Stray

Chapter 1

I jumped up, my bed trembling under me, or was that me?

I'd been having the same dream for weeks now, it seemed almost too real. Pulling my knees up to my chest, I held them tight; this feeling of uneasiness wouldn't overcome me this time. Taking a peak from between my legs, I checked my clock; it obnoxiously flashed 4:00am on the bedside next to my cushy double bed. Falling back onto my pillow, it took a couple deep breaths and reminded myself, "it's just a dream, Lacey, just a dream" I coaxed myself back to sleep. 

 The sudden rush of hot water down my spine finally pulled my body back into reality. I ran my fingers through my long brown hair, trying to wet it in the stream of water. Trying to forget these dreams would be impossible at this point. They'd come almost every night always at the same time...   Mom told me they'd go away soon... Like anything this consuming could just disappear...vanish. She said I was imagining things, but did she really know what it was like? NO. She had not a clue what it felt like to be like this...  

"Shit!" I yelled in a hushed whisper, hoping I hadn't woken up my mother in the neighbouring room. I'd managed to get myself caught up in my thoughts again.   My conditioner at this point had probably been in for seven minutes so I quickly rinsed it out from my hair and ran the razor quickly over my legs.   Jumping out of the shower, I just about slipped on the shower mat that had been dampened by the warm steam. I threw on my towel and started to hurry across the hall to my room when I slammed into my mom in her morning robe. 

 "Rushing again, Lacey?" She asked managing her 'I'm pissed' look somehow juggled with her ' I'm concerned' one

"Um.. Ya... I'm sorry mom! It's just, like, well.." I wasn't going to tell her about the dream again, that's the last thing either of us needed this early in the morning

   "Well then..." She knew about the dream ".. Watch you language, missy"

 I was relieved she didn't want to bring it up either. It'd been a stress point between the two of us for a while.   She gives me one more quick glance again then head down a flight of stairs to the kitchen. I felt bad though, she didn't have very many people there for her except for me and a couple close friends.

 My dad left when I was only 5 , he'd abused my mom since before I could remember and sometimes... Me to.   But we had put it in the past and we never talked about it... Did I stress the 'never'? It had scared us both and we never wanted it to live in our thoughts, but it did... and we knew its presence in our conversations.... There no hiding it. But we still try to bury it as deep as we can, even though that's just a thin layer under our skins. 

 I find myself standing in front of my closet trying to decide what to wear. I chose out my a pair of ripped faded shorts, a pair that hid most of the year in the 7-months of winter, 3-months of fall/spring and a scrawny 2 summer months that consisted of 80% rain of lovely Alberta, Canada.  I pull out a graphic tee on slip it on over my head. Slipping quietly back to bathroom I put on my makeup then begin to blow dry my hair and run my straightener over it, flattening my hair. 

 Once that was finished, I hurried down to the kitchen and threw a bagel into the toaster. I opened the fridge looking for my typical strawberry cream cheese to smother on my bagel, but I seemed to have disappeared.

"Momm! Where's my cream cheese?" I yelled down to another short flight of stairs to the living room.

"I used the rest of it this morning" she yelled right back.

"Ugh... Really?" I moaned

 "Ya! Sorry honey" she apologized

 I moved on and decided margarine would be fine for my bagel and grabbed it out of the fridge, swinging the fridge door closed behind me. Just as I closed it, the toaster popped my bagels up eagerly. I walked over to the cupboard and grabbed one of our turquoise blue plates and threw my hot bagel on it, burning my fingers on it while pulling out my bagel.   Finally I spread the margarine over my bagel and brought it over to the dining table. It wasn't nearly as cheery as the pink cream cheese, but it'd do. I ate my bagel quick and threw the plate in the dishwasher.

 I ran upstairs and finished getting ready, then grabbed my school bag and threw it over my shoulder. As I was coming down, mom was going up.  

"Bye mom! Have a good day at work." I knew her job at the only business office in town was anything but ideal but I gave he a hug and continued on my way downstairs.

 "Bye Lacey" she smiled back.  With that I ran out the front door to my cute green jeep, hopped in and I was off to school.

 Little did I know that this Monday was the start of a week which would change me... Forever.