Strangers With Secrets

Chapter 4.

I wish I would've paid attention in school when they taught us how to "trick" your dreams. It sounds silly but it's real and I wish I could do it to stop all these horrible nightmares I've been having lately

It's dark inside my room when I wake up with nothing but the lights from the boardwalk coming through the window. I pick up my phone that reads 8:30pm and I realize I have a missed facetime call from Alex. I lean over to turn the lamp on that's on the nightstand and swipe on the notification to call him back

A couple rings goes by and his face finally appears on the screen, giving me a wide smile

"Hey Ry" he says before setting his phone up in a standing position so he doesn't have to hold it

"Hey, what are you doing?" I ask curious as to why he's rushing around his room like a mad man

"I'm getting ready for Harvey's party tonight. The boys want to pre drink in about 30 minutes" he yells to me from i'm assuming the inside of his closet since his voice sounds distant. I'd forgotten about the party, thinking about the fact that everyone was going to be there and I wasn't was making me miserable

"I hope it's a good time" I say, trying not to rain on his parade and his face pops back onto the screen

"I wish you were here" he says with sadness in his voice

"Me too, I miss you" I say genuinely. I really did miss him already and it hasn't even been a whole day yet. But one day here feels like it's been 10

"I miss you too but it's nice that you and your dad are reconnecting" he says and that causes me to snort. A look of confusion washes over Alex's face and I explain to him everything that's happened in the past 8 hours

"Well, you have a whole 2 months together to try and forgive him" Alex answers after I'm done explaining. I sigh, not really knowing what to say

"Alex man are you ready to start drinking" a voice yells while the sound of Alex's door opening makes a loud noise. The voice sounds like Tyler Dunn and his head popping onto my phone screen confirms it

"Hey Ryan, sorry I'm stealing your boyfriend now" he says in the most unapologetic way possible and I can tell he's already had a few shots in him. I laugh and wave him off

"Sorry Ry, I gotta go. I'll call you tomorrow" Alex says while struggling to get his phone out of Tyler's hands

"Be safe, have a—" I'm interrupted by the call ending "Good night" I mutter under my breath to absolutely no one but myself. My stomach rumbles and makes me remember hardly touching my pizza earlier before losing my appetite. I get off the bed and make my way to the kitchen and to my surprise, there's a small note left on the counter right next to the box of pizza

Riley and I went over to the boardwalk to check it out. Saved some pizza for you incase you were hungry. Feel free to join us when you wake

- Dad x

I put the note back down and open the pizza box. Thank the heavens for pepperoni pizza. I shove a piece in my mouth and decide to look around the house a little bit since I never received an official tour. I make my way towards the sitting area and instead of turning left to go to the front door, I keep straight and take a right to find another door. I open it slowly and realize it's the washroom. It's pretty big, bigger than the one back at home

I back out of the bathroom and make sure to close the door behind me. I head towards the front door and go down the hallway I seen when I first came in. It only leads to a sun room where there's a large window and a sun bed right beside it. A perfect area to read, I note. I make my back towards the front door and head up the stairs. I know Riley's room is to the left so I decide to go right. I slowly open the first door I see and it's another bathroom but bigger than the one downstairs. Holy.