Luke's point of view:
I went into bed last night but refused to fall asleep until I heard quiet snores leaving McKenzie's mouth. She didn't fall asleep until just before three in the morning so I was going to be tired when I woke up and school was going to be absolute hell for me. However, when I did wake up, I was not actually woken by my alarm like I should have been. I was woken by McKenzie so I leapt out of my bed and walked over to her bed wrapping my arm around her shoulder trying to wake her. Her body was convulsing in her sleep as she cried out over and over again. It was breaking my heart. "Kenzie." I said. "McKenzie wake up. It's just a dream." She must have heard me because she sat bolt upright and gripped my arm tightly, her fingers digging into the skin. "Luke." She whispered out as she was trying to adjust back to reality.
I sat with her rubbing circles into her bare arms and whispering comforting words into her ear, kissing her forehead once or twice as well, while she calmed herself down. Her grip on me eventually slackened and her breathing had regulated itself again so I went to get up to go back to my own bed but she wan't having any of it. She gripped my arm tighter again, pulling me closer towards her until I pretty much fell onto the bed and ended up hovering above her body. "Don't leave. Please don't leave." She begged and my heart ripped itself into a million pieces. I rolled of the top of her and lifted the blanket, climbing into the bed next to her and wrapping my arm around her holding her close. She rested her head on my chest and I closed my eyes feeling better knowing she was safe in my arms.
McKenzie's point of view:
My feet pounded on the forest floor as I ran as fast as I could, my heart hammering against my chest and the blood pumping around my body feeling like acid. I pressed my back up against a near by tree trying to get my bearings. I should have never left the campfire. I should have stayed with Josh and the others where I was safe but stupid me wanted to get some more marshmallows out of the car. I don't even like marshmallows! "Josh!" I screamed. "Josh! Help!" I recognized the boy that had been chasing me. He had been sat opposite me at the campfire and was in a few of my classes at school. I knew him for other reasons as well, reasons I don't even want to go into, reasons I should not let cross my mind otherwise I'm going to be in a worse place than I am now. He would have a nice bruise around his eye tomorrow where I'd hit him. He deserved it, he deserved worse for what he tried to do to me. I didn't know where he was or where I was for that matter. He could still be chasing me and there's fuck all I can do about it because I can't find the others. "Josh!"
"Kenzie." I heard somebody saying my name but it wasn't coming from a particular place. It was coming from everywhere at once. "McKenzie wake up. It's just a dream." The voice I could hear wasn't Josh's like it should be. That was Luke's voice. This isn't real. It's just a memory, a bad dream I'm having. I'm going to wake up and be safe in my own bed. My eyes shot open and I sat up gripping the first thing that I could. "Hey don't worry it's just a dream." Luke said soothingly rubbing my bare shoulder trying to calm me down. "You're safe." I calmed myself down and he went to stand up to go back to bed but I pulled him back towards me. I pulled him a little too harsh and he ended up hovering above me, our bodies practically moulded together and his warm breath on my cheek. "Don't leave. Please don't leave." My voice sounded weak and pathetic as I begged for him to stay. Right now that is the least of my problems.
He climbed under the blanket with me pulling me impossibly close to his body. I took a quick glance at the clock on the wall which read quarter to four before I snuggled into Luke's chest trying to block out the memories that were flooding my brain. After a while soft mumbles were leaving his lips as I listened to the rhythmic pace of his breathing. I slid out of bed making sure not to wake him as I pulled on some sweats and my t-shirt from Josh's party the other night. I decided to go for a drive to calm my nerves so I grabbed my cars keys and left my dorm room.
I ran down the stairs as quick as I could and made it to the bottom before I remembered I didn't have my glasses. I cant legally drive without them so I decided to go for a walk instead. I mean it wouldn't have been the first time I drove without them but the fresh air will do me some good. I kept looking around myself cautiously, making sure I was always alone. As I turned to look around I tripped over a log and went tumbling down a hill. My arms instinctively came up to protect my head as I rolled down the hill while the twigs and broken tree branches scraped at my exposed skin. Damn autumn time. Halfway down the hill my shirt came up exposing my lower torso and back before I finally reached the bottom and protectively curled up into a ball. I just lay there for a minute trying to regulate my breathing. My phone alarm going off in my pocket told me it was time to get up. I didn't think I had been away for three hours already but time does seem to slip away from me quite easily so I started making my way back to get ready for the day ahead.
I walked through the door only to be pulled into Luke's arm. "McKenzie please tell me you didn't crash. Please tell me you weren't stupid enough to drive without your glasses." He begged referring to the multiple bruises and scratches that covered my body. The were small specks of blood spotted all over my skin where the twigs and branches had broken my skin.
"I was not stupid enough to drive without my glasses. Besides the only way I would get marks like this off a car crash would be if I hadn't been wearing a seat belt and went through the windscreen which I am most definitely not stupid enough to do." I reassured and he sighed slightly in relief.
"What happened?"
"I fell down a hill. My arms were exposed so whatever I rolled over scratched against my skin. Turns out there's a lot of sharp bastard branches around. And bloody broken glass."
"Are you okay? Does it hurt?" He lifted each arm out in front of me scanning his eyes over them both.
"I'm fine it's just my arms." I lied. He didn't need to know about my back and stomach anyways. "I need to go and shower." I slipped out of his grip and headed to the bathroom. I examined all of the small cuts on my body before jumping into the shower. As I came out Luke was sat on his bed. I pulled on my underwear before dropping my towel so I could get my clothes on. "You lied." He said walking up behind me and slowly trailing his hand over my back setting my skin on fire and making my mind go blank. I couldn't focus on anything but the lingering feeling of his touch.
"What?" I stuttered out struggling to concentrate on anything but his warm hands on my bare back.
"You said it was just your arms. Why did you lie?" He asked sounding hurt.
"Do you want breakfast, I'm making eggs.?" I asked walking out of the room not wanting to have him worry about me some more. The truth was that I don't know why I lied to him, it was something I had done since I was little because I would rather soldier on in silence than let people know I was hurting. I put the pan on and put the eggs in as I went to grab some plates. I heard a loud crash behind me spinning round and slipping on the floor sending me and the plates crashing into the floor. "Fuck." I mumbled as Luke and Chelsea came running in to see what had happened. She didn't really care so I don't even know why she was in here. She took me completely off guard when she bent down to help me pick the broken pieces up. "Clumsy bitch." She said making me look up to her. I stood up putting the broken pieces of plate on the bench as I clenched my fists not really want to split my hand open as well as everything else. "What?" She said standing up to face me with a completely emotionless face.
"Why the fuck are you in here? You couldn't care so just leave." Luke stood to the side awkwardly shifting his gaze between both of us.
"I'm in here because Josh has told me to try and be civil with you so I thought I'd say sorry." Josh may have told her to do something but it wasn't to be civil. He had told her to apologize to me.
"Do you honestly think I could forgive you after what you did? You used my dead brother against me just because I put you on your ass when we were younger and you never got over it. You used him to hurt me because you didn't have the strength to fight me. That I'm not bothered about though. I couldn't care less what you think but what is bothering me is that Josh put you up to this. You don't want to be here so stop treating me like I'm stupid and fucking leave." I yelled the last sentence at her losing all of the self control I had retained.
"Wow calm down. Your right I didn't want to apologize, I don't like you and I never will. I do however need to tell Luke that I'm leaving and when I handed my key in this morning they told me that the others had flew over early so they should be here sometime today." Luke nodded at her signalling that he had heard and she turned her attention back to me. "I'll be gone by the time you get in from classes."
"Let me hold the door for you." I fake smiled at her. I opened the door waiting for her to leave and as soon as she was out of the door I slammed it shut behind her. I think I may have even managed to hit her with it which was obviously a bonus for me.
"Thank fuck she's gone." Luke laughed.
"Oh my god. You just swore my Hemmings I guess I have a new sailor in training."
"Aye aye captain." He saluted me and I saluted back before we erupted into a fit of giggles. Finally Luke left to go to his classes and I left not long after. I walked into engineering to take my normal seat. Mr Mouthy, who's name I had learned was Lewis, sat next to me making sure I heard his conversation.
"Oh fuck man it was the best sex I ever had. She was practically begging for it. She had such a nice ass as well. See that's all girls are really good at." He kept looking at me because he knew it was pissing me off. I hated it when boys talked about us like we were just some toy to them.
"You know you really are a sick bastard. Why any girl would want to fuck you is beyond me. The way you talk about girls is so disrespectful I'm surprised you can get them to talk to you never mind into bed with you. Egotistical asshole." I ranted before going back to doodling in my notebook.
"Aye aye captain." He said causing his friends to all laugh. The blood in my veins went ice cold as I glared at him, trying my best to keep my cool before I flipped him out of his seat. "Ah yes see I ran into your friend Chelsea in my English literature class and was telling her about you. She gave me a little bit of advice on how to annoy you and the look on your face is priceless babe." I was about to snap back some clever remark when the teacher started talking.
"Today we will be working in groups to dismantle a car engine and then reassembling it. It will be a race and you will be working in the rows that you are sat in." Fucking perfect. We moved to the other room and pulled on our protective overalls before getting to work. To say I was running out of patience was an understatement. I was ready to fucking kill someone. I got changed and stormed to PE. I was completely out of energy and couldn't be bothered with PE but I was a fighter and wouldn't give up no matter what.
I walked in and took a seat next to Luke on the bench. He was sat talking to a boy with bright red hair and another one with curly hair. The both smiled at me and I managed to smile back before resting my head on the wall and closing my eyes. "Right class." Mr Matthews began but I refused to open my eyes. My energy was dissipating fast and I felt like I could fall asleep at any moment. The only problem was when I'm tired my mood can be rather unpredictable and I could be happy and giggling one minute but then the slightest of things can piss me off. "Now that we have a full class as the last of our students have finally arrived we will have a repeat of last Mondays lesson however this time I'm choosing partners." He listed off peoples names and everyone stood up to get ready. Luke was paired with Irwin whoever that was. I was guessing it was one of the boys who he had been talking to but I only knew there first names and Mr Matthews refers to every one by their last name. "And finally we have Clifford and Murray."
I stood up and walked over with the red haired boy to grab a mat. We placed the mat down next to Luke and went to grab a stop watch. I struggled on through my exercises, my weak body barely able to support itself. Mr Matthews came over and bent down so he was level with me as I sat taking a break. "What's up?" He asked concerned.
"Just tired." I mumbled.
"Are you sure you want to continue?" He asked looking me in the eyes. "Are you sure you can continue?"
"I'm going to keep going until I physically cant continue."
"Okay. Keep an eye on her Clifford." He said walking away and I lay on the mat ready to do my sit-ups.
"Well I know if I ever don't want to work I'll just pair up with you." Michael said as he moved to hold my feet.
"Michael mate you want to watch what your saying." Luke tried to warn him.
"I think you'll find I'm tired. Any other time I could be doing double what you're doing." I snapped. I got very defensive when people challenged my physical fitness, it's one of the only things I'm truly good at and nobody is going to take that away from me.
"Yeah tired. That's not a very original excuse." He smirked.
"Michael I suggest you shut up now. Once you've sat up with her most of the night as she screams out in her sleep and gets all of forty five minutes sleep that's when you can say it's an excuse but until then I suggest you shut up before you piss her off." Luke said looking over at me trying to tell me to calm down using his eyes. I struggled on through my sit ups doing less than half of what I usually can but struggling twice as much. Halfway through my top rode up exposing all of the cuts and scrapes of this morning. I yanked it back down once I saw my partner staring at it in shock. He probably thought it was self harm scars or something because I can already tell he jumps to conclusions.
Michael finished the next set of exercises and then it was my turn again. I didn't think I could do it. I didn't have enough physical strength left in my body but I was damned if I thought I was giving up. I began doing my plank as best as I could while Michael started the timer. He placed one hand on my stomach and one on my back adjusting my position slightly. Once his hands left my body and he was no longer supporting me, my arms started shaking and gave out underneath me. I hit the mat with a very load and very audible thud that echoed around the sports hall and didn't have the energy to pull myself back up. I closed my eyes and just lay on the mat praying the lesson was nearly over.
I felt my body dragged up off the mat as I was sat on the bench. I reluctantly opened my eyes to see Luke, his partner, my partner and Mr Matthews staring at me. " Luke take her back to her dorm and make sure she gets there safely."
"Sir I don't want to." I protested.
"McKenzie you said you would continue until you physically couldn't anymore. Well guess what. You physically can't continue. Go home." He ordered sternly.
"Can I not just sit and observe?"
"You look like you're about to pass out. That was an order not a request." I wasn't going to pass out. I was just a little bit tired and used up all of my energy too quickly. I've done a hell of a lot worse than this on a lot less sleep.
"See you later." I mumbled as Luke led me out of the sports hall. We walked in silence as he placed his hand around my body and under my arm to support me as I dragged myself home trailing my feet along the floor. He watched me walk through the door before I thanked him and he left. I walked past three suitcases that were in the living room and flopped down on the couch curling into a ball trying to fall asleep.
I heard the door open but decided that I wasn't going to move. It was only Luke and I'm sure he would understand. "Shh she's asleep." I heard Luke loud whisper right behind me.
"No I'm not." I mumbled as I tried to roll over. I misjudged the distance that I was from the edge and rolled right off the edge only to be caught mid air. I opened my eyes to be met with Michael the red haired idiot who was my partner for PE staring down at me.