My Classified Life

Chapter Thirty-Three: Piecing Together The Puzzle

When I awoke the next morning, sun was barely shining through my bright blue curtains, the little light that came in illuminated my walls, showering everything in a lace of blue. I didn’t move from my position under the covers, my solid rule for making sure I can fall back to sleep. My eyes closed and I ignored the pounding headache that caused me to feel like my brain had grown a second heart, and I fell asleep again.

I continued to wake up frequently, each time my room glowed brighter and my eyes grew wearier. I willed my brain to shut up and take a break, but it just wasn’t listening. I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about everything that happened, in the fogginess of my headache, it sometimes felt like some horrible dream. Like, one, horribly, awesome dream where I had been able to escape and defy the odds, but at the same time it was a nightmare.

The last time I awoke, it was because my mind had found the sound I wanted to forget, the boom of a shotgun followed by the cracking of a windshield. I jerked upright with a loud gasp, and then slowly sat back down and tried to sleep again. I hid myself under the covers, the light was too bright for me to stand. I concentrated on my breathing, trying desperately to slow it down.

Sleep was hopeless, I was awake. But, I still stayed in my bed where I felt as if nothing could hurt me, under my layers and layers of blankets, sheets, and comforters, I was safe. For awhile.

The pounding in my ears of a raging headache had distracted me from the noise of someone in my room, I tuned my ears in and now I could clearly hear the beeps and clicks of a person on my computer.

I peeked my eyes over my mound and saw Christina, well, her back anyway. Her long brown hair was frizzed and unkempt as she hunched by the computer screen.

“You’re awake?” her voice broke the silence, tired and she said it like a question.

“Yeah.” my meek voice answered, timid and unsure, my throat hurt from dryness.

“There’s some water on the nightstand.” Christina said, turning around and pointing to a bottle of water strategically placed within arms reach. I reached out my shaky arm to take it, struggling to twist the cap off. I felt almost as week as I did after Greece. With some struggles, I got the cap off and started to drink. I was so thirsty, I started to chug way too fast. Water poured out of the bottle and onto my t-shirt, someone had put me in my old, tattered pajamas. Otherwise known as my favorite pair.

“Nice job.” Christina joked with me, her voice light and sarcastic. She got up from my desk where she had sat and went out my door, leaving it slightly open, and came back later with a small bath towel to wipe myself off with. “Here.” she handed it to me.

“Thanks.” I took it gingerly and wiped myself off, my shirt still felt damp.

Christina sat down on the edge of my bed. Did I miss something? I wanted to say, did we make up last night or, what? I stared at her, more than likely gawking, she started to become uncomfortable and got up from her seat and instead stood by my bedside.

“So…” I started, not quite certain what I should be saying.

“I bet you’re wondering why I’m here.” she filled in, fidgeting with her clothing.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Well, um,” she paused to gather her thoughts, “Last night your mom came up to check on you and she found you not in your bed, and she got worried. So, she called me and asked me if I had any idea where you were. When I admitted that I had no clue, she told me I needed to come over, that she needed to explain something to me in person. I rushed over and she explained to me all about her suspicions about Dylan and..” she stopped to look at me because I had just flinched at the sound of his name, she looked at me for confirmation to continue, I nodded slowly, “and she told me all about what her and Amanda had ascertained about their plan. A lot of it was lucky guesses, but your mom thought that maybe he was purposefully making a connection to you... for... spy purposes.” I could tell it was hard for her to say all this to me, she was always checking to make sure I wasn't going to spontaneoulsy combust or something.