Make it Through the Chaos

Chapter 5-Home

Chapter 5-Home

            I woke up to the familiar sound of Ben's voice singing along to some song on the radio. The smell of paper mixed with cinnamon, and a faint smell of sweetness from the empty candy containers on the floor filled my nose. Dosing in and out of consciousness, the deep pool of slumber keeping all the memories at bay; for the first time in a long time, I felt like I was home.

I tried to hang on to these moments, pushing myself back into the void of sleep, just to keep the memories that haunted the corners of my mind at bay. But much to my dismay Ben's voice got louder and louder pulling me out of my slumber.

I let out a sigh as I sat up and looked at my surroundings, the events of the last few days flooding my head. Seeing Ben again, being hunted, Brooklynn's death wasn't just a random attack.

Yep, this was my life. 

"Ben! Yaz is on the phone!" I heard Sammy hiss as I slid open the door and slipped into the back seat, as Ben continued to sing. I looked over at Sammy as she tried to talk over Ben's loud music. "Hey, rockstar Yasmina is actually on the phone," Sammy yelled finally hitting Ben on the shoulder.

I giggled as Ben realized that Sammy wasn't just leaving her three-hundredth voicemail. "Oh. Oh! Like right now?" Ben questioned. "Yeah, Ben I think that's what she meant when she said right now," I said from the back seat causing both of them to let out a screech, I guess they hadn't realized I was there.

After taking a moment to process Ben looked over at Sammy "You should have told me," Ben said softer. "That's what I'm doing, Ben!" Sammy growled, holding up her phone.

"Wait. Ben? As in, Ben Pincus?" I heard Yaz yell over the phone as Sammy put her on speaker. "In the flesh!" Ben yelled back with a laugh. "Will you shush," Sammy said hitting him again. "Yeah! Ben's with me. Lilly too. We're actually on our way to see you. Surprise!" Sammy told Yaz, I could tell she was nervous. "Oh! You're coming here? What? That's awesome! What's the occasion?" Yaz questioned. "Oh, Yaz we're in dang-" Ben began but Sammy quickly cut him off. "Wyoming, already. About an hour our though, so not quite to you yet," Sammy rambled before turning Yaz off speaker.

"We just ran into a, a bit of a snag," Sammy said. "Three snags," Ben remarked and Sammy shushed him again and he let out a huff before looking back at me through the rearview mirror, I just shrugged. I had a feeling Sammy was worried about how Yaz would handle all of this and wanted to just tell her in person.

Once Sammy hung up Ben began to speak again. "So, you didn't wanna tell Yaz what's going on?" he questioned side eyeing Sammy. "What do you want me to say? Hay Yaz, you know those dinosaurs you've been traumatized by? Well, guess what? Now you and all your friends are being hunted by them," Sammy replied sarcastically. "Good point," Ben said, but I could tell he wasn't a fan of not just telling Yaz straight up what was going on.

"I don't know how she's going to handle the news about Brooklynn being targeted. We've just gotta ease into this stuff. The last thing I want to do is bombard her with bad news. Remember how she got when the dinosaurs made it to the mainland?" Sammy said looking out the window. I let out a sigh, Yaz hadn't been the only one affected by dinosaurs coming to the mainland, but it did hit her the hardest. She froze, and I fought; they were both stress responses. Yaz was actually the first one to point that out to me. The last time we really spoke it seemed she was doing a lot better, we both were, but that was before Brooklynn's death. She had reached out a couple of times, after Brooklynn's death, but I never answered.

"Her PTSD is still affecting her that badly?" I heard Ben ask Sammy. "Well to tell you the truth, we haven't really talked much lately. She's so busy, and when we do catch each other, she acts like everything's good, but, I don't know. Call it a hunch or girlfriend's intuition, I can tell she's still struggling." Sammy said with a sigh. "But it's okay. Yaz just needs me to help her through it," Sammy added. "It's going to be nice for you two to reconnect," Ben said giving Sammy a smile. "Yeah, I hope so," Sammy sighed. "It will be, even if you two aren't on the same page right now, you guys love each other, and you'll figure it out," I said softly from the back seat. "Thanks, Lilly," Sammy said looking back at me with a smile.