Black Rose

Her jacket.

At some point in the night I began to dream. I don't remember most of it, but I remember enough.

Jordan was lying next to me, her hand in mine. We were close, her side pressed against mine, her arms wrapped around me, enveloped in warmth. Neither of us said anything; we just laid there.

We were in her treehouse, and the sun was rising. I watched it rise through the windows of the treehouse, letting the morning rays warm my skin. It was the middle of summer, and soon enough, the treehouse would be filled with hot and stuffy air, and I would have to climb back down the rickety ladder and face the world.

But I didn't have to move yet. For the moment, I could just lay there, wrapped in her arms.

It was a simple dream. A comforting dream. It didn't turn bad. Nothing happened. I just lay there.

There was a strange time between being asleep and being awake where I felt like the dream carried on. Her arms were wrapped around me. The sun was falling on my face. It was like it hadn't ended.

But gradually, as I woke up more and more, I came to my senses.

I was not on the floor of a treehouse. I was in a soft bed. The sunlight falling on my face was not coming from a little wooden window. It was coming from a whole wall of glass on one side of the room.

And the arms that were wrapped around me were not Jordans.

Upon that thought, my heart started racing. As carefully as I could, I lifted their arm and rolled out from their embrace. I was expecting to find that it was Blake sleeping beside me, having brought me to his room to torture me some more. But when I looked across, it wasn't Blake lying asleep beside me.

It was Gwen.

I stared at her face for a few seconds, wondering if I was seeing things correctly, or whether it was just my sleepy brain messing things up. But sure enough, it was her.

What the hell was going on? How did I get up here? And why had Gwen been spooning me?

I bit my lip, and looked around, trying to find some form of a clue in the room. The bed we were lying on was a modern four-poster bed, with a black frame, and sheer grey curtains that were pulled open on the four corners of the bed. The duvet was dusty light pink with a pale grey stripe, and the sheets were crisp and white. The whole room followed this colour palette of grey, pink, and white. It looked like it was straight out of an interior decorating magazine. In one corner of the room was a grey armchair beside a slim white accent table, and on another side was a white vanity mirror, with an array of makeup and jewellery strewn across it.

There were three doors along the walls, one near the bed, then two on the opposite wall.

Then there was the window. Floor to ceiling, along the whole wall opposite the bed, looking out on the most incredible view I had ever seen. Mountains, stretching out as far as I could see, lining and twisting around a valley, shrouded in thick evergreen trees. If the view wasn't breathtaking enough, it was all covered in a dusting of white.

Snow. It had been snowing.

Only barely, and it wasn't snowing anymore, though. Now, the sky was blue, and I could see the light snow already melting in the Colorado sun.

I hadn't seen the outside world in days. The most I had gotten were glances at the windows when I had tried to escape before Gwen stopped me.

Gwen. The thought reminded me of where I was, and I looked back down at her sleeping form. Her hair was frizzy, and strewn across the pillow around her head like a halo. She looked like she wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, so I carefully peeled the sheets from my skin and climbed out of bed.