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Chapter 12 - A Leap of Faith

I hardly slept that night. My mind was running rampant and wouldn't slow down as hard as I tried. I thought of this trip, of yesterday, of him. No matter what I did I couldn't sedate my rapidly moving mind. It thought of him constantly; it worried that it not only could be him but that it could also not be him. It worried about why he could possibly be here and went through every possible memory with him to try and find any evidence of why.

It found nothing though, which made me even more worried. When we finally fell asleep, worry filled dreams filled my mind, waking me up just as soon as I fell asleep. It made me upset that I couldn't sleep, but the anger didn't last long because the apprehension of the coming day set in again. This cycle lasted all night, quickly becoming annoying.

I am now awake, again. My eyes are squeezed shut but the light beginning to filter through my window beckons me out of bed. I listen as I know there is no point in trying to go back to bed; I wouldn't be able to anyway. So, I drag my drained body to the shower. I had been so preoccupied these last few days that I had completely forgotten about personal hygiene.

It didn't take me long to clean off, and it felt good to feel clean and smell nice. I stayed in there for a little longer, though. I knew whenever I left I would have to get Michael up and that would mean we would have to leave for the body shop. I didn't want to leave; I didn't want to know if it was Max. I didn't want to think that my best friend just abandoned me for no reason. That he didn't care enough to tell me anything before he left. I wanted to still believe that this all was a prank or even a dream. That when I woke up nothing would have changed, I would be at home with my mom and my friends.

I knew It wasn't a dream, though, none of it was. That was the part that scared me the most, and I knew that if I didn't figure out some answers then I would never forgive myself. I also would never sleep again, and that's all I really wanted right now.

After ten minutes of letting the water run down my body, my fingers and toes were beginning to prune resulting in me reluctantly getting out to dry off and get dressed. I took my sweet time doing it, though.

I change into a pair of jean shorts and a purple tank top, and after ten minutes, I finally leave the bathroom. By this point, my hair had already dried into a curly mess so I resorted to just pulling it up into a ponytail. As I looked in the mirror, I realized my long curly hair wasn't nearly as bad as I would have thought.

I became so preoccupied with my hair that I did not realize someone was behind me. When I heard a long breath behind me, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Thankfully, though, I looked over to find it was Michael and not some creeper who had broken into my room.

"Michael, don't ever do that again!" I began to calm myself down, trying to slow my rapidly moving heart as I rested my forearms on the sink.

"What are you talking about?"

"You nearly caused me to have a heart attack!"

"I don't understand."

"Never mind. When are we leaving?"

"As soon as you are ready. I'd like to leave as early as possible if that is okay with you." Part of me cringes inside when I hear him. I honestly didn't want to go at all, but I knew I had to. I didn't travel for days on end to just turn back at the last second. So, with every bone in my body screaming at me, I put on a happy face and said the two dreaded words that I knew would change my life forever.

"Let's Go."

"Alright, then I guess we will go," Michael says as we both slip on our shoes. I smile through it even though everything inside me was screaming bloody murder. As long as Michael couldn't tell that I was nervous, I would be fine. The last thing I wanted was for him to find out how nervous I really was.