Burning Confessions

32 - Iris

Dreams were amazing things. They threw you into a whole new world where anything could happen, where you couldn't get hurt and where everyone you loved were still alive and everything was...happy. Nightmares were considered dreams, bad dreams based on something you feared or something you'd seen or experienced- they weren't uncommon for me. I relied on dreams to help me escape the world I lived in when music wasn't an option, to help me be gone from reality while my eyes were watching a movie my mind choreographed.

Dreams were also very confusing.

Some were so real, it made you think what happened in them actually happened: the tingles of someone's skin or breath on yours still present, the feel of their touch a faint imprint on your skin. The mental questions of: did it happen? Was it real? -these remained mental questions and they tortured you with the unknown. 

My unknown was last night because my mind played a video in my head, showing Nathan and I lying side by side on my bed and my fingers trailing over the skin on his back. Reasoning behind this dream of mine was a mystery to me because it was very unlike Nathan and dream-Nathan was very gentle and caring. Real Nathan wasn't gentle.

He did warm me up though.

Baffled at the scenarios playing continuously within my head, I decided not to mention to anyone- including Nathan because the last thing I wanted was for me to look insane. If it wasn't a dream, then Nathan might be annoyed I'd told everyone that he even had a caring side. If it was a dream, then it would make me look like a dreamed about Nathan and I was crazy.

Not a good idea to mention it.

That was two days ago, and I still hadn't made my mind up on which one it was: dream or memory.

"Hey, Iris! Stop being a vampire and come outside," Cal yelled as he stumbled inside carrying a beer bottle in his hand. It was Tuesday evening and the others had come back from school with the intent of soaking up the rare sunshine we were graced with. Music was blaring from the speaker, the cable stretching from the socket and snaking around the edges of the room, so the speaker could sit on the ground by the doors. Cal was shirtless, like all the boys were, wearing only three-quarter length jean shorts with trainers, truly enjoying the last of the summer weather we'd get for a while.

"I need to make dinner," I protested with a laugh but let my brother take my hand and pull me from the kitchen and out into the back garden. He didn't reply to me but rather rolled his eyes and dumped me on the picnic bench next to Justin, abandoning the tray of fries I'd just poured.

"I swear, Mr Terry looked like he was about to faint when you told him your dad drank his enemies' blood," Matt was saying as I joined them, and the conversation made my eyebrows lift.

"Dad told us that while we were growing up!" Justin argued when Nathan only lifted his eyebrows and shoulders nonchalantly at Matt's claim.

"It was priceless," Dan acknowledged with a cackle.

"It was even better in Chemistry when I told him I knew how to make an atomic bomb using the chemicals he gave us," Nathan pointed out flatly and the boys laughed lightly at him while the boy himself seemed expressionless.

"The poor man probably thought you were trying to kill him," I pointed out and Nathan's eyes met mine from the other end of the table, but my attention was taken when Brooke laughed loudly from the other end of the garden.

"What in God's name are you doing?" Harry questioned when they all turned to see Shane laughing as Brooke sat on his shoulders by the tree.

"This maniac was trying to get an apple," Shane answered, and Brooke huffed with a smile.