Charming Hearts

Chapter 2: Cotton Candy Ice Cream and Beetlejuice

Song: Room To Breathe by You Me At Six

-Dawson-

I had an eight A.M. class the next morning and it was past 2 A.M.

Sleep wouldn't visit. Again.

I've tried reading, didn't work. I put this app on my phone that plays calming sounds like rain on the roof or waves crashing against the shore. All it did was annoy me and it kept me awake. The only noise I've ever been able to fall asleep to was Liv's small snores. I've grown used to it, I guess.

I'd never admit defeat to insomnia.

But insomnia is a bitch and she's kicking my ass.

I don't know what triggered it, but it happened a few months ago. My anxiety started keeping me up a few nights a week, until eventually I fell asleep. But it'd only be a few hours before I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. The dark smudges under my eyes never seized and neither did my tiredness. And then the less sleep I got, the more I worried about it, which resulted in less sleep because it's all I could think about. Sometimes the insomnia would lead to small spells of depression.

Sometimes.

Just like everyone else, I loved sleep and I'd do anything to get a full eight hours a night. But I didn't see that happening anytime soon. Definitely not that night considering I had to be up in five hours.

I thought of Liv's hair. It's like silk between my fingers.

Her soft voice and smooth palms.

Don't think about sleep.

My eyes squeezed shut and I let out a long breath. Seconds past and then I shot out of bed, snatching my car keys on the way out of my room. It didn't take long to get in my car, get it started, and drive in the direction I needed to go. Liv's house was only a good seven-minute drive from my house, but with the speed I was going, I made it in five.

The ladder I used was already leaning up against the wall below her window and I started to climb. When I got up to her window, I braced my palms on the cool glass and pushed the panels open so I could maneuver my body through the opening the window created. Once my feet were on the floor, I quietly closed it back and straightened my spine.

Liv's TV was on, but it was muted. A black and white movie played on the screen.

The light created by the TV cast light on Liv's sleeping form. She was curled up on her side facing the other side of the bed. Her features relaxed and delicate.

I quietly took my shoes off and walked to the other side of her bed. Unlike me, Liv's a heavy sleeper. She could sleep through the end of the world probably. I pried the remote from her fingers and turned the TV off before settling beside her.

"Daws?" Her voice was sleepily coated and soft.

"Yeah," I whispered.

She moved towards me and wrapped her arms around mine, resting her head on the top of my shoulder. "Couldn't sleep again?"

"Not really," I replied. "Go back to sleep, Livy, I'm fine."

I heard her yawn and she snuggled closer. "Okay."

It didn't take her long to fall asleep again.

But it took me another thirty minutes before sleep took over for the rest of the night.