Stand By Me

Chapter 6

Thankfully my mom wasn't mad at me when I arrived home that evening. I was expecting some kind of blow out, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

After dinner and a discussion about what to see for family movie night next weekend, I headed upstairs to my room. It felt good to just drop onto my bed and close my eyes. I was exhausted even after the nap I had at Ryan's.

There was so much on my mind, and it didn't help that I had school in the morning. Ugh. School is a priority, but I needed to focus on what was happening with everything going on. What was happening with Phoebe? And with Ryan? I hated not knowing where I stood with people.

I decided to text Phoebe. When she responded, she said that she was in trouble with her parents, because they found out about the party. I had apparently knocked her into the pool, causing her to hurt her leg pretty badly. And she had to explain what happened, but she didn't give details, and then her parents called Carah's and it was a mess. Luckily, she wasn't in too much trouble.

After showering again, I threw on some pajamas and crawled back into bed.

~~~

That night I had a horrible dream.

I was underwater in some random gross lake or river or something. I was trying to breath but I couldn't. I couldn't see anything because of the muddy water. When my head reached the surface, I took a huge gulp of air. Then, I looked around and it was pitch black. Something was clouding my eyes. I was freezing and I couldn't move. I started screaming for someone. Anyone to help me.

All of the sudden I jolted awake. I knew that it was a dream, but it still scared me. My heart was beating fast. I looked over at my phone and saw I had two new messages.

Ryan.

My heart started beating up and I unlocked my phone.

"Hey do you think we could grab coffee after school tomorrow? We need to talk." I frowned slightly. How was I supposed to take this? He wanted to meet up with me. That was good. But his tone was weirding me out. The next message made up for it though.

"Sorry to bother you again. I just can't stop thinking about you and what's happening. I know you probably are still mad at me but I just want to let you know that it'll be okay. I'll keep you safe. Night Sky. "

I fell asleep after reading the message a few more times. Should I be more mad at him? He was just trying to protect me. But from what?

Why did everything have to be so complicated? I feel asleep and didn't have any more nightmares. I felt safer.