Written

Chapter 6

"Simon....Simon....Simon?" Peyton whispered.

I woke up to her plopping down on my back. My back hurt and I had a mind splitting migraine but I was back in the study. The walls were normal and everything was the way it was supposed to be. I was back at home. There were no kings or queens and thankfully no fairy tale characters.

"Simon!" Peyton yelled.

"What?" I said still trying to adjust to the morning. 

"Did you hear anything I just said?" she said rolling off of me onto her hands and knees.

"No." I said  trying to wipe last night's dream out of my eyes. I looked at her and squinted.

"Why are you dressed like that?"

I looked down at my clothes and saw that I was still wearing that uncomfortable outfit Nico gave me. Oh no.... Nico. I looked at the book, which was still open and I quickly shut it.  I freaked out as I thrashed about on the floor .Did last night really happen?

"Whoa there buddy. Is everything alright?" She asked as she jumped back avoiding my flailing.

I rushed to my bedroom and started to unbutton my shirt but then I realized that Peyton was still here. I reached into my dresser and grabbed the first pair of jeans I could find and then I ran to the bathroom and locked the door. I locked door because I knew Peyton would try to probe me with questions. I looked at myself in the mirror and I could see streaks of red ran down my face face from when my eyes bled.  I turned on the shower and I got in trying to wash away last night off of my body and out of my head.

I didn't realize how sore my body was until I got out of the shower. I went  to my room and just sat on my bed with my head in my hands. Questions raced through my head. How could this be possible? How could I explain this to Peyton? Or anyone for that matter? This was too much for one person to handle but on the other who would believe me?

I walked into the kitchen with a shirt in my hand. I put it on the counter and looked in the refrigerator for something to eat. I turned my stove on so I could heat some water for coffee because I was exhausted.

"Time has sure treated you well." Peyton admitted. The sound of her voice made me jump out of my skin. All that thinking about what happened last night made me forget she was here. I reached for my shirt but ended up hitting my head on the refrigerator door before I reached out to grab the shirt.  She grabbed it before I was able to.  Put it on the counter and then with her bowl of cereal still in her hands she hopped up on top of the counter and sat on it.

"What are you doing Peyton? Give me the shirt." I said holding my hand out with one hand and rubbing my head with the other. 

"No way Im enjoying this. I didn't know you were such a hunk. I remember when you were the skinniest and the shortest kid in our class. Now look at you, you're ripped. Why didn't you tell me you were hot?" She said while eating her cereal.

Now normally I would have been shy and embarrassed if someone would have said that to me but I was too hungry to do any of that so instead I just went right back to the refrigerator.

"What was I supposed to say 'Hey Peyton I'm hot.' "

"I dunno something." She drank what was left in her bowl. "For real dude you look really good. You been going to the gym?"

"Yeah something like that. After my mom died I started working out....it was a self confidence thing you know what I mean?" I said getting ready to cook to scramble some eggs.

"Yeah well that's cool." She putting the bowl  in the sink. "Well I'm going to go change into my clothes so I can get out of here." She said before she ran upstairs to my room. I was relieved she didn't ask about my outfit this morning. 

My grandmother wasn't in there living room so I guess she had gotten up early to run a few errands. I sat in front of the TV when Peyton came downstairs.She was wearing one of my shirts but fortunately it was too small for me. I had been meaning to throw it out but I never got around to it. 

" I hope you don't mind me taking this shirt from you. I thought it looked too small for you. So Im going to keep it because its really comfortable."

She looked really good it. To be honest she would look good in anything."No, go ahead take it. I was going to throw it in the trash."

"Alright thanks for letting me crash here for the night. I will call you later because we need to catch up." Then she walked out the door leaving me alone in the house.

Luckily today was Saturday so I didn't have anything important to do unfortunately that only gave me one thing to do....find out what happened to me last night. I need to find out if it was real or if it was just a hallucination. I really wish it was the latter. 

It was 11:30 and my grandmother had come back from running her errands. She told me that she was going to take a nap because she was tired and her neck hurt which left me alone with my thoughts.

I watched some TV but I couldn't stop thinking about last night. Every so often my mind would unwilling go back to that dream or hallucination or whatever it was. I decided that it couldn't be put off anymore. 

I went upstairs and slowly and cautiously made my way back into the study. The book was still on the ground where I shut it and left it. I picked up the book and opened it. Just like before the ceiling opened up and the walls melted. I can't believe I was doing this. I was going back in the book.

Dear Reader,

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