Don't Leave

Chapter Two

This time you aren't awaken by your own nightmare, however, you can feel a tense energy that immediately sits you straight up in bed. A few moments later the door shakes open and Ben is standing there. Sweat dripping from his hair, and tears prickling the sides of his eyes.

"Are you okay?" You speak louder than you mean to.

"I just," Ben sighs, "can I lay down?" he gestures to the bed.

You just nod your head as his 6'2" frame slowly approaches the side of your tiny bed. You pull the covers back, indicating to him that he can get comfortable.

You wipe your eyes to wipe away the drowsiness left, looking over at Ben as he shifts himself into your bed you notice the tears in eyes have only worsened, now falling down his face.

You grab at his hand once he laid down, stoking his hand with a soft touch to show comfort. Ben is all but shaking at this point – uncomfortable in his own skin. He places his other hand on top of yours and lays back and closes his eyes.

"Hey, Ben." You turn and look at him, "It'll be okay, you know? Whatever you dreamt about, it doesn't matter now." Still stroking the back of his hands.

He shakes his head in acknowledgement, but just shifts himself further down into the bed. You can feel his anxiety pulsing off of him in waves, and looking at him you can see all the signs of a panic attack. His breathing is labored, you can see his heart beating out of his chest, he still hasn't stopped sweating even though it is freezing inside the hut. You deal with panic attacks all the time, but you have never tried to help anyone else with one.

You let yourself sink back down in the bed, allowing yourself to get closer to Ben. When you finally get at the same level, you lean over and grab Ben's head and move it to lay him on your chest. He doesn't argue, still letting the tears fall from his face, he just nuzzles his head deeper into your chest, letting his ear rest right above you heart.

You place your hand on his face and stoke along his cheekbones, slowly, wiping away the tears as they fall. After some time, you can feel Ben start to relax, you look down at his face, his eyes are tightly closed and the tears have stopped.

"Ben," you say quietly.

Nothing. He had fallen asleep, and you weren't about to wake him. You knew that it always felt better to sleep immediately after a panic attack – it was truly the only way to completely calm down.

Not too long and you allowed yourself to fall back asleep with Ben's head still laying on top of your chest.

"Shit," you slowly open your eyes and peak over to see Ben shuffling himself out of the bed and slipping his shoes back on franticly.

"Hey," you sputter out, "what's wrong?"

"If Luke notices I'm not in my hut," he sighs, out of breath, "we are both going to get in trouble." You open your eyes wider and notice the light already peeking through the cracks in the stones along your wall.

"Oh," you sound disappointed when the words are leaving your lips.

"Hey, I'll be ready in ten minutes to go to breakfast, if you want to meet and walk." Ben tosses out as he opens the door to leave as he still shuffles trying to get his other shoe on.

You nod your head and Ben leaves, letting the door close quietly behind him.

Your hands find your face, slowly rubbing you're your cheeks then moving to your eyes to wake yourself up. The covers feel heavy when moving them off of you, not wanting to wake up and deal with the long day ahead of you. But you sigh and push the covers off of you, knowing that Ben will be waiting for you if you take too long. You throw on another t-shirt and the only other pants you own and put on your shoes, grabbing your satchel you open the door and are greeted by sunlight immediately blinding you.