Windswept

3 - Sam

Sam

New York, United States

The fog disappeared overnight, and the morning came with the sun shining into my bedroom. My alarm clock went off five minutes earlier, but I still had plenty of time to get to school. I sat on the edge of my mattress and stared at the floor, trying to wake up.

Last night's dreams were still playing vividly in my head, and I wanted nothing more than for them to be gone. It was the third night in a row that I had strange dreams, but they were only strange because they had an unnervingly real feeling about them.

My cell phone vibrated on my nightstand, and I reached over to see who it was. Nella, my best and basically only friend, from school had texted me. We used to be neighbors, but it was different now that there was more distance between us. In more ways than one.

I opened her text.

Meet me at the café after school? It's been forever.

I quickly texted her back and told her yes. I rarely did anything after school, not to mention outside of school, but Nella was the one person I never minded hanging out with. We were both similar in our introverted ways, and I was pretty sure that was the reason we were friends.

Since I was still good on time, I pulled my laptop from under the bed. It was Dad's old Apple laptop, so it took a little while for it to come to life. After checking my usual social media and glancing at gossip, I opened FaceTime and clicked on the only contact I ever called—my older brother, Logan.

He answered after just two rings, his face filling the screen. I hadn't seen him in person since the summer, but he hadn't changed much, though it seemed like he needed to shave.

"Hey, Sam." He smiled and ran his hand through his hair like he had just gotten up, which he probably had. The rest of his room was dimly lit behind him, and I saw his messy bed in the corner.

"Hey, sorry I missed your last call," I told him.

"That's what happens when you become a senior. It's even worse when you're in college, trust me." He grinned. "How's that going, by the way? School, I mean, is it as horrible as always?"

"Well, I wouldn't use the word horrible, but close enough. Will you be here for Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to make it," he said, pulling on a T-shirt. "If not, it'll be Christmas for sure."

"Well, I think plane tickets are kinda cheap right now."

Logan smiled and shook his head. "Getting there isn't a problem, Sam, don't worry."

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you going to do, walk? You are off school that week, right?"

"Don't worry about it, I'll get there. It just depends if I get bombarded with homework the week before."

I sighed. "Okay."

Logan stared at me through the screen. "Are you doing all right?"

In that moment, I thought about being open and telling him about my weird dreams and images of a cliff that I couldn't get rid of. That I woke feeling unrested and had been experiencing weird flashes of places I'd never been to. That I saw a boy disappear on a sidewalk. But no, I couldn't tell him those things.

It was probably just school stress, or something.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied.

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