Take Me Back

Chapter 1

There are two kinds of people in this world, the snoozers and those who get up to the first alarm.

The first alarm people spring into action when they hear that sound, bounding with an energy I can't comprehend, ready to take on the day. Then there are the snoozers, the people who have to turn off their alarm six times before they realise they're late for work and need to get their shit together.

I was the latter much to Kayla's annoyance. As a wedding photographer she normally worked late nights, whether it just staying up editing or covering a reception, so when my alarm went off more than once I was normally barraged with death threats.

If that's not love I don't know what is.

So when I found myself hitting snooze for the third time, I wasn't surprised to feel a firm hand attempting to shake me awake. However what did surprise me was the voice muttering, "Babe! Babe it's time to get up"

Babe? If there's one thing that Kayla couldn't stand it was endearments. Anything like cutie, sweetie or baby had her faking retching noises. "Ha-ha Kayla", I muttered into my pillow, "I'm not getting up babe"

The pushing stopped, "Kayla? Who the fuck is Kayla"

What?

I opened my eyes and saw my very pissed off looking ex girlfriend's dark brown eyes staring at me. Jamie's was a face that I hadn't seen nor wanted to see in a very long time. I blinked several times, hoping the red haired girl in front of me would suddenly morph into the blonde that should be there.

"What the fuck are you doing here Jamie?!" I scrambled out of bed, grabbing the nearest shirt I could find, "you shouldn't be here! Jesus Christ why are you in my bed? Where's Kayla? Oh God, did she see you here?"

It couldn't be happening. Not in the 'wow this is unbelievable sense' but literally it couldn't be happening. There's no way I could have gone to sleep next to Kayla and woken up next to the nutcase that was my ex girlfriend.

I was broken out of my train of thought by the alarm clock making contact with my face, "See ME here!" Jamie shrieked, "I live here arsehole! Are you cheating on me? Who the hell is Kayla?"

Now I knew this wasn't real, Jamie definitely knew about Kayla. I remember when she first found out I was dating someone else and she spammed my voicemail. Half the messages screaming she hoped we died and the other half begging for us to get back together.

"Answer me!"

"Live here?" I yelled back, my head already pounding from the clocks impact, "We haven't been together for five years! I don't know what shit you're trying to pull but you need to leave and I need to call my actual girlfriend"

The room went silent and I watched Jamie's expression soften as she lowered the lamp that I assume she had planned to bludgeon me to death with, "Babe are you okay? Did you hit your head or something?"

"You mean from when you threw a fucking clock at my head, yes!"

"No I mean before that, you're acting really strangely"

I was acting strangely? I honestly thought my reaction was pretty valid when being faced with the girl who threatened to burn my house down on three separate occasions, "What? No, I'm fine. Well fine as a guy can be when they wake up next to their ex girlfriend"

"Clearly you're not fine, you're scaring me baby" she said gently, "You can't have broken up with me five years ago, I mean, I've only known you a year"

"A year? We met when we were 18! I'm 25 years old Jamie, I was 20 when we broke up"

She stared at me blankly and I think this was the point when I realised I was in deep shit.

"Jace", she said gently, "you've only just turned 20, it was your birthday last week remember? Jonathan came over, we all had too many margaritas? Maybe it was just a nightmare?"

She crossed the room and closed the distance between us. She moved to put her arms around me but I pushed her away. A nightmare? This situation right now was a damn nightmare. How could the last five years, the best years of my life, have been a dream?

"I just, I need to get out of here", I grabbed the keys from the bedside table and made my way out the front door. I hesitated briefly before climbing into what looked like my old car, ignoring Jamie's pleas from the house, begging me to stay.

I had no idea what was going on or where to start but I knew that staying around my mental ex girlfriend definitely not an option.

I turned the ignition and just started driving.

Jamie and I were together for just over a year in the real world, we met through mutual friends and eventually started sleeping together. It was never something that I planned on happening, I mean one day she just started calling me her boyfriend and I figured I couldn't really say no when we'd been shagging for six months. Next thing I knew she'd moved in and I stopped being an 'I' and became a 'we'.

I can tell you right now it was the fucking worst. I can't deny at times she could be sweet and caring but then it would be like a fuse exploded and she turned into the chick from fatal attraction.

Suddenly I wasn't able to go anywhere by myself because I was cheating on her. I stopped talking to most of my friends because they were pretty vocal about not liking her and I pretty much became the most miserable man alive.

The day we broke up was a relief, like finding the surface after being underwater too long. She would always tell me that she loved me and I just couldn't say it back, finally she called me out on it and I told her the truth, that I didn't love her. There was an abundance of screaming, crying and I lost most of my clothes to the small fire she started in our backyard but we were finally done. I was an individual again. My best mate Jonathan actually threw a party to celebrate, then revealed he had saved a bottle of champagne for the occasion.

Moral of the story, if there's one part of my life I didn't want to relive, my time with Jamie was most definitely it.

After driving aimlessly for twenty minutes and trying to ignore that sinking feeling in my stomach that maybe she was right, I decided to go see Jonathan. However my suspicion that this was indeed the worst day of my life was further confirmed when I rounded the corner and saw that where his apartment building should be, there was instead a construction site with a large "due for Completion in 2012" sign.

It couldn't be a dream though could it? Usually I knew when I was dreaming and this didn't feel like it but my memories seemed real too. Kayla had to be real, you couldn't just imagine five years of your life could you?

I felt like I was going insane and if it really was 2010 then I didn't exactly have a lot of friends I could count on, Jamie had made sure of that. Jonathan was the only person I could think of who I hadn't burned my bridges with at this point of my life. Now I just had to remember how to get to his old house.