By Your Side (Preview)

Chapter 3

With the school week over and the stresses of school behind me, I was finally granted the time to delve down into my insanity, which was never something that I enjoyed doing. Distractions were the only thing that kept me moving forward. I found that reading was really one, if not the only lifeline, that I had to help me disappear. I loved getting lost in the worlds that made up the pages, from fantasy worlds to ones destroyed and in ruin. I placed myself in each of them, pretending to be the hero. That being said, I also had a guilty pleasure for romance novels. They were late-night reads for the weekends, and they were so far under my bed that there was no way anyone would find them.

Although, unlike the other stories, when it came to the romantic ones, I was never the hero like I wanted to be. Instead, I found myself always connecting with the side character, who envied what the male lead had. It was generally the same old song and dance every time, and I just wanted my moment. Of course, the leading lady was always my interpretation of Hannah, as I imagined watching her from afar. Thankfully it only made it slightly less weird since it was in a book. At the end of the day, I just wanted my moment, and in my idiocy, I was hoping that that would end up being in Australia.

I dreamt about it that night. Just me and Hannah alone in her tiny dorm room or whatever. The paper-thin walls around us, as we broke the no boys allowed rule of her dormitory. Her arms wrapped around me as she laid on her back, and I straddled her body over the top. Hannah's hungry, lustful eyes looking into mine as we shared heavy breaths. Then her gently biting down on her lower lip before speaking.

"What are you waiting for, loverboy? Aren't you going to get that?" She asked, and my imaginary self looked at her, confused.

"Get what?" I asked as Hannah went to open her mouth again.

However, words didn't leave her lips. Instead, it was a horrendous ringing noise that seemed to have some sort of chime. Then out of nowhere, her eyes started to glow as if she was some sort of superhero as glowing beams shot out, blinding me as I covered my eyes. I didn't know what to do, and I didn't know what was going on, but when I uncovered my eyes, I was back in the darkness of my room. The window above the bed had been blacked out by the curtains, and I somehow ended up straddling the body-length pillow that I slept with. Yet as embarrassing as that was, I wasn't given much time to think about my predicament.

Again the deafening sound that I once dreamed coming from Hannah's mouth was now in the room with me; more specifically, it was on the nightstand beside the bed. My phone shook violently while the screen was illuminated with a bright light. My tired eyes couldn't stare at it for too long as I reached over and rolled off the pillow, so I was lying there looking up at my phone. On the screen, there was a text message from Clare. The two of us never texted each other on the weekend unless it was crucial or we needed answers for our homework. Today, however, all that was left on the screen was an address for where Hannah would likely have her birthday, with the message hope to see you there beside it.

Not wasting a second, I quickly searched the address as the GPS map started to pinpoint the location. Zooming in, the internet map showed a satellite view of where I would be going. If this was my last time ever seeing Hannah, then I wanted to be there, but that's when things got even more intimidating yet appealing. The internet map found its target, and I watched as the overhead image of a waterpark appeared. It was the one that was a ten-minute drive away. Why did it have to be a water park?

The reality of what was to come was more than I could've bargained for. Not only would this potentially be the last day that I saw Hannah. I was also going to see Hannah in a way that would be far more revealing than ever before. To say the least, it intimidated me, but I figured if the sight was too much to bear, I could just think of something else to distract myself. Although before I could ever get to that, I still needed to find my swim trunks. Putting the phone down on the bed, I didn't see a reason to message Clare back and walked over to the dresser to start digging.