My Revenge Obsession

Chapter Three- To The End

 "James, James- wake up!"

 "No... Matty... you wake up..."

 "James, for fuck's sake!"

 "Matty... Matty!"

 A slap across the face brought me quickly back to the real world. My clothes stuck to me with a cold sweat and my lungs felt void of all oxygen as Jake aided me in sitting upright. I buried my head in my hands as tears began to slowly escape from my eyes, and warm arms wrapped round my shoulders in comfort.

 Jake sighed as he held me and I felt terrible for waking him up with my screaming... How much longer could these dreams continue? Eight months later I was still being haunted. Eight months of surviving on just a few hours sleep on nights that weren't completely spent staring at the ceiling. It was wearing me down. My therapist had been unable to stop the terrors and was still reluctant to prescribe me any medication given my 'addictive tendencies'.

 "Still having the dreams, then?"

 "No, actually, I just felt like screaming and nearly having a heart attack for no reason..." I snapped. Jake laughed at my short temper and the cheerfulness of the sound helped to calm me down a little; I wasn't really angry at him. I just infuriated myself by being so susceptible to trauma.

 He helped me out of bed and together we went downstairs to the kitchen where I sat at the table and he made us coffee. As the piping hot mug of goodness was placed in front of me I inhaled the intoxicating aroma and smiled. Pulling the sleeves down on my shirt so that they covered my fingers, I picked up the cup with both hands and avoided burning myself while taking the first sip...

 "Oh, fuck me..."

 "I'm good, thanks." Jake grinned. "Nice coffee?"

 I nodded, my eyes shut as I took another large gulp. Movement could be heard overhead followed by footsteps on the stairs, and then mum entered the kitchen. Her hair stuck out in odd places and her eyes were bleary, but she still smiled as she bid us good morning. Feeling guilty, I apologised for waking her up, though she denied my yelling being the cause of this. She was a terrible liar but I was grateful anyway.

 Mum poured herself some coffee and joined us at the table. Jake recounted his dream in which our band was playing to a full arena, and I smiled to myself when his eyes lit up as he spoke. It all meant so much to him. Following that story mum told us about her dream which involved me buying her a luxury villa in a warm country. It had always been my plan to give her everything I could afford to once I started earning, especially considering all she had done for me over the years. It's never easy to raise a kid on your own, but it's even harder after losing someone you loved so much. She deserved to be rewarded a thousand times over. I would make sure of that.

 "So, what d'you want to do today?" mum asked me eventually.

 I shrugged and looked to Jake who also shrugged. The two of them started bouncing a few ideas between them while I listened and drank my steaming cup of heaven. Heaven...

 "I did actually sort of have something in mind," mum said almost sheepishly. "though it'll only take an hour or so and we don't have to do it if you don't want to."

 "What is it?"

 "Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go visit your dad." she suggested. "Only we haven't been to the cemetery altogether in a while and I thought you might like to go now you're home."

 "Sure. Sounds good." I replied with a smile.

 Mum left the room and went to get ready. As we waited for the bathroom to be free, I laughed and watched Jake as he began to eat everything he could get his hands on for breakfast. My skinniness came down to the fact that food have never really interested me that much, it was just something I needed every so often to keep myself going. Jake, however, seemed to be able to always eat anything and just never put on weight- the lucky metabolism of a teenage boy.