This Broken City Sky

Another week went by and I have woken up screaming every night. Gee, Donna and Don don't even bother coming in anymore, mostly because I insisted on it. But Mikey comes every night.

He lays next to me and holds me while I cry into his shoulder. He usually ends up falling asleep with me, or leaves as I fall asleep. He hasn't bugged me about talking to him about it, though I know he wants to, so I decided that I'll tell him the next time it happens.

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Right on cue, Mikey rushes into the room after hearing me scream. He layed on the bed and leaned me on his chest. He rest his cheek on the top of my head and started rubbing my back up and down with his fingertips.

"Mikey?"

"Hm?"

"I'm ready to talk."

"Good. I've been worried fucking sick about you!"

I chuckled nervously. "Okay, first, I'll tell you what the nightmare is about." I sighed, then continued. "In the nightmare, my dad is chasing me, telling me he wants to kill me. I tried to get away, but I trip and fall."

"He just keeps kicking me and kicking me! Yelling at me that I'm stupid, and that I don't deserve life! I am crying, begging him to stop! But he won't listen to me!" By this time, I was crying uncontrollably.

"But before he could kill me, Val came and knocked him out with a bat. Then she took me home."

"Oh, wow..."

"Yeah. And the reason why I hate it so much.. is because it really happened. That's why you've never met my dad. Val divorced him. Then we got him arrested, of course. But a while after, I started drinking. But my best friend Mikayla helped me through it."

"She helped me to control my drinking. A few months later, I met Drake through her. We became friends, then about 10 months later, we were dating. Two years passed and Val lost her job, because she also started drinking and got two DUIs. And we moved here. So there, I talked."

I looked up at Mikey, who looked like he was crying. I laughed a bit. "Are you crying?"

"What! No! Me? Never! What!" I laughed even harder at his lame excuse of a lie.

"It's okay, Mikey. It's no big deal."

"I guess. And I did cheer you up."

"Why, yes you did!"

I stopped laughing when he looked right into my eyes, and started leaning towards me. My heart started beating faster, but I did the same. But at the last minute, I turned away.

"Um, I'm uh, pretty tired. You should go back to bed," I told him.

"You don't want me to stay with you?"

"No, it's okay. But thanks. I'm happy I finally told you."

He started to leave, but I turned him around and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Goodnight, Mikey."

"Goodnight Steph."