The words burned into his arm were bright red, and unfortunately, obviously painful. I grabbed the underside of his wrist, careful not to touch the result of a painfully bad dream. "What is going on?" I mumbled to no one in particular. I stared at it, trying to figure out this whole situation even though I knew I couldn't. Then it hit me.
The words on his arm.
"I can't lose you Jenn." What?
"Um, Parker?" I asked while quickly letting go of his wrist and looking up at him. "What does-um-why does it say 'I can't lose you Jenn'?"
"Um, in the-um-dream, the smoke or fog or whatever it is, it swirled around you, but not me. I couldn't move and I couldn't see you. I couldn't even speak." He paused. He seemed unable to mutter out his following words. My heart was beating out of my chest, and for the first time in my life, I really looked at him. I saw the real him. Not the jock. I saw the vulnerable him. I saw the golden flecks in his eyes and the few strands of brown hair among the blondes. I saw the way his shirt outlined his muscles. I saw the way his lips always seemed to form a smile. "Jenn," he began to speak, breaking me from my trance. "when the smoke moved away from you, you were dead."
My heart dropped. "Wh-what?" Tears began to fill my eyes.
"You were laying on the ground, not breathing. I-I ran over to you but...but you were dead." I saw a tear run down his cheek. "So I said "I can't lose you Jenn"."
Another tear.
"Why are you crying?" I asked while moving closer to him. We were now only an inch apart. I could feel his breath on me, and for a moment, I forgot about everything. I forgot about the dreams, I forgot about the burns. I forgot that we were different.
And I think he did too.
"Listen Jenn, I-" as soon as the words left his mouth, I felt the wind pick up. I couldn't hear him anymore. I saw his lips moving, I could tell he was saying something important, something he meant. He was too caught up in his words to notice the wind.
"Bradley!" I yelled. He didn't stop talking. The wind picked up. "Bradley!" I yelled again, now with more fear in my voice, now noticing the cloud of smoke coming up from behind him. "Bradley!" I yelled once more, stepping closer to him. Our chests were touching, and I finally caught his attention. "Look!" I yelled while pointing to the smoke. It was coming towards us. My hair was flying around everywhere.
Without thinking, I leaned in and kissed Bradley on the cheek. He looked at me, shocked, almost as shocked as I was. "I have to know what's going on!" And with that, I ran towards the smoke. I didn't know if he had followed me, but I didn't look back to check. I hope he didn't follow me. I didn't want him to get hurt.
I didn't know what I felt for Bradley. I didn't have the slightest clue. I had never felt it before. But I knew that I would do anything to save him.
Slowly, my surrounding started to disappear. I was surrounded by darkness. Oh no. They're not dreams. They're visions. They are showing us what is going to happen. I turned around to see if Bradley was behind me, but instead of seeing darkness or my neighborhood, I saw the smoke. It surrounded me, spinning in circles.
Only this time, I didn't wake up. It was actually happening. Then suddenly, the smoke disappeared and I saw someone running towards me. As he came closer, I soon realized it was Bradley. Then it all went dark again.
Suddenly, I was falling, not running. There was smoke in front of me again, thicker than usual. "Jenn? Is that you?" I heard Bradley yell from inside the smoke.
"Bradley? What's going on?" I yelled, not sure if he could hear me.
"Jenn! Help me!" Bradley yelled, fear consuming his voice. I reached towards the smoke.
Everything went black again. In a split second, I was standing again. Bradley was in front of me, and for a moment, it was peaceful. Then the smoke came from behind him. Instead of swirling around him, it dodged him and went right to me. It was spinning around me. I couldn't see anything, just smoke. Instead of waking up, or the smoke stopping or disappearing, it went towards me. It filled my lungs, preventing me from breathing. I collapsed and my eyes shut. I felt the fog finally disappear. The last thing I heard, was "I can't lose you Jenn."
Everything went dark.
---------------------------------------
I woke up in my bed. "What the?" Was everything that had happened just a really long dream? I then noticed my alarm going off. I turned it off and got out of bed. I was in a haze, unable to tell if everything that had happened was real or not. I put on a flannel and ripped jeans and threw my hair up into a ponytail. I didn't bother with any makeup. I layed on my bed, staring up at the ceiling.
Honestly, I didn't care if everything was real or not. The only thing I wanted to be real was everything that happened with me and Bradley to be real. But if everything else was just a dream, then what happened with him would have been fake. The only thing that wasn't fake, was my feelings for him. I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I heard a knock at the door.
I ran down the steps, faster than I ever had before. Hoping and praying that it would be Bradley at my door. But when I opened it, it was only Jack. He must've seen my face drop. "Nice to see you too. Ready for school? Justin is on the sidewalk waiting."
"Sorry, um yeah. Let's go." I grabbed my bag and walked out the door. I didn't talk at all. I didn't feel like it. I just wanted to be with Bradley, so I just stared at the ground the whole time.
When we were about two minutes away from the school, I looked up for the first time as we crossed a street. When I looked to the right, I saw him. we locked eyes. And I could tell, just from the way he looked at me, that it wasn't fake. It was all real. The dreams were real. The burns were real. My feelings were real. "Jenn?" Jake said.
"Is everything okay?" Justin asked. They were looking at me. His friends were looking at him. All of them were looking at us. But I didn't care.
I ran to him anyway.
When he saw what I was doing, he did the same. It felt like a movie scene. One that went by too fast to actually enjoy. I was filled with relief, and something I had never felt before.
He engulfed me in a hug as I did to him. I felt his tears hit my shoulder as mine hit his. I didn't care if people were watching. I didn't care if everyone in the world was watching. I didn't want this moment to ever end. "I thought I lost you." he mumbled into my ear.
"I thought it was all a dream." I said, laughing at how stupid I sounded.
"Let's skip." I nodded my head almost instantly. Partly because I wanted to be with him and only him, the other part because we had to talk about everything that had happened.
So we walked away from our friends. His arm slung around my shoulders. We didn't look back at our friends. We knew they were confused and completely not approving of whatever it is we were.
