Let's keep each other safe from the world

Chapter One - The Words You Speak Surrounding Me

TW: Anxiety/panic attack (I don't think it's too bad, just wanted to warn you in case) 

I'm going to give a song of the chapter, it will just be the song which the lyric used in the chapter title is from. the whole song doesn't necessarily relate to the chapter, but I feel like the lyric used as the title does. 

Song of the chapter: Catch Fire - 5SOS.

Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jolting awake from that dream, that nightmare again, she felt her breath quicken and her hands shake as she pushed her tangled mess of hair out of her face. She looked over at the clock on her nightstand; 9.54 am. Maybe Geoff would be awake. Maybe. Grabbing her phone, which was lying next to the clock, she quickly called the only person she ever felt comfortable enough to be on the phone with.

Clicking so the phone was on speaker, she dropped it onto the bed, unable to hold it with sweaty palms and shaky hands. She could hear the ringing sound echo around the room, mixing with the sound of her heartbeat thumping in her ears and the excess of breathing. All the sounds blending together became too loud, too obnoxious, and her hands flew to her ears in an attempt to block out all of the noise. It didn't work, only adding another sound like rushing wind to the mix. The ringing stopped suddenly, and there was a brief moment where the only sounds to be heard were breathing and a heart beating.

"Ari, are you okay?" Geoff's worried sounding voice rang through the room. She understood why he was worried though; around 95 percent of the time she called, she wasn't okay. Pretty much the only time she could stomach being on the phone was during a panic attack, because that was the only way she could hear his voice. Any other time, it freaked her out so much that she ended up having a panic attack anyway.

"I needed to hear your voice," Ari breathed out as best she could as she curled in on herself, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"Did you have another nightmare?" she heard him ask, sounding upset. Ari never wanted to make Geoff upset or worried, but she felt like she had been doing that a lot lately, and she hated it. She hated worrying anyone. Why make someone worry about her when they already have other things going on? It's not important. Nothing about her is important.

"Yeah. Can you just talk to me? Tell me what you've got planned for today? Anything," she asked him, her voice coming out almost like a whimper. She could feel the pressure on her chest, like it was a balloon, and someone was pressing down on it, and any moment it was going to pop. Burst. Explode. It was going to happen - it was just a matter of when.

"Of course," Geoff replied. He could tell his best friend was having a panic attack, and he couldn't be there physically at that exact moment, so this was the best he could do - try and distract her long enough so that she had something else to focus on and she could start to breathe normally again. "Today we were going to have a band practice. I'm on my way over there now, but if you need me to turn my car around, I will. You know that. Just tell me." He fretted, already looking for a place where he could turn around, but it was hard on a highway, so for a moment he kept driving forward.

"It's okay, Gee, I'm fine." Ari tried to reassure her best friend, but her voice sounded so tired and strained.

"Nope, I'm on my way," Geoff decided as he spotted an exit off the highway.

"What about Awsten and Otto? They'll be mad at me for making you miss practice," Ari whimpered, her eyes stinging with tears yet to fall at the thought of her friends being mad at her.