Dreamer - Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This is a story with multiple parts. You can find the previous chapter here.

I yawned, opening my eyes and taking in all of the surroundings around me. Skinny, bare trees surrounded the car around us as we drove past. The trees were so bare, it was almost as if someone just hot glued a few smaller sticks to a giant stick that had already been sticking up out of the ground. My finger pressed down on the window opener to get a quick smell of the fresh air outside but quickly closed it again the second I felt the cold breeze. I groaned which caused my father to give a light chuckle in response.

"Good morning sleepy head," He smiled at me.

"Where are we now?" I asked, stretching my arms the best I can while trying to not smack my father across the face from the passengers seat. I expected him to say "we never even left the state yet", but he didn't, which surprised me. Usually when I'm in the car, I can't sleep for long periods of time because of all the traffic and bright lights driving past. I guess I was just that exhausted.

"Whitefield, Georgia." He rolled down the window, "Can't you feel it?"

My arms suddenly wrapped around me as I let out a shiver before closing the window myself. I love the cold yet I hate the cold at the same time. Especially when the cold is so windy that it instantly feels like you stepped into a freezer as soon as the air wraps around your body.

I looked over at my dad, "I slept the entire way?" I was surprised by just the thought of me doing that. Usually I'm pointing out all the stupid things we pass on our way and laughing at how dumb each billboard looked as we drive past them.

"You didn’t sleep all the way but you did wind up sleeping for most of it." He stroked his hand against my cheek, "Don't worry princess. You didn't miss much, and I made sure to laugh at any dumb sign I passed in your unconscious honor."

I smiled. My hand rested on the car door but soon jerked away. I was soon squishing myself into the center of the chair.

"Alexis?" Dad asked.

My body began to tense up. A blank look swallowed up my smiling face. I became alert.

"Princess?" He was now looking over at me.

I was now cradling myself in my arms.

My dad slowly pulled over to what looked to be the side of the road. Was this even a road? The country surrounded the entire area; large, empty grass fields were covering every inch of our car from where I was sitting. If you were to look out the window, all you would be able to see were the cows and horses that had taken over the small patches of the lands around us.

Dad turned over to me, resting his arm on my shoulder. "What's wrong, princess?"

"Nothing," I lied. Why did I lie? Of course I wasn't okay. You can see that just by the way I froze up. I look terrified.

"Sweetie." He began to say but stopped himself.

I looked over, "It's just.. it was a very traumatizing time for me." I could feel the tears start to come to my eyes just as I said those last five words but I controlled it to a stop.

"You didn't exactly witness h-"

"Dad. I was a child. To me, that was exactly what I had witnessed." I covered my face with my eyes. I didn’t want my dad to see me crying. "I just-" The words got stuck in my throat.

He looked at me once more, his palm massaging my shoulder softly.

"Can you just drive?" I mumbled, in a voice that was a little harsher than the way I expected it to come out.

Dad pulled back onto the road, driving around the deep curves carefully for my sake, but they were still strong enough to jerk me to the side with each turn. I proceeded to look out the window. No street lamps were to be spotted. What's the deal with that? There is absolutely no way to see anything in the middle of the night.. is that what this place is all about? Big, deep ditches marked the side of the roads on both sides. If you were to make one wrong turn, your car is going to crash into one of those things. I shivered at that thought. Did dad notice these things before? Did he not think about the possibility of the worst thing that could actually happen if something goes wrong with those things? I shooed the thoughts out of my mind. He probably wouldn't. Why would he? Unlike me, he's not a paranoid little sissy. He's strong. I'm the one who's weak. I'm the paranoid one. I'm the one who has the biggest freakouts over the tiniest of things. I feel so sorry for my dad having to put up with someone like me on a daily basis. How does he do it? How does he manage to never get frustrated with me at any point in time?

Dad turned into a small driveway entrance. There was a long, and deep, hollowed out ditch on either side of the small entrance way. The house was a small mobile home but the land surrounding it had to be no bigger than a football field. Of course we had to share the land but it did feel great knowing that we had this much land to live on. The only con was that we didn't technically have any fences to mark which part of this land actually belonged to us.. which mean anyone could actually claim it.. right?

"How do we know this is our land?" I asked. I mentally slapped myself after asking such a stupid question.

"What was that, Princess?"

"There isn't anything printed or shown to say that this is our land. Someone else could just come by and claim it for their own and we'd have no way to fight back."

He chuckled. I think it was supposed to be soft so I couldn't hear but I heard it. "Our closest neighbors know that this is now our land.. they won't interfere. Anyone else aren't close enough to just come up and randomly claim our land, so you wouldn't have to worry about a thing, Princess."

I flashed a weak smile at him. A couple homes were located behind our house. One was slightly bigger than ours, while the other house looked to be about the same size with another house close by to theirs. Did they actually have two? I was never the type to get to know our neighbors, and I doubt my dad ever did either. Usually, we just kept to ourselves. There wasn't ever a point in getting to know neighbors. Neighbors usually are just people you might see every now and then, but mostly you'd just have a small, light conversation about the weather with them and go on with your day.

Besides Michael. Michael was probably the only person I've ever gotten so close back in our old neighborhood. I know we haven't even been away for a day, but I already was missing him. Hard. I miss the way he would cover over and ask me what color he should dye his hair next.. even if he had just dyed it the day before. He never liked the idea of having just one solid hair color for the rest of his life. I admired him for it. I miss the way I would always confide in him, no matter what, or how he'd always listen to me whenever I just needed to vent. I miss the way he never broke my heart. I wish I never had to leave. I wish I could see him right now. I want to tell him about everything that went down in the car just now. He'd understand. He'd probably want to protect me. He's the only person I've ever told about the traumatic episodes I get. Well.. besides my dad, but I'd much rather confide in someone who's my own age. I miss the way his cute little blue-green eyes would twinkle every time I looked in them. I miss the way he would tuck his tank tops into his jeans, or how he would always wear skinny jeans with silly little tutus just to cheer me up when I was feeling sad. I loved how he loved to just show off how weird he was, no matter who was able to watch him. He was my best friend. He IS my best friend. He is the one person I could always count on for anything. I could never imagine anyone else in the position that I saw him. He was special. He is special.

"Alexis?"

"Alexis."

"Alexis!"

I jerked my head up, looking at my father who was now fidgeting around in his seat.

"Yes dad?" I asked, innocently yet childish at the same time.

"Want to go see the inside of the new house, or is the outside just enough for your liking?"

I nodded, "Why wouldn't I? This is the place we'll be living now."

He smiled, stepping out of the car and walking to the porch. The porch was small, yet still very cozy. He unlocked the door, holding it open so I can walk inside before he did. My eyes scanned throughout the entire house, or at least the part of the house that I could see from the front door. The door had opened right into the living room. To the right of the living room was a small bedroom, mine, and a little bathroom hung off from the side of my bedroom. To the left was the kitchen and a larger bedroom, which was dads. Inside the bedroom was another bathroom that had to be my dads bathroom, considering where it was located. His was slightly bigger than mine but I didn't care, it was only a bathroom. It’s not like I'm going to sleep or eat in there. I was kind of relieved that my bedroom was all the way across the house from his. It meant that I would have a lot more privacy to myself.

"Do you like it?" dad asked as I stepped back into the living room. He was sitting on a random box in the middle of the floor. The furniture didn't arrive yet, so it's a small substitute.

I nodded, heading back into my room.

"Where are you going, Princess? I was about to go get something to eat."

"I'm not hungry." I lied. Of course I was hungry. I hadn’t eaten since we left the last house, but I didn't really feel like going out right now. I just wanted to go into my room and get used to this new place.

"Oh, alright. Text me if you need anything." He said just before leaving again.

I walked into my new bedroom. The grey walls had a slight shine from where the small amount of moonlight coming in from the window. This wasn't so different from my last bedroom. It was slightly a bit smaller, but still looked to be about the same. It's going to be weird to have this place to store new memories after having one that stored all the best ones from my past life. I don't know how long it'll take me before I'm used to this.

I found an outlet located underneath the window and charged up my phone. Once the phone turned on, I clicked on the little envelope icon and pulled up Michael's last messages. I may be unable to talk to him face to face, but at least I still have this little contraption to talk to him through.

"Hello Michael. Just got to the new house. Text me if you wanna chat. :) xx"

A loud crash sounded from the living room. I jerked forwards in fear. I stumbled up to my feet and rushed towards the living room, slowly walking down the short hallway from my room. I stopped once I reached the edge of the living room. The front door was cracked open a bit and I slammed it shut. It had to be the wind. Right? Maybe dad just forgot to close the door all the way.. it wouldn't had been the first time.

That was when I noticed it. The small box sitting on top of a small pull out table that dad must have taken out at the last minute. The box appeared to have what looked to be black sharpie ink written, in horrible handwriting, on the corner of the lid.

With shaky hands, I stepped over to the box. Goosebumps had began to form up and down my arms as a giant knot formed in my stomach. My eyes scanned the flap of the box, reading the words written on the lid:

"New people never do well in this town."