She'd survived change. She'd survived heartbreak. Now she has to survive one more fight for survival.
Ava Delaney was normal once upon a time, but then she met a boy and she fell in love. Then she kept his secret and fell into his world. She became...
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My hand was reaching out to grab her but no matter how desperately I reached for her I couldn't grab her hand. Our fingertips touched and her eyes locked with mine, and then she was pulled down into an abyss of darkness.
"Ava," she screamed as the darkness engulfed her. It echoed all around me and then there was silence. She was gone.
I screamed as I shot up in my bed, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.
"It's okay, it's just a dream," Jared soothed as he pulled me toward him. My heart hammered in my chest. I closed my eyes and tried to make sense of what had just happened, trying to determine what was a nightmare and what was reality. In my nightmare Kennedy had been gone and I'd been unable to save her, and sadly that was the reality as well. I tried to take a deep breath to calm down my erratic heartbeat.
I took the comfort I needed from Jared. When I'd finally calmed down I moved away from him.
"Thanks," I said, feeling embarrassed at my lack of control of my dreams. I dragged my hand through my hair and rubbed my eyes. "I just can't seem to move past what happened."
"No one expects you to. It will get easier with time but there will still be times you will think of her. Don't let your last memories of her be of her death and pain. Rather, remember her when she was living and happy." He was right. Instead of focusing on her death I needed to shift my focus to the happier memories of her and maybe her passing would be easier to come to terms with.
"Thank you," I replied.
I got out of the bed. His makeshift bed on the floor hadn't been touched. That was when I remembered he'd climbed into my bed while I pretended I was asleep. He'd obviously guessed right that I would have nightmares about Kennedy. It explained why he'd been in my bed.
"You're welcome," he replied, still sitting on my bed. Now that was a sight I wished I could wake up to every morning. Even bed-hair looked good on him--how on earth did he pull that off?
He looked like a model who was ready for a photo shoot. I, on the other hand, looked like I'd been through a hurricane. My hair was everywhere.
We followed our morning routine. Jared climbed out my window to go home and get ready for school. I went and had a shower and got dressed. When I was finished I walked out my front door where Jared was waiting in his Jeep for me.
There was some awkwardness between us. He smiled at me when I got into the passenger side, and I gave an awkward smile back.
"I've got ahold of Emma's schedule for school so I can keep tabs on her," he explained as he started up the car.
"Okay." I wasn't going to ask how he'd managed to get that information.
"Do you remember when you first noticed the symptoms?" he asked with his eyes on the road.
I tried to think back to the first time I'd noticed that empty look in her eyes. It was difficult to pinpoint it exactly when so much had been going on.
