I'm Never Letting Go

Chapter Two- Wake Up Call

Chris' POV

It was morning, I could tell that much. My head was throbbing so fiercely that for a second I thought my brain would come bursting out of my skull, but after a few seconds of lying there motionlessly the feeling seem to subside. Leaving.... nothing. Emptiness.

Longing.

No, just companionship, I thought to myself angrily.

"Stick to the routine Chris", I muttered to myself. I didn't want to get up and face what was inevitably waiting for me just outside of my bedroom door, but before long my brain couldn't take it any longer, demanding water to compensate for the state I let myself succumb to last night. Still, I knew that the next person I'd see would make me a hundred times more nauseous and dizzy than any amount of alcohol ever would. Nevertheless, I swung my sunken body out from my fortress that was my bed and staggered to the door, slowly pulling it open and stepping out into the hallway leading to the kitchen.

"Hey."

I spun round at the voice, jumping back slightly from being so suddenly taken aback. Turning to face my roommate, I forced out a shaky laugh, and was about to jokingly tell him off when I caught sight of his handsomely contoured face. There was no trace of humour etched onto this boy's features; his expression was stony and carried one that resembled defeat and exhaustion. At first I just thought he'd had a bad night when my eyes became locked with emerald green ones.

There was something off with them, as though the noticeable gleam that they had once contained in the days when we were carefree had been replaced with an immovable sadness.  My tongue hitched in my throat deeming me speechless towards the broken image in front of me. PJ was luckily fast to react to my unexplainable silence to avoid potential awkwardness.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. You look like you've seen a ghost", he said, smiling weakly and bringing a hand up to run smoothly through his wavy hair, before leaving it resting on the back of his neck and rubbing nervously.

Or an angel, maybe.

"....N-no.. It's fine, really", I stuttered, breaking my gaze from those that were starting to drown me with guilt. "I just thought you were in the kitchen, that's all", giving a sympathetic smile and a casual wave of my hand before turning and walking back in the direction of the breakfast bar. Once there I made myself look busy by retrieving all the necessary components needed to make my breakfast in order to avoid having to confront PJ in that way for the second time.

After a while I heard him shuffle up behind me and imitate the same process as I was, still with silence looming over us. For some reason I began to get incredibly anxious about my actions once I found myself within close range of his presence and in no time at all, my hands began shaking uncontrollably and I could feel my heart beat quicken and skin drain of colour from my face. PJ must have realised as he stopped midway from buttering his toast and I could feel him staring at me intently from the corner of my eye.

"Jesus Christ Chris, are you alright?!", striding over to me and gripping me on the on the shoulders in an attempt to steady my body. I flinched away at his touch and stumbled over to the sink and took hold of the edges, letting my head hang over the basin in case my brain decided to empty the contents of my stomach. Shit, why now, any time but now... I tried to block out the dizziness. Panic attacks. A joy I've not suprisingly only recently aqiured.

"Is there anything I can do? A chair, some water, an ambulance maybe? Seriously mate you're freaking me out!" PJ started panicking. I really didn't need this.

"It's... probably.. just... a bad... hangover", I managed to force out, trying to ease his fear. In reality, I only seemed to make it worse as I heard PJ laugh at my excuse and yank viciously at my pyjama top, forcing me to turn and face him.

"Bad hangover my fucking arse", he snarled back, inches from my face. "You're going to tell me right now what the hell is happening to you, Chris. I'm your best friend and your roommate, we're supposed to look out for eachother and I- I can't stand to see you like this."

As soon as PJ spoke those last couple of words I felt a huge sense of relief come over me. I opened my mouth to reply, but instead I was suddenly enveloped with a second feeling.

Darkness.

A pair of emerald green eyes. Screaming.

My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the ground as everything went black.

*