[Book One]
Agatha Miller Nash thought she was finally starting to have the perfect life she always dreamed of while growing up.
She had a job that made her feel proud of herself, the man that she would spend the rest of her life with, and a place s...
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S E V E N
A groan escaped from my lips as the noise that woke me up kept getting louder. Cracking one eye open, I looked over at my phone to look at the time. 2:45 AM.
Getting up from my warm bed, I walked over to the door to check where the noise was coming from. Slowly, I opened the bedroom door, getting greeted by the darkness of the apartment. I could hear a faint sound coming from Buck's room upstairs. "Christopher!"
What the hell?
Without making any noises, I made my way up the stairs to Evan's room. The wood cold against my feet. I had no idea what I was expecting, but it sure was not finding him talking in his sleep.
As I approached his bed, I could see that he was trembling. "Evan," I whispered, poking his arm with my fingers. He didn't even move. "Buck," I tried again but got no reaction from him. Whatever he was dreaming about, it didn't seem to be pleasant.
"I lost him," he whimpered over and over again.
Bitting the corner of my bottom lip, I contemplated what to do. Something I have learned along the way with my father and his PTSD through the years is to not wake someone up suddenly from a nightmare as the person might become more upset.
Trying not to think much about it, I got in his bed slowly, not wanting to startle him, "hey, it's okay. I'm here," I whispered, running my fingers through his messy hair. With my free hand, I rubbed his back gently, trying to soothe him.
After a few minutes of doing this, he stopped trembling and whimpering. I could hear him sniff before tensing up under my touch. "Do you want to talk about it?" I pulled my hands away from him. Evan shook his head, pulling the covers up to his shoulders, probably trying to cover himself from me. I nodded my head before realizing that he couldn't see me because it was dark, and he had his back towards me. "I'm going to be in my room if you need anything,"
As I tried to go back to my room, I felt his hand grabbing my forearm, gently stopping me from walking away. "Could you stay here with me, please?" he tried to whisper, but it only came out as a croak.
I swallowed hard, trying to think if this was a good idea. Convincing myself that this was just me helping a friend in need, I ignored my thoughts and returned to my previous spot, this time getting under the sheets. Neither of us moved or said anything. I could feel myself getting nervous as I laid side by side with my co-worker close enough to feel the warmth radiating off his body. My nerves instantly disappeared once Evan's hand found mine underneath the blanket.
"Thank you," he said, his voice tired and raspy. Interlacing our fingers together, I squeezed his hand gently as my eyelids started to get heavy.
This was going to be the first night in months that I was going to have a good night's sleep.
