"Honey come here!"

Stephanie, who was standing in a long hallway, heard her mom's voice call out to her. And it was a really long one! The entire hallway ahead of her seemed never-ending and white. Very white. There was a shining glow surrounding the air. It was quite bright and the glow enveloped her vision. 

Stephanie scrunched her eyes at the brightness as her eyes searched for her mother. However she was nowhere to be seen.

"Mom", Stephanie's voice quivered. She wasn't too sure of her voice.

"Here baby!", she heard her mother's musical voice from far away. It sounded heavenly to her. Yet she couldn't see her mother.

Frantically she started running in the only possible way ahead. As she ran, she could occasionally hear her mom's soft whisper in her ears, a giggle or two and her laugh. Tears threatened to fall down her cheeks. 

"Mom where are you?", Stephanie cried. Her chest hurt her. It wasn't pain to be exact. Something else. As if somebody had stomped on her heart. It was a terrible feeling.

"Hey", a different voice said. It came from right beside her ears but when she looked around she saw nothing but white walls. She continued to run ahead.

"HEY!", the voice demanded again.

She didn't stop. 

Perhaps it's the devil. He's trying to distract me.

Stephanie tripped and fell to the ground. Her head hit the floor and the world began spinning. Somehow it felt familiar to her. She felt the floor being swept away from beneath her. She was going to fall to oblivion. 

Stephanie closed her eyes, scared of what was about to come. The spinning gradually stopped. Everything was quiet. The voice was not to be heard anymore. She heard the faint hum of something. She opened her eyes to see a fan going in circles above her. 

Weird. She didn't notice any fan in the hallway.

As she tried to get up her head pounded painfully and her chest ached with every intake of breath. She lied down fast. She had already anticipated her head to hit the hard floor of the hallway yet her head was met with something soft. Something like a....pillow?

Stephanie quickly scanned her surroundings without moving her head too much to see that she was no longer in the long hallway.

She was lying on a bed with a soft blanket covering her entire body apart from her face. The bed was quite comfortable. Not more than hers of course. Hers was the best!

 She was in a room which was painted a sea blue color. The color calmed her nerves.

"Mom", she whispered.

The realization that it was a dream saddened her deeply. However she was glad it was just a dream. She looked around to see posters of singers stuck on one side of the wall. The study table was decorated with frames of pictures. The room was small but it gave the vibes of comfort and safety.

She looked at one of the photo frames for a long time. She couldn't believe her eyes.

Don't tell me the man was-

"About time you woke up. I thought you took a trip to Jesus or something." 

She vaguely remembered the voice from the night before but also from somewhere else.

NOOOOOO!! Why him!

"You were screaming for your mom.", he said.

Chris. Just what she needed to make her life wonderful.

Stephanie tilted her face downwards to see him leaning against the door staring at her. She forced a smile on her face.

"Hiya", she muttered.

She tried to get up a second time but immediately had a head rush. She groaned in pain. Chris rushed to her aid and lied her down on the bed carefully.

"Don't move", he said softy. She had never thought he could speak softly. When she looked at him,  she saw him smirking. 

Oh, nice!

"Why am I here?", Stephanie asked not remembering much from the night's events. There was a slight rudeness in her voice.

Chris tutted.

"Now that won't do. You begged me to not call the ambulance or the police. So naturally I brought you to my house.", Chris explained with a slight shrug.

No way. It was him? Great.

"You could have left me on the streets.", Stephanie said bluntly. 

Chris stared at her for a moment. Then he pulled his face closer to hers. They were practically just an inch away from each other!

"Why would I do that now?", he whispered. Stephanie smelled chocolate on his breath. And she loved choc- 

NO STOP!!

Her face became all flustered due to her thoughts. She could see a smile in Chris' eyes. He bent towards her ears and said as softly as softness could go. She almost melted on hearing his deep voice in her ears.

"You interest me", he said.

Stephanie felt butterflies in her stomach.

"You- you hate me! I know that. You don't have to inconvenience yourself for me", Stephanie said quickly. 

In no circumstance would she fall for him. Everyone around her eventually get hurt. There was no way she could risk the life of another man. Whether she liked him or not.

Chris sat back and frowned.

"I never hated you. I just thought you were different. Didn't you notice how no-one really did anything to you in school? You think we're a bunch of fools, didn't you?"

Stephanie sighed.

For the third time, she tried to get up. This time she had help. Chris supported her back with one arm and held her waist by the other. It was damn awkward for Stephanie because Chris' huge arms practically hugged her entire waist! However she managed to sit up. She turned to look at Chris to find him already staring at her. Her cheeks went pink and her eyes were helplessly drawn towards his lips. She struggled to look back into his eyes. 

She was expecting Chris to smirk but all she was met with was sincerity and something else. She couldn't point it out. It felt like there was a pool of thought and gravity buried in those eyes. It warmed her heart. He  had such a-

"Are you both done gawking at each other or you want me to poke both of your eyes out?"

Both of them looked up simultaneously to see a boy standing at the doorway and they moved away from each other at the speed of lighting.

Stephanie's eyes widened when she got a good look at him.

Small, cute eyes and a babyish face. He was about Stephanie's height. 5 feet, 7 inches tall and had reddish brown perm which suited him in a way. She didn't seem to think of it that way earlier. Not many could pull that off with ease. He looked away from her and stuffed his hands into his pockets. There was some coldness in the way he had looked at her. And she knew why. 

"YOU!", she exclaimed.

"Hush! Your voice is annoying my ears.", he said with an irritating glance at her. 

"Well your presence is causing discomfort to my fists", Stephanie snapped back.

"Woah! You know each other?", Chris intervened.

"Yeah we met once.", the boy shrugged.

"It was more than just a meeting", Stephanie smirked. "What are you doing here anyway?"

The boy simply scoffed as if not believing his ears to have been asked that question.

"What am I- I live in this bloody house!", he exclaimed disbelievingly.

"Hello? I'm missing out here on something." Chris said. His eyes narrowed at the boy. "Brother what 'meeting' did you do?"

"Nothing trust me. It's nothing your overactive brain is thinking.", the boy sighed.

Stephanie thought her ears had popped. "Wait brother?"

Chris blinked at her for sometime before shrugging.

"Yeah that's my stupid and annoying brother Steve."

WHAT?!

Stephanie thought the bed below had slipped out. She felt as if twenty elephants had pooped on her. She was shocked.

Why was her life full of amazing troubles?

*****

Yay! I'll be posting my drawings of the characters. They won't be good but I will post it anyways since I want to. Please follow me and vote for the chapter.

Thanks a lot!