“Come on!” He begged me, pushing his lip out in a puppy dog pout. He widened his eyes, making his brown eyes even more adorable than they already were.

I grinned at the silly antics of the tattooed man standing in front of me. He walked forward and pulled me into a loose embrace.

“I already told you, Mikey, no!” I gently as I placed my hands on his boney chest.

I don’t even remember what I was telling him no about, but I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped from my mouth. The giggles quickly ended when his happy face twisted into an angry scowl and his eyes began to harden.

“Fine, you fucking prude!” He sneered as me, he voice dripping with disdain.

I gasped as the hurt began to fill my chest, but I quickly tried to hide the fact that he hurt my feelings by acting angry,

“Fuck you, you absolute douchebag!” I yelled as I prepared to push him away from me. Before I could, he moved to grip my arm tightly. His hand was so big that it encircled my entire upper arm.

“You dumb, bitch” He said angrily.

His grip started to feeling impossibly tighter, like he was trying to tear into my skin.

“Ow, stop, you’re hurting me!” I tried to act like I was still angrily, but I was starting to get scared about what he might do, “Stop! Let me go!”

Terror began to replace the hurt as he began to violently shake me. I could feel tears begin to fill my eyes.

“WAKE UP!” He screamed at me.

I was confused at his command, making me jerk my head up to look at him. He still looked angry, but he sounded different as he continued to shake me.

“Wake up, Sara!”

Now I was utterly flabbergasted. If I wasn’t mistaken, he sounded like....

Chelly?

Suddenly I was laying on my bed in my dorm, looking up at my worried room mate.

“Thank goodness,you’re awake,” Chelly gasped, “you were just dreaming, it’s okay now.”

“Oh my god,” I sniffed as I moved my hands to cover my face. I was flooded with relief, it was only a dream.

“Yes, only a dream,” Chelly said gently as she went to rub my back, “Are you okay now? Do you wanna talk about it.”

I shook my head and sat up to untangle myself from my sheets that were wrapped around my legs. Finally free, I slide off the bed leaving Chelly still perched on the edge of my bed.

“I need some air”, I said softly as I went to pull on my vans and grabbing my keys off my desk.

“Are you sure?” Chelly asked, she still sounded concerned. That’s so sweet, we barely know each other but she is genuinely worried about me.

I nodded, “For just a minute, I’l be back.”

I made my way out of the building into the cool San Diego night. The plan had been to just sit outside on the steps leading up to the front door, but I found myself walking down the empty sidewalk. I didn’t really have a destination in mind, not that I would even know how to get there. I didn’t have my phone on me, so hopefully nobody bothered me .

Not paying attention to how long I had been walking, I stopped to look around me. A huge grin started to make its way to my face.

I walked over to the suspended piece of white cloth. I looked around and saw no one near me before I climbed up.

As the hammock started to softly sway, I could feel the tension start to slowly leave my body. This was just like the one in my backyard back home, which was probably my favorite place in that whole state.

Finally feeling relaxed I looked up at the starry sky as my thoughts started to fill my head.

What was the deal with that nightmare? Sure Mike had been an ass, but geez, did it really bother me that much to provoke such a reaction from my sub conscience? Apparently.

It felt so vivid though, very unlike any of my normal dreams. Usually I could tell that I was dreaming because they looked fake, but this one. This dream had felt very real.

I could feel my skin start to crawl where Mike had touched me in my dreams. Then the hair on my arms felt like they were starting to rise as I felt like I was being watched all of a sudden.

I was jolted out of my thoughts when I saw someone in the shadows not far from where I was laying. Quickly sitting up, I looked to see if I needed to run. I was so scared I nearly fell off.

“You took my hammock,” A voice I recognized teased me.

I was thankful that it wasn’t some psycho coming to murder me,

“Oh hey.”

Notes