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And then, she was falling, her nose connecting harshly with a tree root sticking out of the forest dirt making her eyes water at the pain of it, as big hands wrapped around her ankles and started pulling her back to where she had come from.
Aria wanted to scream and beg for them to let her go, let her get away, but no sound left her mouth as the darkness swallowed her whole.
~
Aria woke up with a start, breathing harshly as if she had just finished running a marathon.
She sat up and leaned against the pillows, dragging a shaking hand across her sweat-covered face.
Another nightmare, she thought and closed her eyes with a tired sigh, disappointment prickling under her skin, feeling pretty foolish for hoping that the dreams had finally stopped since she hadn’t had one in the past couple of days.
For just a moment Aria considered calling Nura to ask her for her therapist’s phone number that the girl had offered her numerous times, but she quickly changed her mind like she always did.
The truth was that most of the time Aria couldn’t even think about the past without getting a panic attack, let alone talk to a stranger about it.
She quickly got out of the bed and went to the bathroom across the hall intent on getting a shower. After getting out of her soaked up shirt and the sweats that had seen better days, she stepped under the lukewarm water while she tried to calm her still rapidly beating heart.
She could feel the beginnings of a panic attack at the edges of her mind, so she started counting back from a hundred while breathing in and out slowly; one of the quickest ways to stop thinking about the agony of her dreams.
It didn’t matter how many times Aria had that same nightmare; the effects of it were always exhausting, leaving her a sniveling mess in the aftermath.
She quickly scrubbed her body with soap, trying and failing to ignore the marks carved into the pale skin that reminded her of the past that she was so desperate to forget, as her fingers moved over them.
After rinsing off and grabbing a warm towel from the rack, she made her way to the closet and pulled out a pair of black jeans, a white, cotton shirt, and her favorite black flats. She looked at her reflection once she was done with dressing and frowned.
Aria was on the rather short side, even for a girl, with barely-there curves, a head full of ordinary brown hair that fell flat over her shoulders, big blue eyes and full lips which she has always found too big for her small face. People often described her as cute and pretty, but try as she might, she could not see what they apparently did.
A small glint caught her eyes and they fall on the golden cross peeking out of her shirt. It was a birthday gift that her mother had given her a long time ago and the only thing that Aria had managed to keep from her childhood.
She felt a pang of sadness in her chest when she thought about her mother; about her beautiful, smiling face and always welcoming arms and the fact that Aria would never see her again almost brought her down to her knees.
She was brought out of her musings when a knock sounded off at the apartment door.
“Hello, love! How are we on this fine Monday morning?” her best friend Nura said before Aria had even finished opening the door to let her in.
With her wild, brown, curly hair, and fiery personality, Nura was a force to be reckoned with and Aria’s complete opposite.
She still wasn’t sure how they came to be best friends since the only things they had in common were their place of work and the fact that they both had questionable pasts.
They met the previous year when Aria got hired to be a bartender at the club called ‘The Echo’. Nura was already working there and she was the one to show her the ropes of the job.
After that, Nura wouldn’t leave her alone, always asking her out, telling her about her childhood and trying to befriend her even though Aria spend most of their time together actively ignoring her.
Aria had been reluctant at first, afraid of being hurt again, but if Nura was anything, it was persistent,
and over time she managed to worm her way under Aria’s skin.
“How can you be so happy on a Monday morning; I will never understand.” Aria said absentmindedly while looking for her keys and wallet.
“Well, my dear Ari, you would be too in my place. I spent the night at Nate’s and guess what!?” Nura said, practically vibrating with excitement, reminding her of a puppy preparing to go for a walk.
“He asked me to move in with him!” the girl suddenly screamed startling her, before proceeding to jump up and down around the apartment.
After getting over the initial shock, Aria joined her friend in celebration and hugged her tightly. She felt over the moon for her, since she knew very well how perfect Nura and Nate were for each other and after all the things that have happened between them, they deserved all the happiness that they could get.
Even though Aria was wary of the guys from the club or any guy in general, she thought of Nate as an exception to the rule.
You only had to look at the way he treated Nura; how much he loved her and cared for her, to know that he would never even think about hurting her intentionally.
