rose.
"Are you upset with me?" The Kind Stranger carelessly asked, gently holding my hand and batting wide eyes.
I snatched my hand away from his, "You tricked me!"
He only nodded, "But you learned something, didn't you?"
I scoffed, "Lots of things. For instance, I should never run into things at school. I should never trust myself with Andromedian orbs, and I should never trust you not to use my weaknesses to strengthen me."
The Kind Stranger shook his head as the crystal-clear depths spilled over the entrance of the cave and above our waists.
"You're almost exactly like her that way, Selene. If only you could've known her in the waking world."
I tried focusing on responding to The Kind Stranger, but my own relentless fears settled in and I began trembling.
"Who?" I asked shakily, and The Kind Stranger smiled warmly, holding my hand.
He waited to speak again until the water was at my chin, "Your birth mother."
I whipped my head around to question him further, but he was gone. Then once again, all around me was the waves, and I powerlessly jolted around as they consumed me.
***
My eyes opened wide and I sat up abruptly. Then I winced and slowly fell back against the cot in the nurse's office.
The cloying scent of cucumber melon body lotion wafted nearer to me as the popular girl I'd seen at my locker rushed to my side.
"Calm down. The nurse said you're not supposed to be moving," she told me softly, and I squinted as the light from the window reflected off of her golden hoops.
I didn't even care about the embarrassment of running into something and blacking out in front of one of the most popular divas in school. I could focus only on the intensity of every little bit of light and the throbbing in my head.
"Why are you still here?" I asked her groggily, and she rolled her eyes.
"You walked into a trash bin on wheels and passed out in the hallway. I have a rep. to protect, you know," she explained, and I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.
I decided that I didn't care enough to ask, so in the silence, she went on.
"You feel okay?"
I met her eyes again, shocked at the seemingly genuine concern in her voice.
"Why's it sound like that's a hard thing for you to ask?" I questioned her, and she sighed exasperatedly.
"Maybe it'd be easier for you to make friends if you stopped being so aggressive," she huffed.
"You didn't answer my question."
"And you didn't answer mine."
My arms wobbled like jello trying to support my upper body to sit up, and the pounding in my head intensified for several excruciating moments.
The girl worriedly glanced at me, coming closer and raising her hand inches behind my back in case I started to fall again. She handed me a blue ice pack from the bedside table, and when I looked at her face to receive it, she quickly changed her expression from the genuine concern to annoyance.
"I said the nurse didn't want you to move," she scoffed, flipping her hair sassily, and how it did not catch in her giant earring was beyond me.
"You wanted me to answer your question. I will," I announced, and her annoyance became an icy blank expression as she folded her arms in anticipation.
"Where to start?" I began, "Well, first you approached me at my locker asking about my dead friend-"
"I didn't know that!"
"And then you invited me, a literal stranger to you, to a college party with absolutely no explanation whatsoever, which was likely a false pretense to make me the butt of you and your mini gang's jokes throughout the night. Oh, and then I blacked out, that was lovely..."
"If you don't want to go you could literally just say that."
We both fell silent. I was about to rebuttal, countering that the invitation was fabricated anyways, when my mom and dad stormed into the room.
"Eden! We came as soon as we could, honey!" my mom told me frantically, ushering the popular girl to the side and kneeling next to me.
"Margaret, I told you we shouldn't have let her go to school today! All these recurring nightmares and the screaming you tell me about, we should've known!" my dad paced the room and shook his head, halting abruptly to tap something into his cellphone.
I flushed red and whined angrily, "Dad! Don't mention that in public!"
As if she could tell I wanted nothing more than for everyone to leave, the popular girl eased out of the corner and slowly made her way to the door. Although I felt that I'd urged her to go, I felt a certain disappointment in seeing her leave, alongside all the relief. Then the school nurse emerged from her office.
"Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher, I recommend having her see a doctor, just as a precautionary measure. And young lady," the school nurse turned to the popular girl just as she touched the door handle, "Don't forget your hall pass. I'll sign it for you in a moment, let me type in Eden's authorization for release."
The nurse disappeared back into her office as the girl awkwardly leaned against the wall.
"Let's have this conversation outside, Johan," my mom said to my dad, and she held his hand to step outside the door when she saw me scowling.
I sighed of relief when the door closed again, but then the girl sat at the end of my cot, indecipherable emotions in her eyes.
"You have recurring nightmares?" she asked plainly, and I took the pillow from behind me and smothered my face.
"The one thing I didn't want anyone to hear!" I said, muffled by the pillow case, "Now you're probably gonna run off and spread it around the school and everyone will leave hate notes in my locker-"
"What kind of person do you think I am?" she interrupted me, and I lowered the pillow to my lap, revealing watery, puffy eyes full of unending sorrow.
That seemed to catch her off guard, because her anger faltered to surprise and did not return.
"I think you're just another popular girl looking to pick a fight with someone defenseless," I said softly, and I couldn't help the single tear that slipped from my left eye.
"No," she uttered gently, cautiously stepping