Little Sweet Dreamer - Wattys Edition

Chapter 34

I felt discomfort as I opened my eyes. A plain-looking three-story house sat in front of me. The shingles on the roof fell to the ground as I approached its plain white walls. Not knowing why, I pressed the doorbell.

Part of me was afraid I somehow got caught in dad's murderer's dream again. If he opened the door, would he even recognize me?

Much to my surprise and also dismay, Sasha opened the door. She looked shocked, as I'm sure I did, too.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I don't know," I replied. She didn't look surprised that I was speaking. She stepped out of her house and closed the door behind her. From her body language alone, I could tell she was hostile. I backed up slowly down the steps, never taking my eyes off of her.

"Did you come here to rub it in, Hazel?" she hissed.

"Rub, what in?" I asked, seriously confused.

"The fact that you were able to swipe Grey away from me like you always wanted?"

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. "Why would I do that and want to rub it in?"

"Why wouldn't you?" She stopped walking, and so did I, ensuring we maintained a reasonable distance from each other. The wind howled around us and blew her hair into her face. She angrily brushed it away as she glared at me. "Of course, you'd want to gloat 'cause you took him away from me."

"I took him away from you?" I practically shouted. "You cheated on him several times before I even knew him. I didn't do anything that wasn't already going to happen eventually. Even if I weren't involved, he would've left you."

"There was a reason I cheated so much," Sasha said defensively. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

She regarded me cooly and then smoothed her hair back. "Grey never loved me or even liked me the way he likes you. He hardly gave me the attention I wanted. And nothing I did seemed to work until I cheated. Then he was all over me." She stomped her foot. "But he got distant again after a while until I cheated with Evan. And Evan was the only one who continuously gave me attention after we slept with each other. And that drove Grey crazy." I felt sick to my stomach.

"You're both trashy people."

She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "I told you you wouldn't understand." The wind around us began to blow harder.

"I understand it. But it doesn't justify your actions at all. You should've broken up with Grey if you felt you could get treated better somewhere else."

"I loved him," Sasha protested through grit teeth. "I didn't want to leave him."

"You loved him?" I laughed humorlessly. Enraged now, I picked up dirt from the ground and molded it in my hand. I needed her to be quiet before I lost my cool. "That's a joke, right?"

"I did love him, you b—" I smeared the dirt across her mouth, acting like glue. Her eyes bugged out of her head as she repeatedly tried to wipe it off. She looked semi-panicked when she finally realized it wouldn't easily come off.

"You didn't love him," I stated. "If you did, you wouldn't have cheated. And instead of acting grown, you behaved like the spoiled brat you are and threw a fit until you could get your way. And look where that got you!"

There was a fire in her eyes. With a muffled scream, she tried to shove me, and I quickly stepped away from her. She fell to the ground and stumbled up, swinging. This altercation was ridiculous, and I wouldn't entertain it anymore. I stepped away from her and floated into the air. She watched me as I went, not noticing the heavy footsteps approaching from behind.

When she finally felt them, she stiffened. She slowly turned around to see Mr. T-Rex towering over her. Her brain allowed her a head-start before it could chase after her. I felt the tug in my brain, knowing if I kept this up, I'd be awake.

The T-Rex chased after her slowly from behind. She looked around for ways to hide as the T-Rex got closer. Her subconscious fought against mine as I prevented any convenient hiding spots from popping up.

It roared behind her; she fell to the ground in fear, making a muffled cry for help.

I decided she had enough and dropped down beside her. The T-Rex nudged its head into the palm of my hand, and I whispered, "Thank you." It walked off while I looked down at her.

Tears were in her eyes. I wiped the mud off her mouth and tried not to feel guilty. Weakly, she stood up and said, "Where did that thing come from?"

"I don't know," I said with a shrug. She watched it walk off over my shoulder before looking back at me. She had tears streaming down her face and sniffled. I instantly felt terrible.

"Why do you hate me so much, Sasha?"

She sucked in her cheeks before rolling her eyes and lifting her chin. "I'm jealous of you. Even when I read that crappy poem about your father's death, I could already tell he loved you more than my father ever did." I sighed. I should've seen this coming even though I didn't want it to be the case—so that I wouldn't feel bad for hating her. But, of course, there was some reason she was acting the way she was. It wasn't because she was a genuinely bad person. It was because something was going on in her life.

"Why do you think your father doesn't love you?" I asked.

"I know he doesn't," she said. "He's hardly around. And when he is home, he never gives my mom or me any attention. He doesn't love us."

I didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry, Sasha."

"Spare me," she said as she wiped tears from her eyes. "The only way my mom got attention from my dad was when she started hanging out with her male co-workers. When my dad found out, he ended that real quick. My mom couldn't go out in public for a while. And then he threatened to beat me the same way he beat her if I ever did anything as stupid as that to a man. I thought since it provoked such a reaction out of my father, and he stayed with my mom, I'd at least get a similar response from Grey. But Grey left. And I'm back having no one."

She crossed her arms again and stared down at the ground. "Grey either didn't love me or fell out of love with me. Whenever I wanted to do something with him, he was busy with the boys. I wanted to go places with him, but he was tired of them. I wanted to have Us Time, and he said he couldn't come over. He used to want to spend time with me always. Then it was just him trying to do stuff he wanted to do instead of what I wanted to do.

"The last time we got back together, I could tell it wasn't out of love. And when he flirted with you in the cafeteria, I felt broken. He shouldn't have cared about you in any way. He shouldn't have cared about any other girl except me."

"Sasha, Grey cared about you very much," I said. "You should've talked to him. And if he didn't give you the attention you needed, you should've dumped him and found someone who would. Like Evan. You went about it the wrong way, and now people only see that bad side to what you did."

"But you can see the other side?" she asked numbly.

"Yeah," I said. "It doesn't mean I think it was okay."

"I know," she sniffled. "Whatever." She walked to her house, which was much closer than when she ran off, and I slowly followed behind her. She walked up the steps before stopping to look up at me.

"I don't regret trying to hurt you," she said. "I never will."

Of course not. The best thing about being in someone's head is they won't withhold anything from you. I saw who she was and what she was going through. She's let her unfortunate circumstances poison her.

Needing to be away from her, I imagined a hole on the last step. "Wake up for me, will ya?" She rose her eyebrow before turning around and stepping into the hole with a scream.