Once Upon A Time ✓

14 | fault; wake

^ above is Let Me Down Slowly by Alec Benjamin

am i seriously at 14 chapters already?

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I JUST REALISED how tiring it was, really, to wake up and start another day after having gone through an exhausting one in dreamland.

Never had sleep felt really like sleep after the start of my dreams and that made me actually miss the blank moments of sleep that lacked dreams.

It was Saturday and I had slept in way longer than usual, not that it really mattered since there was no school.

Mum still hadn't returned home ever since I had exploded on her and Dad, so I assumed that she was probably crashing at a friend's house again. I only felt thankful for that because I wasn't in much of a mood to deal with her at the moment.

I had been down in the kitchen preparing a cup of coffee when the shrill ring of the doorbell ricocheted around the house. I frowned, glancing at the time on the clock. What was someone doing at my house at twelve noon?

I made my way to the front door, looking out of the peeping hole curiously.

When the blurred figure outside my door finally morphed into a clearer image, my whole body went numb and my brain shut down. My legs refused to support me, leaving me to tumble into a heap onto the floor.

It was her.

Sobs racked through my body as my mind regurgitated battalions of traumatising memories, flinging them into my face. I gasped for air as I thrashed on the floor, screaming at everything to just stop.

"Kaylee! Lee! Open up!" she yelled from the other side of the door and started abusing it with angry raps. "Lee, please!"

I couldn't, I couldn't do anything. I was useless, immobilised on the floor as I sobbed, the memories overwhelming me and encasing me like a bird trapped in a cage.

There was silence from the other side of the door for a few moments, before the handle jiggled and was thrown open by her. Her crazed eyes landed on me and she practically skidded across the floor to grab me, supporting my head on her lap. "Calm down Lee, calm down," she hushed, stroking my hair.

My lip quivered as I stared up at her. "T-Tina," I wept, my fingers dragging along her cheeks as I touched her face to reassure myself that she was really here and that I wasn't hallucinating. "I-I'm sorry."

Tears flowed freely down her cheeks at my words. "I forgive you, Lee," she sniffled. "I never blamed you for what happened. Never." She pulled me into her arms and we relinquished in the old feeling of just us, holding and supporting each other.

"Why... why are you here?" I panted, rubbing at my itching nose.

A sad smile formed on her lips. "Amelia called and told me about you... I want to give you a closure, maybe, by coming here."

"A closure..."

It had only been a year before, during our summer break, when our friendship had hit a dead end.

I still recalled that one day when me, her and Amelia had been just hanging out on the roof of a shopping centre, swinging our legs while we sat on a tall boulder licking up the melted juices that had dribbled from our ice-creams.

"Y'all wanna play truth and dare?" Amelia chipped up after devouring the rest of her mango ice-cream with a single gulp.

Being a daring extrovert, Tina's eyes had glittered with excitement. "Oh my god, yes!" she had exclaimed before stuffing the remainder of her durian ice-cream into her mouth.