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Five minutes passed before they had finally reached their destination: school.
It was a big school, around 6 buildings, most with three floors. It was relatively new and modern looking, despite it being built almost forty years ago. Lots of windows, allowing lots of light inside. Some architectural shenanigans were visibly littered around the outside. None of the students understood what those things were.
Were they sculptures? Were they supposed to have a deep meaning? Or did a three-year-old draw something, and an artist saw it and thought," Now this is perfect!"?
Other than that minor detail, it seemed like a pretty normal place. If it wasn't for the huge writing on the wall saying 'Great Bishop's RC secondary school and sixth form', any passer-by would mistake the place for an office.
"Ladies first," said Andrea, motioning to the automatic doors of the building. After spending most of their short walk staring into space while Lee had to hum tunes to keep himself occupied, Andrea couldn't help but feel a little bit bad. Lee woke up, willingly, every morning just for her, and she couldn't even keep a single, normal conversation going. She was a horrible friend.
Whether annoyance was the best way to make it up to Lee, however, was quite debatable.
"Wow Addy, comedy gold right there, never been done before, totally original," said Lee throwing his hands in the air as he walked through the large, automatic, glass doors, and into the stillness inside.
Both of them enjoyed the serenity and quietness that loomed the school halls during those hours. While Andrea liked it because she didn't like people (for personal reasons), Lee simply enjoyed the alone time he had. Andrea's presence made it possible for him. Complete isolation was not an ideal thing for him- for personal reasons.
They walked up many flights of stairs, six to be exact, and six too many according to Andrea. They passed corridors and corridors of classrooms, filled with nothingness. It was a ghost town in the mornings, not even the teachers were there.
Eventually, they were at the library doors, each of their hands ready to push them open. If you didn't go to this school, you would easily mistake this room for another classroom. That was a theme in this school, everything looked the same. Same oak doors outside every room, the same spacious design in every corridor. Neither of the friends complained, or anyone in the school.
After all, it did look nice... aesthetically.
Pushing the doors open, Lee and Andrea entered the library. Shelves of books lined the walls, and more shelves stood solitarily like large dominoes around the room. It sort of seemed that the dominoes marked out a passage to the sitting area in the back; a corridor mapped out by the design. The back wall of the room was a large window, covered in dirt and various stains that no one had been bothered to wash. It was a relatively clean place if you ignored the dirt all those books had. The librarian's desk was situated just to the right of the door, and an old lady with glasses sat there, reading a rather new book (Andrea couldn't see the name). She didn't bother to look up or acknowledge that the duo had walked in. They didn't need her to.
They began to make their way down the domino pathway.
Andrea had always wondered, what would happen if she pushed over one of those bookcases. Would they fall like dominoes, one after another? A chain reaction. The ultimate demonstration of gravity.
It was thoughts like that, that made Andrea worry about the thrashing hyenas cackling in the caves of her mind. Thoughts like that, where she was just a bit too tempted to test them. Thoughts like that, that disregard useless things like consequences, casualties, or regrets.
Things she'd have to live with for the rest of her life.
As they made their way down the corridor, Andrea tried to distract herself from where her mind was wandering to. She looked at all the books that were present on the shelves. Some had old, falling apart covers; while others were shimmering, the plastic new and uncreased. Some were non-fiction, some were fantasy. Some held stories, some held information.
Walking slowly towards the sitting area in the back, Andrea was busy scanning the shelves, pretending that she hadn't been coming there every morning for the past five years. She sometimes liked to pretend that stuff was different. It was a silly thing she did when she had nothing better to do.
Well, that day must've been the luckiest day of her life, because as the two finally entered the sitting area in the back, she didn't have to pretend. What they saw made both Andrea and Lee stop dead in their tracks, and rub their eyes to ensure that they weren't dreaming.
The sitting area was relatively small: a round table with wheelie chairs was in the centre of the open area, and a few sofas were littered around the corners with stray pillows thrown about carelessly. Usually, all these would be empty, untouched by anyone until the school day officially started.
However, sitting there by the round table, was a girl hunched over a notebook, with a coffee cup standing on the desk beside her where she was working.
Someone both Lee and Andrea recognised.
"Daisy?" asked Andrea. She was so used to the library being barren, that seeing her friend there that early was quite shocking. The ghost town finally had a visitor that wasn't the usual two local spectres.
"Huh?" Daisy mumbled, raising her head from the depths of her book. A bit too fast, as her glasses didn't quite follow her head movement, and fell to the table with a loud clunk, " Sugar, these glasses are terrible. Hello guys, what are you doing here?"
"We could ask you the same thing, we always come early, you know that. We literally asked you a few weeks ago if you wanted to join us," said Lee, confusion riddled in his voice.
"Yes, I remember. I declined, didn't I? I was just worried that you wouldn't want me around. I don't want to bother either of you and I don't want to be a problem..." began Daisy. Tears could be seen glistening at the sides of her eyes.
"What are you on about? We wouldn't ask you to join us if we didn't want you here. Lighten up a bit Daisy, Jesus," said Andrea, giggling a bit to help lighten the atmosphere. Now she really was putting to help bat away the tension, "What do you mean, 'I declined'? What are you? Eighty years old? We're too lazy for that kind of formality."
Daisy smiled a small smile, picking up her glasses and brushing away the tears that had previously emerged.
Ever since Daisy was a little girl, she was very skittish. She always worried and second-guessed herself. She and Andrea had been best friends since year three, so Andrea knew this was a recurring thing Daisy struggled with. Why she did, no one knew, even Daisy didn't. She sometimes joked that it's simply because she was born like that. Worry, stress, anxiety; they always seemed to be waltzing across her mind, clouding all logic and reason. Could you call it a problem, if it seemed to be her nature? A part of her? That's the reasoning she used that meant she didn't have any therapists growing up. Her therapy was her friends. At least, that's what Daisy told everyone.
Andrea helped her especially. She was always happy to comfort and reassure Daisy, even when she was being unreasonable. She loved Andrea, and Andrea loved her (both ways platonically). Andrea even still wore the necklace Daisy had given her back when high school started, something that Daisy used to pull on whenever she was worried. A very sentimental object to the skittish girl. It was small and silver, with dark crystals shaped like the petals of a flower trapped inside the pendulum of glass. It was beautiful, and Andrea wore it every day on her. It was her most prized gift, from someone she cared deeply about. Andrea herself hated seeing Daisy so worried, it's why she always tried her best to approach Daisy in the right way.
Like a human being.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Come sit down then," sighed Daisy, pulling out the two seats either side.
"Why Daisy, thank you. Such a gentleman-like gesture, a true man of courtesy," Lee laughed, his chubby cheeks rising to give off his signature smile. Daisy's cheeks painted themselves in a gentle pink tint. Mind you, not because she liked Lee in that way. This... was merely another habit of hers, that pounced into the light any time she felt stupid... and that was often. It's why she acquired the name 'Rosy Daisy', a name that had taunted her ever since year two.
It isn't even that bad a name, Andrea had people call her 'stone-faced bitch', and 'gagy Addy'.
Andrea pushed those thoughts to the back of her head. This wasn't the time to nitpick.
The pair sat down, and the trio began their conversation.
The forty minutes before lesson went past like a blur. It was filled with laughter and jokes, and constant telling off by the stray librarian for being too loud, and absolutely no work being done. The library began to fill with more and more people as the clock drew closer and closer to more acceptable times of being awake. It was a shock to the three friends when the bell went off, signalling the start of class. The harsh buzz even made Andrea jump and fall off her chair.
A bit harder than she expected.
"Shit," she moaned, as she pushed herself off the ground, "I swear that dumbbell is getting louder every day."
"Oh my gosh! Andrea, you're hurt!" Daisy practically yelled. A few other kids in uniform began to murmur and point. They were too scared to approach the sixth former.
"What? Daisy I just fell off my chair it's not a big deal," Andrea began, but Lee grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face him.
"No Andrea, you're hurt, there's a fresh wound on your head," he said. Andrea could see the concern in his eyes. She stepped back and put her hand to her head. She could feel there was some warm liquid on her forehead. Looking at her hand, she saw that there was some blood on it - her blood.
"Bruh, I just fell off my chair and landed on the carpet, how the hell did I cut myself? It's not like I hit my head on a rock or some-" her face dropped.
"Addy, are you okay? It looks really bad, you should go to the nurse before-"
"No," Andrea cut off Daisy. She was shocked and hurt, but there was no way she was going to go to the nurse. She swore that lady had it out for her... and something else wasn't right.
"Andrea this isn't the time for you to be a bitch. You're hurt, you need medical attention," Lee said. He was right.
"It's not that Lee," Andrea said, " She's not going to do anything. Look, I have some plasters in my bag, I'll put one on and when I get home I'll have my dad look at it."
Neither Lee nor Daisy were happy with what Andrea was saying, but they couldn't argue with her. She was too stubborn. Instead, they helped Andrea apply the plaster and began making their way out of the library. Before they left, Lee asked stupidly, "Hey guys? Is it just me or were we only talking for like a few minutes?"
Daisy looked at him confused, but Andrea knew what he meant. That was the second time that day that time seemed to speed up.
"Let's not worry about it too much Lee, if it happens again I promise that we'll find out why, one way or another."
It's said that time moves faster when you're having fun, but both Andrea and Lee knee that was not what was happening. Even Daisy could feel in her gut that their little meetup was suspiciously short. After all, she didn't even get to finish writing her sentence before she was forced to leave by a grouchy lady with a 'librarian' sticker stuck to her cardigan.
To Andrea, it almost felt as if she was still running. She had not forgotten her previous nightmare. It would be a damn long time before she managed to forget it. Why did it feel like time was escaping her? Running like the wind that would eventually... lead...
... a shiver ran down her spine...
... lead to a watery grave.
That fall really did scare her, didn't it?
Strange. The dreams that had been dreamt by Andrea before never fell short from crazy. She was used to it; crazy dreams. The things she had met when she closed her eyes. A small fall into water seemed so trivial. Why was it bothering her so much? Was it because it seemed so... real?...
But as the day drew on, Andrea began to believe more and more that it was real. Her waking up covered in water? The unexplainable wound she got out of nowhere? The sensation of running? It was all too surreal to Andrea. She could feel herself losing touch with reality. If that even was reality. What if it was just another elaborate dream? What if that wasn't real either? What if she was dead? What if Daisy and Lee weren't real either? What if they're both also dead? What if everyone is dead and she's the only one alive and she's going insane and they're all just people she made up to cope with unbearable loneliness? What if -
"Hello? Earth to Addy?" called out Daisy, from a realm beyond that of Andrea's mind. What was Andrea doing? 'Get back into focus idiot, you'll worry your friends,' she harshly thought as she twisted her head to look at her friend.
"I'm awake, Daisy," Andrea said, trying to smile as if she wasn't just questioning her friend's existence.
"As I was saying, there's a field trip today, and..." said Daisy, a slight bounce in her step as she walked down the crowded corridor. They were already out of the library and going to tutor, migrating from one room to another like a flock of flightless birds. The three of them.
Wait, no, two of them. Where was Lee? OMG DID HE DIE?
"Where's Lee?" asked Andrea, raising her voice in clear alarm. A few people looked at her judgmentally.
"He went to the bathroom," said Daisy, looking backwards and motioning to the boys' toilets behind them, " Anyways, did you hear me? School trip?"
"Oh, right, toilet," Andrea mumbled. Paranoia was really outdoing itself today. First, her questioning the solidity of her floor, then her thinking her stepmother was a phantom, now thinking Lee had died for some reason-
"For crying out loud Addy! Why are you ignoring me?! School trip?!" asked Daisy, raising her voice in annoyance.
"Sorry Daisy, I'm just a bit tired. I didn't mean to ignore you. No, I forgot we had a trip today, guess I brought in my books for no reason, huh?" Andrea responded. God, she needed to stop going on tangents in her head.
"It doesn't matter, we're going to some river for a geography field trip, they'll provide all the wellingtons, so don't worry about that. Well, you should kind of worry, I can't even begin to imagine the fungus festivals that must be in those shoes β" Daisy waffled, but Andrea didn't listen. She couldn't listen. Her head began to hurt. The static settled back in.
Registration went by like an invisible blur, yet again. Hellos were exchanged faster than Andrea could respond. She was already at the coach, in a seat, staring out of a window that had a graffitied bad word in the corner; travelling into an unknown abyss.
Since all her wishes seemed to come true, she decided to stupidly make one more:
... I wish that dream wasn't another stupid vision...