THEM » Us #1

Open and Closed

I slammed the door of Casey's car as I returned home. "Thanks so much."
She nodded. "No problem, oh and I know it was a boy. I won't tell."
I smiled. "Thanks." She drove off as I walked up the stairs to my porch.
  I pushed my glasses farther on to my face. As I opened the door, I realised what I would have to face. My dad.
  "Where did you go were Casey had to drive you?" My dad stood right in front of me. I slowly shut the door as I answer.
  "A friends."
  "What gender?" He asks as I turn around to face him.
  "I'm going to be honest here. It was guy."
  "What did you do?"
  I explained how Cooper had texted me that morning saying he had a surprise and how Casey volunteered to help. I explained how she picked me up here after I went out for lunch, then to Cooper's.
  I told him about the dancing and what we said.
  He just nodded along the whole time.
  "He touched you?"
  "He grabbed my hand."
  "Nothing se-"
  "No dad! That's exactly what happened." I cut him off.
  "Okay, it okay because I trust you. Not the boy."
  I just rolled my eyes and walked past him. I stomped up the stairs.
  The creaking of the door scared my sister. She lied on her bed. I sat on mine.
  "Dad angry?" She asks, not looking up from her phone.
  "Nah, just disappointed."
  We laughed. It's funny how parents say their not angry when they are. We stopped laughing when we were interrupted by a knock on our door.
  "Yep!" Madelyn (my sister), says.
  Griffen came in. "Dinner." He shut the door as he walked out.
  "Let's go." I walk out and Madelyn follows me down the stairs.

********

  I woke up, panting. Sweat dripped from my face. The sheets were hot. "Shit!" Madelyn sat up.
  "V? What's wrong?" I catch my breath.
  "Just a bad dream."
  "You mean a nightmare."
  "Mhm." I breath out and in and out again. "Shit." I grab my phone that sits next to my bed.
I FaceTime Livy, hoping she will answer. Thank the gods she did.
"V, it's six in the morning and I didn't sleep last night." She wiped sleep from her eyes. Her hair was a mess. Mine was too.
"I know, I didn't either. But, it...but it happened! The dream."
"No way."
See, in seventh grade, Livy predicted I would have the scariest dream of my life at fifteen. See we just remembered yesterday. I didn't really care, but this was fucking scary ass shit!
"It was bad."
"What happened?" Her eyes lit up.
"Well, it stared with my walking in the park, you know the one behind the library?" I say as turn on the light. Madelyn cover her head with her blankets.
"You guys were there but you had to go home. So Katie left. Then you. I started walking up the soccer field, when someone tackled me. In the corner off my eye, I saw Cooper's face. I rolled over on the ground and saw Cooper had tackled me. I was like 'What the hell!'. He duck taped my mouth and threw me against the chain-link fence.
I could breath and I was trying to free my mouth. He grabbed my hands and tied them together with a fuckin' rope. He ripped the tape off my mouth. He looked into my eyes and said, 'Bow to her!'. I looked behind him and a girl with plastic-looking skin stood there. He through me to the ground and I looked up at the girl. She looked like a doll and ghost put together. She drew a knife and started circling me.
I looked at Cooper and he was talking to Aislinn (Livy and I's arch enemy). She wrapped her arms around Cooper's neck and said, 'She's gone.'. Then, all I saw was a knife hit my face and it went black. I woke up in a hospital. Everyone around me was yelling 'She did this to herself!'. There was no tape on my mouth. I started screaming 'It was them!' , but no one cared. All of a sudden, Cooper and Aislinn walked in with lab coats on. They each stood on one side of the bed and looked down at me. They both said 'She did this.' at the same time. Everything went black."
Livy put a hand on her chest. "Some doors open and other close."
"What?" I say. I was panting. That story was long and hard to tell.
  "You will understand when you need to." She ended the FaceTime. I gave up. She needs to quite saying this crap. I already had this dream!

*******

  I woke up. It was eight now. I checked to see Cooper had texted me.
  I got a girlfriend, you know Aislinn, right?