Boy in Pink

Chapter 32

I woke up, gasping for air. It came back. The voice. It keeps coming back, and...

My eyes felt like they were burning, and I hissed in pain. "Ah!" I crumpled onto my bed, holding my head. Hurt... hurts... ah... After a few minutes, it subsided, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. The voice keeps coming back, and I don't know what it wants, or even who it is. All I know is that it sounds familiar... Almost like me... no, no, no, no! That's impossible though! How can someone who sounds like me but isn't me talk to me!? Could it be possible...?

I rubbed my temples as I sat up in bed. "Ow..." I grumbled, "why do I always get such bad headaches after the nightmares...? Was the burning sensation earlier a symptom of the headaches? Because that hurts like hell..."

I slipped out of bed and pulled my hair tie out of my ponytail, letting my messy hair fall down onto my shoulders. I then ran my fingers through my hair a few times, catching some knots. "Ugh, damn knots..." I grabbed my hairbrush and ran it through my hair, untangling some knots.

"Should be good enough," I mused as I put my hairbrush away, and grabbed my hair tie, picking all the hair off. I then tied my hair back up, making sure it was okay.

"There." I then quickly slipped into my uniform, made sure my tie was centered, before bolting down the stairs. "Lorelei, I'm up!" I called, but froze when I saw her. She was sitting on the counter, eating peanut butter. With a knife. "Lorelei Lee Pines!" I yelled, walking towards her. She froze.

"I, uh... Hey, Roxy..." She mumbled, using her childhood nickname for me.

"What have I told you about eating peanut butter this early in the morning?" I asked.

"To stop doing it..." She whispered as she hopped off the counter, still holding the peanut butter jar with the butterknife in it.

"Especially straight up and with a butterknife!'" I scolded, and she whimpered.

"I'm sorry, okay!?" She stood right in front of me, her ears and tail drooping with embarrassment.

I just sighed and said, "It's okay, PineCone. Just, please don't do it again, okay? You can eat a little bit, but with some other food and not with a butterknife. Understood?" She nodded, recognizing the old nickname, PineCone. "Now, I gotta go to school, okay? Before I go, though, put the peanut butter and butterknife away, got it?" She whined, but put the knife in the sink and the peanut butter back in the pantry. "Good. Now, I'll see you later, okay?" I told her.

"Okay, love you."

"Love you too." I kissed her cheek, then grabbed my backpack, swinging it over my shoulder.

"Bye, Rory!" She called, and waved goodbye to me. I smiled and waved back, before walking out the door.

I grabbed my earbuds and phone from my side pocket of my backpack and paired my earbuds, waiting for them to connect. I hoped doing this would make it look like I was busy, if he saw me... False Confidence by Noah Kahan started playing. It wasn't on my playlist, but it somehow got on there, but I didn't mind, really.

"Don't let those demons in again... all that's left of myself, holes in my self confidence," were two of the lines in the song. I nodded along to the song as I walked. Suddenly, I looked down at my phone, looking at the time.

The clock says 7:10 am, and it's about a 20 minute walk there... I sighed and slowed down a little, speeding up when I got to the place where I met that kid yesterday.

Isaiah Ross, was it? He seemed nice, but was just a little, well, overwhelming... especially for someone like me, who gets overwhelmed and overstimulated easily, because he talks so much. So, yeah. Don't want that, so that's why I'm trying to avoid him. As cruel as it sounds that I'm trying to avoid him, I'm not trying to be cruel or mean. He just overwhelmed me with how much he talked yesterday... I replayed my playlist after listening to False Confidence. It just started playing random songs, but I wasn't paying any attention to care.

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I kept looking around, making sure I didn't see Isaiah. Then again, I kinda wanna talk to him, though... only about the photography club! But, I'm worried that he'd somehow get off track, and talk for hours... Thankfully, I didn't see him, even when I met up with the others. "Hey, where's Ari?" I asked Braedon.

"She's... she told me not to tell anyone, so... sorry." I shrugged it off. "It's alright. I was just curious." We kept walking together, Arrow on the side of us, on their phone - as always. They were smiling and giggling at their phone.

"Who are you talking to, Arrows?" I asked. They looked up from their phone.

"Aa, um, no one!" They stuttered anxiously.

"Okay...?"