The Soldier's Girl (Under Editing)

Chapter 17

CAROLINE'S POV

I knew it was a dream. Why did it feel so real? I tried as hard as I could to wake up, but the nightmare kept playing in my head. The trigger was pulled. The bullet flew. He died. But it wasn't that simple, in my dream I could feel everything, every single part of it.

I woke up sweating, but I was freezing and shaking hard. I sat up in my new bed in Taylor's LA home. My breaths were hard and loud. I quickly remembered that Taylor's room was right next to mine and I quieted down. It was four in the morning, but I didn't want to run the risk of her waking up. I laid back down and tried to calm myself, but evidently I hadn't been quiet enough.

I heard Taylor's door open and her light footsteps make their way to my door. I wiped sweat off my forehead as fast as I could and shut my eyes as if I'd been sleeping the entire time. My doorknob slowly turned and light from the hallway poured into my room when Taylor opened the door halfway. I could feel the shadow of her head fall onto my face blocking the light. I stayed as still as I could, not wanting to give up my act. After a few more seconds I heard her sigh and my door shut once again leaving only darkness.

Once I heard her climb back into bed through the thin walls I regretted pretending to be asleep. I should've let her see me, she's the only one I really know very well in this country right now who genuinely cares about me. She deserves to know when I'm scared, she deserves to know when I'm lonely. And tonight I was both of those things. I wanted to go get her, tell her everything with the nightmares and tell her how alone I felt sometimes. I decided against it, I had my chance, but now it was too late. Taylor was probably already back asleep.

I stayed awake in my bed for the rest of the night, partly because I couldn't get to sleep if I tried, but mostly because I was to scared to go back to sleep. By the time 7am rolled around I was absolutely restless, I wasn't the least bit tired and I was ready for the day. I was purposefully trying to be loud to wake Taylor up. It surprised me that she woke up last night, but not now.

When I finally couldn't take it anymore I walked out of my room and to Taylor's door. It was open just a crack, I pushed it open a little so I could see her. She was sound asleep in her bed. I wasn't going to wait for her to wake up, but then again I didn't want to just wake her up without a good reason. I decided I'd fake sick for a while so I could have a reason to wake her up.

"Taylor?" I asked as I slowly walked over to her bed with a miserable look on my face. Her covers rustled, but she wasn't awake.

"Taylor?" I tried again, this time standing right beside her. She took in a deep breath as she opened her eyes and saw me.

"Hmmm?" She asked confusedly while looking at the clock beside her bed.

"I have a stomach ache." I stated as I held my stomach with my right hand.

"Oh... Well come here." She said groggily while she scooted over to make room for me on her bed. I had hoped she would get up, but this was okay too. I crawled into her bed and under the soft blankets.

"Why does your stomach hurt? Do you feel like throwing up?" She asked once I was all comfortable.

"No." I said completely ignoring her first question.

"Did you get enough sleep? Do you need to rest more?" She asked with her eyebrows raised. I thought about how I'd been up the last few hours, if I actually had a stomach ache that might be a valid reason of why. Right now I felt completely ready for the day, but if I hadn't told Taylor I had a stomach ache I wouldn't get to be with her at all.

I shrugged off her questions and wiggled closer to her under all the blankets. This is what it might've been like if I would've let Taylor know I was having nightmares last night. She could've stayed with me for the rest of the night, then I wouldn't have been so scared.

We laid in silence for the next ten minutes or so. I could feel my eyelids start to droop, I thought I wasn't tired anymore, but now I was getting tired. Fine by me, it worked well with my stomach ache act. A few more minutes passed and I couldn't keep my eyes open, I could hear Taylor laugh and move, I thought she was going to get up, so when she just changed positions I was relieved.

Before long I was fast asleep, making up for all the hours I was awake last night. When I woke up it was already 10 o'clock and Taylor wasn't in bed anymore. I rolled out of her bed and went downstairs to look for her. I found her in the kitchen, sitting at the table.

"Hey girl, do you feel any better?" She asked me when she saw me. I nodded and pushed some blonde hair out of my face. I sat in the chair right next to hers and put my feet up on the chair so my knees were pushed to my chest.

Taylor took one of the pieces of toast off of the plate that was sitting in front of her and handed it to me. After we ate breakfast we ended up watching some movies on the couch, it was a pretty relaxing day.

"Wanna do something?" Taylor asked me after lunch.

"Like what?" I replied.

"Go to the beach or something." She told me

"We should!" I gasped. I'd only been to the ocean twice because most of the places I'd lived weren't on the coast. And now that we were in California we might as well, we only had one more day after today until we had to go back to Tennessee.

Within an hour we were all ready and were being driven to a beach. We arrived and stayed for a couple hours. It was the most picture perfect afternoon, the weather was great, and I was with Taylor. When we finally headed back to Taylor's house I had sand everywhere.

I sat in the middle backseat of the black SUV and Taylor sat beside me. I had a towel wrapped around my body and was partially leaning on Taylor. It was evening now and I didn't want it to get any later. I didn't really like the nighttime. Night was when I felt most alone, it was also when I had nightmares. I didn't want to do it again, why did this have to happen to me?

I was snapped out of my pity party when we pulled back into Taylor's driveway. It was only 7pm, at least I still had a couple hours left with Taylor before I would have to go to bed.

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Hey guys! Thanks for the reads, the next update will be on Wednesday. Tell me what you think of this!