Same Experiences

Chapter Two

Dave

Stop your whining. You'll be fine. You'll feel good. Come on, stay still.

These words were repeated again and again in my dreams. First, it was just the words, but then the events of the night started flashing around in front of my eyes. I woke up with a jerk and immediately felt someone's arms around me. I would've screamed the house down if he hadn't spoken.

"Dave, you're not over there. You're safe. She can't hurt you here," Uncle Matt said. I tried not to cry. He always sits beside my chair till the morning because I get bad dreams.

"You don't need to sit here all the time, Uncle Matt," I told him. He smiled at me kindly and kissed the top of my head. "I know that, David. I choose to because you think you have to go through this alone, and you don't."

I sniffled and melted into the hug. Then, I proceeded to shoo him to his room as he needed his sleep.

I decided to go for a run. I wore my black jogging shorts, blue tank top and after tying up my shoelaces, I went out of the house. I walked to the park and then started jogging on the track. The voice and the words still echoed in my head and I understood that I needed something a little more tiring than jogging.

An hour later, as I was going home, I saw a basketball court. I stored it in my mind and kept walking towards home.

I'd almost drowned in my thoughts when I saw George sitting on a bench, her head in her hands, her leg bouncing.

"George?" I said. "You okay?"

She didn't say anything, but I knew something was wrong, so I sat down beside her. I could see her face now. Her eyes were pinched shut, her lips were moving, she was silently telling herself something. She started inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her mouth. After a while, her leg stopped bouncing and leaned her head against the bench.

"I'm fine," she said, more to herself than me. I nodded absentmindedly and said, "Okay."

She jumped as if just noticing me. "When did you come here?" She asked. "I've been sitting here for like, two minutes."

She stared at me. "Oh," she said. "Sorry I didn't notice you."

I shrugged. I just felt good that I was there when she needed someone beside her.

She gave me a little smile, just a teeny tiny smile, the only one she gives everyone. Well, everyone except Lucy maybe.

We just sat there for a few minutes in comfortable silence.

Then George broke the silence and said, "You should come to the movie night at the house."

I looked at her with a confused expression. Movie night? But that would mean... we're friends. Are we friends?

"We have this tradition in our house, movie night on Friday with Chinese food. Or pizza. It depends. Your Dad and sister can come too. It'd be nice if there were more people."

"He's my uncle, actually," I said automatically. "Oh," she said again. "Your uncle and your cousin, then.

"I'll think about it," I said. She nodded. "Just have Linda call Luke if you're coming, we'll know how much we got to make."

"Or I could call you," I said.

Oh, great. Now she's going to think you just wanted her number, so you had this conversation.

"I mean so that we don't have this dependency on our siblings," I added quickly. She chuckled a bit. "I know."

I need to stop overthinking so much about little stuff.