Every Little Thing

Chapter One

Blake

Blood dripping down my forehead, screeching tires, bright lights and glass shattering. The car flips over twice and slides across the road, eventually coming to a stop. My bodies freezing cold, I feel myself shaking uncontrollably as I hear muffled voices outside of the car. My head is pounding and I want to open my eyes, I want to speak but nothing comes out.

"No! Fowlin!" I scream and abruptly jolt up, with sweat dripping down my face and chest.

"Blake it's okay, it was just a bad dream" Riley says as she rushes in and takes a seat next to me, wrapping her arms around my small frame.

I lean into her and sob into her chest as my body shakes. She rubs my arms and tries her best to sooth me until I calm down. These nightmares have been happening more and more recently, I think it's from stress. The doctors say I should be fine as long as I keep taking my medicine, but I stopped. The pills made me feel like a zombie the next morning and I hated it, every second of it.

I told Riley and she's been helping me out. Each night the terrors come she rushes into help calm me down. It's not ideal but so far it's the best we've got. She lays back with me and we end up falling asleep together, luckily I don't have any more nightmares. She holds me all night long and when my alarm goes off I roll over to see she's gone.

I wipe my eyes and let out a yawn. Summer is officially over and the new semester has officially started. Riley and I are juniors now at SDSU, she's majoring in journalism and I'm majoring in Child Education with plans on getting my teaching credential afterwards. We live in an apartment off campus together and have since last year.

I force myself out of bed and walk into my attached bathroom to run myself a hot shower. When I'm finished I wipe the condensation off of the mirror and stare at my reflection; I barely recognize myself. The dark bags under my eyes are enough to let people know I have slept well in days. My ribs are poking through my skin more than normal and my cheek bones look a little more prominent.

My skin is more pale now and my hair is dull. I look like the broken ghost of the girl who once was. My skin used to be tan and sun kissed, my eyes were a bright blue and my hair had a nice beach wave and was a sandy blonde color. I've always had a slender figure from cheerleading and surfing, but now I just look skinny; too skinny. I dry my hair with the towel and the run a brush through my hair.

I put on some makeup to make me look more alive and then french braid my hair. I spray some perfume and once I'm satisfied I walk back into my room to get dressed. I put on a slouchy white, off the shoulder long sleeve with my favorite high waisted Levis and high top converse. I grab my bag and then walk out to the kitchen to make some coffee.

I pour it togo and then grab a banana and granola bar and head out the door. Our apartment is only a seven minute walk to campus and I love getting the fresh, ocean air on my way; it's calming. I place my AirPods in my ear and press shuffle on one of my playlists as I continue my journey to school.

When I get to campus, I make my way across to the education building and head up to the third floor. Since my freshman year, I always chose early classes because I've always been an early riser. I open the large wooden door and I'm surprised that there's already a few other students inside. I walk to the back row and take a seat, pulling out my laptop.

I listen to music and pull up my student portal as more and more students start to file in. The class starts to fill and I'm distracted by video in TikTok that I don't hear the deep voice who's trying to talk to me "Is this seat taken?" I pull a headphone out and lock eyes with the most beautiful emerald green eyes.