Nightmare

Chapter 1:
          It was a pleasurably day with school finally over. Cora and Carmen walked to Carmen’s car on their way to Cora’s house like usual, “I don’t understand why you stay up so late. I bet you stayed up late reading again.” Carmen unlocked her car and threw her book bag in the backseat. Before getting inside she leaned against the car with her hands crossed on the roof staring at Cora with a sympathetic look. “Why don’t you try to get more sleep or participate in class every now and then? Or at least stay awake to hear some of it.”
         “I envy you.” Cora said after releasing an exhausted sigh, “How do you manage to get straight A’s and still get solid hours of sleep? I would love it if I could get as much sleep as you do.” Cora imitated Carmen and threw her book bag in the backseat as well and with a satisfying sigh slid into the passenger seat and closed the door. While Carmen was starting the car Cora closed her eyes and stuck her head out the window feeling the dry autumn breeze brushing against her cheek and flowing through her hair. She closed her eyes immersing herself with the sensations.
         Carmen studied Cora’s expression as the car started, “You were thinking about that thing again weren’t you?” As soon as the question left Carmen’s lips Cora’s posture changed from relaxed to stiff and her blissful smile wilted. Even with her blatant distaste of the question she kept her eyes closed and remained silent. She opened her mouth about to say something and then gave up on words and just nodded. With that response Carmen released a sigh of her own. This was why Cora never mentioned this topic to Carmen if she could avoid it. She knew that Carmen thought ill on the subject. Cora had only told her about it once but has regretted it ever since. Cora remembered when Carmen once suggested that Cora meet with a psychologist. Cora heavily refused the suggestion clearly feeling offended. She knew she wasn’t crazy and she hadn’t spoken to Carmen for quite a while because of that. The thought of bringing up the subject again was beginning to depress her. Cora opened her eyes and watched Carmen as she pulled out of the parking lot heading to Cora’s house.
          “So you were thinking about that nightmare again?” Carmen pulled up to a red light and turned to Cora. “I remember when you told me about it. You seemed really freaked out about it. But you have to forget about it, it was such a long time ago.” Carmen turned her attention back to the road as the light turned green.
         Cora stared outside the window trying to remember when the nightmares had first started. It seemed like it was years ago when it was really just a few months. Carmen believed it to be a while ago but what she didn’t know that Cora repeatedly had that same nightmare over and over again.
         “I’m not telling you because I know you hate it,” Cora replied as Carmen pulled up to Cora’s house, each word Cora said carried her exhaustion for this conversion. As Cora had thought, this conversation was proving to be a bad idea. “We don’t need to talk about it.”
         As soon as the car was in park Cora collected her things and started heading for her front door. Cora invited Carmen inside after she found her key and opened the door.
         After getting beverages and refreshments from the kitchen they settled down in Cora’s room. The house was empty except for Carmen and Cora. Both of Cora’s parents had time consuming jobs which made it impossible to be home when Cora returned from school. Cora never felt any ill will for her parents having to work constantly. Cora grew accustomed to an empty house. It wasn’t until Carmen got a car for her birthday was she able to accompany Cora back to her house after school, Cora welcomed the company. In Cora’s room Cora was sprawled on her bed while Carmen had her homework laid out on the floor. Cora couldn’t believe how exhausted she was.
         After a couple of silent minutes Cora lifted herself from her bed and crawled on the ground to join Carmen on the floor. Carmen lifted her head from her books stealing a glance at Cora. “Why’d you come down?”
         “I was getting too sleepy lying down. I didn’t want to fall asleep on you.” Cora replied trying to find a comfortable position on the floor. Despite having homework Cora didn’t open her book bag. She instead absently stared at Carmen’s work as if checking it to make sure it was correct. Carmen watched Cora out of the corner of her eye while trying to focus on her homework until she was so immersed in her work that she lost track of her.
         After Carmen had finished her assignments she turned to see what Cora had been doing while she was working only to find Cora’s eyes closed with her head slightly drooping. Carmen could never understand why Cora would stay up so late. Everyday Carmen would nag and nag and nag that Cora should go to sleep on time but everyday at school she would always take naps. Carmen wished she had an academic reason to reprimand Cora for staying up late but she always did okay in class. She did most of her homework and did okay on her tests and quizzes, when she didn’t sleep through them, and her grades overall were decent. But Carmen knew that if she were to get more sleep she could apply herself better in school. But recently Carmen was becoming more worried for Cora because she was sleeping more often in school and her face seemed paler than normal. It seemed like this was affecting her health. Carmen wanted Cora to gain as much sleep as she could but she had to get her to stop. Staring at how soundly and peacefully Cora was sleeping was making Carmen dread waking her up. She looked as if the sleep was helping her regain color in her face. But if she didn’t want this to interfere with her life she needed Cora to stop this and she may not get another opportunity. Carmen finally built up enough resolve and nudged at Cora to wake up. Cora slowly opened her eyes, the life seeming to slowly enter the hazel green of her eyes. When Cora finally blinked all the sleep from her eyes Carmen began her intervention.
         “Why do you do this to yourself?” Carmen said apathetically staring at Cora. Carmen had put away her books so her full attention was to Cora and Cora’s attention was on Carmen’s gaze. Cora was feeling that pain again, that pain of knowing that she was disappointing Carmen. The source of the pain emanated from Carmen’s eyes. Those brown eyes filled with disappointment, worry, judgment, and pity. Cora could never escape that gaze. No matter what Cora did she always received that gaze and every time her eyes were glued to it. She couldn’t avert her eyes no matter how hard she willed herself to do so. It was a torture worse than any Cora had ever experienced and even after seven years the pain was the same. The gaze never lost its control over her. Cora could do nothing but stare at Carmen’s unwavering gaze as Carmen waited for her reply.
         “It’s because of that nightmare right?” Carmen asked trying to pry an answer out of her. Cora could only muster a slight nod. Carmen let out an exhausted sigh as this subject she was now touching on was far from her favorite. “So you’re still thinking about that after all this time. You’re thinking about it too much, it happened once and now it’s over,” Carmen’s voice started to rise and took on a sharp tone, “Did you stay up all night thinking about it?! Why do you spend so much time thinking about things that aren’t important just get over it!” Carmen dropped her head and cradled her face in her hands feeling bad for losing it and yelling at Cora.
         Cora raked one of her hands through her curly hair and clutched it in a fist. She didn’t know how to answer her. She didn’t want to talk about this subject, she was tired and exhausted because from lack of sleep and just the thought of discussing them drained even more energy from her. “I don’t think we should talk about this. Are you done with your homework?”
         “No,” Carmen jerked her head up, “No changing the subject. If you want to think about then talk to me now that way you won’t need to stay up late tonight. So talk, I won’t say a word until you’re finished.” Carmen straightened her back facing Cora attentively waiting for her to begin.
         Cora just stared at Carmen as she waited for her to start. Cora averted her eyes from Carmen trying to take the intangible force emitting from her eyes to lessen as much as she could but it didn’t help as much as she wanted.
         “Please, I think this will help you a lot if you talk about it.” Carmen said noticing how hard Cora was trying to dismiss the subject.
         Cora lifted her head meeting Carmen’s eyes. The look in Carmen’s eyes said that she wasn’t going to drop this subject until she got what she wanted. While clutching her hair in a fist she started biting her lips trying to think.
         Carmen could sense that Cora was on the brink of giving up and dove in for the final attack, “Please Cora I’m just trying to help you. I just want you to get back to your regular self.”
         Cora released her tight grip on her hair letting her hand slide from her head to the floor. Cora had lost. She could never go against Carmen, especially when Carmen pulled one of her guilt-trips. They have been best friends since they were little. Cora looked up staring at the ceiling trying to think of what to say. She really didn’t want to go over this but she could still feel the intense pressure coming from Carmen sitting attentively on the floor waiting patiently for her to start and so she did.