The Model

I gasped, as I quickly opened my eyes, feeling the sweat on my forehead. What was this? Who was this man?
Slowly I came back to reality, took in the scent of my room, and the sight of my dotted sheets. On the other side of the tiny room Ela was sleeping tightly, snoring a little. Everything seemed normal. But the heavy cloud of thoughts in my head wouldn't leave. I swallowed heavily and sensed my dry throat. All the fluids of my body seemed to have merely disappeared, so I got up and dragged myself to our room door.
I was drowsy and my head seemed to weigh tons, as did my limbs. I had been dreaming the same thing over and over again, with the guy always saying different stuff. I even started writing it down, with the aim to find a sense in his words. What was he doing in my head? I wanted to sleep and dream about what girls my age normally dream about. Things like showing up to an important event naked or dreaming of your favourite rockstar. But, no. I was dreaming about creepy boys with bruises who wanted me to do something. But everytime he wanted to go on I woke up.
Under my eyes there were dark shadows and with the neonlight of the bathroom making my skin look almost white I felt like a vampire. I sighed and splashed some cold water on my face to clear the fog that was in my brain, blocking clear and rational thoughts. So here I was, dreaming of the same bruised guy.
Back in my room I decided to look at the list I made. In my very first dream of him he said something like "I need you". And after a couple of senseless words like "last chance". I sighed again. Maybe I was developing some kind of mental illness and somehow obsessed over a person that might have bumped into me on the street or something. I once read that that was possible. But he was not familiar at all to me, except for my dreams.
There was no need for me to try to go back to sleep since it never worked. All those nights I stayed up until we had to get to school and worked on my recent projects. At the moment I was painting a landscape I made up. It was a hill with a single old oak surrounded only by green succulent grass. At least that was how I wanted it to be. I always dreamed about having a spot like that. And yes, I used the word 'dream' inentionally, since that is the scenery in my dreams. I started the painting and then my dreams went crazy.
Sighing I dipped my brush in light blue paint. It was so pleasing to me filling in the white canvas. I only seemed to need paint and a brush to survive. My thoughts went silent as I did the only thing that never left me in doubt.
"Bad dreams again?", my best friend asked from her bed, tangled in sheets and various types of clothing since she was too lazy to put away her things. The headmistress always frowned at that but Ela never paid attention to her anyways.
I nodded with a heavy head. I needed coffe or otherwise I would fall asleep while on the bus to school. There hadn't been one night in a week now that I slept through. Maybe I should get sleeping pills because I read they suppressed dreams. I admit, I read a lot about dreams and their content in the last couple of days. I didn't know yet, if it helped, though. I had more questions than before and the words the mysterious boy was muttering didn't help either. Frustration coursed though my body and I buried my hands in my wild curly blonde hair. Maybe it was like a curse for an artist to go crazy. Van Gogh cut off his ear and sent it to a prostitute accusing her for making him sick, so I should feel blessed, shouldn't I?
"Tara... You need to get ready. Breakfast's almost over", Ela softly said stroking my back. I nodded silently and got up. There was a moment of darkness in front of my eyes until my blood circulated like it should, again. There was no way I would survive school today.

Lucky enough there was still a little crappy coffee left in the cafeteria. I jugged it down in one sip and put the mug down with a smack. I didn't care that some were watching me confused. I was too tired for that. Ela pushed a Bagel with creamed cheese in my direction but my stomach revolted. I couldn't eat now. There was the feeling of hunger, of course but the smell of food made me gag. Maybe that was normal when you're sleep deprived...

"You should go see a doctor I think", Ela stated and sternly looked me in the eye. "I wanna sleep", I mumbeled in my comfy sweater, head put down on my arms. My friend sighed eating my bagel. She was always eating, but never gaining weight. I envied her... But with either eating nor sleeping properly, I didn't look the healthiest. I could almost put my hand around my upper arm and it did not feel good. Make-Up covered up the shadows in my face and wide sweaters let me hide my body. I was a wreck.
In school I tried my best to be my normal fun self in front of friends and I kind of succeeded. No one asked questions but maybe that was because they didn't care. I once enjoyed being around people and being popular. But now I just wanted some rest and a good night's sleep.

First period was history and the teacher, Mr. Waldorf, did not exactly help me stay awake with his long lectures and quiet voice. He was an older man with thick glasses and a tweed jacket. Just like you'd imagine the typical history teacher. The so-called 'internet' was a disease to him and he believed in dusty books and VHS tapes with documentaries from at least two decades ago.
Given these circumstances it didn't take me long to lay my heavy head on my arms and slowly doze off into another world.

Notes

Alright, heres some more content :) I hope someone actually reads and likes it... Ha...