Alive and Drowning (Steve Harrington)

Chapter One

It was dark. There was no one or nothing around. No matter how loud she yelled or where she walked, she soon found that she was the only one there. Then, like a gust of wind, her lungs filled up with water and she was pushed into the floor, that then opened underneath of her. For what felt like hours, she plummeted further and further into the darkness while the water in her lungs slowly drowned her. Just as she gave up and started to close her eyes, a blurred shape reached for her, almost saving her but it was too late. She was dead, she had drowned and fallen into a dark abyss.

It was the same dream Maia had been having every single night, for the past eight years. There wasn't one day that she hadn't had that dream and each time after dying, she would wake up clutching her chest and desperately gasping for air, as if she had actually been drowning. "I'm getting really tired of this," she mumbled to herself as she reached for her phone to check the time. 3 in the morning?! This is getting worse and worse each day, the girl thought to herself as she swung her shaky legs over the side of the bed and took some deep breaths with her eyes closed, just like her therapist had taught her to do.

Since starting therapy, nothing had really changed, expect the fact that she was further in debt and she had learnt how to breathe in order to calm herself, something which she found she could get for free on YouTube. Sadly, she was stuck going to therapy under her doctor's orders and there seemed to be no way out of it, especially because her doctor believed she had PTSD and had in fact diagnosed the girl with the horrible disease. Something inside her said that the man was wrong though and there was no way she would ever take the pills; the therapy was simply to keep him off her back. Maia knew how bad PTSD was, especially if you didn't get the right help, but she refused because of two simple facts: she had never drowned before, nor had she witnessed anyone drown. Plus, despite the dreams feeling so real, Maia was certain they were bad dreams. After all, what else could they possibly be?

After having finally calmed down, the girl was able to stand up and grab herself a glass of water. The bags under her eyes were evidence that she hadn't been sleeping properly and her face lacked colour; it was dull and boring. She knew that a good layer of foundation and concealer would perk her face right up and no-one at work would even realise how dead she really looked but she knew that no amount of makeup would save her from falling asleep at her desk and losing her job – a job she had only had for a few months and had been lucky to get. Usually, after graduating university, Maia was told that she should expect to remain unemployed somewhere between four months to a year but a few towns over, there had been an opening for a teaching job, so she took it and now she's a full time teacher after having graduated two months prior.

Teaching children was amazing, and she loved it but sometimes, teenagers were a lot to keep up. It wasn't just because she had trouble sleeping at night but because she was only 22 and it felt like it wasn't long ago that she was in school too. To Maia, it felt pretty weird teaching some of the older kids, considering that those kids weren't that much younger and her and she knew that the other teachers were all a lot older than the students. Regardless of how weird it was, Maia still loved her job and knew that all she had to do was stay awake until the end of the school day. It really made her miss the days she was at school and her nightmare didn't wake her up so goddamn early or that she could actually fall asleep in class and just have to deal with detention.

Life was so much easier back then, that's for sure.

Once Maia had finally showered, gotten dressed, fixed up her hair slathered her face in makeup and eaten breakfast, it was almost 7am and finally time for her to head off to her school. Despite barley being able to keep her eyes open, she drove to the school in her red Suzuki Swift and occasionally ran a shaky hand through her long, brown hair, trying to make it look a little messy in hopes to take the attention away from her face.

***

Somehow, she managed to get through the excruciating, long day and pulled off a decent lesson. It always made her feel good, knowing that her students had learnt something from her, it made her feel clever and proud, it sort of felt like a warmth inside her.

"See you tomorrow," Maia said to the last of her students that had started to shuffle out of the classroom, shrugging on their backpacks and giving her a friendly smile to say goodbye. The girl then began to pack up her things, making sure that she had everything she needed, including the books that needed marking, which she was certain she would be marking at 3am due to her ongoing nightmare that she was drowning. With a loud sigh, Maia placed her bag strap onto her shoulder and dusted off her pastel blue dress before heading out the door and closing it behind her. It was then that the air was knocked out of her, as someone ran into her, causing her bag to clatter to the floor and for almost a second, she felt like she did in her nightmare. But the difference was that she wasn't drowning, and two arms were holding onto her waist, stopping her from hitting the floor.

"Uh, hi. God, I'm so, so sorry," the person said to Maia as they slowly pulled her back onto her feet, so that they were firmly planted on the ground. Maia looked at the person that had almost knocked her onto the floor but had saved her from doing so. It was a guy. The guy was kneeling on the ground, busy picking up Maia's things which consisted of multiple pens, a single lip gloss tube and her empty lunch container. She watched as he shoved everything back into her bag as quickly as he could, his brown hair flopping about before he finally stood up with the black, bag straps in his hand.

This guy, he was incredibly tall, he had amazing, brown hair and the most gorgeous brown eyes she had ever seen in her life. Maia knew that she was staring at him, her green eyes were roaming over every single inch of his face and body, making her seem like she had never seen a male person before. Obviously, she had, but never anyone like the guy in front of her and just like that, she no longer felt tired, in fact, her eyes were wide open. She noticed how he had a healing cut on his bottom lip and on his right eyebrow, making her wonder if he had been in a fight or if he was just clumsy, like she was. Sadly, the unnamed male didn't give her much time to keep staring at him and cleared his throat loudly.

"Your bag," he said, handing it to her with a smile. "I really am sorry. It's just that I was supposed to be picking up some kids, that I babysit them for free, but I got held up at work and they've now disappeared from me and now their parents are gonna kill me because they're ungrateful, little shits that don't know how to wait an extra five minutes," the guy ranted, placing his hands on his jean covered hips, when Maia had finally taken the bag from him.

Maia felt bad for him, but she wanted to laugh because he was acting like a worried mother that was definitely going to scold her kids later for not waiting for her. It was cute though. "I could help you look for them, I'm a teacher here and probably know them. What are their names?" she asked him, tugging her bag strap up a little higher before making sure her dress looked nice and straight.

"I'm looking for Dustin. If we find him, we find the others," he told me, glancing around to make sure Dustin wasn't behind him.

"I probably know where he is. Just follow me," Maia smiled, pointing upstairs to take the guy into the computer room. "I'm Maia Frias, by the way," she added, flashing him a smile as he followed behind her, opening his mouth to reply to her.

"I'm Steve Harrington." Steve Harrington. Damn.