peregrination

[ zwei. ]

For the first time in the two months that Journey had been living in Australia, there was no banging on her window during the night; this would've allowed her to have a nice and peaceful night's sleep, if it wasn't for the nightmare that had been plaguing her mind every night for as long as she could remember.

The nightmare generally started out with her parents taking her out on their way-too-expensive boat, but sometimes that part didn't happen. Then it would start to resemble something from a horror movie. She would look at the waves, feeling sick just from the water movement, then back at her parents, who would gradually begin to be covered in blood, which really didn't make any sense but it was terrifying anyway.

Her parents would then start screeching at her in what sounded like multiple voices, repeating, "You did this, you did this, YOU DID THIS," gradually increasing their volume until Journey was left covering her ears in agony. In all of her panic, her parents would start towards her, ending in her getting roughly shoved off of the boat and falling into the threatening water. Journey would then begin to thrash around in a state of panic, trying to resurface, but every time she thought she was getting closer to the top, a heavy weight would be added to her back and she would sink deeper into her mind's vision of hell.

It would end then--with her heavily breathing and coughing and sitting straight up in her bed, gasping for air--and she'd be left in the dark, in Australia, with no friends.

Journey clutched her dark blue duvet to her chest as she tried to calm her racing heart. She glances over at the window, expecting to see the calming night sky, but instead letting out a scream because Ashton fricking Irwin was standing right outside the window.

"Shh! I just wanted to know if you'd like to watch a Barbie movie with me," The boy said, eyes wide as he tried to shush her.

"How did you- get the fuck out! Get out!" She screeched, standing up and taking the duvet with her, trying her best to shoo him away without shoving him off the small balcony that really wasn't meant for use.

"Please, Evans! I'll look like a loser if I watch it all by myself!" Ashton says persistently.

"We aren't friends," she hissed at him. "So get out before I call the fricking police."

"You don't even have any friends! That's why I'm asking you to watch Barbie movies at 2:00 in the morning! Because I want to be your friend!" Ashton exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air as a sign of defense. She shook her head back and forth with narrowed eyes, pointing towards his house. Ashton sighed loudly and carefully climbed down Journey's balcony, shouting incoherent things at her.

She settled for staring at the night sky for a few moments, her eyes darting over to his window before retreating to her bed--but instead of seeing his dark room, she saw a sign that read, BARBIE MOVIES TOMORROW was being held up by Ashton.

Journey grabbed a notebook from her desk and, in her fanciest handwriting, wrote a large NOT A CHANCE, IRWIN and held it up for the boy to see; this resulted in a large pout from the messy haired lad. Sure, she was being a little bit on the rude side--but who could really blame her?

Journey yawned loudly and went back to bed, hoping to sleep like a rock until at least noon. That didn't happen, though, because her parents decided to throw the door open--her clock was blinking 7:55--to her room and yell, "We're taking you scuba diving! No exceptions!"

Journey sat up quickly, rubbing her eyes and exclaiming, "I can't! I made plans with a friend!" before she could even consider anything else.

Her mom gasped loudly before squealing, "My little Journey made her first friend! This is great! Go ahead and hang out with your friend. We can take you scuba diving tomorrow."