Deep

Chapter Three

Hello! Thank you for continuing to read my story!

Comments and votes are always welcome so don't be afraid to let me know what you think!

As always, be kind and enjoy!

Trouble.

Why I can't I be one of those people that can get themselves sick on command?  That would be so awesome, because then I could be back in bed and not walking to art class right now. I did not have any luck falling back asleep after that weird dream. It hasn't left my head all morning. If my mother was still alive she'd have been able to tell me what it meant. Mom was a dream reader, she had read all sorts of books about symbolism and stuff. She always had good insight and I used to come to her with these things. I have to figure it out for myself now.

Less people are staring at me. Or I'm just not as sensitive about it today. I can never really tell. Still wearing mostly black.  Black high-wasted shorts, black over the knee stockings, black band T-shirt, and my boots. Again I'm covering up that I have a feeling today is going to go south by looking fantastic.  My makeup was on point and my faltering confidence was not even noticeable. Making myself look like someone who has their shit together in the ways of fashion was one of my many masks. And boy was I good at it.

When I walked into the classroom my eyes immediately fell on Viktor. His head was resting on his palm, his eyes closed. It seemed like he was sleeping. He didn't budge as I sat down, and I took the chance to look at his features again. As I looked at him a feeling of dread crept over me when I realized how still he was. It didn't even look like he was breathing. I felt my stomach drop like a stone as unease and fear took hold. Out of impulse I reached out and touched his arm, which made Viktor jump so suddenly that I almost fell out of my chair.  We both made noises that one might question were human.

"What the hell!?" I said almost breathless, clutching my heart as his sudden movement after being deathly still almost caused me to have a anxiety attack.

"I-I'm sorry," He said, it seemed like he was having trouble catching his breath too, "You surprised me! Why did you wake me up? Class hasn't even started yet!"

I flinched a little as he raised his voice, and I was vaguely aware that we were attracting attention from the other students. He didn't have to yell.

"You..." I thought for a moment on my choice of words, "You didn't look like you were breathing...Sorry." I looked away from him in embarrassment. After a second of silence I looked back up at Viktor and was puzzled by his expression. He looked taken aback, shocked, and confused all at the same time. It looked like he was trying to digest what I had just said as if I just told him he had cancer. Not quite the response I was expecting. Viktor shook his head and sighed, looking back at me with a calmer look on his face.

"Sorry if I scared you," he paused, a small wavering smile on his lips, "I uh...sometimes breathe very lightly when I sleep. It freaks out my parents too." He spoke quickly, and it seemed like he was lying. Or maybe he was just nervous. I smiled and nodded accepting his reasoning, and he seemed relieved that I did. I was about to say something else but Mr. Hearting walked in at that moment. He was late again.

Mr. Hearting took roll and instructed us on our first week long project. The practice of drawing our partner's faces was to set us up for self portraits. After Mr. Hearting let us go to work I got up to get the paper and mirror to draw my own face. Viktor also grabbed his supplies and we sat at our table almost at the same time. There was an awkward silence between us that I could very well be imagining and it caused me to clench my jaw. I wanted to talk to him more but now I was suddenly very shy about it. To my surprise it was Viktor that broke the silence first.