Page 126 of Sing For Me

“Is it going well?”

He sighs. “I love everything I’m writing right now. Which probably means it’s terrible.”

I snort. “That’s the spirit.”

“So. You want to tell me about the dream?”

I take a deep breath. “It was pretty much the same as always. Except…”

“Except,” he presses, when I don’t continue.

“I didn’t wake up Will.”

He’s quiet for a long moment, the crashing waves below the only sound in the cold night. “Well. That’s pretty unusual.”

I snort. “You can say that again.”

One of the worst things about my nightmares is how difficult it always was to wake myself up. If I didn’t have anyone else around, I could just be stuck in the flashback for hours. Luckily, I always woke other people up. I would end up crying, or talking, or even screaming. I would stay trapped in the dream no matter how loud I got, but as long as there was someone else nearby, my noise would alert them to what was happening so they could come wake me.

I wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that it hadn’t happened tonight.

“When’s the last time you had a nightmare?” he asks.

I think back. “It’s been a while. I’ve never had one with him here.”

“Hmm.” He’s quiet again, thinking it over.

“It’s weird, right? That I didn’t make any noise.”

“It’s definitely unusual,” he agrees.

I sigh. “Maybe my subconscious is so desperate for him to not see me as this huge mess that it overruled the scared part in my brain.”

Luke snorts. “Maybe. Or maybe you’re just, you know, improving.”

I frown out at the dark waves. “What do you mean?”

“You said yourself it’s been a long time since you’ve even had a nightmare. And now you have one that didn’t make you cry and scream? One that you were able to wake up from on your own? That never would have happened six months ago.”

He has a point. Six months ago, I still needed someone sleeping on my couch most nights just to get some decent rest.

“There are other things, too, Eva,” he continues. “We’ve all noticed it.”

“What other things?”

“Signs you’re doing better. You’re not half as skittish as you used to be. You handle crowds much better. All that stuff with the paparazzi? I figured that would send you into a spiral but you did just fine.”

“Because I had Will,” I argue.

Luke scoffs. “Don’t give him all the credit. Hell, just the fact that you feel comfortable being with Will says a lot about your mental state, you know?”

He’s quiet for a beat while his words sink in. “You seem stronger these days,” he finally says. “Stronger and calmer and happier. All of your friends think so. And it’s been really nice to see.”

A lump lodges in my throat. “You think so?”

“I really do, Eva. And you know what? None of this happened by accident. You worked hard to get better. We’re all so proud of you.”

“Well now I’m going to cry.”