The Road To Her New Life

It's Not A Dream

I jerked awake, sitting up in my bed. I looked around, squinting my eyes from the sun. My friends were sprawled out on my floor. I laughed deliriously happy. It was just a bad dream. I sighed in relief. "What's got you all smiley? You must've had a wet dream or something?" I jumped when I heard Sienna's voice.

I peered down to see them all awake except for Antonio, looking up at me weirdly. I chuckled, "No it was actually a bad dream, I'm just glad it wasn't real." I told them. They crawled into my bed, cuddling with me. I sat upright and Sienna laid her head in my lap, "What was it about?" She asked tiredly.

I start to run my fingers through her afro. "Well long story short, Mom, Dad, and Benji apparently got in a car accident and died. And all of sudden I had 6 other brothers and I had to live with them. The oldest one was bossy as hell and then one of them was mean as hell and had a lil attitude and kept trying to come for me like I wouldn't karate chop him in the throat. Anyway, I went to this new school and made some friends. Mind you, y'all are like back home and I was in a whole other state. So we got this RV and came back here and I seen y'all at my house and then I woke up," I shrugged, facing them. They all had sad looks on their faces, making me confused.

"Oh baby girl, I'm so sorry. That wasn't a dream," Chris told me softly. I rolled my eyes at them trying to prank me, "yeah yeah Chrissy." They looked at each other and I threw my covers back. "We have school chop chop!" I called going to my closet. I picked out an outfit and walked back to see them in the same places with the same looks on their face.

I put my hand on my hip and stared at Sienna intensely. I knew they were pranking me and she would be the first one to crack. She got off the bed and approached me cautiously. "Naomi," she said to me as if I were a baby. I took a step back dropping the clothes in my hand, they were pranking me, right?

I ran out of my room, heading straight to Benji's, "BENJI!" I threw his door open and his room was empty. "MOMMA, DAD!" I ran downstairs to their room to see it was empty too. I heard their footsteps following me as my eyes began to fill with tears.

"I-It wasn't a dream." I sobbed, falling to my knees. Someone wrapped their arms around me, I couldn't breathe. "Where's my phone?!" I panicked. I ran to the kitchen, then the living room, finding my phone on the coffee table. I called my mom and when she didn't pick up I called Dad. More tears fell when it went to voicemail. I called Benji last, praying that it was just a prank. I got choked up when he didn't answer. The phone fell from my hands as I patted my chest trying to catch my breath.

I sank to the floor coughing. My vision went blurry but I could feel someone's strong arms wrapped around me. They picked me up and sat me on the couch. "Breathe in and out for me. Follow me okay?" Their voice instructed calmly.

"It wa-wasn't a dr-dream." I rasped out. I felt someone rubbing my back soothingly and another person wiping my tears. "I know. I know. But you have to calm down. Take a deep breath in and hold it for me." They whispered. I inhaled deeply and held it. They counted and then I exhaled. I hiccuped and took some more deep breaths.