The Dark Side of the Moon

T W E N T Y - N I N E

A few days have passed since I made up with Grayson. Each day I texted and called Eli, and each day I received no response. I have class with him today, so hopefully we can speak in public to work through this conflict.

Each night was a sleepless one filled with the same nightmares. In every single scenario, no matter where I was or what I did in my dream, it always ended with Grayson dying. Whether his head was chopped off, a stake was stabbed through his heart, he was pushed off of a building- he always ended up dead. I also always ended up waking in tears. Once I was awake, I became aware that the dreams weren't real, regardless of how real they felt to me. It didn't make things any easier.

Grayson is starting to get suspicious. Even Cooper has said something about me "looking worse than the undead." I try and brush off my lack of sleep and avoid the situation entirely. I continue drinking copious amounts of coffee, even more than usual. I've become a jittery mess, and I constantly am drifting in and out of lectures. I hope these stupid nightmares go away before our first exam. I can barely function as it is.

I finally make it to my Ethics class only to find Eli absent from his usual seat. The lecture goes on without him, but I find myself missing his eye-rolling and ethical debates. We always found ourselves disagreeing with each other when it came to moral philosophies. It always entertained me when he would get so baffled by my honesty and ethical decision-making in assignments from class. He could never understand how I could sacrifice my own well-being for a stranger's solely because it was the right thing to do.

Class went by slowly without him. Luckily, the teacher decided to let us out early today and I couldn't be more ecstatic. I also managed to only close my eyes twice during the lecture, and that was only during the videos the professor played for us. I close my eyes and shield them with my hand from the bright sun that seems to be mocking my lack of sleep. I trip on my own feet three times just walking out of the lecture hall. When I hear my name being called, I actually trip and fall down-hard.

My hands scrape against the rough pavement as I land on my hands and knees. Although I'm wearing jeans, I'm pretty sure my knees are scraped up. "Ow," I whine as I slowly rise to my feet. I look forward to see a wide-eyed Cooper staring at me with a face full of guilt.

"I didn't think calling your name would make you fall! Sorry!" he apologizes profusely, dragging me to the side of the Psychology building to get away from the few people staring at me. I'm honestly too exhausted to get too worked up about the attention.

"Dang it. You humans and your fragile human skin," he frowns as he inspects my hands that are now bleeding from the scrapes on my palms. I quickly retract my hands from his grasp and wipe them on my jeans. They still sting a little bit, but I don't want Cooper worrying about me unnecessarily.

I try to convince him that I'm perfectly fine, but instead of words coming out, the largest yawn falls from my lips instead. My eyes are already starting to close on their own when Cooper lightly shakes me awake.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You've been a zombie all week long. Are you sick or something? Wolves don't get colds, but I can find out the right meds to get you." He wraps an arm around me and I gratefully lean some of my weight on him. He walks in the direction of Java, which I'm grateful for. I need coffee if I'm going to get through the rest of the day.

"I haven't been sleeping well," I mumble, hoping to not have to get into the details of my nightmares and what they're about.

"I have a theory on why that could be." The anticipation builds inside me as hope blossoms. Maybe there's a wolf reason why I'm having these dreams and am unable to sleep. Stupid me didn't even think about that possibility. I only thought about me getting back together with Grayson and being scared of him dying, but maybe it's the mate bond or some other magic that I don't understand.