Avoid Complications Rodrick.

Rodrick remained tightly asleep in his bed, his sheets flipped and twirled around his lean thin body, his legs and arms spread across the mattress, hitting the floor and the cluttered desk beside him. Looking like an innocent sleeper swept away in his own fantasy world of dreams.

" But I swear! He came into my room and did this!" Greg whined showing his parents the newly found grotesque markering on Greg's face.

In Rodrick's defense, Greg had been prying into his private business. Asking unnecessary to know questions about people Gregory didn't need to know about. So to teach him a lesson, Rodrick had krept once again into his brothers room with a marker in hand and let his sour devilish revenge out with the flick of his wrist and the twirl of the marker tip.
Creating the image and words boldly written on Greg's small wimpy body, and with no proof that Rodrick had indeed set on Greg. So, without the evidence of Rodrick technically participating in this 'prank' Mr. And Mrs. Heffley had no choice but to not ground Rodrick. But promised Greg they would keep their eyes closer on him, especially if Greg and Rodrick got into a upsetting fight.

The three harshly awoken Heffley's walked down from the stairs of Rodrick's room, leaving him in his slumber. Rodrick had been more mischievous that week, they all could only suppose it was because Cynthia was grounded.

Frank stopped Susan before they both re-entered the cozy warmth of their bed.

" What ever happened to that one girl... A... Alexa?"

Susan shrugged.

" I just want to sleep in until six.." She yawned crawling into the bed and instantly Mrs. Heffley was asleep.

Frank sighed and let it go, boys will be boys, and if Rodrick was with one girl one day and an entirely new one the next... That was his business.

Cynthia tossed and turned on her mattress, her blankets slipping off her ruffled body and onto the cold floor of her basement bedroom. She quivered and tremored in her sleep as her nightmare continued to play in her mind.

" No... NO!" She mumbled, tossing violently onto her back, her hands clenching her pillow as if for dear life.

" Let go of me!" Cynthia screamed, trying to jolt her legs away from their hands, grim cold green hands dripping with blood and slime. The smell of decay heavy in her nostrils, her stomach turned around and around. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to look away from the horrifying monstrous beings attacking her. Their faces burned in her memory, the glowing white eyes, the burned, torn ripped flesh on their bloody dirty faces.

Their clawing hands with nails sharper than razors cutting her legs and arms as they captured her. She continued to struggle and fight to break from their wrenching grips.
Scared to death.

Just when Cynthia thought she could take no more, her heart found relief from its tremouring when she closed her eyes from the monsters, she opened them to find herself inside a hospital. She took a few deep breaths and ran her hands through her hair. Looking down at her knees as she sat on the bench.

Cynthia finally took notice of what she was wearing... She seemed to be in some sort of dress, frilly and full of ruffles and bows and flowers. She sighed and torn it up trying to make not so bad, but that was impossible, even in this hell dream. Cynthia walked down the long blue hallway, until she came to the only open door, and looked inside, to see everyone she knew surrounding a bed.

She made her way through the crowd and screamed in horror, seeing herself on the bed. She was hooked up to life support, she looked around looking at all the faces around her. Rodrick, mom... Dad.. Lilly.. Miranda..... Eddy.. She stepped back seeing all of them smiling.

She could tell they were about to pull the plug on her, and they were.. celebrating it..
She ran over to Rodrick trying to grab his attention, but as soon as she reached him.. Her vision went blurry and she couldn't see...

" Cynthia!" Her father yelled by her ear, shaking her awake. His face creased with worry, waking to hear his daughter screaming was his own waking nightmare.

Cynthia's eyes flew open, her eyes big and scared.
Mr. Daniels sighed and smiled, turning on the lamp beside them.

" Nightmare?" He asked.

" You have no idea..." She replied, her voice thin and slow. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up, looking around trying to calm herself without letting her father know how shaken she truly was..

He nodded and passed her a cup of water. Cynthia gladly took it, taking a hard gulp of the cold ice water.
Mr and Mrs. Daniels were both used to Cynthia's nightmares.
But they hadn't always been so bad, that she screamed.

She would never tell them if she had one if they didn't hear.
Why worry them over nothing?

" What time is it?" She asked putting the cup on her bedside table.

" Four something.."

She nodded.
Mr. Daniels gave her a small smile and left.

Cynthia rubbed her arms and rested back down, but her mind kept circling in a track of that dream. Their faces stuck in her mind, she was afraid. Even awake.

Hours later Cynthia and Rodrick both waked up.

Rodrick ran to the bathroom to shower, while Cynthia steadily walked over to her bathroom, completely on edge, anything was able to make her scream scared today.

Rodrick looped his studded belt through his black tight jeans, smelling his shirts to find a clean..ish smelling one. He put it on, careful to not mess up his hair.
He had spiked it perfectly today and he was not prepared to see his not so hard, hard work go down the drain because of his stupid shirt.

Cynthia finished putting her hair back, she double checked her outfit.
She had too seem like nothing was bothering her, even though she knew she would be spending the entire day trying to decode everything her dream meant.

Mr. Daniels got in his car, Lilly and Cynthia right behind him.
Rodrick stepped into his van Greg unfortunately in the passenger side seat.

Mr. Daniels dropped the girls off, Cynthia smiled seeing Rodrick right behind them.
She jumped out of the car and ran over to his van, slamming on the hood grabbing his attention. She opened the passenger side door.

" Can I get a ride?"

" Sure, but it'll cost ya" He smirked.

Cynthia climbed in, she was good at hiding her feelings.
Especially around Rodrick, she never wanted to let him know how she felt since their last 'date'.

She leaned over and kissed his cheek as she buckled her seat belt.

" Did you sleep okay?" Rodrick asked, trying to find a way to squeeze in what he had done to Greg.

She bit her lip and nodded.

" Yeah.. Did you..?" She asked, sighing as she spoke. Rodrick looked past it, not really caring about her low mood.

" Yeah. Well, after I doodled on Greg."

" Oh god.. What did you draw?" She asked, she closed her eyes, knowing how sour she had unintentionally sounded.

Rodrick shook his head, pouting his lips.
He had taken it way too harshly.

" Since when did you get so pissed off about it?" He asked.

" Well depending on what you drew on the poor kid" She replied crossing her arms.

The two continued to fight about it. To the point where they were parked in the school lot, seats unbuckled and they faced each other yelling and defending their sides, to which had gone to the point of who actually wanted to be in the relationship.
Rodrick had to let her win, because all the cards he could use to win would only hurt her.
Like mom bucks to help her out when her parents aren't home, the constant bet with his buds and some other guys in school about their relationship.

Cynthia rushed out of his van, slamming the door closed. Rodrick groaned and let his head bump onto the steering wheel. It was their first fight, and neither Rodrick or Cynthia knew just how to make up to the other yet.

" Wait so he didn't even say he wanted to break up?"

"Yeah. But he didn't say that he wanted to be together either." Cynthia whispered to Arissa, their teacher had put on a Discovery Channel documentary on something, in science.

Cynthia and Arissa continued to talk and pick apart the fight. Until Cynthia smiled and said

" I really like him. I don't want it to be over"

Rodrick slammed his locker closed.
His buddies words were just making him more angry.
Which was something new to Rodrick.
He got mad, but it was tough to make him madder than he already was.

" You did the right thing man. Best thing to do when your chick is going ape shit is sit there and act like your an idiot" Mike said, fixing his hat.

" No way. He should of said something Mike. Now she's gonna dump him"

" What!?" Rodrick asked shocked at what Brian had said.

" Hey then maybe we'll get our money back!" Vince said laughing. The other guys joining in.

Rodrick told them off and walked to the lunch room.
He sat down at a table, unsure of what to do.

Should he go apologize?
What was there to even apologize for?
If he had told her about the bets and stuff, yeah there would be allot to say sorry for.
But this was the stupidest fight he had ever been in.

He was so consumed in his thoughts he didn't notice Cynthia sitting beside him. She picked up the pudding on her tray and slid it towards Rodrick, gently patting his arm.

He looked over at her. She smiled at him, and took a deep breath,

" This is a peace offering.. I'm sorry for being such a bitch this morning"

Rodrick swished around the pudding with the spoon.
" It's okay.. I could of been nicer too.."

" Rodrick?" Cynthia asked. Taking a deep breath, trying her best to not even acknowledge the fact that she had been distracted so easily that she forgot the torment of her nights sleep.

" Yeah?"

" Thank you.." She whispered and kissed him sweetly.

Rodrick didn't know what he had done but he smiled and kissed her back.

" Can we go?" She asked, her voice was quiet and low, her hand grabbed his and held it tenderly.

" Go where?"

" Back to my place?"

" And skip this afternoon?" Rodrick smirked and stood up grabbing her books and they walked to their lockers and grabbed whatever they needed.
Rodrick didn't know why Cynthia asked him to cut class to go to her place, but he was in no state to object her rabid whims.

" Are you ready?" She asked as they pulled into the driveway. She looked over at Rodrick and he nodded smiling.

They went into her house, Rodrick kicked off his shoes and jumped onto the couch.
He made himself comfortable.
Cynthia was seconds from joining him, when she saw the five missed calls.

" I've just got to get these... Okay?" She told Rodrick and grabbed the phone.

He nodded he was in his own little world, just him snacks his girl and huge t.v .

Cynthia listened to the messages. One.. Two from her mother.. One from the school... One from the hospital her mother and sister were at. Cynthia's hand clasped over her mouth brimming to tears as she listened to her mothers hysteric voice. Her shaky words hiding her tears.

Mrs. Daniels was coming home..

Cynthia hung up the phone. She turned and looked at Rodrick.

" You have to go."

" What? Whats wrong?"

" You have to go.." She repeated, her eyes blinking with the glisten of her erupting tears. Rodrick sat up and went over to her and pulled her in close.

" What's wrong?" He asked again. Cynthia's arms tightly at her side as she refused to hug him.

" I just.. I need to call my dad.. You need to go.."

" Are you going to be okay?" He asked. He didn't know what was up, but with her roller coaster of emotions today, Rodrick had to try to be the best boyfriend he could be.

" I'll be fine. Just.. Please.. I.. I need to be alone.."

" Can I call you later?"

" I don't think that'll be a good idea.. Sorry Rodrick.." Cynthia hushed at him.
She escorted him out of the house, the phone in hand she started dialing her fathers number when she saw his car pull in as Rodrick left.
Lilly in the back.

Cynthia ran out to the car and opened the door, Lilly instantly wrapped her arms around her older sister. Lilly let her tears break free from their pounding pain.
Cynthia couldn't contain it either, when Lilly started to cry, so did Cynthia.

Mr. Daniels helped his two girls inside, where all they could do was wait to hear news from their mother. It was obvious that the guest room would need to be made, so Cynthia distracted herself by preparing it for her brother in law.

She couldn't even imagine how he felt right now.

" Mom's flight just got in Cyn. Come on.." Lilly said at the stairs.
Cynthia stood up, putting down the picture of her family.
Miranda, Eddy, Lilly, her parents and herself.

She always knew her family was broken, but loosing Miranda, made the break that much deeper to the point where she knew it was about to split off.

Rodrick sat on the couch in the family room, staring at his phone.
She said not to call, but he didn't get why, had they not just made up?

What could he of done?
Rodrick thought about it, maybe it was one of the messages that got her so upset.
Rodrick both hoped that was and wasn't the reason she was so upset.

Mrs. Heffley answered the phone and gasped.
Rodrick recognized the tone, something bad had defiantly happened.
He also knew she was now going to rush over to him and deliver the bad news.

" Rodrick.." Susan said, holding the phone still in her hand.

Rodrick looked up at her, his eyes sparkling with sadness.

" Cynthia's sister died this morning" She told him.

Rodrick looked down, he didn't know how to take that big of a hit.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, wiping the sadness from his eyes at the same time.
Mrs. Heffley sat beside her son and put her arm around him, running her hand soothingly on his back.

" What should I do mom?" Rodrick asked, his voice breaking and low.
He was hurting, it was clear.
It surprised them both though, Rodrick had never been the one to get into the personal side of peoples pain. Since he usually caused it.

Susan had no idea how to respond to her son.
" I guess all you can do, is wait for her to need you.. You'll know what you need to do."

Rodrick nodded and walked up to his room.
" What if what I know to do is the thing I shouldn't do?" He asked himself under his breath. What his mother said made sense, and since it was the smarter thing to do.
Rodrick waited until Cynthia needed him.