stranger ➳ luke hemmings

one

I'm running. I don't know where. My bare feet carry me across the soft, wet soil and rain pelts on me in bucket loads. All I see are trees, and it's dark.

"Evelyn!" I hear a cry and I turn around, but I see nothing.

"Evelyn!" I stop in my tracks.

I turn my head in all directions frantically but again, I don't see anything. A gunshot is heard followed by agonizing screams. I recognize that voice, the scream, everything. I open my mouth to yell out her name but nothing comes out. "Evely-"

I sit up in my bed at lightning speed, my heart beating erratically. My breath is short and my forehead sweating. I feel dizzy from sitting up too quickly, and my head swarms with thoughts, nightmares.

I look over to the clock, it shows 3:56am. It always happens around this time, the dreams. I take slow, steady breaths to calm myself but somehow the image won't erase from my mind. I squeeze my eyes shut, telling myself 'don't think about it, don't think about it, push it away, push push push' I usually do this to suppress anything I don't want to think about, or any emotion I don't want to feel.

I lie back in bed and think about how my life turned out this way, and why I'm in in so much pain, constantly.

*

"Babe...Evelyn..Evie" a soft voice says, and my head snaps up at the nickname Evie. He knows he shouldn't call me that.

"Don't call me that, Dylan" I snap at him, my eyes narrowing across the table.

"Woah, feisty." He puts his hands up in surrender. "Evelyn, you've been distant all day, why so sour?" He pouts his lip out at me and his blue eyes are filled with concern. His light brown hair is ruffled and messy, but cute.

I take a while to answer him. Dylan doesn't know about my problems, despite being my boyfriend for over eight months. Hardly anyone does, though. I don't tell people a lot about myself or the things I'm going through, I don't know why, I just don't.

"Nothing..just thinking, sorry" I reply, placing my head on my crossed arms on the lunch table, staring at the untouched mac and cheese.

"Don't worry about it, so, what do you wanna do later? Lets go out after school for a movie?" He trails off, his hands over mine.

Its just the two of us today eating lunch, and I feel bad that I'm lost in my thoughts when we're supposed to be spending time together. I really wish the rest of our group was here though.

"Yeah, okay, I'll meet you outside of the gates after school?" I ask, pushing around the now-cold lunch in front of me with a fork.

"Sure thing, Evelyn" Our conversation is left dead after that, me going back to my haunting thoughts.

The bell rings shortly after, signaling the end of our lunch. I get up and out of my seat and walk hand in hand down the hallway with Dylan.

*

"Hey Evelyn," I turn my head to see my best friend, Katy standing next to my locker. Long, brown waves cascade down her back and her freckles spot her face beautifully. Her bright green eyes stare into my brown ones and there is a sadness in them.

"Hey Katy! I haven't seen you much today" I say, giving her a hug. Today is the first day after spring break and we aren't doing much in our classes.

"Eve, theres something I need to tell you," She says, quietly, not meeting my gaze.

"What is it?" I say, chewing my lip nervously.

"I don't know how to say this, so I'm just gonna come out and say it. Dylan cheated on you" Her eyes finally meet mine and she's looking at me with worry written all over her face. She knows what I'm like, and she knows that I could break again. Too bad she doesn't know that I did break again, but no one knows about that, or what even happened last Summer.