I only stared at the ticket, Charlie was grinning widely at me and I could not utter anything but a weak, "So what?"

"So, we're gonna see them again!" she enthusiastically replied and all I could do was stare at her for a few seconds.

Laying my arm above my eyes, I ignored the annoying woman and laid on my side. My exhausted body could not bear any more drama today so when sleep started crawling on me, I hugged it and let the darkness take over me.

I woke up at the smell of garlic and butter but there was something eerie about it. Investigating where I was with half-opened eyes, I saw Charlie sitting on the single sofa. She was holding a bowl of popcorn and I could hear the faint sounds from the television now. I fell asleep on the couch, huh.

Charlie barely glanced at me when I sat up. "Good. You're up," she said and stood up from her chair. She put the popcorn down and picked up her phone from the table. She ushered me to follow her and I did whilst stumbling all over. I had to lean on the railings of the staircase to support my weight. My sight was all blurry and I felt like puking all over. What the fuck is happening to me?

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment. I could hear Charlie's voice calling me over and over but it sounded like it was muffled by water. My eyes shot open when it finally registered to me. I was drowning.

The coldness of the water hit me like a freight train and I struggled to swim upwards. However, with just a faint light illuminating my surroundings, I wasn't sure where the hell was up and down nor left and right. I was lost in a never-ending sea and I could feel the oxygen leaving my body rapidly, like the sands in an hourglass with a bigger hole than what was normal.

I was shouting, I knew I was, but I couldn't seem to hear myself and it was making me frustrated. I didn't know where I was nor what was happening and I let out a strangled cry. Bubbles formed from my lips and instead of floating up, it was going down.

I might be facing the wrong direction.

With a sense of urgency, I tried angling my body downwards, my head now pointed to where the bubbles disappeared to and I tried my best to swim. Flickers of lights could be seen and I kicked my legs harder and faster before black dots could cover my sight.

I gasped as soon as I reached the surface. My arms and legs were sore from the intense swim but my mind didn't register the pain. Instead, I was forced to put my attention on something else. The sky was dim, a sign that a storm was coming. The howling of the wind sounded muffled against my ears and my body was almost ice-cold. I tried to look for the shore but all I could see was the cliff some distance away from me. I tried going towards it, yet it felt like hours had passed but I was stuck in the same place.

I felt warm tears fell down my face as hopelessness invaded my being. With trembling hands and face facing the dark sky, I let drift together with the cold breeze. The water was getting deeper and it swallowed me whole. Darkness enveloped even my close lids and water was filling my throat until everything stopped.

"Cav!" A shout woke me up and I was left gasping for air. My hand reached out to the nearest object and my fists enclosed on some cotton. Shooting my eyes open, I saw my Mom with a terrified look on her face while clutching my shoulders.

"Mom," I mumbled and she enveloped me in a hug. I sobbed against her chest and I felt her hold on me tightened. I repeated her name over and over again as if a chant to keep my demons at bay.

It had always been like this. I would dream about drowning and dying and I would wake up running out of breath. Doctors have told me that it was a side effect of the crash and I would have to live with it for the rest of my life. It was some kind of trauma that formed into my worst nightmare that kept chasing after me and getting me by the collar. Suffocating. Exhausting.

Charlie burst into the doorway with a bottle of iced tea and handed it to me. I drowned the whole thing in one gulp and finally calmed down. "Thank you," I said and giving the empty bottle back to her.

"Are you okay?" Mom asked and I nodded weakly. She smiled back and walked towards the kitchen.

Charlie was staring at me with an unfathomable expression on her face and when I tried asking, she gave me a ghost of a smile and I left it at that. There were questions that I wanted to voice out but I was afraid to do so. I was aware that there were things better left hidden in the dark instead of probing about answers we would regret.

The complete silence was interrupted by a ding. Charlie looked at her phone on the coffee table and picked it up. A frown graced her face and after a moment, a flood of notification came from mine. I took out my phone from my pocket and I felt a bit sore for sitting on it. I was just about to unlock it when Charlie attempted to swipe it off my hand. I pulled back with a yelp and held my device close to me.

"What the fuck?" I exclaimed. "What is wrong with you, woman?"

She tried to grab my phone again and I continued dodging her attempts. "Just give it to me!"

I jumped from the couch as she leapt on me. I ran towards the kitchen and I heard her following me, a cuss was uttered every so often. I stopped at the end of the counter and she was on the other side. She was huffing out of breath because trust me when I say that she lacked exercise more than I did.

She ran after me and I successfully hid inside the restroom and locked it as soon as I closed the door. She pounded on it and I shrieked, "What the fuck, Charlie!"

"Open this goddamn door, Cavalier!" she yelled and I rolled my eyes at her.

I walked towards the toilet and pulled the lid down. I sat on it and decided to check my phone and investigate this unusual behaviour from the woman outside. I frowned when I saw Twitter notifications on my screen. I haven't been on that platform for almost two months so I didn't know what was up. I unlocked it immediately and waited anxiously for the app to load. When it did, I saw that I have like thousands of notifications, all of them were mentioning me with some insults and rude remarks.

I searched for the source of this outrage from people I never knew and it came down to one tweet. It was a picture of the boy band and I from the ice cream shop and I sighed loudly. Not because I was afraid that it was of exasperation from social dilemmas like this one.

"Cav? Are you there?" I heard Charlie said from behind the door and I glared at it, mentally hoping I'd be able to melt it along with the annoying woman.

"Yes," I replied coolly. If she thought that I would freak out because of the insults, the jokes were on her for being a drama queen. I've been through worse and petty name-callings such as this was not enough to break my walls. Sure, I felt so mad at those young men for dragging me into this but a part of me, the logical one, insisted that I should just leave it be and move on.

 However, curiosity got the best out of me so I continued scrolling through the tweets when I stumbled upon a certain thread. It started off with the usual, "She's such a slut" from someone with the username MommyPayne but the replies were the ones that caught my attention.

LOLLI_1D: I was inside the shoppe and I saw how she was mad at them.

MommyPayne: Yeah so?

LOLLI_1D: I dunno. It seemed weird to think that she's dating any of them.

HarryTrain101: But why would she be mad at them?

Awakened_Truth: Maybe she just doesn't like them.

MommyPayne: Impossible!

LOLLI_1D: Totally possible but the question is, why?

I didn't know what happened but something in me shifted. My movements became robotic as I opened the door and handed my phone to her. I headed straight to my room and went to lay down on the bed. I was so out of it that before I drifted to sleep, all that registered in my mind was the word "Why?"

Check out the wonderful trailer made by Dredge116!
Also, I changed One Direction's (Not So) Little Sis to THROUGH THE DARK. Please don't get confused, lololol!

Love lots,
V