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Bryce laid in bed his mind stirring as he tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable. He had been lying there, trying his best to relax but a million thoughts were raising through his mind that prevented him from finding any sort of comfort. For the past few days, Bryce had been having horrendous nightmares, and it seemed to occur any and every time he fell asleep, even it was only for a second. The thought of having to experience the terrors of what happened when he's asleep was enough motivation in his mind to stay up for days straight. It was already nearing four in the morning as he laid still, suddenly feeling to warm under the layers of blankets stacked upon his bed.
"Fuck," he mumbled out lowly, Bryce desperately wanted to fall asleep, he'd been up for around 36 hours at this point, and the fact that he was lying in bed clearly wasn't helping the situation. With that being said, he quickly pushed the heavy blankets off of his body, shooting up out of bed.
The worst part wasn't the nightmares themselves, it was the fact that Bryce could never seem to remember what they were about, and he had no idea why he was having these gut-wrenching, blood-curdling, horrific nightmares. He just remembers feeling so terrifyingly afraid, so aware that something bad was happening, yet there was nothing he could do.
It didn't help that Bryce had built quite the reputation for himself, he was supposed to be the strong, loud, outgoing, never-afraid guy who never feared anything. He was supposed to be the one comforting others when they faced a similar scenario, and he never thought in a million years that he would spill what has been going on to one of the other boys.
He walked towards the kitchen, looking half-dead as he sulked to the coffee maker, dropping in a Keurig cup and setting a mug beneath it, flipping the machine on. Bryce was so desperate to stay awake, he didn't want to go through the pain of the nightmares. Waking up in a sweat, the awful panic attack that would ensue after it, and the countless hours of laying restlessly awake afterward made him shiver. At least this way he could choose when he would stay up.
Bryce hadn't been posting to his TikTok for the past two or three days due to the fact that he was trying to stay awake, and if he were to post people would quickly point out the prominent bags under his eyes, the way his movements were slow and that his body was shaking.
He grabbed the coffee cup after it had finished filling up, walking over to the counter and setting it down as he made his way to the fridge that was mostly empty besides a few stray items sitting on the shelf. He grabbed the bottle and dumped a generous amount into the mug, sighing as he realized this would be his 7th cup since he last fell asleep.
Bryce walked back over, about to put it back in the fridge but dropped it as he heard a voice through the darkness of the kitchen, scaring the life out of the sleep-deprived boy who was already on edge due to the lack of rest and nightmares.
"What are you doing up?" Bryce heard a voice ask through the lightless kitchen, panic overtaking him as he tried to picture who was standing next to him. What if this was another nightmare? And some sort of disfigured monster would step out of the shadows. His eyes blinked repeatedly as the lights flicked on as he tried to readjust to the bright fluorescent lights that seemed brighter than the sun. He jumped as he saw Tayler standing in front of him, glancing in a judgmental way at the cup of coffee sitting on the counter, seeing the other similar mugs lying in the sink.
"N-nothing!" He said quickly, moving to grab the cup and clutch it between his shaky hands, afraid that if given the opportunity, Tayler would take it away from him, dumping it down the sink.
"Holy shit Bryce, when was the last time you slept!?" Tayler exclaimed, gazing at the purple bags beneath his eyes, his flushed and swollen cheeks, his watery eyes, he just looked like shit. He snatched the mug from his hand, pulling it from his grasp, not wanting him to consume any more caffeine.
"That's not important," he mumbled out, trying his best to leave the situation. Bryce tried to quietly walk out of the kitchen, not wanting to wake up the rest of the house, knowing that Griffin would probably give him hell for waking up Anthony, who had a hard time falling asleep as it is. In that way, he sort of related to Anthony, neither of them slept much.
But before Bryce could walk away, Tayler had set the cup down and grabbed Bryce by his arm, preventing him from scurrying back to his room. Tayler was downright concerned about Bryce, he looks like shit, he was getting a cup of coffee at 4 in the morning. He had the tired boy wrapped up in his arms, seeing that would be the best way to keep him from leaving.
"You need to sleep," the older boy said softly, wanting to be quiet to help induce a feeling of sleep. Bryce swallowed hard at that statement, his mind instantly traveling back to the idea of the horrible nightmares he would face. And the idea of talking about what was going on with Tayler made him want to hurl.
"N-" he began, wanting to quickly get out of the situation as fast as possible and deny any sort of want or need of rest.
"I'm not taking no as an answer," he said firmly, picking up the tired boy and throwing him over his shoulder and rushing off to his own room before he could make any sort of noise of rebellion. He locked his door behind him, plopping the boy who had given up fighting halfway down the hallway on the bed.
"Sleep," Tayler practically begged, pulling the blankets back and quickly crawling under, dragging Bryce so he was beneath them too.
"I'm not sleeping! I'm too scared to..." he mumbled out the last part which seemed surprisingly weak and small compared to his first sentence that he practically yelled. Tayler felt his heart sink as he heard, he didn't understand why Bryce was scared, but the idea of him neglecting a basic human need because he was afraid practically broke him.
"Why are you afraid?" Tayler asked softly, looking at the boy who laid next to him in bed, tears pricking Bryce's eyes as he was doing something he never thought he would do.
"You're going to laugh at me," Bryce said softly, avoiding Tayler's gaze as he bit his lip. He was so desperately tired, and he wanted to fall asleep, but he knew he couldn't.
"I would never laugh," Tayler replied, wrapping his arms back around Bryce.
"I have these, these nightmares," he said in such a small tone that he was barely heard.
"Would it make you feel better if I stayed up while you slept? That way I could wake you up if you start having a nightmare?" Tayler asked calmly, rubbing his palm up and down Bryce's arm, wanting to soothe him into a state of peace and comfort.
"I- I guess?" Bryce replied, but it came out as more of a question than a reply.
"Alright, just relax. I'm here, it's ok," Tayler promised as he pulled Bryce to his chest, whispering soothing words in his ear as Bryce slowly drifted off. He fell asleep within minutes, finally letting his guard down and relaxing into the older boy.
___ Hi! So I'm going to be updating this book a bit less frequently, instead of every other day it's going to be every 3-4 days.
