Sidelines ✔️

52 • Dreamscape • 52

I was stood at the top of a stairwell.

My surroundings were vague, but they were stained with familiarity. As I looked down, I was overlooking an entrance hallway. People were paired up in two's, segregated from each other. Nothing about the space was crowded. Yet, it seemed like some sort of social occasion. There seemed to be a purposeful intention for the individuals below to keep a distance from the others.

There was a deafening silence in the room. I could see the people before me talking, but I wasn't able to construe a single piece of it. They were talking in a secret language that I was never taught the rules of.

A boy and a girl caught my eye. Silent words escaped their lips, but their actions were loud. My eyes watched the boy, pointing his finger towards the door. He was saying something to the girl he was talking to, but it was inaudible to me. It was then I noticed that the girl was talking too. It was as if she was talking over the boy, shaking her head as if she wasn't listening to a thing he had been saying. Bold eyes were alert to her every move as if he was trying to anticipate what she was going to do. She, however, was looking at him pointedly. I could make out the way her eyebrows were furrowed together in almost disbelief. She looked like she was trying to hide her emotions, but her facial expressions gave her away.

Whatever the boy was saying to her, was driving her to boiling point like she couldn't take him anymore. Then just like that, she pushed him away. He was stubborn and wouldn't let her go.

I clasped my hand on the bannister as  I watched the boy grab her hand, trying to pull her back towards him. Yet, she was even more determined to get away from him than he was at keeping her by his side. The girl forced her hand out his iron grip and headed over to a door that was behind them.

The door looked almost enchanting. Something from it radiated its way into the room. I could almost feel it kiss my skin from where I was stood. Like headlights flashing into your bedroom window at night, my attention was caught by it. Yet, it was fleeting.

The boy caught my attention a again. He wasn't the type to run his hand through his hair and watch her walk away. He wasn't prepared to give up just yet. The boy stalked after her, following her towards the glowing door.

I could only assume that wherever those two went, chaos followed.

I had a bad feeling.

My attention turned to someone else. Seemingly, the only other person who was alone. Lingering by the bottom of the stairwell, a girl stood, pinching her bottom lip between her thumb and one finger. The light from the door reflected onto her skin and made her hair look almost golden. She gave of off the impression that she was radiating.

Yet, like the girl before her, a closer look at her composure, revealed how uncertain and maybe even scared she seemed to be in the inside.

Her eyes were focused on two other people that were across the room from her, two brunettes, another boy and a girl. The girl who seemed to radiate, appeared to have the kind of tunnel vision that made them seem like the only people here. The people she was looking at were laughing amongst themselves whilst the girl watched them from the sidelines.

The girl stopped pinching her lips and straightened herself out. Her shoulders pulled back, her chin lifted upwards. She forced both hands to her sides and walked over to the brunettes, seemingly with her best foot forward.

The laughter vanished between two as the golden haired girl stopped in-front of them. The boys smile vanished completely as his jaw tightened at the sight of the girl in-front of him. The girl besides him, however, tried to lift the corners of her lips upwards slightly, but the attempted smile faltered as she glanced from the boy to the girl interrupting them.

The golden haired girl popped her hand on her him as she began talking to them. Again, my position on the outside, couldn't  ascertain a single word said. The only thing I could put together was that non of them were happy. The brunette girl, appeared to be the most uncomfortable out of all of them, as if she was also only witnessing the conversation between them. Her presence wasn't what was important.

I had a feeling I had been just like her before.

After the golden haired girl and the boy appeared to go back and forth between themselves continuously, they eventually stopped. The girl who had approached them shook her head like she felt like their conversation was going round in circles. They were getting nowhere. Whatever it was they were discussing, they couldn't agree on it. It didn't seem like they ever would.

The girl who approached them, ran a hand through her thick hair. Her eyes trailed towards the lit up door like she was debating whether to go or not.

The boy, however, couldn't look at her anymore. He was clenching his jaw, his gaze looking straight passed the girl. However, his gaze didn't stay focused on what was straight in front of him. His gaze travelled upwards, towards the top of the stairwell. They stopped on me, slightly widening in the recognition that their exchanged was being watched. He straightened up, seemingly uncomfortable that someone was observing them.

However, his discontent appeared to alert the other two girls. The girl who had been irritating him, turned and looked over her shoulder to see what his eyes were fixed on. The girl looked up towards me and her eyes focused on me. That's when I saw it. Something was unsettling was in her eyes. She looked at me as if she'd been caught. She looked like she was a deer caught in headlights.

That was the last I saw of her before golden rays of light steamed through the door. The streams of light flooded the scene before me. It was so bright, confronting and illuminating. My eyes tried to look away from it. They weren't used to it. My eyes didn't like it.

Bright light filled the room and it was blinding. My vision was distorted as I tried to see the world around. As if I had looked straight into the sun, I was dazed. Rays of light reached out towards me and I was forced to move away from the foundation I was comfortable with.

In the midst of the haze, I sensed people moving in my surroundings. Sound seeped in with the light and at first I resisted it. The deafening silence had been a breather from all the noise, but it was still there. I just wasn't aware of it.

Suddenly, it was like someone had pressed the play button to a movie I had seen before. Yet, something felt different here. Unlike the comforting presence of a familiar storyline, something had shifted. I felt different as I felt my body shift in the presence of something unknown.