Dreamland [editing]

thirty three

I woke up the next morning, without a jolt, without sweats, and without my heart hammering inside of me. I woke up like an ordinary human, and it was fucking amazing.

I opened my eyes seeing my hand in Aiden's, as he slept uncomfortably in the chair beside me.

I smiled at the sight of our palms intertwined, feeling a little uncomfortable at the thought that he weirdly made me sort of happy.

I pulled my arm back, tightening my ring, and rubbed my eyes sleepily.

Moments later, Aiden woke up from beside me, with a small sigh.

"Hey," his fucking beautiful groggy morning voice greeted me casually as he squinted his eyes at the warm sunlight which fell onto his face attractively.

Before I could say anything, he got up and slid into his shoes, "fuck, I have class," he said, cracking his neck joints somehow, and running his fingers through his messy hair, smoothening it out.

"I'll see you later?" He smiled, and walked out of the door moments later.

I found myself sitting idle for a really long time before I actually started going on with my day. Once I freshened up and everything, I finally texted on the group that I'd need to be here for a little while longer, and as boring as it was, I had multiple things I wanted to paint, and I had a shit ton of work to do.

I started with some Geography project I had and finished by lunch. As evening came, the room got sort of gloomy again, and thoughts about being here for two more weeks creeped into my head, but I somehow managed to push them away.

****

My last two weeks at the hospital were as uneventful as they could've possibly been. I spent most of my time watching mediocre movies on Netflix, overthinking painting, or trying and failing to get any work done.

I spent a lot more time with Scarlett and Levi. Jake was very focused on football, Ryan was catching up on extra credit assignments because his Physics teacher told him he was slacking off too much, and Aiden seemed weirdly distant.

Since the night we had spent talking, and the time that I finally opened up to him, I hadn't seen to much of him.

It made me really uncomfortable, because a huge part of me thought that maybe he realized that I'm not exactly the best person, which is why he'd been so distant.

He came over a couple times with the group, but canceled quiet often when it was supposed to be just the two of us.

On the days that he didn't cancel, all we'd do was study, and coincidentally each time, either one of us was distracted or preoccupied.

He seemed perfectly nice on text, but I was trying not to use my phone much, so our text conversations were not very existent.

"Hi Hayley,  you ready?" My mom asked, walking through the door.

Things were her were....fine...
It was weird that before this, she almost never seemed to care about me, but all of a sudden..she did.

We didn't spend much time together, but she texted me once in a while, asked if I'd eaten...and that was a lot for her.

She worked pretty late, and had went for a three day trip to another city, but that was after I convinced her that I'd be perfectly fine, and I'd call every few hours.

I was off my wheelchair and walking on cruches, which was amazing for me, but still took me a little time to adjust to. The doctor said that my leg injury was never too bad, and it was heeling freakishly fast, so in a month, I'd be able to get the cruches off.
I would still have quiet res

"Yeah," I said, getting up, and stuffing my phone into my pocket as I balanced myself on one of the cruches.

She helped me to the car, and we began to drive back home.

"Hey sweetie, can I stop at this café for a second, I want a coffee"

"Ohh" I complained. I didn't want to be seen by anyone I knew that were not my friends. It would be weird, and they would ask what happened and...well thats just something I wanted to avoid.

"Fine..I'll wait in the car though" I said.

"Yeah sure, can I get you anything?" She asked

"I'm good" I said, and she got out of the car.

I slouched in attempt to not have anyone see me and just waited for my mom to come back. It felt like she was taking forever, until she finally got back into the car, and drove home.

When we reached the drive way, I felt a sense of relief. I didn't realize how much I missed the place.

It's like even when you go on an amzaing vacation, when you reach the drive way of your house you feel a certain calmness. I was so eager to walk into the familiar house, and get comfortable.

I limped into the house, looking around, and instantly felt calmer and more relaxed.

I had a really nice, warm shower, and later at about 6, Scarlett, Ryan and Levi came over. Aiden and Jake came a little while later, and Aiden still seemed sort of distant.

"Hey are you going to be starting school soon?" Ryan asked. I looked up from my phone,

"Yeah....but..I don't know, staying on campus seems inconvenient..."

"Hey when's your next game?" I asked.

"Uhh...16th.." Jake replied. "You need to be there it's semi finals,"

"Didn't you guys get banned from playing for a while or something?"

"Just for like two weeks...and coach convinced Mahoney," Ryan said, resting his head on the arm of the couch.

Jake and Aiden left first, about an hour before Ryan and Levi. Scarlett stayed over and left early the next morning before school.