His sweat beaded across his forehead, his hair, his stomach, the backs of his knees, and his toes, and had soaked the bed beneath him. The boy had yet another headache. Cole… Cole… Cole… Not Cole! Please, not Cole! He knew, though, that sometimes his dreams held hidden truths and told him things that otherwise wouldn’t be true. He was the last person the girl with the orange hair should ever be with. Cole was a person who didn’t just talk player talk, but also played a very mean game. Back arching off the bed, neck stiff, calf muscles frozen and stuck and in pain. His bloodshot eyes opened, rolled back into his head. He could swear he was lifted off the mattress, and when his body was released, he was shaking.
“Ow… Ow… Ow!” He hopped out of bed and started shaking his cramped legs, doing a little jig in the middle of the night. Panting, he doubled over and found his stomach grumbling. “Dammit. My fat ass doesn’t need to eat yet. Nope. I’m ignoring you, stomach.”
He wished she’d call. Yeah, it was right on schedule for her to do so, because for some reason it was as if they were connected. They knew it was because of her empathy, and the fact that she was a witch, a fact her father had been so terrified of that he’d left in the middle of the night when she was five. He remembered meeting her when he was six.
Jake combed his fingers through his hair, waiting for that call.
The phone rang.
Diving for the receiver, he pressed the ‘talk’ button once his hands were done fumbling with the damned thing. “You’re late.”
“I was… busy.” Aurora sounded smug, almost like she didn’t want to talk.
“Doing what? You don’t fight vampires.” The boy crossed the room to his window, looked out of it, and saw Aurora standing there, wearing workout clothes and her hair in a long ponytail. Praying for her to look up, she did, smiled, waved, all of that. He felt like he was dreaming a good dream -- not a nightmare like he’d just had. “How’d you get here? Broom riding?”
“Ha, ha, smart ass. Witches don’t ride brooms. You know how I got here.”
“You ran here? Fuck, you’re getting better.”
“Aw, don’t feel bad. I’ll still be friends with you when I’m super fit and you’re a giant lard-ass.” She finished her thought, and it wasn’t what he’d expected. Was this always what she thought of him? Always the way she painted him to other people? Or maybe Cole had begun overcoming the best parts about her, like the accepting parts. In school, she’d been hanging out with the ‘populars’, including Amber. This petrified him. Now, the dreams didn’t hurt him tonight in the usual sense. He’d saved Aurora this time, which wasn’t the usual on most nights. Most nights he watched her or Michelle or himself die, and every time he awoke. The petrifying part of the dream was hearing himself, in his own voice, tell her that she loved Cole, not him. He knew she didn’t love him, and would never be attracted to him, but to hear her say such mean words, words she never used to say, made him want to turn off the phone and forget about her.
“Nah, you could totally forget about this loser had you the chance.” Jake decided to ignore it. He got that shit all the time, even if it was never from her. Aurora was a beautiful little thing, with large green eyes that her face never quite grew into because they were just so big, and cupid’s bow lips that yes, were plump, but she still had a small mouth. Her chin was pointed, and she had amazing, sculpted cheekbones that were going to become more defined with age. If Jake could, he’d fall in love with her, and show her that he was worth loving. He didn’t know if he could take staying in the ‘friend zone’ forever.
The line was silent for a moment. “You’re right; I could.”
He started laughing. “Gee, thanks.” Insert a roll of the eyes.
Aurora was rocking back and forth on her tiptoes. If Jake pressed his forehead to the window, he could see she was shaking. He could also feel her quivering, as if they were that connected. Still, he’d pissed his pants and needed to change his clothes. Aurora was still rocking back and forth on her feet, wind whipping at her. “Anyway, uh, it’s kind of cold.”
“Key’s in that old deer statue behind the bushes.”
“I can’t believe I have to stick my hand inside a deer’s ass in order to get that key.”
“Dude, um… nope not going there.” Jake chuckled, wiping his face of sweat and the emotions that might have been leftover from his dream. He took a look around at the yellow stain on the bed, and felt how his boxers were still damp. Walking around his bed to his corner closet, which faced the window, he pulled a pair of bunched up boxers from a shelf. Aurora hadn’t touched those, he knew, as they weren’t folded. For some reason the girl even did his laundry. Most of the time, though, she’d cook for him, and almost force the food down his throat if she noticed he was on another fad diet. “Y’know, you could just come down here and let me in so I can see you in your footsie pajamas.” Aurora still sounded smug, as if she was transforming into someone else. This new person? This new person Jake did not like at all.
“Will you shut up about that?” Happy he was wearing a pair of boxers, no matter how dirty, and a t-shirt rather than those stupid pajamas he used to wear, pajamas that had caused him strife at school, he kind of wanted Aurora to just… leave him alone, and that had never happened before. Pulling off the dirty ones, he tossed them by his bedroom door, finally pulling on the clean pair of boxers.
“Oh c’mon, you were so cute! Like a giant, chubby toddler waddling around in onesies.”
“I resent being called ‘giant’ and ‘chubby’ in the same sentence… and I don’t waddle!”
“Uh, you totally do…. And what’s wrong with being you? I wouldn’t’ve met you if you hadn’t’ve chosen a cupcake over me.”
“You’re bringing that up?” The morning was going downhill, fast. “Don’t even. I chose a cupcake over a person.”
“And I was that person.”
“I’m a moron.”
“I know that.” Sounding peeved, Aurora disappeared from outside, and there was some sort of slam downstairs, but Jake thought nothing of it. Aurora’s voice started to fuzz on the phone, but Jake could still make out the words ‘beached’ and ‘whale’.
The signal came back in, but it was odd to have a bad connection when they were so close in proximity.
“I’m ignoring you.”
“Oh, c’mon, but you think it’s funny because I’m me, right?”
“Aurora…. Y’know what? Forget it.” Jake’s heart froze, and he felt a cold sensation go through him. She never talked about his weight like that.
“Aw, I’m sorry, did you just get your feels hurt?” She wasn’t even going to apologize?
“What is wrong with you this morning? Y’know what? Scratch that. What’s been wrong with you lately?”
She paused. “What do you mean?” That was when she walked into the room. He hadn’t noticed she’d disappeared from outside, but she was holding the key in one hand, which he saw her put in her pocket. Taking a look at the bed, she scoffed. “Jesus, you pissed yourself? Damn Jake, you stooped to a new low, and I didn’t think that was possible.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? You haven’t been acting like yourself lately.”
“I finally see you as an imperfect human being, that’s what. You’re a disgusting blob of nothing to me, and Cole’s right, I don’t need to subject myself to any of your shit, but I do anyway.”
“Cole? Wait… Cole Worcestershire? Are you fucking kidding me? WE’VE HATED THAT DICKWAD SINCE WE WERE SIX… and now you’re all like, ‘Well, Cole says this about you so therefore it must be true.’ Why the fuck do you care about what Cole thinks, anyway?”
“He’s kind of my --“
“Don’t say that. Don’t finish your --“
“-- boyfriend.”
“No… no, he’s not. He can’t be. Not possible.” It couldn’t be possible. Yes, sometimes his dreams gave him useful tidbits of information, but the whole ‘Cole is my boyfriend’ thing was as bad as eating blue cheese even though he was allergic.
“Why? It’s not like you’re in love with me. What do you…”
Jake must of been wearing some sort of face. The face must have been the sort of face that told everything that was written on someone’s heart, or maybe it was on his sleeve, or hey, maybe he should just hand her his heart right then and there. His mouth was dropped open, there were tears in his eyes. Yeah, there were tears. He knew that. All he wanted to do was tell her the things Cole said about her behind her back, but she wouldn’t believe him. She’d rather have that mandible, those muscles, and those piercing blue eyes than some obese midget. Okay, fine, Jake was not a midget; he was short, but people wouldn’t let him forget it. That drove him insane.
God, and why was he so starving? His stomach wouldn’t stop growling.
“Aren’t you going to answer that, flubber?”
“How could he have changed you into this cruel, evil thing so quickly? God, it’s like you’re fucking possessed or something. Are you possessed or something?”
“Oh my god, you’re in love with me, aren’t you?” Aurora started laughing. It was a loud, boisterous laugh, a laugh that he wanted to forget.
Jake was flabbergasted. “Leave… just go….”
“I won’t be coming back. I hope you know that.”
“Good. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want you to feel my dreams anymore. I don’t want to want you. I don’t need to need you. Get out of my bedroom. Get out.” Jake’s face scrunched in on itself, and he watched her walk away as he collapsed back in bed, ignoring the rumbling in his stomach.
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