The voice comes first. Soft.
Urgent."Rocco…Rocco, run!"
My eyes fly open. For a
moment, I don't know where I am, just a blur of shadows, the sound of my own
breathing, My hands clutch at the sheets like they can anchor me, but my heart
keeps hammering, fast and wild.
It takes a few seconds before
the familiar shapes of my room settle in around me. The posters above my desk, curling
at the corner. The crooked blinds leaking in thin lines of the sunlight.
The pile of clothes I never
got around to folding. Everything looks normal, safe. So why doesn't it feel normal?
The dream clings to me,
sharper than usual. A white fence, A bicycle lying on its side in tall grass. Smoke
in the air, stinging my nose. And the voice… Always the voice, calling a name
that isn't mine.
Rocco...
I squeeze my eyes shut and
mutter under my breath. With a sigh, I push back the blanket and sit on the
edge of my bed. My room is cold, the way it always is in October. I rub my arms
together, shivering as I hear footsteps coming up the stairs and approached my
room door." Marcus, its morning!!," My little sister, Ella calls out, "Mum says
you need to get ready!, First day back to school as a senior!!,"
She keeps knocking, despite
knowing I was awake,"I'm awake Elly, you can stop now," I grunt out of
frustration. I love my sister but she can annoy the crap out of me.
She giggles and skips away, I
hear her receding footsteps and I sigh once again and get up. I take a much
needed shower to clear my head from the reoccurring dreams, after which I get
ready for school.
First day back as a senior,
last year ended great and I hope this year goes even better.
I head down the stairs and
catch the sight of my family. Dad is reading the newspaper with a cup of
coffee, Ella is eating stacks of pancake and mum, shes moving gracefully in the
kitchen preparing breakfast.
I slid into my sit tiredly and
sighed, Mum passes the pancakes to me and looks at me with concern."Rough
night?" she asks curiously
I've never mentioned the
dreams to them since it began a few months back, but they've seen how exhausted
I always look in the morning.
"Kinda," I respond and dig
into my pancakes. My sister stares at me with disgust,"Don't eat like a pig Marky,
And you wonder why the ladies stay away," I stick my tongue at her, she screams
covering her eyes and we all laugh.
"Okay, meet me right here
after school, if I don't see you I'm leaving you here," I warn my sister with a
stern voice, but she looks at me unbothered." Yeah sure whatever old man," she
says as she comes down from my 2008 mustang. I also get off and walk to the school
entrance.
I am greeted by the thousands
of student piling to see one another. Some scream and hug each other while
others ignore everyone, that's the life at Westridge high school, its full of
gossips like eevry typical highschools.
I don't consider myself
popular but being best friends to a popular guy can make one popular I guess."
Marcus!!" I turn in the direction of my name and see Riley Quinn, my childhood
friend and the only person I've ever told about my dreams. We met few months
after I lost my memory and my parents decided it was best we move to Oregon for
a fresh start. We instantly clicked and have been best friends ever since.
"Hey Lily, you've seen Noah
anywhere?" I ask her despite knowing what she'll say next." Of course not, who
ever knows what that ass is up to," she says scornfully.
"Except the ass himself, yes
princess we've heard you plenty of time," Noah says from behind us with a witty
smirk on his face, obviously use to Riley's obvious distain towards him.
Apparently she doesn't trust
him to be close to me. I chuckled knowing all to well of the argument about to
happen and I'm about to leave when this girl approaches me.
She seems very familiar but I
can't pinpoint where I've seen her before," Hey, I'm new can you lead me to the
reception." She says, her voice soft.
Everything about her felt so
familiar and I couldn't help but stare at her trying to figure it out."
I..I...," I stutter not sure what she asked because I was busy staring at her.
"Yeah it's down the hall to
the left," Riley chimes in to save me from further embarrassment.
She says thank you, looks at
me strangely then goes in the direction she was told."Damn bro, I've never seen
you stutter," Noah laughs really hard at this but before he could tease me any
further, the bell rings.
"You've been unfortunately
saved by the bell, I'll see you guys at lunch. See you later princess," Noah
says knowing well how much Riley hated the nickname.
She grits her teeth so hard I
think they might break"see you never Reyes, hope you fall down the stairs," he
laughs as he walks away to meet up with a bunch of our friends from the soccer
team.
"What happened earlier, you've
never frozen like that before," Lily says as we make our way to class, as we
have first period together.
"I have no idea, she just
seemed so familiar I froze up," I say with a sigh and run my hand through my
hair.
"Well I guess we'll figure it
out later, Mr Carter won't appreciate us being late," Lily was right, mr Carter
the English literature teacher hated tardiness.
We make it just in time before
the bell rings, Riley and I greet Mr Carter and take our sit at the back corner
by the window.
"Good morning students and
welcome back to school, today will be introduction but in our next class we
will be reading Odyssey, so get you books and..." I tune the rest of the class
and just stare out the window while mindlessly doodling on my not book.
"Is that Italian? Since when
did you speak or understand Italian," Riley whispers to me when Mr Carter isn't
looking. I turn to her confused," I don't speak or know Italian,"
I look down at my notebook and
realize that I indeed write in another language, strangely enough I seem to
understand it.
What I wrote is 'il tempo è
vicino a Rocco Azzurro'.
"The time is near Rocco Azzurro...",
Lily looks at me in utter shock as I mumbled those words.
We both stare at each other in
complete confusion.