Monochrome beat (boyxboy)✔

Beat 1

I heard the knock again, and again. I walked out of my room and peered into mom's room. She was sleeping soundly. I noticed the vial of pills on her nightstand. She had taken the sleeping pills again.

I heard another knock. I ran downstairs.

"Who is it?" I asked after coughing.

"Jackson? Officer Peterson, responding to a 911 call", he said.

I opened slowly and was hit by cold air.

"Um, I didn't make any call", I said.

"Jackson Wyatt, right?" the man standing before me said. He looked to be in his thirties with blond hair, wearing police uniform.

I nodded.

"We got a call from a neighbor about screaming coming from this house", he said.

I frowned. "Screaming? Um...uh yeah, I had a nightmare", I said.

He looked at me suspiciously and then peered behind me. "Where's your mom?"

"Sleeping", I said.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, I checked on her before I came here. You are welcome to see for yourself. She's completely out on sleeping pills", I said.

He nodded, but instead of coming in, he said "Peterson, false alarm" into his portable radio. "Goodnight", he said to me.

I watched him walk away. When he got to the pavement, I closed the door and locked it. I leaned against the door for quite some time. I hadn't just had a nightmare; I had a nightmare about Sal, screamed loud enough for the neighbor to hear and had an asthma attack all in one setting.

I found that I couldn't sleep that night. I spent the night looking at the ceiling. Thoughts about one thing in particular assaulted me. It wasn't the first time I had a dream about Sally. The dreams were recurrent, sometimes with a change of scenery but the same blood curdling screams. There was no way to block them out and so I lived with the torture.

I thought of ditching school the next day, but decided against it. I had ditched school numerous times and had been called into the principal's office twice. I had to avoid a third strike. It was hard. I barely got a goodnight's sleep.

When I woke up the next day, mom had already gone to work. I was already late so I showered and picked up my bag. I zoned out of every class I was in. If my eyes weren't dropping, my mind was torturing me with thoughts of Sally.

"Jax, can you stay behind?" It was my geography teacher. The bell had just rung, signaling the end of class and school, unless you had extra-curricular activities. I had none.

I sat at the back of the class in most of my classes. I loathed attention and usually went about my business quietly. I was packing my books when the teacher spoke. I did it slower until every student exited the class. I looked up.

Matthew Stanley was standing at the front of the class, wiping the map of South America he had drawn earlier. We had maps in our books, but he obviously liked putting effort into his presentations. He was a good artist though and I suspected he drew on the board not for our benefit, but for his.

Matt was 28 years old, smart and good-looking. He was my favorite teacher. He loved interacting with and helping students. He went an extra mile. He was also my only "friend". After the events of the previous year I'd alienated everyone. I pushed all my friends away. I couldn't bear to have them feel sorry for me. Garrett tried to be there for me but I pushed him away too. Eventually he left for college.

"You look like a train-smash", Mr. Stanley said. In fear of sounding old, he let students call him by his first name after class. He'd let them do it all the time but the school board thought it was inappropriate.