Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Wonderland

            "Where the fuck am I?" Billie rolled into his dream quite smoothly, dragging himself around and taking extreme notice of every detail. "And why is this place so colorful?"

He had made himself straight into the inverted colored world with a confused smile.

"This is definitely a change of pace from my usual shithole," he pointed out, referring to the muted ghost town that he would normally end up in. His feet brought him through a path of tall yellow trees with black flowers all around him. Eventually an opening came into sight, and the shadow of two people were in the distance.

"Hey, who the fuck are you?!" He demanded from afar. The shadows were communicating with one each other, but he couldn't see the actual people. "I know you can hear me, punks!" No reply. "I'm comin' after yah!"

He began to sprint toward them in curiosity, but what he found was not what he expected. His legs shook as he was taken a back with dilated eyes and misunderstanding.

"You did it again, didn't you?"

"Did what again?"

"Don't bullshit me, Lay. Just admit you did it."

Billie raised his hand to scratch his head. Is this really me right now? Is this a vision? Did Layla really have this dream one night? Can they not see me?

"Hey, guys! It's me!" Real Billie had yelled to get their attention, but they didn't flinch.

Other Billie was leaned up against a tree with his frizzy spiked hair blowing in the wind, arms crossed and a look of complete disappointment.

"Excuse me?" Layla shot back.

"You took another pill tonight, didn't you?" He waited a second for a response, but when she failed to comply he continued on. "I can't believe you would do that, especially after I told you not to."

"Another pill? What is he talking about?" Real Billie questioned.

"I'd apologize, but I'm not sorry. I needed to see you. I have something to tell you."

"Layla, what can I say to you to get you to understand that taking pills to be with me is not worth it?"

"Layla!" Real Billie marched up closer to them, staring her straight in the eyes without her even knowing. "What is he talking about?" She didn't answer. Her innocent and worried face gleamed a certain sadness that he was unused to dealing with. "Layla!" He grabbed her shoulders and tried to shake her into responding. "What is he talking about, Layla?! Answer me!"

"You can't say anything. You can't do anything. I need you and that's that. That's the end of it. Just let it be, for God's sake!" She backed up and took a breath to keep her calm.

"You're stubborn."

"I'm aware," she acknowledged.

"I'm never going to let it go, Layla. As long as you use pills to see me, you're going to hear about it."

What pills? Layla didn't tell me about any pills! She mentioned rehab once or twice, but I thought that was because she thought she was crazy and so did her family. Was she abusing drugs? Holy shit...no, I can't go through with this. I can't let myself go on knowing I was responsible for fucking her up.

"Layla...can you hear me?" He whimpered. "Please, Layla!" He looked her straight on, but she was too infatuated with other Billie. His presence was unknown.