Melt Your Headaches, Call It Home

We got out of the house this morning by eleven on the 4th of July, (amazing I know,) and were traveling in two cars on the way to Alice's parents' house. They were out of town visiting some relatives and said that we could have the place as long as we didn't burn it down or severely damage it.

Hopefully we can avoid anything like that.

Dom, Spencer, Hayley, Ryan, I managed to get stuck in Tyler's shitty old car that his parents got when we were five, he received the car when he was sixteen and in those five years he hasn't had the drive to replace the piece of junk. I am actually scared to ride in it, especially on the freeway. The old wipers weren't clearing the drizzle that had started early this morning; we all hoped it would clear off by tonight.

Tyler and Dom were up in the front seat, leaving Spencer, Hayley, Me, and Ryan squashed in the back.

"How did we, with the casts, wind up in the back?" Ryan complained.

"We shouldn't have," I agreed.

"Oh stop whining," cut in Tyler, "and help me look for the others. I'm supposed to be following them, but I don't see 'em anywhere."

We all scanned the road; I twisted around to look behind us, trying not to elbow everyone in the back seat. "Well, they're not behind us…" The only thing behind us was one of those unmarked white vans, which in movies always hold the rapists or murders.

"Hey Charles, I though you said you'd been there before," said Dom.

"I have once." Alice's parents are currently paying for her apartment and when she wanted a roommate, they had to interview me. I went to dinner at their house back in May so they could make sure I wasn't some crazy.

"It's on the lake?" asked Hayley.

"Yeah," I replied, "Just find the next Mercedes or Lexus and follow it."

"Are you serious?" asked Tyler.

"Yeah. It's in this gated community with only waterfront properties."

"So they're hella rich basically?" said Spencer.

"Yep."

I glanced behind us again to see if the other car had appeared. It hadn't but the white van was still there. I frowned, I'm sure my mind's just making me paranoid.

"Hey!" shouted Ryan, "There's a Porsche!"

"I'm on it!" Tyler said comically.

The Porsche led us to the right place, but all the while I would glance back over my shoulder to see if the van was still there, and it always was. Only as we pulled up the gate did it pull away. It parked just in sight of the gate, giving me the chills.

The guard walked out of the little hut, "Name."

"Uh. Charlie. A little help," called Tyler.

I leaned forward, "Uh. Charlotte Labelle here with Alice Moore."

"Alright, Miss Moore just drove by. Have a nice day."

We drove down the sloping drive to get to the houses, away from the main road. I'm sure we looked very out of place with this crap car next to these multi-million dollar homes and the luxury cars parked in their driveways. We sure felt out of place.

As we got to the right house Brendon and Jon ran out in the street to crazily wave us into the driveway. We ran inside, as the rain started to come down hard, "It doesn't look like there's going to be any fireworks," Dom said gloomily.

All throughout the afternoon and evening we had to think of things to do. We went in the indoor hot tub, watched two movies and made hot dogs and hamburgers with the stove. The weather was mystifying, it should be sunny right now. It never rains in the middle of the summer, it was the one time of year when it didn't rain. It wasn't anything like any other 4th of July that I'd celebrated, but it wasn't by any means boring.

We started our fourth movie of the day around 9pm. Despite Ryan's urging to stay awake (as it was one of "the coolist fucking movies ever") the lack of sleep over the past few days got to me and I shut my eyes during the opening credits. I fell asleep snuggled in his arms.

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I'm walking through a dark place illuminated by moonlight but I'm not afraid. I am happy, I'm going to see something important, but reason why escapes me. I walk until I see it, the shining figure, I walk to it. I can't discern the face, as the light emanating from it is too bright, yet I know this person. I reach out my hand and the second I touch the solid light, it bursts into millions of balls of light, swirling around me. I laugh, as a sense of happiness comes over me. Slowly, all of the light trails up to the sky until it is out of sight, and when it is gone, a sense of emptiness fills my heart. I've lost something. I hear my name being called and I can see someone run towards me with a solid wall of Black nothingness encompassing everything behind them. I'm scared, but the new human figure, also someone I know, grabs my hand and we run together. I look back but trip. The ground rushes up to meet me and the air gets knocked out of me, my fall pulled the other person down next to me. His eyes widen in horror as The Black nothingness speeds closer, there's no time to run, we brace for the impact. The Black…

I sit up. I'm breathing hard and on the floor.

I brushed my hair out of my face and wiped the sweat that beaded onto my forehead, trying to control my racing heart. Glancing around, I can tell everyone is fast asleep, Ryan is still up on the couch and I can see the spot where I was laying. I haven't fallen out of bed in years.

I'm shaking. My mouth is dry. I need a drink.

I wrack my brain as I walk into the kitchen, the details of my dream are slipping away but I remember light, a sense of loss, somebody, and darkness. The darkness came with terror.

I go to the cabinets, opening them at random, hoping to find a glass or some sort. Of course, the last one that I open is the one holding what I want. As I fill up the glass with ice and water, I hear rustling out in the living room. I hope didn't wake anyone up.

I peek out, but no one's moving so I jump up to sit on the counter. Holding the icy glass to my forehead, I can feel the fear drain away. It was just a dream, and not a very scary dream at that. So calm down.

I watch the clock on the microwave change a few times, 3:08… 3:09… 3:10… 3:11… Right after it turned to 3:12, someone made a noise out in the room. It sounded muffled.

I slide off the counter and as I walk into the room I stub my toe. I swear loudly, but am unable to grab it as it would put full weight on my injured foot. I fumble around for the light switch, whispering a stream of curses as my toe throbs.

When it finally clicks on, I check my toe, no blood. It just hurts like…

Somebody screamed, Alice. My head shot up. He was standing there. He was there, towering over Alice, covered in blood. Time blurred together as I glanced frozen in terror around at the red bodies that used to be my friends. He pulled away from Alice and she was now red too. There was one person left now.

It was when he made his way towards Ryan that I found my voice; he was sleeping exactly like I left him. My legs were glued but I yelled, I screamed but he wouldn't wake. He couldn't hear me.

"NO!" I yelled, finally able to move, but it was too late. He turned on me and…

"Charlotte! Why won't she wake up? Charlotte! Wake up!"

Hands were roughly shaking me and I was flung out of sleep. I sat up and looked wildly around, five concerned faces were gathered around me and everyone else was stirring. I was on the floor next to the couch, The rain still pounded outside.

It was a dream. The most realistic dream I've ever had in my life, but just a dream.

I burst into tears and flung my arms around Ryan, not caring at how ridiculous I must be right now, "It was horrible!" I was close to a panic attack.

"Hey," he whispered, pulling me closer, "It was just a dream."

"He was here… and everyone was dead. He was going to kill you too… and… and…there was blood, so much blood… and he killed everyone," I sobbed.

"He can't hurt you," Ryan murmured over and over again, as Ben came over and rubbed my back, just like Dad did when I was a little kid and had a nightmare.

I never expected anything like this to scare me so bad, I've been jumpy today, I think the van that seemed to be following us today started it all off, freaking me out. The doctors said that I would probably have nightmares, but when I never had any in the few weeks following, I thought I was going to be ok.

As the terror started to drain away and my tears dried up, I began to feel self-conscience about my outburst. I pulled away from Ryan's shoulder, wiping my face, I was dismayed to find a big wet splotch on his shirt. I glanced around at everyone, ten pairs of eyes were nervously watching me.

I can't take their staring.

"Sorry you all had to see that," I apologized, embarrassed, and stood up.

They all murmured some form of "It's fine," or, "Don't worry about it," in response.

"I'll be back in a second," they all shared a reluctant look, and I thought Ben would physically stop me, "I'm just going to the bathroom," I assured them.

As I let the room and made my way towards the front of the house where I knew there was a bathroom, conversation in loud whispers erupted. I blocked out what they were saying, I don't need to hear them decide what to do with me.

I flicked on the bathroom light and I was met with gleaming white porcelain and antique wallpaper. The mirror had a wide, ornate, gold frame and showed me my red, blotchy face. I don't understand how some people can look pretty when they cry.

I grabbed a couple sheets of toilet paper and blew my nose, which neither cleared it nor helped with the redness, and if anything made it worse. I abandoned that and turned on the faucet so that icy water was streaming out of it and repeatedly washed my face.

As I was attempting to dry my face on the useless, decorative hand towel, there was a knock at the slightly ajar door. It was Alice holding a usable hand towel, "Do you want this?"

I nodded gratefully and buried my dripping face in the soft cloth that smelled comfortingly like Bounty fabric softener.

When I was done, she took the towel from me gently, and pulled me into an unexpected hug, "Are you ok?" she asked, concerned.

I nodded and tried to smile, but the concern is what did it. Her concern triggered those tears that slipped out of my eyes, even as I tried to brush them away.

"Do you want to take a shower?" she asked, putting her arm around me.

That sounds perfect.

I nodded and she led me upstairs and into what appeared to be her bedroom which was about the size of our entire apartment. If I was to describe it, I think she was going for the emo Disney princess look. Black and pink were the main colors. Before I had any more time to stare dumbly at the expensively designed room, Alice pulled me through another door into her own bathroom. It had white tiles on the floor and a pink black tile pattern on the walls.

"You get in," she told me, "I'll bring you some soap and stuff and some towels." Once she left and shut the door, I turned the water as hot as it could be without scalding my skin and got in.

When I heard the door click open and saw some of the steam escape, I peeked my head out from behind the black shower curtain. Alice was hanging two really fluffy towels over the rack and when she saw me looking, she handed my some cucumber melon scented conditioner, shampoo and body wash from bath and body works and then sat down on the toilet with a very old Teen People.

I sent her a questioning look, she just shrugged and told me, "I'm required to 'stand guard.' If it wasn't me, Ben threatened to…"

"Why?"

"I have no idea," she said, "I don't know what goes on in those boys' heads. It's not like you're going to get murdered in my childhood home's shower."

"Hey Alice?" I said as I washed my hair.

"Yeah?"

I hesitated, but then asked, "Do you think it was stupid of me to freak out like that?"

"Definitely not," she replied quickly and then added, "I was actually surprised that something like this hadn't happened earlier."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Actually so did everyone else, the doctor warned us…"

"Oh." What should I think of that?

When the last vestiges of fear left me, Alice left, and I dried off and put on the t-shirt and flannel pajama bottoms that she had set out for me. They were a little short. I walked out into her bedroom running a brush through my wet hair and was met with the sight of Alice tackling Hayley, trying to grab a poster in her hands. Sophie was laughing hysterically, watching from the edge of the bed.

When they all became aware of my presence, they all tried to stop laughing and made a motion towards me, as if they were going to come comfort me.

I raised one eyebrow (a skill that Jon had spent two hours teaching me) and said, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Alice replied very quickly, glaring at the other two, warning them not to say otherwise.

Sophie just smiled and said (with the accent that I was jealous of,) "Alice's got a poster of Panic at the Disco…"

"… and Brendon's face has lip gloss kiss marks all over it," Hayley finished giggling.

I laughed, "Let me see!"

"No!" cried Alice brushing furiously, trying to grab it away again but I was too quick. I took it from Hayley and held the poster of the boys, back when Jon first joined the band and when they still wore makeup.

The sight of Brendon's face covered in sparkling pink lip gloss stains sent me into hysterics (the good kind,) "Somebody… had a little… crush…" I said between giggles.

"Little?" Hayley laughed.

Once we calmed down a little, Sophie said smirking, "We should show it to 'em."

"No!" screamed Alice, "I would kill you guys."

"Aw, we wouldn't do…"

"What that?" I asked shushing them.

We all listened. It sounded like there was a stampede coming from downstairs. Seconds later all of the boys came skidding into the room and we leapt onto the poster to hide it from sight.

"Who's getting murdered?" Brendon demanded, but when they saw that we were fine and actually laughing, they sighed in relief.

"What were you guys doing?" asked Jon.

"Nothing," we all said at the same time. We tried to look innocent but at the sight of Alice's pleading, red face, we burst into laughter again.

"Ok then…" Ryan said and they all exchanged a suspicious look.

Of course Ben had to go and spoil the happy mood by asking, "Charlie, are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah," I said stifling a giggle, "It was just a dream."

They looked convinced.

"Man," said Tyler running his hands through his hair, "I am way too awake to go back to sleep. We need to do something."

"…at three in the morning?" Hayley looked thoughtful.

"We could watch a movie," suggested Sophie.

"No chick flicks," put in Dom.

"We should watch something happy," said Spencer, "None of this horror movie bull shit."

"Let's watch a Disney movie!" Alice cried.

Most of the guys groaned but Hayley and I drowned them out, "Yeah!"

When the boys didn't argue, Alice led Hayley and me over to a cabinet. (Sophie was staying put to hide the poster.) She opened the door to reveal what appeared to be every single animated Disney movie ever made.

"Anastasia?" Alice suggested.

"Nah," said Hayley, "How about The Lion King?"

"Too sad. Why don't we just watch Aladdin?" I said, pulling it off the shelf, "It's obviously the best one."

They exchanged a glance and shrugged, "We can't argue with that."

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"So close."

"Not really."

"Closer than last time."

"Alright, I'll give you that. I'll try again."

"Aw. You missed."

"You're not exactly good at this either."

"So. Nose is closer than ear." I chucked another piece.

"Bloody hell, Charlotte," snickered Sophie, "You have bad aim."

The end credits of Aladdin were playing and everyone else was asleep, sprawled out around Alice's bedroom. We were trying to throw popcorn into Brendon's open mouth. Earlier, Jon's had been our target but he closed it. Granted, he still had a few pieces on his face.

"Score!" Sophie flicked one straight into his mouth.

He choked for a moment, ("Oh God!") but then he sat up sputtering and spit it out.

"What the hell…?" he looked accusingly at us as shook with silent laughter.

When he saw the littered popcorn around him, he pieced together what we were doing and lunged for the other popcorn bowl, knocking it on Jon's head in the process.

"Ouch. What the fuck, Brendon?"

Sophie and I laughed even harder when we saw he still had popcorn stuck in his beard.

Brendon informed him what we had been doing and together they grabbed handfuls of popcorn and started pelting us with them. We jumped up and ran downstairs, they followed. A pillow fight ensued when they ran out of popcorn.

Breathing hard, we called a truce and sat down on the floor.

"That movie made me hyper," I remarked as twisted so I was on my stomach.

"I like Disney movies," agreed Sophie.

"Guy never appreciate them the same we do," I said casually, making a jab at Brendon and Jon.

They both looked offended.

"I would be the first person to run through a field singing 'A Whole New World.' I resent that you would even think that I wouldn't feel as moved by Disney as you are," said Brendon seriously.

"Yeah," agreed Jon, "The first time I met Brendon, we sang the entire soundtrack to Aladdin because it was on his iPod. Like actually."

"That pretty cool guys," I said mockingly as Sophie laughed.

They couldn't take the dig. The pillow fight started again. It lasted until daybreak.

Good times.

It almost made me forget about my dream.