No Heart- No Problems - 6. Chapter 6

Since that first night that I woke up, sweaty and hypervating from a nightmare, I've had four more.
They varied in length and clarity, and once even featured a night that never happened, but always ended up the same.
Me, looking at my heart on the floor.
And Jon, slipping away from me.

I knew it was ridiculous.
I knew it was pathetic to be so utterly hung up on him.
I was only with the man for a few months, how could I possibly have nightmares only because we broke up?
For me, none of it made sense. But nevertheless, the nightmares continued, and at the end of august, I was close to being a wreck.
Having nightmares every second night, and working double shifts by day exhausted me, but I couldn't let the strain show in front of Alex, for fear she might cut down on my working hours if she knew.
As she was completely thrown into the work herself, in addition of searching for help, it wasn't too hard to hide my exhaustion from her.

Brian, of course, was a different story.
It seemed like even with all the work both of us had to do, he was still looking to take care of me, in every single way he knew.
The night after the first nightmare, he noticed something was wrong and asked me about it, but I was not about to let him in to the stuff that woke me up sweaty in the middle of the night, so I shook him off.
But as the time moved on, and the nightmare continued, Brian began to look more and more worried, as I used my lunch breaks to crash in a small, convenient spot in his kitchen, or made myself more coffee than usual.

One night, he invited me over again after work, with clear intentions to talk me into telling him what was wrong.
I was so tired, I almost fell asleep while he was making us some late night dinner.
Seeing me like this, Brian had no choice but to drop his plans.
After we ate, he offered to let me crash at his place, but I refused and he ended up driving me home.
I didn't know if I was talking in my sleep, and I wasn't about to find out by waking Brian up.

While I was going through my dream-crazed days, Casey showed up for breakfast every morning.
Seeing his puppy-dog eyes and eager smile each day never failed to make me feel worse. I wanted to puke.
Each day he came, he would try to engage me in conversation, or find out more about me.

It wasn't until the third day after the nightmares began that he found out I will be tricky to pursue. Even without relation to my cold behavior, or my fading psychological help.
That day, I woke up after a nightmare for the second time, and after falling asleep again, I missed the alarm clock and almost ended up late for work.
As it was, I ran in in the last minute, heaving my bag to the locker room, and rushing to put on my uniform, only sparing the time to wave at Brian, who was fiddling with his stuff in the kitchen.

When I came out, Casey was already sitting on his now usual bar stool in front of the counter, and I rushed to get his order.
"hello, Casey, what are you having today?" I tried to smile at him.
Unlike most of the regulars, Casey tried different stuff for breakfast every day, something that made Brian reluctantly look forward to when he came.
It made mo wonder what he disliked so much about the cop.
"any special recommendations?" asked said cop.
"I really liked the papaya patties Brian made yesterday" I answered, my smile turning more genuine "you should try those"
"papaya patties it is, then" he beamed at me.
From the kitchen, I heard Brian, who was listening in on us, start making the patties already. Both me and Casey, were, once again, left in awkward silence.

As per usual, Casey was the one to break it.
"so how are you fitting in?" he suddenly asked me, and at my puzzled look, he added. "in town I mean"
"I've been here for more than two months" I said, quirking an eyebrow. "but" I added, when he started to look miserable "I'm fitting in fine, I think. I like the people."
It wasn't a lie. I really did like almost all the people I met in this town, and everyone welcomed me warmly. I found myself thinking of the town as my home, and even without getting out much, people knew me.
I only feared what would happen when all the school kids will return.
"oh" Casey shook me out of my musings. "that's great. I know how difficult it could be, being the new guy in town."
"is that so?" I wasn't really interested.

The sound of stomping feet in our direction from the kitchen, indicated that Brian chose that moment to bring Casey his breakfast himself, all the way from the kitchen to the counter.
When he got closer, I could actually feel the bad aura radiating off him, it was as if he was engulfed in a determined fire, and I did not understand what might have upset him so much, as he flopped the plate-full of papaya patties on the surface under Casey's nose, all the while glaring at him.
"Stan" he addressed me, his eyes leaving the confused Casey only after he spoke, "I heard you and Alexis talking last night."
Uh oh. I raised a hand to my forehead, already anticipating the direction of where this was going. "about what" I resigned to my fate, and did my part by asking his the obvious question.

"about school" Brian answered, and I saw his watching Casey's reaction from his peripheral vision. "I think she's right"
here it comes...
"you really should register for school soon. high school starts next week."
We both watched Casey closely as Brian uttered the magic words of "high school", but casey's face remained casual.
He seemed to be waiting for my response though, slowly chewing on his patties, that he picked up from the plate, so I had to say something, even if it was an issue both Brian and I had gone over before.
After all, this was all an act.
Both of us knew that Casey was a bit clueless about my age.
"Brian" I sighed "I am not about to register to any high school. I dropped out last year, and even then my grades were not that great, you cannot expect me to pay for school, or study for junior year or senior year high school exams, while I need to work to support myself-" I was cut off by the sound of someone choking from my right.
Looking in Casey's direction again, I saw his face was red and he seemed to be struggling with a rather large pattie.
Seeing this, Brian quickly slammed his hand to Casey's back a few times (with a bit too much force than was needed) and I handed Casey a glass of water, and made sure to watch from a safe distance while the pattie piece flew out of his mouth back to the plate.

When he was done coughing, Casey turned his watery eyes at me.
"junior... senior.... high school??" he sputtered while trying to hold himself upright.
I looked back at him, trying not to scrunch my face in disgust at his condition, and said "uh.. yea. if I was at school right now, I should have been a senior."
"how old are you" Casey kept staring at me.
"seventeen. ill be eighteen in about..." I counted "seven months?"
Casey kept looking at me incredulously.
"you are.. " he blushed deep red, that was seen even through his choked state "a minor?"
"yep" I answered shortly, before I decided to elaborate "I'm emancipated though, that's how I got the job"

Casey dropped his head to the table with a loud "bang".