In My Dreams It's Me And You

Nathalie's POV

“I almost forgot how good a fuck you were...”

I froze instantly as I heard those words, turning slowly on the spot to see the source of the noise. The same, white pullover from last time was already on the floor as Jake grinned at me, his hand reaching for his belt and discarding it alongside his other clothes.

The scene around me suddenly changed as I found myself on my bed, my clothes already ripped and torn off my body as Jake was on top of me, pinning me down by my wrists. My skin crawled as he ran his tongue across my cheek, sneering at me as he stopped and hovered barely an inch above me.

“I own you,” he whispered.

Just the fact he was this close to me was making me sick to my stomach, refusing to let the same thing happen again. I shut my eyes and thrashed around under his grip, screaming at the top of my lungs to let me go.

“Nathalie!” He growled, his grip tightening around my wrists. This only made me try harder to escape, trying to break free of him.

“Nathalie! Stop it!” His voice sounded different this time, not in any way like the arrogant tones he was famous for. “Wake up!”

Somehow I managed to break away and raked my nails across his cheek before scrambling away on all fours, stopping only when a wall prevented me from going any further. My heartbeat quickened as he slowly walked over to where I was, the light coming in from the nearby window revealing that they weren't who I thought they was.

“Nathalie… are you alright?” He cautiously crouched down in front of me, obviously weary that I might swipe at him again. “Another nightmare?”

It sounded ridiculous, but that was exactly what it was. Ever since that night I haven't been able to sleep for long until Jake came into my thoughts, normally ending up with me suddenly waking up only a few minutes after I finally get to sleep. Over the past week I couldn't have had more than half an hour of sleep at most, and it was beginning to show. On Brian's cheek that is.

“I'm sorry baby,” I murmured. I tenderly cupped his injured cheek in my hand, guilt already overwhelming me as I looked at the damage I had done. It wasn't much, but the three gouges in his cheek was just more proof about how messed up I was right now. “You shouldn't have to put up with this. I'll be alright on my own.”

Of course that was a lie, and I knew it, but if it meant keeping him free from my nails, then I could live without.

“No you won't, and that's okay,” Brian replied. He sat down beside me with his back against the wall, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “It's not like I'm going anywhere anyway- it's my house, remember?”

I couldn't help but laugh at this, momentarily forgetting all about earlier. “You mean Zacky's, right? Last time I heard you were just crashing here until you could fid your own place, and that has been a while.”

Before he could reply Zacky poked his head round the door, stopping whatever he was about to say when he saw the two of us on the floor, and the red marks on his friend's cheek. “Looks like it got a bit rough in here last night, eh?” He soon lost his childish grin when he saw how both our moods suddenly dropped, beginning to look rather uneasy himself. “I didn't mean it you know... It's not like I'm making you out to be a slut or anything.”

I forced a smile as I got to my feet, Brian mimicking my movements and staying at my side as I walked over to Zacky, uncaring for the fact I was only in one of Brian's tops and a pair of his boxers. We had spent so much time together that it didn't really matter what we were wearing- as long as it was something. Seeing him naked is a privilege I'm glad to leave to Chloe.

“Slut, and proud of it Mr. Baker,” I replied lightly, just as Chloe appeared next to him.

“Who is a slut?” Chloe asked while yawning, stretching her arms around Zacky and pecking him lightly. When she looked over at Brian however she soon figured it out, her eyebrow rising. “Mmhmm.”

Thankfully, Brian decided to come and help me out since it was obvious I wasn't going to. “Did you come in here for a reason, Zack?”

“Did actually,” Zacky replied, ruffling Chloe's bed hair much to her annoyance. “The guys are all downstairs, so I thought you'd want to come down. Oh and-” He tossed a small package at me, adding, “This came for you. Dunno what it is.”

“Did it say who it was from?” Brian asked as I began to tear off the paper covering it, revealing a set of clothes.

I turned them over in my hands until I realised what they were, quickly dropping them to the floor along with the set of keys that had been hidden amongst them. Chloe crouched down and began looking through them, turning back to me with a weird look on her face.

“Nat, aren't these yours?” She picked them up off the floor along with the keys, running her fingers through the large tears within the coloured fabric. “What the hell were you doing in these?”

“Just put them down!” I shrieked, slapping the contents in her hands back to the ground.

I knew exactly who had sent this, and I knew why. It was Jake trying to get to me; and it looked like it worked. The others merely looked at me as if I was crazy as I walked off down the hall to the stairs, leaving them to stare at the pile of clothes as they tried to figure out exactly what was wrong. I did manage to catch some of their conversation as I was walking down the stairs, although it wasn't really anything worth listening in on.

“Maybe she's scared of her own clothes. She's hardly in her own any more anyway.”

This was followed quickly by a cry of pain as it sounded as if someone had slapped him, ending with a gruff, “Shut it Zack.”

--

“Nathalie!”

A chorus of voices welcomed me when I walked into the front room, ranging from Val's high voice to her fiancé's deeper one. Jimmy and Johnny were- as usual- eating some form of food that they must have found in Zacky's cupboards, both throwing out muffled greetings as they tucked into their treats.

“Hey guys.” I sat down next to Matt who was lounging on the couch with Val on the arm next to him, his arm wrapped around her waist so she wouldn't fall off. She leaned across and placed her hand on my shoulder, looking at me in concern.

“What's up?” She asked, sliding off the arm in order to sit on Matt. “You don't look like yourself.”

“How is it possible to not look like yourself?” Jimmy said through a mouthful of chips, receiving a cushion in the face as a result. “Just asking a question, Val!”

“Not helping Jimmy,” Val warned, threatening to throw the other cushion as well. He grumbled something I couldn't make out before returning his attention to the chips in his hand. If there was a way to eat angrily, what he was doing was it.

“Nothing is wrong,” I replied, forcing a smile despite the fact I knew it looked fake.

“What's up bitches?”

Luckily before she could continue Zacky walked in with Chloe at his side, munching on what looked to be yesterday's leftover pizza. I don't know why, but as soon as the smell hit me my stomach instantly turned on itself, my body instinctively recoiling from it so I didn't throw up right there and then.

“Nat?” This voice belonged to Zacky, and unfortunately as it grew closer so did the pizza, and the smell. “You feeling alright?”

“Zacky... could you..?” I made wild gestures to the doorway, but they couldn't have made much sense. “Ugh...”

It felt as if I was trapped in a roller coaster that was just constantly going through a loop, my stomach flipping over itself and making me feel extremely nauseous. In the end I just pushed back the hands that had found my back and made a mad dash to the nearest bathroom, not feeling too concerned for the fact I almost made Brian fall down the stairs as I ran up them, slamming the bathroom door behind me as my stomach emptied itself in the toilet.

As soon as I slumped on the floor with my back against the toilet someone knocked on the door, obviously not wanting to just barge in unannounced. I brought my hand to my forehead and groaned, “Come in.”

“You look like shit,” Brian said cheerfully, carefully closing the door behind him. He sat down in front of me and leant his back against the door so we were facing each other. “Not been your week, has it?”

Certainly hasn't. My appetite has disappeared somewhere and for the life of me I couldn't understand why certain things just set me off recently. I looked up at him and laughed a little, replying with, “Knowing my luck, I've come down with something.” As I felt my stomach punish me again I slid my hand over my eyes and groaned, unable to prevent a smile as I felt Brian reach over and take my other hand in his. “Thanks.”

“Maybe you should see someone.”

I shook my head. “It's just a stomach bug. It'll pass.”

Since he didn't reply I imagined him frowning to what I said, and sure enough, a frown was what greeted me when I removed my hand from across my eyes.

“Stop being the overprotective boyfriend,” I mocked, leaning over and prodding him in the stomach. “After all, technically we can't even be a couple yet.”

That surprised him.

“Why not? I already asked you out.”

“But you didn't take me on a date, now did you?”

He frowned, thinking about it. “No, I guess not.” Shuffling around on the floor he sidled up to my side, resting his head on my shoulder and looking up at me. “Would you like to go to dinner?” He weaved his fingers into mine, adding, “Just the two of us?”

I smiled at him. “Sounds tempting... but could we go somewhere without food? I mean...” I patted my stomach gently, just to make sure it didn't bring back the nauseous feeling.

Pouting, I watched as he looked around the bathroom, until his gaze locked upon a bottle of suntan lotion. “What about the beach?”

I brushed a kiss off the top of his forehead. “The beach sounds perfect.”

“So it's a date?” He asked, looking up with very hopeful eyes.

“It's a date.”