Teenage Dream {HongIce}

Chapter Seven

Emil jolted awake, screaming. As he jolted, he smacked the back of his head into Lukas' face, causing him to wake with a disgruntled shout.

He couldn't breathe. It was like his lungs had constructed to the size of two tennis balls. He was covered in a second skin of sweat. His throat was clenched up and dry as a desert and the dark room just added to the terrifying experience. He doubled over into a coughing fit that refused to cease.

"Emil, what the hell is wrong?" Lukas demanded, shaking Emil's shoulders. But he couldn't answer, only splutter. "I'll get you some water," Lukas sighed and disappeared out  the door, reappearing by Emil's side a minute later with a glass of water. Emil took it and attempted to down it all in one go, only to miserably fail and choke a little.

"Do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

Emil shook his head and croaked out, "If I tell you, I'd remember. I don't want to remember."

"Fine, just go back to sleep," Lukas instructed, pushing Emil back onto the bed and pulling the sheets over him. He glanced over to the clock and saw that it read 4:12 am. With a sigh he rolled over and went back to sleep, wondering why Emil, who was sixteen, almost seventeen years old, was still having nightmares.

Emil rolled over, sticking his legs out to the side of the bed to cool himself down. He was still having the nightmares, some since he was nine, others since last year. The ones when he was little, were terrifying. He would wake – sometimes several times – during the night, screaming. They died down when he got older and then started back up last year. Sometimes he was able to remember the times that Lukas would come in and help him get back to sleep, sometimes he couldn't.

With a sigh, Emil attempted to go back to sleep, but simply couldn't. So he just laid there in the darkness, listening to the soothing sound of Lukas' quiet breathing. It was hours until Emil got out of bed and got ready for school in a completely zombie like state. Without another word, he left the house end began walking to school.

"Hey, Emil!" A cheery voice greeted from behind him, causing him to jump about six feet in the air. Emil regained his composure as he spun around to find Leon behind him, and his three other siblings about forty metres back. Emil hadn't heard Leon run up behind him.

"Oh... Hey," Emil greeted under his breath, stifling a slight yawn.

"You look like hell, are you alright?"

"That's a very nice way to start off a conversation," Emil mumbled sarcastically.

"Just trying to express my concern," Leon dismissed with a half hearted smile. "Are you okay, or not?"

"I'm fine. I just... Don't sleep," he whispered in reply, like it was something really difficult to say.

"That's ok. I'm still really jet lagged."

"You don't seem too jet lagged," Emil commented, curious as to how someone could still be so chipper when they're tired.

"You should see me at night. I'm up like an owl," Leon laughed.

"Hello, Emily!" A loud voice practically screamed for joy and a pair of arms wrapped around Emil's waist, squeezing him almost bone crushingly tight. Emil let out a terrified yelp.

"Yong Soo, get off him! And it's not Emily, it's Emil, you twit," Leon scolded. Yong Soo let go, and Emil was able to breathe again. "You've got to stop doing that to people!"

"No, it's okay..." Emil reassured nervously, turning around to face Yong Soo with a shy smile.

"Just go away," Leon growled, giving Yong Soo a small push out of the way. He slunk back dejectedly to his other two siblings and latched onto Lien, complaining about how 'nobody loved him'. The group arrived at school and split up to go to their lockers.