Dreams

POV Lydia:

One glance in his direction and my eyes joined the symphony of pulsing pain that seemed to now radiate through my whole body. I was forced to close them and pretended to look down and rummage through my bag in an attempt to hide the tears forcing themselves out of my eyes. Images unfolded underneath my closed lids and I watch helpless as I approached a pair of large double doors. A hand reached out to open them I noticed with a start that it was the same hand I held clutched in a fist on my lap. The room beyond was massive and held within it nearly fifty elegantly dressed adults all sitting around a large circular table. As I entered my vision distorted and the image changed to me standing on the edge of a glif overlooking a city ravaged by war. With a wave of my hand the smoke that billowed out of the buildings evaporated and the yelling that before echoed from the city, stopped. I could feel a calm settle over the land and it made me happy. The next moment I opened my eyes and the pain that had held my body immobile was gone. I sat up after grabbing a pencil and attempted to regain the conversation.

"How exactly did you get here our conversation?" I projected at the strange boy who had to my surprise moved from his place across the room to sit right next to me.

"I read your thoughts," Was his response as he reached for my hand that still remained curled on my lap and rubbed the back until it finally unclenched. "Guess that's my thing. You guys able to do that too?" Jay twitch, no doubt watching this strange boy rub my hand, the hand that for some reason I didn't want to pull away.

After a bit of silence, I continued with "No, not really. Ours are different."

"That's cool." He said all the while looking at me as if he could see exactly how much I was hurting. "So..."

"You don't talk much, do ya?" Jay said nearly growling at our intimacy.

"Not really."

"Well, you could at least ask us our names."

"You mean Jay and Lydia? Those names?"

I looked to Jay quickly after he said this. Or at least I attempted to, as my head began to turn in his direction the boys voice rang out in my head.

"Lydia, you need to wake up. None of this life you think you are living is real. Come back to me, please." His voice sounded somewhere deep in my soul and for a moment every part of me wished to jump into his arms and sob until i'm exhausted and just fall asleep with him holding me safely in his arms.

"Alright, you got our names. How long have you been listening in on us?" Jay yelled snapping me out of my dazed state.

"Hey, I don't mean to. I mean, I get bored. Actually can't help it, sometimes. Here, I'll tell you mine. Name's Devon." After yet another long pause, he said. "Hey, we should... you know, discuss this more. Or something. You maybe wanna be part of the same group? For this project, I mean. But we can talk about the psychic things too. I don't got nowhere else to go. That alright with you?"

Jay gave the boy the worst scowl he could muster and for a while they just stared at each other. But I was to preoccupied with the vision I had just had moments before to be concerned with any of there overactive male ego. What sort of dream was that? And why did it feel so real? And why is this boys touch so comforting? I looked down and rubbed my thumb along the palm of his hand and watched as he shivered, but kept his eyes on Jay.

"Alright. We could use your help anyways." Jay said with a sudden smile.

"Sweet," the boy said out loud, lightly squishing my hand and then letting go. The feeling once his hand left mine, mimicked crushing defeat.

"So you guys have a plan we can work with?" He asked, the look in his eyes growing slightly sharper and more awake as he moved his whole body to face Jay. I panicked for a moment at the realization of the growing pressure seemed to lift a fog into the room.

"Uuuuuuuuuum not yet," I told him before Jay could say anything sarcastic. Jay's look immediately said 'Lydia, what the heck? You always have an outline. Were you not writing on it-

"Alright, then," He shrugged, digging into his backpack for a pencil and paper. I promptly brought out a new sheet within record time. With that, he started to rewrite the parts of the rubric for us to work with.

"Here's the full rubric," Professor Nietzsche's assistant said, as she walked along the rows of desks handing each of us a paper. We locked eyes as she handed me the paper. There was a slight twinkle in them as she smile.

"Thanks!" Jay said, smiling a bit to her, at the sight of him she cringed. To hand his paper to him she placed it firmly on the opposite side of the table and then slid it across, as if she could not bare the thought of being closer to him.

However, as she walked away she turned her gaze towards him for a moment, narrowing her eyes a bit. Then she surveyed us for a bit, somewhat longer than seemed normal. Devon furrowed his brow as he stared at her, a little more focus in his stare. As if an unspoken promise drifted between them. A light smile crossed her lips with a slight strain as she chirped "Good luck with the project you guys."

She nodded as if she didn't have anything else to say, turned sharply on her heels and left. Once out of earshot I allowed myself to take a breath. Just like the boy, she felt so early familiar. As if this blurriness in the back of my head somehow noticed that this person was supposed to be in my life.

"Well..." I said with a sigh. "Shall we begin?" With that, we got to work on planning how we would complete this impossibly stupid assignment. And I attempted to barry the feeling that were gradually growing for the strange boy at my side.