My New Obsession [BxB]

Chapter Twenty-Three- We'll Fly Home

 I woke up in my bedroom at my mum’s house.

 Sitting upright, I looked around as intense confusion hit me. I was back in the room I had grown up in, the room that had housed my childhood… Something was wrong. The familiarity of the place should have given me some kind of comfort, but instead I began to panic. The bewilderment mixed with dread and suddenly I was shaking, my breathing completely erratic.

 Something was very, very wrong…

 Frantically untangling myself from the bed covers, I bit down on my arm- hard- but nothing happened. There was no waking from a dream, no snap back to reality. This was it. My arm began to bleed. I ignored it.

 “Mum? Mum?” I screamed loudly, desperately, my voice cracked and strained.

 I couldn’t breathe. What the fuck was happening? My heart pounded against its cage. Why was I here?

 My bedroom door was wrenched open and Jake came running in. He put his arms around me and started to talk in a gentle voice- but how the hell was I supposed to calm down? The last thing I could remember was heading back to the hotel to party after our tour debut. What was so bad that I had ended up at home? Surely nothing that terrible could have happened- I’d be able to remember that…

 “It’s okay, James, you’re okay…” Jake whispered.

 As my breathing returned slowly back to normal he sighed and stood up, crossing over to the wardrobe and opening it. I watched him in complete disarray as he began to pick through my clothes before pulling out a formal black shirt and smart black trousers. The wardrobe doors were then closed and the outfit hung on the handle. He slowly turned back to face me.

 “Jake, just… say it. What the fuck is going on?” I asked.

 He looked away and paused. “You should get dressed-”

 “Why should I? Why am I here? Tell-”

 “Because today is M… Maisy’s funeral, James. That’s why.” His voice was void of all emotion as he spoke and I stared at him.

 He had to be kidding, right? That couldn’t be the slightest bit possible. There was no way I would be unable to remember Maisy dying. No way. No way… He was joking. I waited with baited breath for him to crack a smile, to laugh, to playfully punch me on the arm. But he didn’t. He just stood there. He just stood there and avoided my gaze and shuffled his feet.

 “That’s not-”

 “You really don’t remember a goddamn thing, do you?” he interrupted me. Was that a bitter tone to his voice? I shook my head- which pounded- and a wave of guilt consumed me so strongly I thought I might drown.

 “Just… how?”

 Jake sat down on my bed once again and took a deep breath. “It was the second to last day of the tour. Maisy and Bex came to watch us play. They got very drunk- we all were, obviously- and on their way to meet us back at the hotel Maisy got hit by a car. She was taken to hospital and… passed away from head injuries…” His voice was so monotonous as he spoke that it scared me a little.

 “Holy shit, are you fucking joking?” I whispered, burying my head in my hands. He snorted somewhat derisively.

 “Yes, James. This is all a big fucking joke. I’d completely make up an important person in our group dying. Now c’mon- get the fuck ready so we can just fucking go.”

 As he left the room hastily his voice broke. I stood up to follow him but… I just collapsed back down onto my bed. My head was such a mess… it was painful, puzzled, perplexed. No matter how much I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t the case, this was no dream- or nightmare.