Heated Hearts

Back To High-School!

||Aster's POV||

7 days had passed since that weird incident of that night, and seven nights had passed since nightmares started haunting me in my sleep... As if I was chased every moment in my slumber, and my consciousness, I was anxious every second that passed.

I didn't know if it was even possible or not, but I thought all my dreams were connected;like memories or visions. They felt so lively and realistic, that it was becoming hard and restraining, for me to pacify myself with the fact that they were mere dreams!

I didn’t find the object anywhere even after searching each corner of my house, like my life depended on it. It vanished into thin air and the memories were so vague in my head that I couldn't differentiate those from reality and dream anymore.

My phone vibrated in my hand, making me jolt out of my thoughts abruptly.

Chandler's name danced on the screen, following by a green and a red option.

I picked up her call with a sigh, following out of my mouth.

“Astruuuuu,” she squeaked, making me groan at the mention of the corrupted form of my name that she used to tease me.

But I was no weeper!

“Chanduuu,” I imitated her squeak, as I suppressed my chuckle caused by her reaction,-muahhahaaha, inside I laughed at my victory. I managed to annoy her more than she did to me!

“UFF... Listen, I'll pick you up tomorrow, the same time as before. I'm excited, are you?” the excitement in her voice, made it high-pitched.

I found myself sighing again, the fact that winter vacation was over, and we were going to start junior year at high school, was causing me anxiety.

“Aster?” Chandler inquired, her voice soft, of course she understood.

“I'm here... I'm not sure if I'm not excited at all, or my excitement was overshadowed by my other feelings.” I said, my lips forming into a straight line.

"It's gonna be just fine, relax. We'll be there for you, you won't be alone, ever.” She said, there was something about Chandler that always made everyone around her relax, and I was not an exception!

“I know, I love you guys for that.” I replied smiling, as their faces flashed in my mind.

“I love you too. See you tomorrow!” with that Chandler hung up.

See you... I mumbled under my breath, as I walked into the kitchen absentmindedly.

Grabbing the last slice of pizza from the microwave, I went upstairs, in my room. I sat on the window couch and leaned against the frame, with a book in my hand.

This has been my routine for the last one week, I've been so afraid to sleep at night that I ended up staying awake and reading one book every night. Obviously, I slept most of the day to keep the balance, that's why I had no idea what I was going to do tomorrow.

Sigh.... I'll think about it tomorrow!

I had always loved buying books, my parents also used to encourage me to do so, but never had the chance to read all of them. Now that I had a vast amount of time and no company, books had become my favorite companions.

Today I was reading,”The Happy Ever After Playlist”. It was a book of romantic genre. As I read through it, I cried with the character's despair, laughed with their happiness. It was as if I was feeling their emotions, I was into their life, their thoughts.

When I finished all the chapters with a satisfied smile and dried tear drops on my face, it was already 5:00 am.

West side of the sky had already lightened up, opening the window, I breathed in the fresh morning air. It felt soothing and calm, cool and sweet, as if the heaven's doors were open and the air was being directly supplied from there...

Chandler was going to pick me up at

7:30. I still had two and half an hour. So, I decided to take a nap of one and a half an hour. Putting an alarm on my phone, I placed it on the nightstand and closed my eyes with a deep breath.

It didn’t take long before I drifted in the kingdom of sleep, and soon my sound slumber crossed path with dreams.

It started with a vague, murky images that flickered and changed rapidly. Then they all halted resulting in a room, and a mirror, as I walked in front of it, I saw my reflection and flinched at what I saw, the face was mine but nothing else matched...

Not the hair, not the cloths, not the unknown place behind me, none...

Someone placed a hand on my waist, snaking it around me as soft kisses trailed down my neck. I saw myself, smirking in the mirror and a face of a male, I had never seen in my life before, hugging me from behind.

I couldn't scrutinize his features as it was vague, as if blurred on purpose...

Abruptly the scene changed... I saw various color swirling around me, as I found myself racing through them, and they all stopped as another scene unfolded...

I saw two shadows lurking over my face, my vision was blurred as if tears were twinkling in my eyes...

Even from the obscure view, I could recognize one of them, it was the same person from the previous image...

I felt pain, both in those two pairs of eyes that stared at me and in my chest... My eyes followed down and the moment I saw it, my head started spinning and the next moment, I was awake...

Panting....

I glared at my phone which was now blazing with alarm, my whole body trembled as I remembered the last moment of my dream, two swords pinned against my chest...

I shivered both inwardly and outwardly, as my hands travelled over the exact place on my chest, as if to make sure that the dreams were only dreams...

And when I found my chest normal, my soul finally seemed to come back in my body and my rapid breathing started to turn normal.

Closing my eyes, I took deep breaths, trying to calm my nerves down...

My alarm kept reverberating, and only after calming myself down, did I touch the red mark to stop it.

It took me a few more seconds to compose myself, and after having quite a debate with my consciousness, I was finally functioning normally again.

I stretched and yawned as I slipped out of my bed and slid into the bathroom. After finishing my morning business, I stood under the shower and closed my eyes, letting the water droplets wash away my worries and memories...

It took me longer to bathe than I thought, draping the towel around my body, I plugged in the hair dryer and started drying my hair...

I avoided glancing at the mirror as much as I could, because no matter how much I tried to go with the facade that 'dreams are dreams' in real, I was quite terrified...

After blow-drying my hair, I went downstairs and made some egg and bacon, and a cup of black coffee. After a sleepless night, and a horrible nightmare in my nap, caffeine was a must!

At exact 7:30,a small honk was heard, I quickly grabbed my bag after tying the lace of my white sneakers.

Finally, after double-checking the gas stove and lights, I ran outside while struggling to put the key in my backpack.

Chandler sighed and nodded her head helplessly as if saying, you are hopeless!

And in reply, I shot her a guilty, embarrassed smile as I got in.

“8 minutes late,”Chandler grumbled as she changed the gear and pressed on the accelerator.

“ I know, I just had to double-check to ensure everything was in place.” I replied in a sorrowful voice which I knew would melt her heart.

“It's okay, we'll only be a little late on our first day. No big deal,” she replied sounding angry, but I didn’t miss the smirk that swept across her lips and poked her on the side of her belly.

“Hey... Haven't you heard no poking anywhere, while we're on the road?,” Chandler chuckled and both of us burst into laughter. Before we realized we were back into High School, being our old self on the way, enjoying conversation, teasing and giggling that we missed for the past few months...