Nightmare

I lay in my bed that night, wanting nothing more than to fall asleep and bring this day to an end, but no matter how hard I tried to, my mind wouldn’t follow in suit. It just couldn’t stop the thoughts running through it, the thoughts of Zacky and Red.

I hadn’t seen Zacky all day since this morning when I first met her. He had been with her all day, not once coming to say hello to me. I kept thinking about that, how he didn’t hug or kiss me like he usually would when I saw him. He was so preoccupied with Red that he didn’t even notice me at all today. It was already so late and I still hadn’t heard from him; I wasn’t even in his room like I usually was. Instead, I was here, in my room, alone.

For the first time since I had been here in this house, I was sleepig alone, without Zacky.

Heared the door open and I quickly squuzed my eyes shut, pretending to be asleep. I heard a little shuffling around, followed by the sound of a zipper, then the bed sank down next to me. Someone crawled under the blankets next to me, slipping their arm around me, pulling me against their bare chest, their snake bitten full lips brushing against my bare shoulder.

“You weren’t in my room,” Zacky said, knowing that I was awake, kissing my shoulder. “How come?”

“I’m tired, Zacky,” was my answer, my voice cold.

He didn’t seem to notice that I didn’t want to talk to him, only chuckling, continuing to kiss my shoulder, working his way to my neck. “You’re not that tired…”

I felt the metal of his piercings brush against my sweet spot, instantly making me push him away. “Zacky, stop it,” I muttered, really not in the mood.

“Starr, come on…”

He tried to kiss my neck again, but I forcefully shoved him off instead, much to his surprise.

“Zack, I said stop,” I reminded calmly.

He looked my directly in the eyes for a moment before shaking his head, reaching for me. “Babe, what’s the problem? I haven’t seen you all day.”

“Maybe that’s because all that you cared about today was Red,” I told him, pushing him away once more.

Zacky noticed the venom in my voice, his mouth hanging open in shock. “Starr…” he murmured. “Baby, are you mad at that? I’m sorry if I made you feel bad in anyway today, but I just haven’t seen Red in such a long time. She’s—”

“She’s an old friend,” I finished for him.

“Yeah,” He said with a light shrug.

“What about the part that you’re leaving out?” I asked. “The part about how she’s your ex.”

I saw Zacky’s eyes shift uneasily. Clearly, he wasn’t planning on me knowing that anytime soon.

“How do you know that?” He asked, trying to keep his worry from showing.

“Zofie told me.”

“What exactly did she tell you?”

Again, he had the same worried tone, but he was trying to mask it.

“Enough,” I answered, deciding to play with him.

“Starr…” He ran his tongue over his piercings in attempt to buy him some time to think of something to say. “Red is my ex, but she’s just a friend now.”

“Really?” I asked. “’Cause it sure as hell didn’t look like you two were just friends earlier today.”

“We just haven’t seen each other in a really long time,” Zacky said. “There is nothing going on, Starr.”

I rolled my eyes, looking away, but Zacky reached out, holding the sides of my face, making my eyes meet his.

“Hey…” He bit down on his lip rings. “Starr, I’m serious. Red is just my friend. I love you.”

“Your friend,” I repeated.

“Just my friend,” he nodded.

I licked my lips. “So, if she’s just your friend, I assume she’s left already.”

Zacky cast his eyes down momentarily. “Not exactly…”

I raised a questioning eyebrow, watching as he stole a few glances at me.

“Red wants to know what’s been going on with me lately, as I want to know how she’s been…”

Bang.

“So she’s gonna be staying here for a little while…”

Bang, bang.

I nodded, knowing exactly what that meant. “So, which guest room is she staying in?”

“She’s not in a guest room… she’s in my room.”

Bang, bang, bang.

I scoffed, throwing Zacky’s hands from me, getting off the bed in an instant, making my way to the door.

“Starr… Starr, come on,” Zacky complained from my bed. “Don’t be like this.”

“No, Zacky, I’m gonna be exactly like this,” I told him, turning to face him. “The moment that she walks in the door, you completely forget about me. It’s like I didn’t even exist all day. And now you’re telling me that she’s staying in your room? She’s sleeping in your bed, when there are hundreds of other rooms she can sleep in?”

“Babe—”

“No…” I shook my head. “I really don’t care, Zack. Why don’t you go back to your room… make sure Red is okay.”

“But Starr, what about you?”

I scoffed again. “Now you care about me?”

I didn’t even wait for an answer before slipping out of the room, slamming the door shut behind me.