her warm smile made the room feel warm too.

"Why are you staring at me?" She giggled.

"You're so beautiful." I said without thinking.

She blushed a bit, and looked down at her hands. I think she said something, but I couldn't hear her.

"Sara, where are you going to live?" I asked her.

"Um, I don't know." She shrugged.

"You don't have anyone else to turn to. Do you?"

"Uh. No."

"Y-We'll find somewhere to live."

I was about to say 'You can stay here', but I could tell that I shouldn't have said that.

"Thank you." She smiled at me.

I smiled back.

"I'm STARVING." I said.

"Me too." She said softly.

"What do you want to eat?" I asked her.

She looked at me like I was crazy.

"What do you want to eat?" She asked back.

"Anything you want." I told her.

She looked at me like I was crazy again.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"I-You want me to choose?" She asked me.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because, you look very hungry. And I don't want you to eat something you don't want to eat."

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'Why?'?"

"W-Nevermind." She said.

"Um, okay. So, what do you want to eat?"

"Pizza."

"Perfect."