Free Fall || Dylan O'Brien Fanfiction

seven: glassy

"Juliette?"

I'm at a complete loss for words. He has the same color brown eyes as I do and his hair is the shade of dark brown. My brother. My brother, who I haven't seen in years. What do I say? This is my brother, I can hardly ask about the weather.

"What are you doing here?" I snap at him, my defenses jumping up to guard me.

Jayden's - my brother's - confused face gapes at me like he doesn't know me. "Where have you been?" He asks me quietly. His eyes are suddenly glassy. So are mine.

Jayden was there for me after the accident that killed my father. He didn't blame me, even though everyone else did, and even though he had a million reasons to. Without him, I would have never been able to pull myself together long enough to leave the house.

"I think we need to talk," I tell him with a thick voice.

Jayden nods in response. He walks over to my desk and starts to write his address on the back of my sketchbook. "You could walk to my apartment from here," he says. This breaks my heart; he's been that close all this time. "Come by as soon as you can."

-

In my dream, I'm very young, maybe four or five. I stand on a sandy shore with Jayden, who's only a couple years older.

"I bed I can throw this farther than you!" I tell him, holding up a seashell.

"No you can't!" he snaps back.

I place a small hand on my hip. "And why not?" I sass.

"Because," he sighs, "You're a girl."

I roll my eyes, looking aggravated. "Why can't a girl throw father than a boy?" My younger self chucks the shell into the calm ocean water. Small energy waves ripple away from it in a circle.

I know I'm right when he just shrugs. Jayden throws his shell, and it lands a notable distance closer to the shore than mine. He frowns and looks at me.

I have a smug look on my face. "I'm better at this than you are," I assure him.

The beach fades into a sidewalk and a road, and rocks raise out of the ocean water, forming towering buildings. It's dark outside, but the first lights from the sun are beginning to appear in the horizon.

I watch my sixteen year old self collapse against the wall of a hospital. My back slides down it until I crumple on the concrete with my head in my hands. I'm shaking with sobs and shock. This was the morning my father died.

Jayden is there, pulling me off the ground, wrapping me in a brotherly, comforting hug.

"It was my fault!" I choke into his ear.

"It was not your fault," Jayden replies with a shaky but firm voice.

Then he steps back. "Juliette?" he asks, but the voice isn't his. It's Dylan's. "Juliette?"

I jerk awake.

My eyes snap open. Dylan is inches from me. His face is plastered with concern. "What's wrong?"

"Just a dream," I mutter.

I can tell he doesn't believe me, but he doesn't press the matter. "Okay." He gently tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. "Get some sleep."