Renaissance (boyxboy)

Chapter 11

That night was different. Ricky and I had stayed home despite his protests of making anything in the kitchen. Breakfast was always simple enough, so we had it for dinner. Pretty hard to screw up scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes. After Ricky was set up at the stove with the bacon it was all pretty much smooth sailing. He enjoyed good 'ol Vitamin R with his, but I went the classic route with decaf and OJ.

All in all it felt...normal. That's why it was so different. Ricky kept the TV on in the living room to have white noise to break up the silence between conversations, but that just made it feel more like home back in Arizona. Our place was usually filled with some kind of noise, so it was relaxing.

Our dishes were discarded for future us to deal with and I half jogged upstairs to my bathroom. The bruise was still there of course, but I tried not to think about it or the person who put it there as I got in the shower. I never bathed this often back in the desert, but it was so cold it felt like the only way to truly get warm all the way to my bones.

Sleep came easily almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. That's where the normalcy ended. All night I had strange dreams that wove into imitations of nightmares. Almost like something was trying to scare me, but hadn't quite gotten to that level yet. Always there was that tingle at the back of my head, but no matter how much I spun around to find the staring eyes, there was no one there.

Everything was in total blackness aside from knee deep snow, but as I tried to make my way through it I felt like I was walking through pudding. My legs strained, lungs burned, and in true Adam Marsh fashion I fell. Only instead of landing in the snow I dropped straight through. Icy wind whipped against my face, chapping the skin and causing my lips to bleed from the speed. All the while there was a murky and crimson ocean beneath me: a bright mark against the otherwise blackness of my dream world.

As I drew closer and closer in my fall, a metallic smell filled my nostrils...like burning steel. Just before I connected with the water I realized that's not what it was at all. It was blood.

My alarm jerked me out of sleep so fast I twisted and fell out of my bed; my covers a tangle around my hips. Despite only being in boxers when I went to bed, my skin was lined in sweat and my head was throbbing. What the hell was that...?

Ricky's morning routine could be heard through the floorboards and I turned over to flop onto my back. Seriously, what was that? When was the last time I'd even had a nightmare? I rubbed at my eyes and tried to shake it off before sitting up. My head was still light but I managed to stand and make my way out of my room and down the stairs.

"You're planning on wearing more than that I hope..." Ricky's tone was drawn out and confused, a single eyebrow arched in my direction.

Looking down at myself, I realized I was still only in my boxers and sleepily nodded. I was like a zombie as I walked to the coffee maker, pouring myself a mug and barely blowing into it before I started to drink. The caffeine kicked in quickly and I felt myself coming back to life as I fell into a sit at the kitchen table.

"You look sick kid, you feelin' all right?" He was leaning back against the sink, his own mug held between two hands as he eyed me.

"Y-Yeah..sorry, weird dreams."

Quiet hung between us and I looked back over at him. He didn't seem convinced, but thankfully didn't push it, "Just don't hurt yourself Adam. You've got that phone, use it if you need to leave early and don't feel up to drivin'."

I nodded again, eased by the weird connection we were starting to regain. It helped to know I wouldn't get my ear fussed off if I decided to leave school before the last bell. It didn't even hit me that I might have to deal with Edward again until I was pulling up in the parking lot.

Honestly, I was still so disoriented from that image of a blood filled ocean that he was the second weirdest thing to think about that day. Classes went through like a daze, and I opted out of the cafeteria for lunch and just laid down in the cab of my truck. Being in Forks was like being in a dream itself. Everything was so detached from the rest of the world, so perfectly contained in its little bubble that often times I had to remind myself I was awake.

When my phone alarm went off to let me know to get to biology, I sighed. Here we go. Again.