Pathway || m.c

Part 2.

I didn't sleep at all that night. I had too many question running around my head.

Everything seemed to have dawned on me tonight. Everything that had happened in the past few months.

After I went home, Blake was sitting against the wall across from his room. His face was drawn into a frown, eyes bloody shot red from obvious crying.

He had heard me approach him and looked at me. "Where do you disappear to every night? It scares me Charli."

I hated upsetting my brother. He was a fragile 13 year old. After things happened with my Dad, I can't blame him for being the way he is.

"It scares me when you go. What if you're not coming home, just like Dad did?" he croaked. I tightly shut my eyes, trying to get rid of the memories flooding through my head.

"I leave to get away." I decided it was time for me to tell him. I've been doing this for months and every time that he's up when I get home, he questions me. Every time I've managed to avoid it. Maybe not this time though. "I can't sleep. I get these nightmares when I do sleep. I leave and go for a walk. I've been doing this for months, you know that, but I come back every time, don't I?"

He looked down at the socks he was wearing. The brown stained ones with the holes in them.

"I will make this promise to you. I will come back every night. I promise. You know me, Blake, I keep my promises." I sat down across from him with my knees tucked under my chin. "But you can't keep staying up like this. You're hurting yourself. I'm different. There was something in Dad's genes that made him not be able to sleep all the time, and it's been passed on to me. You mustn't have got it. You're lucky, but you really need to sleep."

After what felt like another hour of persuasion, Blake finally went back to bed.

I tossed and turned for majority of that night. I couldn't seem to sleep. Every time I thought I was about to, something flashed before my eyes and I jolted awake. That something was times that I had spent admiring the silhouette of the mysterious guy from afar on the beach. He set me at ease.

I still remembered the very first night he made an appearance at the shore line. It was the night of my first day back at school. I didn't know if he even went to school. I didn't even know anything about him. But that night seemed to be the best one I had had in a while.

It was the first time I had felt actual peace since the accident with Dad.

***

School the next day was a blur. I had the constant urge to fall asleep, even with the coffee in my system.

Everyone around me today seemed annoying. I wasn't sure if it was just a bad day, or it was because of my lack of sleep, but I didn't even like the fact that there were people breathing in my vicinity.

I hadn't even seen Sasha today and it was already third period. I'd never realised before, but my tutor was in this class. I had already forgotten his name.

I had already started reading the book he had given me and I was actually enjoying it more than I thought I would. It was definitely something different, but it was an enjoyable different.

"Earth to Charli? Are you awake?"

My eyes shot open to a tall figure standing in front of mine. Those brown eyes look extremely familiar. Calum. Was he in this class?

"Are you alright there?" He chuckled, looking concerned. "Fuck, you look really sleep deprived. Did you get any sleep last night?"

Droopy eyed, I looked around the room and so no one. Not even a teacher. Only Calum.