Honeybee Stories

Honeybee

Serenade

One ring. Two now. The third one and I'm bouncing my leg slightly now, the anxiety crawling and creeping through my body. After the 5 ring she answers, and the first thing I hear is a tired groan. "Who?" I hear her mumble, probably too tired to say much else, it was three in the morning after all. "Serenade. It's Serenade." I say in a panicky and stressed voice, and I hear a small gasp on the other side of the phone. She's definitely awake now. "Serenade? Why- What? What's wrong?" she says in a less sleepy voice and I start chewing on my lip nervously and feel the tears start to form in my stupid blue eyes. "I- I had a... bad dream." I whimper out quietly and quickly rub one of my eyes, trying to get the tears to disappear. Sarah and I haven't talked in so long, her being so busy with her work and I had just started college recently, we both just couldn't find the time, but we've been best friends for 4 years now, I had sent her a dm about how much I had been struggling, I just needed an outlet and I didn't think she would ever respond, but she did, and she took me out of the horrible situation I was trapped in and let me move in with her, and from then on we were just, inseparable. She's like a big sister to me, a platonic soulmate if you will, and I love her so so much.
I hear Sarah sigh softly and I taste blood, only realizing then that I've chewed a hole in my lip, but I just ignore it and wait for Sarah to speak. I hear some shuffling after a moment and then I hear her mumble something away from the speaker. "Sarah?" I say softly, my voice trembling slightly. I hear more shuffling and then I hear her speak. "Sorry honey, I was getting some pants on. Just a minute." she says before more shuffling noises start and then silence. I can practically hear my blood pumping heavily and my head pounds, begging me to just lay down and go back to sleep, but I know very well I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight by myself. After listening to the silence on the other end I finally hear Sarah picking up the phone and letting me know that she was on her way to my small apartment. "Sarah no, you don-" I go to say but she shuts me up immediately. "I'll be there as soon as I can, make sure you're decent, and pick a movie for us to watch, ok?" she says quickly and I can't help but smile a little. "M'kay fine. I'll see you soon..." I say shakily and let out a small sigh. "See you soon my little honeybee." she says and hangs up, and I feel my heart swell. She hasn't called me that in so long, but I immediately start calming down a little after I heard her say it. I set my phone down and immediately get clean bed sheets, and put my favorite Eeyore footie pajamas on, putting the hood over my head to hide my untamable long curly blond hair. I get my bag of gummi bears out of my nightstand drawer and set them by my phone, and then I run to my front door and unlock it for her before running back into my room and quickly getting under the covers, picking Tangled to watch with her, something we used to watch together all of the time. I cuddled Mr. Bubbles, my sloth stuffie, as I wait for her, and I end up zoning out, something I do when my anxiety is high. I feel myself start to disassociate, and start to panic, letting go of Mr. Bubbles and kicking the blankets away, feeling like everything I touched wasn't real and felt weird on my skin. I don't hear the door of the apartment open, but I hear Sarah's voice calling out for me from afar, and my breathing starts to get faster. I hear her voice again and climb out of bed, only to get on my knees on the floor and cover my ears as I curl up into a ball. "Nonono, don't believe it, not real, not real." I whisper to myself, convinced I was hearing things that weren't real, convinced that Sarah wasn't really here. She must've heard me talking to myself because when I open my eyes from being shut tight and look up, I see a blurry outline of her face, I see her wide eyes looking into mine. She goes to touch me but I whimper and shake my head, making her immediately pull her hand back. "Sere, it's really me, it's ok." she says softly and I just keep shaking my head and plug my ears again. "No, not real, you're not real." I say a little more louder this time and curl into a tighter ball, shutting my eyes.

Sarah

I watch as my sweet Serenade stays in a little ball, her whole body shaking under her Eeyore pajamas, and my heart just breaks. I need to get her something to calm her down and get her back into reality. I look up on her bed to see her stuffie that I know well and love, and I quickly grab him and tap her shoulder, making her flinch again but she opens her eyes and looks up at the stuffie. Her eyes grow wide and her breaths get shorter, so unfortunately the stuffie was not helping.
I keep thinking, and then I remember. She has medication for this. As needed anxiety meds. I quickly pounce up and run to her bedroom bathroom, going through her bathroom mirror and after only seconds I find the pill bottle and quickly unscrew it, taking out one of the small green capsules. I see a cup on her sink and fill it with water before racing back over to her. "Honeybee, look at me, please." I say gently and she peeks at me, I see her cheeks have gone completely red as well as her nose, her rosacea was flaring up because she was panicking. She shakes her head when she sees the cup and whimpers louder. "Sere, you have to take this. It'll make everything better. Please baby." I whisper and carefully set the pill and cup down on the nightstand. I know this would make her panic more but I also knew this would work, so I put my arms around her trembling body and pulled her onto my lap, taking her hood down to rub her head and keep her close against me. "Feel me Sere, I am real, I'm right here. I got you." I whisper and hold her tightly, she continues to cry and squirm but then she starts to roam her hands around my body, my back and shoulders and neck, she was assuring herself this was real by touching me. I let her do it and continued to hush her gently as she did so. She cupped my cheek and hiccuped, keeping her face nuzzled in my neck. "There we go, good girl" I whisper and sigh softly, and I slowly reach for the medicine and water. "Can you take this for me honeybee? It'll help you, come on." I say softly and she slowly moves her head a little and opens her mouth, letting me put the capsule in her mouth and I carefully meet the cup with her lips and tip it. "Sips baby, there you go." I whisper and when she's had enough water she gently pushes the cup away and whimpers softly. I pick her up carefully and set her down on the bed, and then I go around on the other side and climb in next to her, letting her cuddle into me with her stuffie secure in her arms tightly. I play the movie and hold her against me as we watch, it being silent other than the movie playing and a small sniffle from her occasionally. After she's completely calm she smiles up at me and I smile right back. "Hi little bug" I say and she giggles and kisses my cheek. "Hiya" she whispers and rests her head back on my shoulder. "You picked a good movie, I haven't watched it in awhile." I say and play with her soft long hair. "I watch it all the time" she whispers and sighs softly, and then I see her big smile appear all of the sudden and she reaches over to the nightstand, grabbing a bag of gummi bears. I chuckle softly at her as she eagerly opens the bag and starts shoveling them in her mouth. "Woah there bubba, one at a time, I can't have you choking now." I say and take the bag from her, making her pout and whine. "Give 'em backk!" She whines out and I shake my head and pop a red gummi bear in my mouth. "Nope, I want some before you eat the rest." I say and she just whines again and sticks her tongue out at me, but she goes back to cuddling me and watching the movie. She starts squirming though, waiting quite impatiently for her gummi bears back. I eat a few more and then hand the bag back to her, but as she goes to grab it I pull it away for a moment and look at her. "One at a time, alright?" I say firmly and she nods before snatching the bag back and eating one at a time, and I smile and go back to watching the movie.
Once the movie is over I look down, and I can't help but giggle at her. She has a small handful of gummi bears in her little fist and she's fast asleep. I carefully lift her head up a little and open her mouth gently, just making sure she didn't have any gummi bears in her mouth, and when I see nothing in her mouth I gently open her fist and take out the gummi bears, putting them in her little bag and then setting it down on the nightstand. She's still holding Mr. Bubbles as I lay her down next to me and I wrap my arms around her securely and turn off the tv, letting the room get dark, but I could see the lighter dark blue morning sky out of the window. I payed no mind to the fact that it was six in the morning, and I just fell asleep with her in my arms, but not before whispering, "Goodnight my little honeybee, I love you so much." And kissing her head.