3 Days Before July 4th

A dark figure watches from the shadows in my room. Moving closer and closer until he reaches my bedside. Ever so slowly, his black-gloved hand reaches for my face. Barely an inch between my cheek and his long fingers when...

Beep! Beep! Beep! My eyes fly open to the sound of my phone's alarm. 

"It's just a dream. Breathe. You're fine. Everything's okay, breathe."

 I say to myself, grasping for reality as I feel the nightmare's effect on me slip away like the cold sweat falling gently down my spine. With shaking hands, I silence my alarm and press call on my best friend's number. Keira picks up on the first ring.

"Lea, what's wrong?" 

I smile despite myself when I hear the familiar soft timber of my best friend's voice. 

"I had a nightmare. I just needed to hear your voice. It's stupid." 

I admitted lowly as my eyes started to flutter closed; the tiredness and stress of planning for the first trip entirely away from my parents hit me. 

"It's not stupid. Why did you have a nightmare?" 

Keira simultaneously reproaches me and inquires about my nightmare in a typical Keira Knightley style. Sighing, I reply sleepily.

"I don't know. I guess Mom has me creeped out because of her skepticism about this trip." 

Suddenly, before Keira can respond, I hear Zion talking in the background and the door slamming a few seconds later. 

"Um... So don't be mad, but Zion's on his way to your house..." 

Keira mumbled guiltily. 

"Right now?" 

I ask in utter disbelief. 

"Yes..." 

Keira mutters quietly with an audible wince. 

"What the heck, Keira! Why on Earth is he coming over at..." 

I shout angrily, only pausing briefly in my rant to check the time. 

"...11:30 at night! What exactly did you tell him? No. Don't tell me, I'm going to ask that idiot myself." 

I nearly growled into the phone before I furiously hit the red end call button on my first-generation Google Pixel. I quickly threw on a pink, fuzzy robe for modesty's sake. I quietly sneak out the front door to wait for Zion, a dead-man-walking.