It's usually the same scene every night, but this time it's different: I'm at that party where lights flash like a rave and people are mingling and drinking till they drop. I walk in confidently, ready to make my mark on this new life, then everything slows. The people melt away around me like candle wax and the noise of a hundred voices stills to one of a man who won't hear my cries to stop. Then the terror of that horrible night is on an endless loop where despite my efforts to fight, he steals a part of me I can't get back. Suddenly, a familiar boy is helping me get through this nightmare as if he was there watching it with me. His eyes shine golden like mine. I experience a brief moment of relief in the arms of this stranger, but then the visuals in front of us fade, and transition into an unexpected new scene... Glimpses of uninterpretable madness. I feel cold and confused. Familiar yet unknown faces are flashing by. A terrifying woman with horns and long, starkly split black and white hair is on a throne with a massive parasite fused onto her chest. A golden chalice is spilling over, then the contents of the cup form a massive wave consuming everything in its path. I can feel a force of energy within me that I never have before. Then, I hear screaming and fighting like a war coming on. People I know are calling out to me, but I'm alone. Then a darkness, like a void, fills the scene and voice calls out, "Juniper, wake up," but this feels too real to be a dream.
Eyes snap open as Juniper shoots up in bed. She's shaking and covered in a cold sweat with a heart still pounding as if her horrors had followed her into reality.
In a small dorm room, split in two conflicting aesthetics, a girl with long, dark, curly hair stood over her with a steady look of concern etched on her face.
"Hey, are you alright? I've been trying to wake you up for like 45 minutes," the girl said, her voice airy and sweet.
Juniper reached for her phone to check the time. "Oh no! I can't believe I slept through my alarms again! Juniper jumped out of bed. "Celeste, you're a life saver!"
"From how violently you slept, I guess it's safe to assume the dream catcher I got you didn't help?" Celeste questioned, her voice tinged with disappointment.
Juniper looked over at the only colorful piece on her side of the room and cringed slightly. "Unfortunately not," she muttered. As she rushed to get dressed and ready for class, she glanced at her phone."Oh my god. Tess has been blowing up my phone."
"It's okay!" Celeste reassured her, "She texted me too and I let her know I would wake you up. She should be here in like 5 minutes or so—"
"Jesus, five minutes?!" Juniper interjected.
"I'm sorry." Celeste replied.
"It's not your fault." Juniper shook her head as she attempted to fix her dark, layered, unruly hair.
She threw on a black mesh long-sleeve and an oversized graphic band T-shirt and tucked them into her black jeans. Then she rummaged through a messy pile of cosmetics on the bathroom counter and lined her topaz-yellow eyes with black eyeliner, multitasking with a toothbrush in her mouth. She forcefully wedged on her black combat boots and then there was a knock at the door. When she opened it, a chic, tall, blonde girl stood holding three coffees with a big smile.
"Tess!"
"Hey, love. I heard you had a rough morning, so I grabbed you a coffee."
Juniper thanked her, and the three girls made their way out.
On the walk to class, Tess sparked up some conversation about Juniper's nightmares.
"Sooo, I'm guessing the sleeping pills didn't help?"
Juniper turned her head to Tess. "Unfortunately not... It is what it is though. I'll be fine." She reassured.
Tess looked disappointed. "What are they about?—your nightmares."
Juniper smiled awkwardly. "You know I don't wanna talk about it."
"And you know I don't want to pry... look, I'm worried about you, and maybe if we get to the root of all this, it will be easier to help." Tess insisted.
Celeste chimed in after her, " I read once that nightmares can be caused by a plethora of things like: reading scary books or watching scary movies, medications, stress, anxiety, or trauma!" She said confidently. "Do you think it could be any of those?
Juniper held her breath as a montage of scenes started to spiral in her head. Without making eye contact, she tried to change the subject. "You guys are awesome, really! But, I don't need any help."
Tess and Celeste exchanged a glance. "Everyone needs help sometimes." Tess persisted.
"Right! But not this time." Juniper didn't feel ready to open that can of worms. "Guys, I'm okay!" She sighed. "I can never remember it all anyways. It's some reoccurring memory that I'd really rather not get into, and the rest is so hard to recall that I couldn't tell you if I wanted to." For a moment, she strained to remember anything about the montage of madness, but her mind drew a blank.
The girls stopped in the hallway near their lockers, students flooding the hallways. Celeste grabbed some textbooks out of her locker as she spoke. "My dad could probably help."
Juniper rolled her eyes. "I don't want Mr. Peach to know my whole life's story. That's... weird."
Celeste threw her hand on her hip. "Not when he's literally a psychology genius."
"Yea, but he's also your dad and my teacher." Juniper countered. "Thanks, but no thanks!"
The three girls continued their conversation until the school bell rang loudly.
"Oh shit! We're gonna be late!" Juniper said as her attention redirected. Tess and Juniper hugged Celeste and parted ways as they rushed through the halls. When they neared their classroom Tess reached out and grabbed Juniper's hand, causing Juniper to whip around in surprise. "Hey... you can talk to me, you know."
Juniper's face suddenly felt hot as she internally got flustered by the gesture. "Yea... Of— of course!" She smiled softly back at her.
The two girls quietly entered the classroom and took their seats, setting out their writing utensils and notebooks. Their teacher, Mr. Peach, was already standing in front of the class to start their lesson. Behind him on the whiteboard, the word "PSYCHOLOGY" was written in big letters.
Tess was engaged in every part of the lesson, while Juniper couldn't take her mind off of the suspense in her head. She wondered how long she could keep up the secret of what happened between her and Adrian. Tess noticed Juniper tapping her leg and flicking her pencil, seemingly lost in thought about something. She slid over a small folded piece of paper. Juniper snapped out of her daze and grabbed the paper, and unfolded it to see the silly face Tess drew. Juniper silently exhaled in amazement and tried to focus on the rest of the class lesson.
Before she knew it, the bell rang to leave and all the students gathered their belongings and scurried out of the classroom. As Tess and Juniper made their way to the door, Mr. Peach called out, "Juniper! Tess!" The tall, clean, man lowered his glasses as he spoke. "A word with you both for a moment."
Juniper breathed out, "Fuck," as they walked over.
"What's up, Peachy-Peach?" Tess asked.
"You were both late today," Mr. Peach said.
The girls looked at each other.
"Sorry, I was running behi-" Juniper started.
"It was my fault," Tess interjected.
Juniper shot a glance at Tess wondering why she decided to take the heat for both of them. After all, Juniper had been late many times before but Tess was a student with nearly perfect attendance.
Tess continued. "I stopped for coffee and there was a huge line today. Sorry about that!"
Mr. Peach crossed his arms. "Alright, well this isn't the first time some of you have been late," he glanced at Juniper, "and with both of you being so close with my daughter, I just want to make sure you know I still mean business here."
"I totally understand. We'll be more on top of it moving forward!" Tess assured.
Juniper chimed in after her, "Yeah, definitely. Plus, Celeste is just as good a student as she is a friend. I'm trying to be more like her!" Juniper added, smiling convincingly.
Mr. Peach raised one eyebrow and gave the girls a light hearted 'get outta here' head gesture as he sent the girls on their way. As they walked through the hallways of the school, Tess and Juniper started to plan out the rest of their day.
"So, you work today?" Tess asked.
"Yeah, just a short shift though. Do you want to link up afterwards?"
"Absolutely I do!"
"Great!"
"Okay, so we'll wait for Celeste to get out of med class, I'll drop you off at work, me and Celeste will hang at the mall until you get off, we'll pick you up, and we can all meet at your place for a little ladies' night. Sound good?" Tess asked.
"Sounds great!" Juniper confirmed.
Just then in the hallway, a tall red-haired guy aggressively bumped into Juniper. She stumbled a bit but Tess just barely caught her fall. When Juniper turned around to see who ran into her, she immediately shut down into silence. Don't make eye contact, she thought. Of all the students here, it had to be him? Please don't talk to me, Juniper begged in her mind. The guy whipped around and when he saw Juniper, there was a brief and hesitant pause before he snickered, "Watch where you're going," and walked away.
Tess got hot and angry and yelled out at the guy, "Seriously, jackass!? You bumped into her! You didn't have to be fucking rude!" She turned over to Juniper who was still staring down. "Hey, are you alright, love? Adrian is such a dick!" Tess said.
Juniper could feel her anxieties weighing on her and before letting them pour out, she calmly said, "Can I go sit in your car, please?"
Tess was concerned but figured she needed a minute. "Of course," she said while handing Juniper her car keys. "I'll just wait for Celeste and meet you over there."
Juniper tried to suppress her emotions until she got to the car. She did some breathing exercises and finally told herself she couldn't keep pretending nothing was wrong when it was affecting her so deeply. It's like I can't escape him, she thought. As she sat in the car, she closed her eyes attempting to calm her mind.
Tess stood outside the school trying to piece together the mystery of what's causing her friend so much pain. It bothered her to see Juniper having such a hard time.
Breaking her train of thought, a sweet, airy voice called out. "Hey, Tess!"
Tess looked up and smiled as her friend approached excitedly.
"Celeste! Did you get my text?" Tess said.
"Yup, I got it! We'll drop Juni off at work and go to the mall till she gets off. Then we can link up at our place, right?" Celeste replied.
"Yup, that's the plan."
"So where's Juni?"
"Oh, she's already waiting for us in my car."
Tess and Celeste finished chatting and made their way to the car where Juniper put on her happiest mask so they wouldn't catch on to her mood. They listened to music until they arrived at a small building with the sign reading "Smokey Point" on it. Juniper got her things together and said bye to her friends before making her way out of the car and into the smoke shop.
Inside, two of her co-workers were unboxing a shipment of bongs, bowls, and other tobacco related products. Forrest, the manager, always dressed edgy with his hair in a grungy, modern mullet, and piercings on his eyebrow, ears and bottom lip. He wore a black sweater over a white T-shirt with black jeans and a silver chain was visible over his shirt.
With him was Daisy, a short girl with a total stoner vibe. She had sharp, black, teardrop-shaped, tattooed eyebrows, and a stort-to-long neon green bob with baby-bangs. She wore a green, yellow, black and red, striped Rasta hoodie, tying together her look.
When Juniper entered the building, Forrest immediately blushed and turned to Daisy to hide his obvious fluster. Daisy nudged him with a cheeky look while Juniper approached them nonchalantly. "Hey guys. How's today been?"
Daisy reached over to give Juniper a very "bro" kind of hand shake. "Pretty good, I can't complain," she said.
Forrest went in for a side hug as he responded. "It's the same old around here! How was class? Psychology, right?"
"Yep. It was good, I guess." Juniper looked around the building. "Is it just us today?" Juniper asked
"Nah, Xenia is in the back too." Daisy replied.
Juniper walked around the counter. Throwing her bag underneath. Forrest tried to hide his giddiness as she passed him. When she walked to the back, she saw Xenia labeling some things.
Xenia was a lean girl with black shoulder length hair, and big round glasses. She had an almost tomboy touch to her style, with baggy pants and a black high neck top. One of her arms was covered in black tattoos and a flannel was tied loosely around her waist. She always had a serious demeanor about her and she spoke with a monotone voice.
As Juniper entered the room, Xenia looked up fiercely with her usual blank stare, "Hey," she said.
Juniper nervously said "hey" back, and with a rush of anxiety coming over her, she casually walked past Xenia to the restroom.
She stood with her back against the bathroom door. Why is my social circle so small... Juniper thought to herself. I know Xenia isn't a direct tie, but her twin sister literally is dating Adrian. Juniper turned to the sink and splashed some cool water on her face. Maybe if this wasn't such a small town, everyone wouldn't be so connected. She told herself to put her focus into work right now instead of stressing about Adrian.
Coming out of the restroom, Juniper heard a familiar friendly voice talking to Daisy. She walked over to see Forrest's younger brother sitting at a table. Juniper's face lit up.
"Meek! What are you doing here?" she exclaimed.
Meek looked over and smiled as he stood up to give Juniper a friendly hug. "I'm just killing time! It's good to see you!" he said.
"It's good to see you, too," Juniper started, "It's definitely been too long. Forrest didn't even mention you were stopping in."
Meek playfully rolled his eyes as he responded, "Damn, that's probably because he's always busy talking about y—".
"H-hey bro! Isn't Sunny coming?" Forrest jumped over to Meek, interrupting him at the last moment.
Juniper's attention shifted, "Oh yeah, what's up with that? Are you guys dating now or...?"
Meek chuckled nervously with a hand on his neck and started to blush. "Yea, we finally made it official!"
"Congrats, little man!" Daisy said.
"Awe, I'm really happy for you!" Juniper added.
"Yeah man, we all like her a lot more than your ex-boyfriend, that's for sure," Forrest chimed in.
"Thanks, guys! I'm actually waiting for her to meet me here and then we're gonna head over to the library to study."
"Ooo, a study date," Daisy teased.
"Yeah, Adrian should actually be here any minute to drop her off!"
Juniper's stomach churned as the realization hit her. Her throat tightened and she could feel the heat rising in her face. The idea of seeing him again made her skin crawl. This town was too small, too intertwined, and there was no way to escape the tangled web of connections.