Boyfriend

Chapter 15

Decisively Indecisive

"Indecision may or may not be my problem." - Jimmy Buffet

"Lily!" screamed Hestia. "Lily? Where are you?"

I laughed as I pounced in front of my best friend's face. "I'm right here, silly," I told her.

However, instead of Hestia's laugh and sarcastic remark, I was greeted with a look of worry. "Lily?" she called again.

I rolled my eyes and waved my arms in front of my face. "Hello?" I called with a laugh. "Earth to Hestia? It's me. Can you still see, or did that Rico Suave of yours steal your sight along with your virtue?" I teased.

Hestia did not seem to hear me. In fact, her blue eyes passed right through me. "Lily? Come back!"

"Hestia, I'm right here," I told her as frustration grew within me. "Merlin, get your bloody eyes checked!"

"Lily, I can't see you!"

"I'm right ruddy here," I told her as I reached out to grab her arm. However, as I reached for her, she disappeared into mist. I looked down at my arm, and I startled when I saw that I was enchained. I grabbed the heavy, black chain and followed it until I reached the end, where James, too, was attached.

"James?" I asked in confusion.

"All right, Evans!" he greeted me with a beatific expression. His eyes turned to slits, and his teeth, which were employed in a crooked smile, began to rot.

The chains began to wrap around my entire body, suffocating me.

James laughed as he watched me struggle. "Will you go out with me?"

"Ahh," I breathed as I opened my eyes. My pulse raced as I wiped the sweat away from my brow. I breathed shallowly in and out as images of my nightmare flashed before my eyes.

It was too early to wake up. I knew that. The sun had barely risen over the horizon, and the birds were a bit too lethargic to sing their morning melodies just yet. I didn't need to look at the clock on my nightstand-which I had specifically made sure did not have an alarm when I bought it three years ago on a shopping spree with Mum-that it was far too early for me to wake up.

Still, I was awake. Oh, bloody hell, I was awake. And I couldn't blame it on my mum or my sister or James or even alarm clocks. Something inside of me was determined to prevent my conscious from slipping into subland. I hadn't meant for that to sound kinky, or something.

Merlin, I needed sleep. Only, I could not sleep when I kept waking up from strange nightmares.

That didn't mean that I didn't try. I gave it my best effort. I tossed and turned in my sheets, fluffing my pillow and shutting my eyes as closed as I could get them. I counted sheep, and when that didn't work, I counted flobberworms. I imagined myself in Professor Binns's class and then pictured Vernon droning on and on about drills. No dice. Not even Vernon Dursley was boring enough to make my senses dull. I was a lost cause.

Grumpily, I staggered into the bathroom and emptied my persistent bladder. Blindly, I washed my hands and then brushed the morning muck out of my mouth until all that remained was the strong peppermint taste that felt too potent this early in the morning. I washed my face in an effort to get my drooping eyelids to stay open. As I wiped the water away with a towel, I let my fingers run through my hair.

It was too long. The ends were frayed and split and no longer felt smooth, but rather wiry and harsh, to my touch. I wanted to grow out my hair. My plan was to get it to my waist by the time of graduation. Yet, as I looked at it now, still in that awkward between phase in the midst of short and long, I just wanted to hack it all off.