And We Were Us.....

Three

Carter's POV
Rome was nice. Rome was really nice, and if I'm 100% honest with myself, I wouldn't have ever left if I hadn't had a real near death experience. Being beaten up, mugged and left for dead on a road in a foreign country was a sign. And that sign told me to get the fuck home.
I'm not proud of faking my own death, or running away when things were getting hard, I'll admit that, but damn did it feel good to be free! I didn't have to stress about payments on the ranch, or how I was going to juggle making it to a dance recital after a hog sale, or how I was going to make it to one of my mom's mandatory staff meetings when I'd be in Detroit or L.A for a dance competition.
I planned my escape for months, and after all the planning, execution, and traveling, I was right back where I started...
It was inevitable that I would end up back where Tessa was, and as I unlock the door to my apartment, I can't help but think about her reaction today.
She looked so beautiful, and she was wearing the Berkley hoodie I bought her when we were in California.
While I was in Rome, I would fantasize about the moment I would see her again. Every time it was the same: it would be raining. She'd be on a street corner in Rome, or our town, or in New York, holding a red umbrella and I'd be on the opposite side of the street. We'd both be waiting for the light to turn green, and when it did she would finally see me, and she would drop her umbrella and run to me with a look of unimaginable happiness. We'd meet in the middle of the cross walk and I'd pull her close and we would kiss.
But none of these fantasies were even close to what I faced.
She looked older than the last time I saw her but not by much. Just enough to make me fall even farther for her, more than likely she was headed toward the aisle that had pickles in it. She always did love pickles.
Anyway, she'd let her beautiful brunette hair grow past her shoulders and she was wearing the jeans I bought her last Christmas. She looked like heaven, and she was taking my breath away.
After the shock of seeming me, I could tell the feeling wasn't mutual. And then she ran away from me... If I wasn't heartbroken when I left, I sure as hell was heartbroken now.
I put away the essential groceries that I picked up from the supermarket, and then go to my room and strip down to my boxers before flopping down on to the air mattress in the corner. I pull the crochet blanket that my mother made me over my body, then rest my arms behind my head, and count the cracks in the ceiling until I fall asleep.
***
I sit up straight in bed in a cold sweat, the nightmare I just had squeezing the air out of the room like a boa constrictor's prey. I feel nauseated, and run quickly to the bathroom, just barely making it before I hurl. The burrito, half a hotdog, and cornflakes all come up quickly, leaving me dry heaving because my stomach is not finished torturing me yet. When I am done, I pick myself up off the bathroom floor and trudge back to my room. This time I don't bother covering myself up, I just lay on the air mattress and think about the nightmare I just had.
It was dark, and when I say dark I mean pitch black oblivion. Then suddenly a red light breaks through and comes closer and closer, as if a person is carrying it. I yell for them but they just keep coming closer to me, and they don't stop they just keep coming closer, and the mood gets eerier and eerier. Then a blood curdling scream rips through the darkness, and Tessa's voice  tells me to run so that I can save her, so I do. I run hard and fast, and then out of nowhere I'm falling. Farther and farther down until I see a light, and at the bottom of this tunnel, there's jagged pieces of glass. I don't even scream. All I think is, "Ci sono modi peggiori per morire." And then, everything went black, and I woke up.
It wasn't the dream that scared me. It was Tessa's scream that scared me, and that I'd be fine with dying, as long as it meant Tessa would be safe.
I love her more than life itself.