Forest

Chapter 7- Guns for hands (pt 1)

I woke up with a jump in a cold sweat, frantically looking all around me until my eyes landed on the clock, which read 2:15am. Wiping my forehead, I laid back down still trying to catch my breath. I didn't know why my heart was racing so much and I couldn't breathe; if I had had a nightmare, I couldn't remember it.

I also didn't know why there was a sudden deep feeling of anxiety and dread in the pit of my stomach. I eventually assumed it was because of the fight with Chris, so I decided to talk everything out with him the next morning. I rolled over to try to get more comfortable; even though the anxiety never went away, I successfully ended up falling back to sleep.

I woke up a few hours later, not to the sound of my alarm, but to the sunlight shining through my blinds and the birds chirping outside my window. I jumped up and looked over at the clock and saw it was 6:30am. My mind raced at 1000 thoughts a second; if I didn't get up right now, get dressed and go I would be late, so I did just that.

I jumped from my bed and tried to run to my closet, but felt weighed down by the anxiety and dread in my chest. I tried shaking it off, but to no avail, so I just continued grabbing my clothes and hurried to change.

I changed into light blue ripped jeans, a black bralette, a mesh floral embroidered top, and black and white checkered vans. After, I rushed to the bathroom and hurriedly brushed my teeth and hair, ran down the stairs and grabbed my bag on my way out the door, then hopped into my car since I didn't have time to waste with walking to Chris'.

Chris wasn't outside when I arrived, but I knew I was late and it was more than likely that he just walked to school himself, so I decided to call him. When I got no answer I looked down at my phone sadly; this was not how I wanted this day to start out. I took one last look at his door before leaving so that I wouldn't be late to school.

I pulled into the parking lot, lost in my own thoughts, with 10 minutes until the first bell. I hurried inside to my locker so I could grab my AP English book before I went to try to find Summer and talk to her about what was going on and to ask if she had seen Chris.

I tried calling him one more time before going off to find Summer but, just like last time, there was no answer.

I sighed and slammed my locker out of frustration. The anxiety and dread in my stomach wasn't going away and that made everything worse. I stormed down the hall towards Summer's locker so I could try to get to the bottom of this. As I drew closer, I saw she was pushed up against her locker making out with the same guy as before, but this time I fully recognized him; it was Tyler.

My heart dropped. Summer knew not to date within the group and so did Tyler. Anger grew in my chest but I put it aside and kept moving forward. I needed to help Chris.

I pushed Tyler off of Summer, surprising both of them, and pulled Summer behind me as we headed to the stairs where it would be quiet since we needed to talk.

"Ruby, wait!" Tyler called out after us but I just flipped him off without looking back. I couldn't see his reaction, but he stopped following soon after. Once Summer and I got to the stairs, I pushed her in front of me where I could see her. She was trembling slightly and I could tell she was nervous. She tried to play it off, but I could see the worried expression on her face. Yet, with the anger and anxiety I felt, I didn't care.

"What the fuck did you say to Chris yesterday, Summer? And why the fuck are you dating Tyler? We had a deal as a trio! Hell, even as a quartet! So, talk! Jesus, did you tell him about the tree house, too? Fuck Summer." I had to keep myself from yelling at her. The anger was coming out and I was shaking because of it. I just wanted to get this over with so I could leave and hopefully find Chris.