Chapter 5: Nightmares

When Parker made it home, her mother was still at work. She went to her room and called Lissa to see if she was okay.

“I can’t believe that *sshole!” Lissa fumed as soon as she answered the phone.

“Damien?” Parker asked.

“Yes, of course, Damien!” she snapped. “He was so rude!”

“I don’t know,” Parker said. “I thought he was actually kind of polite. I mean, at least he was honest and didn’t lead you on or anything.”

“You’re taking his side!?” Lissa asked.

“No,” Parker said quickly, flopping down on her bed with a sigh. “I don’t think there have to be sides.”

“Well, Parker, there are sides” Lissa hissed. “If you’re not on my side, then you’re on his.”

“I’d rather be on my own side,” Parker said, glancing at the book on her bedside table. She really wanted to get back to reading her paranormal fantasy novel, but she had to be Lissa’s friend. It was something she would always do, no matter what.

“I can’t believe you!” Lissa snapped. “Damien was so rude, and you’re sitting there saying that you think he was polite!”

“Lissa, I know you wanted him to like you,” Parker said. “I think he wouldn’t mind being your friend. He just doesn’t see you in a romantic way. Is that so wrong?”

“Yes!” Lissa practically screamed into the phone. Parker had to pull the speaker from her ear so she didn’t damage her eardrum. She sighed before bringing the phone back to her ear.

“Maybe you should try being his friend,” Parker said. “Over time, he might start to like you as something more.”

“I don’t understand why you are defending him,” Lissa said. “Do you think he could actually be attracted to you and like you?” Parker’s heart sank at Lissa’s harsh words.

She knew it was Lissa’s way of making herself feel better, but Parker didn’t like it when Lissa turned her wrath on her.

“I’m not defending him,” Parker argued. “Besides, I don’t think anyone as gorgeous as Damien or Lucien would ever look twice at me unless they were gawking.”

“Parker, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Lissa said. That was the friend that Parker loved and needed. “Still, I can’t be friends with him. That means you can’t either.”

“Lissa, they are my neighbors,” Parker pointed out. “Besides, I think my mom is starting to date their dad. I might not have a choice.”

She was making excuses. It was the first time she had ever denied Lissa a request on anything. What she said was true, but it was also more than that. She wanted an excuse to keep being friends with Damien and Lucien, and she wanted to keep being friends with Lissa. She knew she couldn’t do both unless she had a valid excuse, at least for Lissa.

“Just because your mom and their dad have a thing doesn’t mean you have to be friends with them,” Lissa sneered. “I’m not friends with my step-brother.”

“Yea, but I wouldn’t want to cause problems for my mom and Malakai. This is the first guy she’s liked in a long time,” Parker said. Lissa sighed heavily.

“Whatever, Parker. Clearly, our friendship isn’t as important to you as I always thought!” Lissa hung up before Parker could say anything else.

Sighing, Parker set her phone down. She didn’t like fighting with Lissa, but she hadn’t had any other friends since elementary school! During the school year, as long as Lissa had her boyfriends and her field hockey team, Parker was the backup. She’d been lonely, and she thought it would be nice to have other friends when Lissa wasn’t around.

Damien and Lucien were the first people her age to actually show interest in being her friends outside of just wanting to be around Lissa. Even though her loyalties to Lissa were strong, she wasn’t ready to give up on having her own friends, yet.

While Parker was getting ready for bed that night, she heard something outside her bedroom window. Nervously, dressed in just a tank top and pajama shorts, she went to the window and looked outside.

Sometimes, branches from the tree scratched against the window, but this was a different sound. On the second floor, Parker never felt the need to close her curtains. No one could see her from the ground level.

She looked out the window.

Gasping, Parker took a step back and bumped into her bedside table. There was a massive hawk sitting in the tree. She’d seen hawks before, but never one up close.

The bird’s feathers were mostly brown with spaced-out black stripes. Its beak was hooked, talons sharp and glinting in the moonlight. The raptor was huge and looked completely lethal.

Parker tried to catch her breath, wondering what had drawn the bird to her house. Big birds like that didn’t usually come so close to houses. As far as Parker knew, they liked to stay in the woods or out in the country, not on the coast. The bird ruffled its feathers, sending a mirroring shudder down Parker’s spine.

As she stared at it, her chest heaving from her shock, the hawk turned to look at her. It looked straight through the window and right at her. She swallowed into a dry throat.

Parker’s stomach felt queasy as she stared back at the bird. Its eyes were blue, bright blue, and they looked too human. She’d never seen a bird’s eye up close, but she was almost certain they weren’t supposed to resemble human eyes. The bird tilted its head, and Parker’s heart began beating heavier in her chest.

Shuddering, Parker closed her window curtains, double-checking that they overlapped and the bird couldn’t see inside.

She felt silly, closing the curtains on a bird. Still, Parker couldn’t shake the feeling that the hawk had been looking right at her and actually seeing her. Her skin still crawled from the experience.

Parker got under her covers, pulling them up as high to her chin as she could. As insane as it sounded, she still felt like the bird could see her through the heavy curtains.

Sleep took her, but every sound in the night had Parker jumping and jolting awake, the hawk’s eyes flashing in her mind. She even got up and checked outside the window again, but the hawk was long gone.

Just thinking about how it had looked at her made her skin crawl, though. She got back in bed, hugging her blankets to her, but she refused to lie down and go back to sleep.

In the morning, Parker wanted to call Lissa and tell her what had happened. They hadn’t ended their last conversation on the best of terms, but she hoped Lissa would be a good friend and hear her out.

Parker dialed the familiar number from memory.

“I don’t want to talk to you yet, Parker,” Lissa said.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Parker said. “You have every right to be mad at me.”

“Yea, I do,” Lissa snapped.

“Liss, something weird happened last night, and I need someone to talk to about it,” Parker said, somewhat desperately. Lissa scoffed into the phone.

“I don’t really want to know about it,” Lissa said sharply. “You weren’t supportive of me when I asked you to do a simple favor. It might be a while before I forgive you.” Parker rolled her eyes, knowing Lissa couldn’t see her.

It was hard for her to want to be supportive of her friend when Lissa so rarely returned the favor.

“Please, Lissa, I’m really freaked out,” Parker said.

“Fine, fine,” Lissa said. “Tell me what happened.” Parker sighed and smiled, sitting on the edge of her bed.

Lissa came through for her again!

“Okay, so I was getting ready for bed, and there was this bird outside my window. It looked at me, and it…saw me,” she explained.

“A bird looked at you, and that is what you’re freaking out about?” Lissa asked insensitively. Parker sighed, chewing her bottom lip nervously.

“It was a hawk, like the biggest one I’ve ever seen,” she elaborated, “and its eyes looked human.”

“That’s creepy,” Lissa said. “But not exactly something to freak out about. I think you’ve been reading too many paranormal fantasy books.”

“Yea, you’re probably right,” Parker said. “Still, it made me feel all queasy.”

Parker sighed, shaking her head, even though Lissa couldn’t see her.

“Well, I did tell you that if you read too many vampire and shifter books, you’d start having nightmares,” Lissa said as if her advice was some kind of valuable gold.

“Yes, you did,” Parker concurred. “I feel better now, thanks.”

There was an odd moment of silence on the phone where Lissa breathed several times and Parker chewed her lower lip. She had a feeling Lissa was waiting for her to apologize for the day before.

“So, did you have plans today?” Parker ventured. Lissa scoffed into the phone.

“Yes,” she said snippily. “And even if I didn’t, I’m not ready to hang out with you yet.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll talk to you later then,” Parker said, unable to hide the disappointment in her voice.

“Sure. Bye.” Lissa hung up before Parker could say ‘goodbye.’ At least she hadn’t hung up in anger. Still, usually, Lissa and Parker were able to reconcile quickly. Lissa was really upset that Parker wanted other friends, and she couldn’t figure out why.