Book 2: Finding Valentina

Normal Girl

Artura

I woke up around 3 am, unable to sleep, tossing and turning and sweating everywhere, the last thing I wanted to do was wake up Luca. Staring at the moon through the sheer curtains, there was so much going on in my head, I slowly sat up and kicking around on the floor looking for my shorts, when my foot finally slid across the cloth I grabbed them, slipping them on and walking towards the door. I could hear Luca flipping over in his sleep and settling into a comfortable position.

Going down the stairs in the middle of the night was a hassle, especially trying to not wake a house full of light sleepers, but there was one person in particular that I needed to see, becuase I needed to vent.

"Danny." I whispered shaking his shoulder.

" Im not the bride." He muttered in his sleep.

"Danny. Wake up."  I said shaking his shoulders a little harder.

He swatted my hand away from him grunting and I grabbed one of the decorative pillows from the floor and hit him on the shoulder and he jumped out of his sleep.

"What the hell!" He said.

"Danny, I need to talk to you." I said grabbing his arm.

"What? Artura? What time is it? Why are you bothering me?" He grunted.

I took no offense to this, because Danny was mean when his sleep has been disrupted, especially this early in the morning, this wasn't even the worst thing he's said to me, I've been plenty of blue eye she-devils, so I gave him time to wake up and for his brain to settle into the fact that his eyes were open at 3 am.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I need to get out of here." I replied.

"It's 3 in the morning, Artura." He said rubbing his eyes.

"Exactly, it's late enough so that no one will actually see me and I can just take a walk, clear my head, everyone has been able to leave this house since I've been here, everyone but me and I'm loosing my mind." I explained as he pulled his shirt on.

"Ok, let's go." He said.

Getting out of the house and into the cool air was like an immediate release of weight off of my shoulders and it was calming, I was finally calm. Not know where I wanted to go I just started walking, with Danny by my side and we walked in silence until Nate joined us a few blocks away from Maggie's house.

"Is anyone going to tell me why we're walking at 3 in the morning?" Nate asked.

"I don't know she just woke me up out of my sleep and said she needed to get out." Danny explained shrugging.

"Did you call her a blue eyed she devil again?" Nate asked chuckling.

"How many times do I have to tell you she scared me and I didnt mean it, you try waking up with her staring into your soul like she wanted to take it from you." Danny explained causing me to laugh hysterically.

"And I've apologized for that ." I stated. 

We all laughed as we approached the corner store , Danny and Nate ran inside to get some bottled waters and granola bars and we continued walking until we were across the street from the local park. Finding a bench on sitting on the outside of the playground reserved for parents to sit and watch there children playing, we all sat down  and opened the cold waters.

I sat my water bottle down and spoke, " I'm going back home tomorrow." I said tightening the lid on the water bottle.

The air shifted, grew stiff, the fun that was just filling the air had been replaced by silence amd somberness.