Paper Wishes (#1)

Chapter One: If Wishes Were Like Dreams

(Revised version of Chapter One posted on November 06, 2015.)

We lay together on the damp grass, staring up at the seemingly infinite star-filled sky, his warm hand enveloping mine.

"You're beautiful," he said as he brushed his hand across my cheek causing a pink blush to tint them. I rolled over so that I was facing him and snuggled against him. He wrapped one of his arms around me and pulled me closer before saying, "I love you. I want to keep you safe, always."

It came out as barely a whisper; if I hadn't been so focused on him I wouldn't have heard it. And although he'd been addressing me, I wasn't sure if he'd intended for me to hear it. So I didn't reply. Instead I buried my face into his neck and inhaled. I loved the way he smelled - it reminded me of a nighttime rain. Fresh. Cool.

I took another deep breath to inhale his scent and...

I felt someone stroking my cheek, gently rousing me into consciousness. When I opened my eyes I thought I saw a silhouette standing above me. No, not really a silhouette; it was more like an ethereal shimmer, vaguely shaped like a person. I blinked and when I opened my eyes again, using my hand to shield them from the sunlight that was seeping in through my window, I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Damn, it must have been the beginning of a lucid dream. How had I pulled myself out of it? But more importantly: why? I lamented the loss of skin-to-skin contact I'd just experienced in my half-awake state. Even though it wasn't real, it felt like it was, and it was the first physical contact I'd had in months.

I closed my eyes again, and put one hand on the cheek that I thought had been touched. Him... he'd been in my dreams for about a month now. I don't know his name, though it was my mind that created him. I suspect that it was my subconscious way of handling the grief I'd suppressed after my mom's passing.

I sighed as I heaved myself out of bed and sauntered downstairs in search of my housemate, best friend, and former guardian - Kai. Kai is two years older than I am, making him twenty years old. Our mothers - Maya Matsunaga, my mom, and Eri Suzuki, Kai's mom - had been best friends forever. No, seriously, they'd been best friends for as long as anyone could remember. As a result of their friendship, Kai and I had grown up living next door to one another and, naturally, we became best friends as well.

Unknown to me shortly before my mom passed away she had Kai sign documentation that made him my legal guardian until I turned eighteen... which happened a few months ago. Even though I'm legally old enough to be on my own now, Kai told me that I'm welcome to stay as long as I'd like, that it wasn't just his house - it was our home. It was reassuring to know he felt that way.

Kai was sitting at our dining table eating breakfast while reading something on his Galaxy Tab when I found him. Though he couldn't have woken up that much earlier than me he looked simply modelesque; his midnight black hair was tousled, but it looked as though a professional stylist had done it, and his glasses sat at the tip of his disgustingly perfect nose. Some people, like Kai, were just blessed with great genetics, whereas I struggled just to appear human every morning.

The struggle was real and it had only gotten worse in recent months as dark circles had begun to form under my eyes and my eyelids were perpetually swollen from crying myself to sleep every night. Sigh. It was only thanks to Mr. Dream that my eyelids actually showed their small crease on some mornings, like this one.

"Morning," I said as I sat across of him.

He looked up at me as he put down the Tab and smiled, a small dimple appeared on his right cheek. "I left some bacon and eggs for you on the stove, if you're hungry."