Secrets of Hysteria

Chapter 4

Look out for the words: spastic and blunder.

Your eyes snapped open as you frantically searched around the room, confused, dazed, and scared about what was happening. You could feel the tears burn in the back of your eyes, making the blur of the room even worse than it already was.

After blinking repeatedly, you finally cleared your vision enough to see where you were. You were in your room. Your bed was pushed against the wall as it normally was. The door was shut along with the curtains on your window.

Everything was peaceful.

You realized what had just happened. It all seemed to make sense now.

You had just been dreaming.

A sigh of relief left your lips as you slowly stood up, stretching out your sore limbs. You paused, taking a moment to think to yourself. What had you been doing last night?

You smiled and relaxed, remembering the events of last night. It was Scoops's birthday party, and all of his close friends were invited to stay to hang out after all the other guest had gone. Meaning it had been you, Becky, Violet, Bob, and surprisingly Tobey left.

It had been a spastic event, but you enjoyed yourself to the fullest, especially when Tobey had asked you help him with a tricky part of his robit building.

You hopped out of bed, glancing on the clock that sat in you wardrobe, and nearly tripped over your feet. You thankfully caught yourself before you landed and hurt yourself. You let out a relieved sigh before quickly rushing to get ready for the day.

It was like a race between you and time, with you hating your life during the entire race. Yet you managed to make it to school  right before the teacher closed the door. You were panting as you made your way to your seat with only a couple of your classmates questioning where you've been and why you looked so tired. You gave them blatant answers as you sat, glancing at your side to see your partner missing.

A frown made its way to your face, confused on why your partner, a boy who has never missed a day of school before, was absent now. You shrugged it off for now and turned a little bit further to glance behind you at the two partners. Except, there was only one there instead of two.

You quickly whirled back around as you noticed the boy began looking up, and you didn't particularly felt like being caught staring at him. After all, you were only curious if both of them were there. It wasn't just to look at Tobey. That'd be ridiculous.

You moved a hand to your face, which was now burning up in embarrassment. You scolded yourself silently, trying to get yourself to believe what you had just told yourself, but it seemed highly unlikely that you were going to convince yourself. So instead of continuing this petty banter in your mind, you gave a shake of your head to rid of the thoughts and focused on your teacher.

During the lesson, however, your mind began drifting and wandering back to your dream you had earlier. It honestly frightened you that your mind could come up with such evil things. Never in your wildest imagination would you ever dare lay a finger on your crush, even if on accident.

But the dream. It had felt so real. Like it had to be more than just a dream. You just couldn't shake this feeling now, causing your heart to seemingly stop in fear.

"Y/n!"

You jumped in  surprise with a yelp at the sound of your name, eyes darting upwards until they met with light blue ones questioningly staring back down at you. "T-Tobey! Hey! You startled me!"

He looked at you with obvious distaste in his eyes as he crossed his arms. He leaned forward slightly, causing your heart to skip a beat. "The teacher just dismissed us. Class is over. Everyone already left now."

"Wait, really?" You gasped, jolting out of your seat and glancing around, shocked to find the room completely empty except for you and Tobey. "How long have I been sitting here?"

"I'd say about thirty minutes or so. I had left earlier, but then I realized I left my Complicated Robitics For the Advanced Engineer Volume Eight. I only came back to get it, but you were still here."

You averted your eyes with a frown. "Oh, I see. Well, I suppose I must get going now then. Thank you for shaking me out of my daze. Later, Tobey," you mumbled as you stood up and made your way to the door.  You reached up and rubbed your eyes, still feeling the heaviness of sleep on them.

"Y/n?" Tobey called out to you, making you stop in your place. You debated whether or not you really wanted to stay and talk, but he decided that for you. "Are you okay? Are you upset over something?"

You peeked over at him with confusion. "No? I don't think I am. Why do you ask? Did something happen?"

He noticeably  paused. "Are you aware of what happened last night?"

"Last night?" you asked in confusion. Hadn't that been Scoops's birthday party? Were you wrong about the event?

"A villain attacked the city and almost killed Wordgirl. Whoever it was, they were going after me. In a blunder, she jumped in front of me and took the beating I should have gotten." His eyes watered as he crossed his arms across his chest. "She didn't have to, but she did."

Your stomach dropped as you moved a hand to cover your mouth. "What?"

Tobey gave a solemn nod, breath hitching as tears began trailing down his cheeks. You noticed his body slowly began to tremble, and you immediately rushed to his side, guiding him towards a chair to sit in.

You felt sick. It wasn't a dream. Last night had actually happened. But, it wasn't how you actually saw it.

You didn't attack Tobey, but Wordgirl. You attacked Becky.