Chapter 7:

*EDDIE'S POV:

"Eddie?"

"What?" I mumbled, not opening my eyes as my face remained smushed against the pillow. I felt the bed shift under someone's weight as they sat on the side of the mattress.

"How are you feeling?"

I answered, "Fine, Auntie."

"Auntie?" she laughed, "It's Audy, silly."

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I rolled over, coming face to face with her. "Audy? What're you-"

"I came to see if you were ok."

With a cloudy mind, I asked, "Did my aunt and uncle let you in or something?"

"No, I came in through the window." she answered with all seriousness.

"How did you- come through the- the w-window?" I asked, utterly confused. Audy can't even climb a damn staircase let alone the side of my house.

"Don't worry about it." she shushed. "Go back to sleep."

"But-" I stopped when a loud pounding came from my closet. "What the hell was that?" I slowly got out of bed and grabbed the neck of my guitar, holding it over my shoulder. "Stay there,"

"Eddie," she called, "don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it?"

"Eddie,"

I started walking over to the closet when Audy grabbed my wrist. "Eddie, come back to bed." she said, in almost a seductive tone

"What's up with you?" I confessed, suspiciously, "You're different tonight."

"A good different?" she winked.

"No,"

"Isn't this what you want? Come back to bed and let's have some fun."

"No. What makes you think I want that?" I said, pulling myself out of her grasp and focusing on the small pounding that was coming from behind the closet door.

"Eddie." she said firmly.

I raised the guitar over my head as I reached for the door handle, ready to take a swing at whatever was in there. I grabbed the knob and took a deep breath before twisting and swinging the door open. Even though my room was dark, this was total darkness. I shoved my guitar forward into the closet, only hitting my clothes and other objects that were lying around. I looked around but still couldn't see anything. My guitar never hit anything foreign, so I have no clue what was making the pounding noise. As I began to shut the door, a small little firefly buzzed out.

"See, it was nothing." Eddie said from behind.

I kept my gaze on the tiny bug, watching as some kind of dark mist trailed behind it.

"Ignore it, Eddie!" Audy basically yelled, pulling on my arm. "Please?"

I noticed how the mist began to form figures. They looked like hands──black hands. I was instantly petrified as they grabbed ahold of me; one was gripping my throat while the other was placed on the side of my face. The fingers grazed over the skin of my neck. I felt a familiar burning sensation as the figure pressed one of its fingers against my flesh. I let out a small cry from pain and fear. Beady red eyes appeared and seemed to stare right past me and into my soul. My stomach churned and toes curled. I was aching terribly all over. My head was throbbing. I tried to reach up and grab the hands but I could barely move. This thing had a tight grip on me. The hand on my throat seemed to clutch tighter and tighter, cutting off air access to my lungs. It finally pulled me forward, only to roughly push me back to the floor and making me slam my head against the hardwood floor.

It wasn't until my Aunt was rubbing my back and yelling at me to breathe when I realized it was another dream. I was sitting up and gasping for air, grabbing my stomach.

"Honey, calm down. It's a dream. You're okay!" my aunt said loudly to make sure I could hear her.

I felt sick again. I jumped out of bed and ran straight to the bathroom, immediately emptying the contents. . .again. Whatever I ate when I came home surely wasn't in my body anymore. I flushed the remains and grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste. That god awful taste had to go. There was a knock at the door, which I opened to see my concerned aunt.

"What kind of dream did you have?" she asked.

"I don't even remember it. That's the bad thing about it." I lied. I remembered every detail of it. I just don't want to explain it.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked.

"Yeah, a lot better."

"Well, take something in the medicine cabinet and let me know if you need anything else."

"Thanks, Auntie. Night." I grabbed a pill from the cabinet and drank a glass of water. I was feeling a lot better besides the killer headache. I grabbed a pill for that, too. When walking back to my bedroom, I glanced at the hallway clock that read 4:12am. I was surprised I had slept for that long, considering I fell asleep at 11pm. To be honest, I didn't want to fall back asleep, but my droopy eyes told me otherwise.

I didn't get much sleep afterwards but I was thankful that I didn't have any more dreams. I was glad that daylight came and gave me an excuse to be up and about. After taking a quick shower and throwing some some clothes on, I grabbed my car keys from the table and walked out. As I was about to enter the only car left in the driveway, my phone buzzed from my pocket.

Gareth: You free today?

-Yeah, I was just about to take a drive around. Wanna join?

Gareth: sounds better than sitting around all day.

-Be there in 5

I found Gareth hanging around the stop sign at the corner of the street. I stopped the car and he climbed in, holding his fist out to bump. "Where to?" I asked, driving forward.

"Anywhere. Go where you were gonna drive to." he said.

"I was just gonna drive around." I said.

"Then do that. Maybe we'll find somewhere to stop along the way."

"Alright. So what've you been doing? Haven't seen you in a while." I asked.

He shrugged. "Pretty good, I guess. I've been bored. How you doing? How's Audy?"

"We're still going strong. Gotta love her," I smiled.

"Yeah, she's cute. I wish I could have a relationship like you guys. Everyone's trying to guess when you guys get married."

"What?" I laughed. "That's ridiculous."

"It's true, man."

"When did this start? I can't believe you guys!"

"It started like two years ago, bud. Better pick up the pace." Gareth said.

"We're not even three weeks out of our senior year of high school!" I exclaimed. "Her parents would kill me if I proposed or some shit!"

"Oh, hush. They adore you too much." he joked. "Hey, could we head up to the mall or something? I need to look at shoes. Mine are falling apart."

"Yeah, sure. You know what else you should look for?"

"What?" Gareth asked.

"A girlfriend."

***

"What about her? Right there." I said pointing to a girl walking towards us. Gareth turned around in his seat to take a look, but shook his head as he turned back. "That one?" I suggested, pointing to the girl across the mall.

"Eddie, why are we doing this? I'm leaving the state in the fall!"

"C'mon, man! Find a summer fling or something!" I boasted, "And Luna and I want another couple to hang out with!"

He rolled his eyes but laughed at the same time. "Fine, the girl over there is pretty. I think- yeah I'll go- oh, nope. She's gotta boyfriend."

"How do you know? Maybe that's her brother."

"Eddie," Gareth started, looking back at the two.

I looked back and saw that the two were now kissing on the bench. "Oh, well, yeah that's not her brother."

"Dude, this is fucking hard!"

"Wait, how about one of them?" I asked, pointing to three girls walking our direction.

"Shit, the one girl's nice." Gareth mumbled. We watched as they approached the small snack store right across from where we were sitting. They would occasionally look over their shoulders at Gareth and I, giggling and whispering. Bingo.

"Go," I mouthed, motioning my head towards them.

"I'm nervous,"

I threw my head back and groaned. "Alright, you stay here and try to do something girls like seeing guys do or something. I'll talk them up about you."

"You my wingman or something?"

"Since your scared ass won't do it yourself, I guess so." I snickered, standing up from our table. I walked up and heard the girls gasp quietly. I tapped the one that Gareth liked on the shoulder. "Hey."

"Hey," she said back.

"So, I've noticed that you three have been glancing over at me and my boy Gareth, over there." I said. "I'm Eddie."

"I'm Bridget," she said, "and we have been."

"So, Bridget, whatcha think about Gareth?" I asked. Pretty charming, eh?"

"Eh," she shrugged, "he's ok. But. . ."

"But?"

"I think I'd prefer you." she winked.

I laughed, "Sorry Bridget, but, I'm already taken. Sorry if I came off wrong."

"I don't see her anywhere."

"Because she's not here," I shot back, slightly appalled.

"So what's the problem, Eddie?" she asked, putting a hand on my chest.

I pushed her wrist back towards her. "Look, I don't know what kind of guy you think I am, but I'm certainly not one who would do something behind his girlfriend's back. Again, I apologize on my behalf of coming on too strong or whatever. I was simply trying to introduce you to my friend."

"Fine, then I'll take your friend." she glared, pissed and probably embarrassed.

"No," I laughed, disliking her attitude, "if you're looking for a tool, check the hardware store across the street."

Bridget's mouth gaped open and her drawn on eyebrows perked up to her forehead. She raised her free hand and slapped it against my cheek, walking off. "C'mon."

Was it something I said?

Bridget and another girl walked off, but one girl stayed behind. Bridget looked back and gritted her teeth. "Come. On."

"No," the girl said, "I don't want to go."

"Excuse me?" Bridget scoffed.

"You heard me."

"Fuck you. Enjoy the dick." she spat storming off with the other girl.

I looked at the girl with amusement, seeing that she found it funny as well. "I'm May." she said, "I'm so sorry about her. Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine. It was totally worth it." I laughed.

"She has a boyfriend, you know."

"Are you serious?"

"Yup. Although, they'll probably break up when she finds out that Sasha, that other girl, is fucking him. Enough about her though." I saw her bite her lip nervously and blush as she glanced over at Gareth. "S-so your friend's name's Gareth?"

"Yeah," I answered, catching on. She liked him. "You like?"

Her eyes got wide and she looked down at her feet. "He probably won't like me. Most guys go for Bridget or Sasha."

"He isn't most guys. Believe me, I think he'll be quite happy." I winked, putting a hand on her back and walking her towards the table Gareth and I sat at.

"Gareth, this is May. May, this is Gareth. I'll leave you two at it." I said, grabbing my drink and walking off.

I roamed the entire mall about eight times before I saw Gareth wave at me a few stores down. He was still with May. I jogged over.

"Hey, those girls were May's ride. Do you think we could take her home? Her house is on the way."

"Of course," I smiled, "No problem,"

"Thank you." she said.

The three of us walked out to my car. May gave me directions to her house and I navigated my way there. She only lived several miles away from the mall. I pulled the car up to the curb by her house.

"Thank you again, Eddie. I'll see you later, Gareth." she said, flashing a bright smile and tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

As I drove away, I howled. "My boy got a girl!" he smacked my arm, but I smacked him back. "What's she like?"

"She's so fucking smart, Eddie──so down to Earth. I asked her about the two other girls she was with earlier. Apparently their parents were sorority sisters or something, which explains the immaturity. I mean, didn't Bridget act like a stereotypical mean girl? Anyway, she was saying how terrible they treated her because she didn't seem to fit in with them, but because their moms are like fucking blood sisters, it was forced. Her family moved back here last month, so she doesn't really have anyone else."

"My god." I said. "So how old is she?"

"So she's actually the age of the high school junior, but she's so smart that she'll be a senior this fall."

"Did you tell her you're moving for college?"

"Yeah," he answered, "she was really understanding about it. I still got her number, so maybe we are gonna have one of those summer flings."

"That's cool. You guys can still hang with me and Luna. At least if she slaps me it'll be lightly."

"Oh my god, that was fucking hilarious, dude. You got bitch slapped by a bitch." Gareth roared, laughing his ass off. "I have to tell Audy this one."

"She's gonna flip. Boy, if she was there when it happened, Bridget wouldn't have had any hair left."

"You think? As innocent and delicate she is?"

"She's gentle towards animals. I'm sure she'd be capable of knocking someone in the jaw if she wanted to." I admitted. "She can be feisty."

"I don't even know why you started talking to Bridget. I was talking about May when we first saw them."

"You didn't tell me that, you asshole!".......................................................A/N: ooooh Eddie's second nightmare >:3

EDDIE GOT BITCH SLAPPED HOW ABOUT THAT. But what do you think of May? She's a sweetheart.

Thank you for reading still =]

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