La Luna | JJ Maybank

Two

Panic was all Luna could process when she awoke. This was not her bed, this was not her room, this was not her home. She shot up pushing the covers off of her delicate figure, roughly chucking them off the bed onto the floor. Her mind was fuzzy and her eyes were full of tears, so much so she could barely see: everything was blurry. She wanted to scream, but there was this slight nagging in her throat that stopped her. She couldn't control the fear she felt right now, it was so completely overwhelming it made the girl feel sick. What was going on. Where was she.

I'm fine. I'm okay. She told herself over and over and over again. Eventually her breathing calmed and her mind cleared and she could feel herself become herself again. I'm fine. I'm okay.

She was at her cousin's home. She was in her bed. She was safe.

Luna got up slowly, her head still spinning. It felt like someone was pressing a needle into her brain. The bathroom that attached to her room was where she found herself next. The brunette still found herself feeling sick, and knew from experience it was better to be safe than sorry, so sat down next to the toilet.

These sort of mornings weren't exactly a rarity. When her mom died she had felt empty for the longest time, like you would expect. But then soon after that she started having these nightmares. They were strange dreams that the girl could never remember the next day, only remembering the intense fear that was like nothing she had ever experienced before the next day. Luna hadn't told her dad and she certainly wasn't planning on it any time soon. He wouldn't know what to say or what to do, and would probably end up pushing her further away than he already has for being crazy.

At one point the girl considered asking a doctor, but she always managed to sort herself out within a few minutes. Plus doctors were expensive and these mornings only occurred perhaps twice a week maximum if that. She was fine.

Once the uneasy feeling eased Luna got up again. She turned to face herself in the mirror and almost laughed. "Oh god you look terrible." She murmured to herself. The girl that stared back at her had knotted, greasy hair and a red, puffy, tear-streaked face. "What an absolute mess."

The brunette stripped off quickly before jumping in the shower. It felt so good after being on the plane for so long, like all the airport grime was being washed right off and draining away in the pipes below. This shower was 10 times more luxury than her one back home and she was definitely gonna make the most of it.

When finally out of the shower she wrapped a towel around her hair and looked once again at her reflection. Back to normal. For the most part anyway. She was about to brush her teeth to get the uneasy sickness taste removed from her mouth but there was a knock at her door.

"Uh wait sorry I'm coming now!" Luna yelled, rushing to put some actual clothes on instead of greeting either her cousin or her aunt or whatever other random stranger in the nude. She tripped over her suitcase by the door, cursing loudly and hissing at her stubbed toe. "Topper it's you...good morning."

She gave him an awkward grin whilst stood on one foot clutching her toe, using the wooden door frame to lean on. The blonde boy glanced down at her unusual stance with eyebrows furrowed, but seemed to just shake it off. "Yeah and you. Mom had to go into town so it's just us today. I was gonna go down to the beach to see the gang, you wanna come?"

"Yeah sure that sounds fun," Luna scoffed at the her cousin calling his friends the gang but went with it nonetheless. "Just gimme 20 minutes to get dressed and ready and I'll meet you downstairs."

Topper gave the girl a thumbs up and disappeared down the corridor. She dressed herself promptly and put on some quick makeup to hide any traces of the morning puffiness before running down the stairs herself, phone in pocket. She still hadn't replied to Sarah's voicemail but she knew she'd end up seeing her today at some point anyway so she wasn't too bothered. Hopefully her friend wouldn't be too annoyed.