1:30 AM TALKS

EPILOGUE

MINERVA'S P.O.V

"You sure it's okay for me to share my secret?"

We sat on the swings, almost midnight, next to each other, with my heart already frozen and broken. I prefer not to meet him tonight to having him around yet will be gone again.

"What is it?"

"That I keep dreaming about you."

Little thing he knew I was smiling inside. "Again?"

"Even before we met."

"How so? How do you know it's me?"

"How so? What about you? Why not telling me about that the second we met? Why not fangirling when all you have in your room is my poster?"

I got cut in the throat. "Oh Shireen."

"Yes, Shireen, she told me everything. Why keeping it a secret?"

"Because Riley, I don't see it that way. Maybe it's just me staring at your poster too much til it brings you into my dream every single night. I don't know. I never know."

He let this silence ate me alive. I think I've said it wrong. I think I broke his heart. Inappropriate. See? I'm never good at pleasing people. He should've never asked me for a talk.

"When I kissed you on the cheek, didn't that tell you something?" He whispered.

"Ri..."

"When I begged so badly to drive you home back and forth, didn't it tell you something?"

I was frozen two times worse.

"When I stayed around for no reason, didn't it get you something? Anything?"

"I'm sorry I was just too dumb..."

"No you're not. You deny it too hard. You keep your heart in this certain level where you think you can control. They said dreams are the reality you wish to happen, the ones you keep playing inside your head. So why denying?"

"Because either way, it's a dead end."

I took a deep breath. It's never going to happen in any ways. Riley might be so good at solving things. But he could never solve this one.

"I just want to live in the present, where I control myself not to raise up something too high... The only one who'll suffer for that is me..."

He suddenly grabbed my hands. "Can't you at least fight for me?"

"Fight for...what?"

"There are infinity chances for me to come back at anytime to Philly, as long as you fight for me back."

"What...are you talking about?"

"The obvious one. I like you."

I blinked my tears. What. Is this going to happen the way it was in my dream?

"Let's start with this one." Riley stood from the swings, kneeled before me holding my hands. "Hi, how you doing? My name is Riley, what's your name?"

I cried harder each second. Like a deep, deep cry. He repeated that part in my dream that I always wished upon a star in heart to happen. It did happen. In fact, he knew every line we kept saying in it because he dreamed the same thing. We're trapped in the same scene all over again.

"Minerva..."

"I like your name. I like you."

"Thank you..."

"And this time, I wouldn't leave..."

He lifted me up to my toes. Just left few inches for wind to blow it between our noses. It's midnight. It's cold. I tiptoed Riley before 12 AM like a perfect Cinderella story. My heart's flipped upside down five times per second. I bowed my head.

"I wanna kiss you, so don't bow..." He whispered softly. "Find yourself back and chin up."

My body did what it's told. I chined up.

"And this time, I would never leave anymore."

Riley did that. A kiss that was deep and beautiful. I got in the game. I kissed back. The one scene I've never gotten in any dreams. It's always cut in the middle of me crying because he left. God didn't tell me how it would end, for 3 years, til tonight.

A beep on his watch shocked us both. We untied our lips.

"What was that?" I choked.

"12 AM straight." He kissed me again. "Perfect time."

I chuckled. We hugged each other tightly. So dreams led me to his way. We've once met each other halfway but I realized I was the one who turned around and left. And that's unfair. I was being all cliche and pathetic.

I mean look, turns out Riley McDonough likes me back.