Amelie (ON HOLD)

IV

  ᴛᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀɪɴɢ ᴄʜɪʀᴘs ᴏғ birds hanging outside my window stirred me from my sleep. My alarm shrieked by my side and I let out an agitated groan. What time was it?

  I rolled over to my side to find my alarm. I hated my dorm bed. It was so uncomfortable.

  My bed.

  I opened my eyes to see the flaking white paint of my dorm room ceiling. I was home. How was I home? The last thing I remembered was falling asleep in the corner of Jaqueline's living room.

  I must've sleepwalked home? Like that was possible.

  I pushed all those thoughts to the side as I shut off my alarm and sat up. I felt uneasy. A pounding vibration in my head caused my neck to twitch as the bright morning sun shone through the gap in my curtains.

  What happened last night?

  I decided to push all my questions back and climbed out of bed, letting the cold floor of my room send shivers up the back of my legs, dancing along my spine till I shivered my shoulder and wiggled my fingers and toes.

  The shower would help calm me down. Stripping off in the bathroom, I turned the switch and let the hot rain of water cascade down my body. It washed all my problems and aches away like a soothing hug, wrapping its wetness around my body, encasing me in its warmth, massaging all my troubles away with a constant pound on my stomach.

  Afterwards, I wrapped a towel around myself and wiped the condensation off the mirror. I stared at my reflections and frowned. I looked like I'd had the worst night of my life. Truthfully, I had. I didn't want to look at my phone just yet because I was sure it was swarmed with messages about my public humiliation at Jaqueline's last night.

  God, I was so stupid.

  I grabbed my toothbrush and started brushing my teeth, carefully scrubbing from the back molars to the front, gliding across my canines.

  Canines. Sharp, deadly canines grew into my mind as I imagined the man with scarlet eyes staring back at me with black blood dripping down his hands.

  I pulled myself out of my horrifying thought and rinsed my mouth. The vague memories from last night swirls my mind like autumn leaves. They were too quick to see properly, and the ones that had landed were too crumbled to fully comprehend.

  I held my breath as I remembered the pair of soft, hungry lips kissing mine. I brought my fingers to touch my own and felt a tingling sensation travel to the pit of my stomach. The memories of it captured my mind in a whisk of passion and confusion. Nothing had felt so beautiful yet so terrifyingly wrong before in my life.

  As much as I tried to push it to the back of my mind, I couldn't help but think, was it all real? It felt too real to be a dream but was all to unrealistic to truly have happened. I dried myself off and went to put some clothes on. a pair of leggings, a white t-shirt and a fluffy, brown cardigan was fine for a college fall day. I pulled my hair into a high ponytail. I was never fond of the naturally messy look. I liked to make it neat and tidy, when I did messy which wasn't messy but it was my messy. Besides, strands of hair would fly out and make me look like one of those trolls' dolls by the end of the day. It was easier to make it neat. I pushed my glasses on before slipping on my boots and grabbing my books for the library.

  The wind whipped against my cheeks as I stepped outside into the cool autumn air. The library building wasn't too far from my dorm and was one of the largest buildings on campus. I spent most of my time there and found it was the perfect place to study. My neighbours loved to blast music all day long and it was usually some heavy rock tune with tonnes of screaming. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but I once asked them to turn it down and they slammed their door in my face. Not a great first impression.