Ephemeral

He's Got Issues Part 1

I woke up groggily, I didn't know where I was. My mouth was dry and my throat was sore – as though I had been screaming.

Why...was it so sore?

Maybe I overdid it with running the day before?

My memories were a little foggy. I found it strange that I couldn't remember what I had been doing – nothing made sense. I was drawing a blank, shifting my legs briefly as I held in a small groan. I felt out where I was with my body.

I knew that the room was dark and I was laying on a bed. My arms were wrapped around a bare chest. I let out a small sigh of relief at that information -- Jack was next to me.

Everything was fine.

I had the worst dream of all time, and I can't imagine my brain thought of something that vivid and cruel. To think that I would have a dream, no, a nightmare about Chris and Jack being shot at – a good part of the school getting gunned down...

I clenched my eyes shut and then opened them back up as I furrowed my eyebrows. I pushed the nightmare out of mind.

Beating Lindsay Chamberlain's top running score must have really had me stressed.

And above all else...hearing that woman's voice, too?

A small pulsing headache was at the back of my skull. I slowly let out a breath to help with the pain. It only brought further attention to my sore throat. I wanted to swallow, but I had a feeling that if I did that I would only be in more pain.

I needed to start calming down or I was going to give myself an aneurism.

"Jack...what time is it?" I asked, straining my throat as I did so. I squinted my eyes to peer up at his face through the darkness. I couldn't get a clear picture of it since most of the room was drenched in absolute darkness.

My vision was swirling for some odd reason, and the headache persisted. It was the headache of a lifetime, I never experienced one as severe as it.

There was a soreness in my neck as well – that one was a little hard to explain. I summed it up to just working out a bit too hard. I wasn't a stranger to sore muscles, but this pain didn't feel like it was a sore muscle that I was familiar to...it felt different.

I snuggled my face deeper into the exposed chest, knowing that Jack always made things better. He was so supportive and caring. He was protective of me, but not possessive. Jack was just the right combination of what a boyfriend should be.

My dad introduced the two of us, since Jack's dad was a friend of my dad's. Ever since my father took my sister and I in, Jack helped me assimilate into normal society. He was my anchor and I never left his side from that day on.

He was my best friend before my boyfriend.

I depended on him. I was lucky that he was so patient with me. When we started going out last year, my dad was beyond happy. Jack really is the best, and I was blessed to have him by my side. I wouldn't be the person that I was today if not for him.

I let out a tired mumble. "I have to go..." I held onto his chest tighter, my words contradicting my actions.

After that nightmare that I had just experienced, I did not want to leave him. Still, I needed to practice running since winter break was coming up. That meant that spring break was just around the corner when the final scores would be announced.

I wasn't going to let Lindsay Chamberlain win, even if that meant leaving Jack after the terrible dream. I was hoping for some encouraging words from him to hype me up. "I have to go and run..."