-1- AUTHORS NOTE: this is my first story in a very long time, I would love feed back from ya'll hopefully you enjoy..! *** I open my eyes, to see the silhouette of my ceiling fan in the dark. I shiver, sitting up to find myself being strangled by my sheets, my skin coated in cold sweat. My stomach does a backflip, and I'm hit with a viscous wave of nausea. Like the last two nights. Only flashes of the strange dreams go through my head. Blinding light, pain, and fire. Flames everywhere, licking up my skin, screams fill the dark and fiery oblivion. I wake to this. Pain claws at my spine, and tears into my stomach as i scramble out of my bed to throw up before my bedroom floor takes the gore. I wince, the pain only increasing as I curl around the toilet bowl, retching my guts up. There's a knock on the door. "Yeah?" I whimper. "Riley, it's three in the morning." "I'm sick mom." The door opens. There he mother stands, in a powder blue bathrobe, with light pink pajamas poking out at her wrists and ankles, long black hair in wild tangles around he exhausted face. "Throwing up?" "I came in here to cough and gag to wake you up for fun. Yes mom, see for yourself." "I'd rather not... This has been happening the last three nights. I'm bringing you to the doctor tomorrow afternoon." "Mom..." "Drink some water, back to bed." I stare at the tiles on the bathroom floor for a moment, frustrated. I slowly stand up and reach for my toothbrush. I pause, staring in the mirror. My face was sickly pale, my dark green eyes a strange shade. I looked horrible, sweat dripping down my clammy skin, my long black waves a damp mess, sticking to my skin. I should call Derek. I wander back to my room, stumbling through clothes and hell-knows-what-else until i managed to flick my lamp on and find my phone. I sit, grossed out by the bile-toothpaste mix in my mouth. "..hello..?" A sleepy voice answered. "Derek?" "Ryley, come on it's three...." "It happened again." "What?!" A blast of heat flushes through me, suddenly I'm boiling hot. I gasp, wincing, the room starts to spin. "Ryley... Are you ok..? Ryley talk to me I'm awake now..." His voice is concerned, but distant. "Derek... What..." "Ryley I'll be there in 10..." I drop my phone. Everything goes black. *** "Hey... Before your mom freaks.. Wake the hell up." Something touches my face. "Ryley, come on." Slowly, the familiar voice gets closer and closer, until I hear it in my ear. Warm skin, a working diaphragm against mine. I smile at the comfort of the familiar presence. My eyelids are like cement, bit i managed to force them open. Derek, with deep, dark blue eyes, a lovely face with black hair surrounding it , his skin a clear olive-tone. "You ok?" "Mm..." I mumble, sleepy. "You're so pale, still. I walked in to find your mom beside you crumpled on the floor. I sit up, a wicked headache drills into my head. "Yeah..." I look back at him, he laid there beside me, like the thousands of times before. Derek was my best, and only friendI grew up with. Derek knows everything, and anything about me. Sleepovers usually aren't allowed between a guy and a girl, but I've known him since kindergarden, and our mothers became good friends. We grew up protecting kingdoms, thinking we could fly, having mud fights and dancing in the rain. We're inseparable, like our souls are bound in some strange, even a sick way. I always loved him for who he was. I always though he was sort of beautiful. I keep it to myself. I don't even let myself have the pleasure of thinking of him as anything beyond an unbreakable friendship. "It's weird." Derek says, yanking me back to the real world. I blink. "Yeah... I'm gonna grab a shower." Derek reaches for a comic book off the messy stack on the shelf above my bed. "Kay." I wander across the hall and stumble into the shower. My palms feel hot. Really hot. I wince, turning the water to a cool temperature. I slip my sticky clothes off and slide into the shower.