Chapter 1 – Shattered Dreams

Waking up is always the hardest bit.

As you slip out of your dreams, you feel your consciousness slowly drifting back to you, along with a million problems for you to worry about. The moment you wake up, a new day is presented in front of you, and you feel hopeless and helpless under the immense pressure from everything. School, family, life in general.

I always hated waking up; a new day is filled with an unpredictable future, and that is precisely what I hate the most about it. Not knowing what's going to happen.

And nothing could have prepared me for what was going to happen. If I knew … if only I knew … would I have lived my day differently? Maybe, but I'll never know. It's frustrating to think like that yet I can't help but wonder how my life would be if it wasn't for that day.

2 weeks before…

I slipped out of bed quietly, trying not to disturb the people in the house. As I struggled to find the door in the dark, I heard Chris moaning lightly in his camp bed. My body froze instantly; I held my breath and waited.

A few seconds past, and when I was certain that he was still asleep, I crept past him and made my way slowly to the edge of the wall. Finally opening the door, I stepped out fast and closed it silently behind me.

A relieving sign escaped from my mouth; it was past one in the morning. Good thing I already changed before faking to sleep, it saved me the trouble of changing in the dark.

Stepping out if my front door, I was greeted by a familiar female. I pulled her to the side and covered her mouth with my hand, gesturing her to be quiet.

"Mmm!" Claire mumbled under the pressure from my hand, "Can't … breathe…"

I removed my hand, making sure she didn't make a sound.

"God, Emma!" She chocked for air as I pulled her down the road, as far away from my house as possible. "Are you trying to kill me?"

I rolled my eyes, "Are you trying to get me grounded?"

She flashed me a wide grin, "You didn't have to come."

"And miss the chance to see one of my favourite band? No way."

Claire laughed, "You're such a rebel, Ems. What happens if your Mom finds out?"

"Well, if you don't tell her, I won't tell her."

She waved her hand in the air, "The secret shall die with us." She said in a dramatic tone; we both laughed so hard that we had to stop to catch our breaths.

The theatre was filled with people; thousands, if not more. Amidst the crowd, I could just make out my friend Grace standing with her new boyfriend, Jason.

"Hey you guys!" I pushed my way through the crowd to greet them, they turned, almost surprised by my presence.

"You're here!" Grace exclaimed, "What about your mom?"

Claire giggled; I rolled my eyes and said irritatingly, "God, what is it with you guys? First Claire, now you too? My Mom is not the Queen, you know?"

Claire patted me on the back, "Alright, alright. Chill. We promise we won't tell her." She paused and eyed Jason up and down, "Speaking of secrets, Grace, aren't you going to introduce us?"

Grace blushed lightly and gave Jason a little nudge in the stomach; "Jason, meet Grace and Emma. Emma, Grace, this is Jason."

Jason was the type of guy who reminded you of the stereotypical type of jock; with a build like Brad Pitt, only 20 odd years younger of course. He wore a tight t-shirt, perfectly revealing his muscles underneath. His hair was arranged messily, as if he had just played in a rugby match and forgot to comb his hair. He was tall and sturdy, beside him, Grace looked more like a fragile child than a girlfriend.

He gave us a wide grin and shook my hand, "I've heard so much about you from Grace." He commented. "You're just like how I imagined you to be."

I raised an eyebrow at Grace, "Oh really?" You better not have said anything bad! I mouthed the words at Grace, who smiled sheepishly and put her hands together, whispering a silent "Sorry".

The lights dimmed, signalling the start of the show. Silence engulfed us for a few seconds, quickly replaced by the rolling drums.

I felt Jason's eyes burning into me from the side; I turned, wanting to ask what his problem was. But as soon as I looked back at him, his head jerked away so quickly it made me think that it just my imagination.

I know it wasn't, though. Because the sickening feeling of his glare on me disturbed me all the way through the concert. An uneasy sensation built up inside me, as if signalling me that this was only the start. The beginning in a chain of unpredictable events which will soon make my life a living hell.

Knock; Knock; Knock.

Three thunderous bangs on my bedroom door woke me up from my sleep; squinting my eyes against the bright sunlight, I looked at my alarm clock.

Ten past Eight.

Shit!

"Are you up?" Mom's voice rang from behind the door, "You're gonna be late!"

I quickly put on my uniform, badly I have to say, lightly brushed my hair and ran out of the room.

"Gee, thanks mom!" I fled to the bathroom, "Couldn't you have woken me up a bit earlier?"

She stood with her hands on her hips while I brushed my teeth; "I did try, hon. But you were sleeping like a pig! Seriously girl, do you have a fever or something?"

I looked into the mirror; God I looked terrible. I groaned and ran down the stairs. Where the hell is Chris? I scanned the room, but there was no sight of him. Mom seemed to read my mind and sighed.

"I told Chris to go first, he has a meeting about his assessment this morning." She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "So, where were you last night? Or should I say this morning?"

I froze in my tracks with the coffee mug in my hand.

"Did you think I didn't realise?" Mom continued, "I went to check on you last night and guess what? Your bed was empty!"

"I…uh…" I gulped, "Grace called me, she had a … um … girl problem."

"So late at night?"

"Yeah," I turned and put on my most innocent smile, flashing my eyelids like a little kid. "You know, the normal boy trouble. Couldn't just leave her."

"Uh-huh." She didn't look convinced, just stood there watching me silently.

I put down my mug and grabbed my bag; if I stay here longer I might just spill everything under those death glares. So with a "Bye Mom", I was out of the door.

No way was she ever finding out where I was last night/this morning.

Running so fast down the road as if there was a big bad wolf coming after me, I managed to get to the bus stop just in time. Panting like crazy, I sat down next to Claire and Grace.

"You look like you're about to throw up." Claire commented boldly, holding back a laughter.

I rolled my eyes, "Thanks a lot, I'm sure you know whose fault that is."

"Oh, so I'm the bad guy now." Claire raised an eyebrow and Grace giggled.

I punched her in the arm lightly, my head still throbbing from the lack of sleep. But, as I had just realised, a more pressing issue was at hands.

That meeting Mom was talking about? Yep, I was supposed to be there too. It started about ten minutes ago.

I ran as fast as I could towards the office as if my life depended on it; well, it did actually. God knows what Professor Spence will do to me. As I crept past all the corridors, trying not to seem like someone who's late for her appointment, I heard someone call out my name from behind.

I spun around alarmingly, secretly cursing the person who's holding me back. Now I'm really gonna be late.

"Hey! You're … Emma, right?"

I froze for a few seconds, trying to remember where I had seen him.

"It's me, Jason! Remember? From last night?" He sighed after seeing the blank look on my face. "Ouch, I'm so hurt! You know, I'm Grace's boyfriend?"

That pulled the trigger, and I nodded in realisation. "Oh, hi. I'm sorry …I'm just in a hurry…" My voice trailed off as I stared at him up and down; I knew most people who went here and recognised their faces, but I swear I do not remember ever seeing him around here.

He seemed to read my confusion and gave me a wide grin; "I'm new, just moved here recently. Do you think you can show me around here?"

"Sure … um…" I frowned, contemplating why he wanted me to show him around, and not Grace, who is his girlfriend. "But I'm really in a hurry, so maybe at break?"

"Okay!" He smiled cheerfully and gave me a little wave, "I'll meet you outside your class. You have Geography right? It's a promise!"

And with that, he disappeared down the stairs. I cocked my head to the side, trying to figure out what has just happened. The more I thought about it, the more creepy it became. How did he know my timetable? How did he know which class I'm in? And it seems to him like we're already best friends even though we only just met like twelve hours ago.

I shuddered at the thought, but knew I had a more pressing issue at hand. I was so late that it'll take a lot for the Professor not to murder me on the spot. I sighed, took a deep breath and walked towards his office.

"My God that was a torture!" I whispered quietly to Chris as we both left the staff room. "I swear he spent more time scolding me for being late rather than focusing on that assignment."

Chris chuckled lightly, "You were more than half an hour late."

"Speaking of which," I gritted my teeth, "why the hell didn't you wake me up this morning when you left? You know I had an assessment to go to."

"Well," he threw a playful look in my direction and whispered in my ear; "you were so cute when you were sleeping I couldn't bring myself to wake you up."

My chest tightened as I felt his warm breath on the back of my neck. I smacked him on the back, my cheeks burning. Which was when I had realised about my little promise with Jason. Since that stupid assignment dragged on for a total of two hours making me miss Geography, I couldn't have met him by my classroom door.

"Shoot!" I stopped in my tracks and flashed open my phone, it was already nearly the end of break. "I've gotta go, Chris. Catch you later?" Before he had a chance to reply, I dashed off in the opposite direction.

As I got to my Geography room, I saw Jason's figure leaning against the wall, shaking off a group of girls' attempt at flirting with him.

I sighed and walked towards him. He saw me and flashed me a huge smile; I swear if eyes are as dangerous as knives, I'd have been stabbed about 100 times now.

"Sorry," I mumbled, "I had this extra long painful assessment with my tutor, and I completely forgot…"

"Don't worry about it." Again he flashed a grin at me, showing off those incredibly straight and white teeth of his. "But since lessons are about to start, how about seeing you some other time?"

I nodded dumbly, running through a list in my head of all the reasons why he would want to meet up with someone like me. "Sure … um …"

"Great!" He took out a pen and scribbled something down on the corner of his notebook before ripping it off and giving it to me. "That's my number. Call me tonight?"

I didn't take it so instead he stuffed it into my jacket. He did a little wave to the group of girls and disappeared around the corner. I reached out for the paper and as I had suspected, it was his mobile number.

I looked up and saw that I was completely surrounded by the girls. They stared at me up and down as if I was a panda in a zoo. I sighed heavily, this was going to be an extremely long day.

When I got home, I noticed two t hings. One, Mom was dressed up. I mean like, really dressed up, with make-up, bright red lipstip, cocktail dress etc. Two, there was a silver shine on the back of her left hand.

Me and Chris were asked to sit down at the table while Mom and Ryan looked somewhat nervous and excited at the same time.

"What is it?" I asked, not able to stand the tension.

Mom's face reddened and she gave me a timid smile. "Well … there's something … we would like to announce."

I nodded, urging her to go on. The tension in the room was unbearable.

"We … um…"

"We have decided," Ryan spoke and I saw Mom giving him a grateful look.

"We are going to get married."

Just like that, the short, blissful dream I had been living in vanished like a broken bubble. As if laughing in my face, the cruel reality of what's happening and what is about to happen brought me back to the real world.

I woke up, but the nightmare didn't go away.