My nightmare left me shaken. More shaken than I cared to admit, even to Kiera. She noticed this particular dream, woke me up from it. I must have been thrashing in my sleep. Kiera wanted to talk about the dream when I was fully back in reality, but talking wasn’t what I wanted. Talking didn’t end the pain, only amplified it, and I needed it to stop. To finally stop. So, I distracted myself with sex, and Kiera let me. By the time I was lying in her arms, blissful and content, my nightmare had faded into oblivion. Hopefully, never to return.

Kiera watched me like a hawk for the next few days, but the bad dreams never truly shifted into nightmares, so she didn’t have to wake me up again. I could see the concern in her eyes every morning, though, so I did my best to convince her that I was fine. Because I was. Even with the occasional nightly terrors, I was great. Kiera was my girlfriend. How could I be anything but freaking fantastic?

It took her a couple weeks, but eventually Kiera seemed to stop worrying about my dreams, especially as school got closer and closer. One lazy Thursday afternoon, we were lying in my bed, enjoying the fading freedom of summer, when I accidentally looked over at the clock, and realized I needed to go. “Shit. Matt’s gonna start calling soon if I don’t head out.” With a sigh, I looked over at her lying next to me. “I wish we could stop rehearsing while school’s out. We’re good enough, we really don’t need to practice so much.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Good enough? Is that what you want to be?”

Smiling, I gave her a kiss. “With you is what I want to be.”

She giggled as I kissed her, then pushed me back. “You know you can’t shirk your responsibilities because of me, Kellan. We should be making each other better, not…lazier.”

Climbing on top of her, I pinned her down. “Lazy? Is that what we are? Because that felt pretty aerobic to me.”

She laughed again, her cheeks flushing a soft pink. “You know what I mean.”

I did, and it filled me with warmth. She wanted me to be my absolute best, just like I wanted her to be her absolute best. We wanted to bring out each other’s most positive attributes. And that meant…I had to leave. Damn it.

Even still, I waited as long as I possibly could before I got up and got dressed. Kiera was still stretched out on my bed when I reluctantly grabbed my guitar. She seemed like she was too comfortable to move. Unfortunately, she had to—I had to lock up. Staring at her beautiful, lean, sheet-covered body, I let out a long, sad sigh.

“What?” she asked, examining the covers around her with an adorable frown on her face.