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Something smells. Something is burning.

John sniffed the air and threw the covers off himself, sitting up in his bed, his bare feet resting on the carpet of his room. He sniffs the air again, something is definitely burning. John wonders why the fire alarm hasn't gone off yet and crosses his room in a half sprint.

He grabs the door handle and rips it open, almost pulling the hinges they are fixed to and runs into the hallway, immediately entering a cloud of smoke.

John started coughing and finally is able to see where the smoke is coming from; his parents room. He then begins to hear screaming.

"John!"

John's eyes snapped opened and was now staring up at Bobby Drake, his best friend and roommate. He had his hands on John's shoulders and was shaking him. John took a deep breath and looked down at himself, noticing how bad he was sweating.

He pushed himself up and sat down on the edge of the bed, running his hand threw his wet hair. Bobby sat down next to him, looking concered.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

John nodded.

"Yeah, what happened?"

"You started yelling in your sleep," Bobby said. "Where you having another nightmare?"

"Go back to bed Bobby." John said, ignoring the question.

Bobby frowned but did so, there was no point in arguing. If John didn't want to talk about it then he wasn't going to.

John's nightmares were becoming more and more frequent and Bobby was really starting to worry about him. Almost everyone else at the school didn't like John, they were even somewhat afraid of him but Bobby and Rogue saw a side of John that no one else did. He loosened up a bit more around them, he was comfortable being himself while they were around.

Bobby looked up and saw that John had went to the bathroom and changed into dry clothes. Before going back to bed he went over and opened the window, letting cool air into the room.

The rest of the night, John tossed and turned before finally being able to drift back to sleep. But just a few hours later, the sun dawned bright and early. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and all was right in the world.

"Shut up! Damn birds!"

An empty Dr. Pepper bottle was then flung out the open window smacked one of the cute, innocent, fluffy birdies and sent it plummeting into the bushes below. The other birds took the hint and hightailed it out of there.

All was right with most of the world, anyway.

John groaned and buried his head under the pillows. It was time to get up already.

"WAKE UP! IT'S TIME TO GO TO CLASS!" Bobby yelled.

John clapped his hands over his ears.

"Why are you so loud?" He asked through gritted teeth and Bobby smiled brightly down at him. He looked a little too happy for eight thirty in the morning.

"WHY AM I SO LOUD? IT'S THE ONLY WAY YOU'LL GET UP!"

John tried to hit him but Bobby jumped back too quick.

"Leave me alone!" John grabbed the closest thing, his alarm clock, and threw it at his smirking friend. Luckily for Bobby, John's aim was never the best in the morning, and it whizzed harmlessly past his head.

"Nope! Sorry!"

Bobby abandoned the yelling and grabbed John's visible ankles and began pulling the boy out of his bed. John reacted quickly and grabbed hold of his bed post. Bobby tugged harder on John's feet.

"Get up!"

"Screw you." John growled.

Bobby pretended to give up and let go of John's ankles.

"Go away." John made the mistake of relaxing and before he knew it, Bobby had grabbed his feet again and pulled him off the bed.

"Ow!"

John hit the floor with a dull thud and instantly curled up into a ball. His head was pounding from lack of sleep and his stomach was threatening to force up whatever it still held.

"C'mon, John." Bobby said as he unwrapped his friend from his blanket. John allowed himself to be pulled to his feet and led to the bathroom. Instantly, he felt his stomach rebelling and he stumbled over to the toilet. Bobby turned away as John made a gagging noise but he heard no puke hitting the water.

Bobby turned back around and put his hand John's shoulder.

"You feel okay?"

"I'm fine," John snapped.

Bobby felt a small pang of guilt for waking him up so harshly but John was such a pain in the ass in the morning and had already missed two days already.

"Take a shower and maybe you'll feel better," He said.

John nodded, that didn't sound like a bad idea.

"See you in Ms. Monroe's class."

And with that Bobby shut the bathroom door leaving his friend to himself. John took a deep breath before removing his clothes, stepping into the shower and turning it hot like he liked it.

After maybe fifteen minutes John finished up and was currently standing half naked in front the bathroom mirror, classes today was the farthest thing from his mind. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against the mirror.

"John!"

"JOHN!"

John gritted his teeth and left the bathroom and walked over to his side of the room. Sitting down on the bed he pulled open his drawer and picked up his bottle of oxycontin that he bought from a drug dealer on the street about a week ago.

Opening it up, he took out two and placed him in his mouth and swallowed them even without anything to drink. The pills had a such a nice effect on him, it just relaxed him and put him in such a better place. After just about ten minutes of just sitting on the bed he began to feel sleepy and slumped down on the bed, falling asleep...peacefully this time.