Chapter 2

The sound of the blaring alarm woke Dallas almost instantly. He stuck his arm out from under the covers, reaching for his phone on the bedside table. He fumbled around for it awkwardly for a moment. It was only until he accidentally knocked his phone off the bedside table that he decided to finally open up his eyes.

Dallas peered over the side of his bed. The alarm on his phone was still going. He draped his hand over the side of his bed, still too tired to actually wake up and pick it up. He moved his hand around, desperately trying to grab it without actually leaving his bed.

Then he felt something hit the palm of his hand. It had the same cool, smooth texture of his phone. He curled his fingers around the object, and he knew at once. It was his phone. How was that possible? His hand had still been several inches away from the ground. It was as if the phone had somehow levitated off of the ground. But that was impossible. Too tired to think into it, Dallas swiped his finger to turn the alarm off, and got out of bed.

Still half asleep, Dallas wandered down the stairs and into the kitchen to where his mother had been getting ready to head off to work.

“Good morning, Dallas,” She said cheerfully. How his mother managed to be so peppy and cheerful before eight in the morning had always been a mystery to him.

“What?” He mumbled, “G’morning.”

“I was just about to leave for work,” Dallas’ mother said as she grabbed her car keys off of the counter, “Don’t forget to feed Ricky before you leave.”

The Golden Retriever perked up at the mention of his name and started wagging his tail. He got up and walked towards Dallas.

“Yeah, I won’t,” Dallas said.

“Ok,” His mother said, “Because you forgot yesterday.” She rubbed Ricky’s ears. “Poor guy. You must have been hungry yesterday.”

“I said I won’t forget this time,” Dallas said more adamantly.

“I know,” His mother said, “Anyways, I’d better get going. Bye sweetie.”

“Bye,” Dallas said.

As his mother left, he heard her say something along the lines of “he’s been so spacey since the split.”

“Mom?” He called out.

“Yes?”

“I’m fine, by the way,” He said, “And I haven’t been spacey or whatever.”

It had only been a month since Dallas’s parents had split up. It wasn’t like he hadn’t anticipated it. They had been fighting a lot more than they used to. When his parents finally told him that they would be getting a divorce, Dallas wasn’t really surprised, but he wished his parents had tried to work things out a bit more.

“I never said anything about that, Dallas,” His mother said, “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah,” Dallas said quietly, “Yeah, I’m ok. But like, do you really think I’ve been spacey?”

His mother hesitated. “No, not really,” She said finally, then she headed out the door for work. As she left Dallas thought he heard her ask, “Did I handle that well? Does he actually believe me?” Dallas almost answered the question, but then he realized that there was something off. He had heard the voice with his mind, not with his ears. He frowned as he thought about it a bit more. When his mother had said that he had been spacey since the split, she hadn’t actually said it out loud. He wished he realized that sooner, as it would have spared him from the awkward conversation that he had just had with his mother.

Dallas glanced up at the clock. He still had a lot of time to get ready for school, but he still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was off. First the incident with his phone, now he was hearing his mother’s voice inside his head. What was going on? Dallas shook his head. He hadn’t been getting much sleep these days. Maybe his fatigue had been getting to him. It was the only logical explanation he could come up with anyways. He wasn’t even sure if being really tired could mess with someone’s mind in that sort of way, but he didn’t want to think about it too much.

He pushed the incidents to the back of his mind and started to get ready for school.

Author's Note

I've hardly gotten any feedback on this, so if you have any thoughts please share them because I'd love to hear it! Getting feedback on my writing makes me really happy.