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I wake up with a jolt and it takes my eyes a moment to be able to adjust and make out the shapes of the furniture in my room. A shaky sigh passes through my lips and I flinch when I hear fabric shuffling to my left.
I glance over to see Tally's head as she sits up from her bed and stretches a little. She looks over at me with a pout.
"Sorry," I whisper. "Did I wake you?"
Tally shakes her head. "I was already awake."
I reach over and fumble with the beside table until I press down on the little lamp there. A light purple hue fills the room gently from the coloured light bulb I put in. It's not enough to completely cut through the darkness but it gives a little bit of clarity. Tally looks at it and smiles.
"It's cute," she says.
"Would you laugh if I say it's my night light?" I ask and she shakes her head.
"Of course not. But why do you need one? You're having nightmares, right?"
I sigh. "Yeah. Sometimes they're not that bad and usually I don't remember them. But sometimes I wake up and everything just feels off and strange. And then I would get this irrational fear of the dark for the next few hours so I couldn't let myself get back to sleep. I ended up buying this so that it wouldn't be dark anymore but I could still sleep again."
"How long have you had nightmares?"
I shrug. "I don't know. It started sometime in college, when I got bad anxiety. That's what everyone pretty much thinks it is. They're just nightmares from stress and anxiety."
Tally's lips twist downwards and she reaches her hand over to put hers over mine. "That sounds awful."
I huff out a little laugh. "It's okay. I'm used to them. They could be worse. A least, if I'm getting them, I know that at some point during the week or prior I've been getting too stressed out so I make sure I rest more."
"Yeah," Tally says. Her eyes suddenly zero in on the burn mark on my arm. It's not too large, but the skin there is slightly darkened and has luckily faded a little over the years. I gulp and gently pull my hand away as she nods and looks away. "At least you're taking care of yourself."
I nod and curl back up on myself in the bed. "What time is it?"
"Um." Tally checks her phone. "It's almost seven-thirty."
I groan. "I'm too awake to go back to bed."
"Me too," Tally says.
"Why were you awake?" I ask and Tally smiles slightly and my eyebrows raise at her sneaky grin. "What? Come on, what is it?"
