✓ | HURT ❨ WOLFHARD! ❩

( iii. ) traumatizing nightmares

That night was fun for the group. The guys were over for a few hours, eventually having to leave when Aria's mom showed up. She came to the conclusion that Jack is insane, Wyatt is an overprotective dad, and Finn is very cute.

Natalie came into her room once or twice, obviously only to look at Wyatt. He smiled at her each time. It wasn't hard to tell they both thought the other was attractive.

Aria's insomnia didn't bother her that night. Sure, she couldn't sleep, but she had things to think about.

It was around midnight when the screaming started.

Knowing her parents wouldn't help, Aria jumped up and ran towards her sister's room. Natalie had nightmares. They were bad — really bad. At least three times a week she woke up screaming, shaking, and crying.

Her mother and father have both somehow learned how to sleep through it, and Aria wondered how her sister and her both developed these sleeping problems. Aria has insomnia, but when she does get any sleep, she experiences these severe nightmares as well. Their parents have always slept like babies, never having any issues whatsoever.

Aria ran her hands through her sister's hair, soothing Natalie awake. She slowly calms down, hugging Aria as she frowns. Lights started turning on in Wyatt's house, worrying Aria. She didn't want to make everybody hate them for waking them up so early.

"Come lay with me." She said quietly, getting off of  Natalie's bed and holding her hand out.

They had nights like these often. Staying up and talking until sunrise, even if all they talked about was stupid. It's why the two were so close, neither of them are able to sleep well.

When Aria walked back in her bedroom, Natalie following me, there were now four silhouettes inside.

"What the hell?" She asked, prepared to hit anyone in her way.

"Aria? What's wrong? I heard screaming." Jack exclaims, talking faster than ever — which is saying something.

"Nothing, it's-I'm fine." She shook my head, turning the light on. "What are you doing here? And who's that?" She motioned towards the fourth boy in her bedroom, the one looking most awkward.

"That's Jaeden, and we were worried. There was screaming, it sounded like one of you was being murdered. We wanted to help." Wyatt explains, looking sympathetically at the two blondes.

"Well, we're fine, thank you." She muttered, expecting the boys to leave.

As they continue to stand around her room, Natalie speaks up. "You can go, y'know."

"Are you sure you guys are alright?" Finn stares at them, specifically at Aria.

"We're fine. Goodnight." Aria half-smiled at him, watching as he frowns and leaves. The other boys follow behind him, each waving and saying goodbye politely.

"That was embarrassing, look at what I'm wearing!" Natalie whines, looking down at her over-sized sweater and lack of pants.

"You just had traumatizing nightmares, and you're worrying about your outfit?" Aria lightheartedly laughed, shaking her head in disbelief.

"There were boys in here! Boys!" She exclaims, waving her arms around in exaggeration.

"No, I thought they were geese." Aria laughed.

"Do you not even care about what you're wearing?" Natalie asks the other blonde, pointing at the large Star Wars t-shirt and spandex that Aria was  sporting.

"No, I don't. This is Drew's shirt, and I don't care what people think about me wearing it." Aria laid down on her bed, leaving room for her sister.

Natalie laid down next to her, "I miss him."

"Me too." Aria sighed, turning on her side to look at her younger sister. After a few minutes of silence, Natalie started blabbing on about tv shows.

"Lucas Jade Zumann looks so good in season two of Anne With an E." She states, and Aria nodded, her eyes drooping slightly.

•••

It wasn't surprising when Jack annoyed Aria all day, somehow thinking they were best friends now.

"Finn really liked your shirt last night." He blurts, his chocolate eyes boring into the girl's blue orbs.

"Wh-what?" She asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, he likes old retro stuff like that." Jack nods, twirling his pencil.

"Oh." She replied, staring into blankness for a few minutes. "It was my best friend's."

"Did she give it to you?" Jack asks me, turning away from his work.

"No, I received it after he died." Aria answered, staring at a blank space in front of her.

"Oh, um, I'm so sorry." Jack tells her sincerely.

"Thanks, I guess." She picked up her pencil and wrote her name on the front paper.

Jack and Aria sit in silence for the rest of the period, everyone else in the class buzzing with excitement for lunch.

They walked out of class together. He asked her who she sat with at lunch, and when she replied with an obvious lie, he invited her to sit with him and his friends. He led the girl to "their table" and she followed like a lost puppy.

He told her to sit in the empty seat in between him and Wyatt, and so she did. That lunch period consisted of everyone engaging in their own conversations while she stayed silent the whole time, and so did Finn for some reason. She immediately jumped up at the sound of a bell, rushing to get away from that awkward mess.

Remind me never to sit with those boys again.

•••

"School's stupid. Can I drop out?" Natalie joked, leaning against the frame of Aria's bedroom door.

"Nope, and school isn't stupid. It's helpful." Her sister replied, setting her phone on the small table next to her bed.

"Helpful? Ha!" Natalie exclaims.

"It teaches us stuff." Aria rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, stuff we don't even need to know." Natalie sighs, "Why do I need to know George Washington's birthday?"

"I don't know, because it's interesting? Ask your damn teacher." Aria shook her head.

"Fine." Natalie drops herself onto Aria's bed, right on top of her feet.

"Can you get out of my room for once? You're always in here." Aria sighed, pulling her legs out from underneath her sister.

"Are you okay? You seem more upset than usual." Natalie asks Aria and she scoffs.

"More upset than usual? What the hell?"

"Sorry, I just — never mind. I'll leave you alone." Natalie frowns, standing up and slumping out of her room.

Aria sighed, running her hands through her hair. She didn't mean to blow up on Natalie like that, it just happened. She knew she fit the stereotype of getting grumpy when she was tired.

Before Aria knew what she was doing, she stood up and slipped on some converse, running down the stairs.

"Aria? Sweetie, where are you going?" Natalie's mom asks her, placing a hand on her shoulder as Aria opened the front door.

"I need some air." She muttered.