Escape From Reality

The Storm

It was only a couple of seconds before I heard footsteps furiously pounding after me.

"Chloe, wait!"

I don't listen to the voice. I must be going crazy. This couldn't be happening.This was literally impossible. He couldn't exist. Not in real life.

I push my feet harder against the ground, just wanting to get away from all this craziness, Jacob's footsteps not far behind me.

Our footsteps echoed as we ran,and I dare not look at the boy behind me. I'm crying as I run. The tears slid shakily down my face and into my mouth.

This could not be happening. Jacob was not real.

Think logically Chloe! I shrieked at myself internally as I roughly pushed a tear away from my eye. Maybe your brain picked up his face during school and somehow inserted it into your dreams. Maybe you are just imagining things.Maybe this is just a dream. I desperately tried to reason with myself.

While that might explain some things, it certainly doesn't explain why he was running after me for no apparent reason.

Does he want to tease me? About that horrible picture of me? He must have seen it on his phone and recognised me as that idiot that fell. I couldn't bear it if he started to tease me. Tears swirling in my eyes,I keep on running away.

"Chloe, wait!" He yells out, a sense of urgency evident in his voice and a tinge of something else I can't quite pinpoint. I keep running despite his plea. This must be a ploy to get my attention, so he can make fun of me, tease me, bully me. I sniffed. That must be it. That was the most logical conclusion. But, before I know it, I feel a compression on my shoulder, and the next thing I know I'm being yanked back. I cry out in surprise as I'm violently turned around to face him. We stare at each other for a few moments breathlessly and I stare straight into his uncannily familiar green eyes. His green eyes that I saw in my dreams just a day ago.

"I know you Chloe! This can't be a coincidence. There must be something going on." He rambles on like a maniac. He looks me straight in the eye as he says all this, which makes my heart stop. I feel my body trembling as I heave in deep breaths. I don't know why,but I'm scared. Maybe it's because he sounds crazy. Maybe it is because I'm shaken from the incident at school.

Or maybe it's because this could not be happening. This can't be real.

"I'm--sorry. I don't know you." I force the words out and with tremendous effort avert my eyes from the allure of his familiar green ones. Immediately, I felt a stab of misplaced guilt flit through me even though it's the truth. After all, I didn't know him in reality.

I watched intently for his reaction. Jacob's face immediately morphs into an unrecognizable expression. His mouth drops slightly as he seems to be at a loss for words. Before he can do anything else though, I turn myself around and just run.

The boy that looks like Jacob makes no attempt to run after me.

The complete and utter mess that was me proceeded to run all the way home.

Panting, I threw open the door, and slammed it straight behind me. The crash reverberates through the house. Gasping for breath, I drop my bag like it was a sack of potatoes and just collapse head first onto the couch, just crying and crying. All the mean things Layla had done to me replayed in my head. Over and over again.

It was like watching a movie,the various scenes playing through my mind like a tape. I want to hit skip, to skim over my most humiliating moments but I can't.They play out of my control, making me breathe harder and harder. My sobs sound like I had been impaled with a spear right into the gut.