Crossed Dreams

Fate

Melissa opened the door to reveal Mr. and Mrs. Moore. Upon seeing her, Mrs. Moore engulfed her in a hug. "Are your parents here?" She returned the hug. Moving out of the way, she allowed them to enter.

"No. They'll be here soon. How was your flight?" asked Melissa.

"The same as always. Where's Connor?"

Mr. Moore whistled when he saw the walls. "I love what you've done with the place. You know, I could always use someone like you at the company."

"Thank you, but I'm not very good with computers, or games." She gestured down the hallway. "Connor is in his room trying to figure out how to loop a tie." She informed Mrs. Moore.

Mrs. Moore tisked. "I swear, these boys know nothing about formal wear." She walked down the hallway, heels clicking against the hardwood floor.

"Where is my little girl?"

"She stayed on campus. We're going to meet her a half-hour before the ceremony for pictures."

Mr. Moore’s blue eyes twinkled when he smiled. "My son graduates today and my little girl will be next."

The clicking of Mrs. Moore's shoes was heard first. "The boy actually looks decent for once."

Leaving the Moores to preoccupy themselves, Melissa went to her room. Changing out of her pajamas and into her planned outfit, a pair of black skinny jeans and a black and white plaid dress shirt, she sat on the bed.

The Kyanite necklace that she had wrapped sat on her desk. Knowing better, she grabbed it and put it on. The cold stone somehow giving her comfort.

There was a light tap at her door. "Come in."

Mrs. Moore walked in and sat down beside her. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you."

Mrs. Moore tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. She gave Melissa another hug. Laying a comforting hand on her leg, Mrs. Moore gave her a small loving, knowing smile. "Emily told me about the dreams. How are you holding up?"

Melissa's heart skipped a beat. A mixture of betrayal and gratitude coursed through her. She felt betrayed that her friend would share such a private secret but she also felt grateful that it was with Mrs. Moore because she had experience in dealing with odd dreams. She went through her own similar experience but hers showed a real life guy that she wound up marrying.

"Honestly, I feel weird. I know that in my mind he doesn't exist, but my heart is telling me something completely different. I just don't know how, or what I'm supposed to feel." Melissa let everything out, her concerns, her worries, her doubts.

Mrs. Moore rubbed her shoulder, trying to comfort her. "I admit that I have never had personal experience with the type of dreams you are experiencing and I can't imagine what you must be feeling. But, I know when I had a dream of a man's reflection in a puddle of water then later on met and fell in love with him, I felt confused, scared, doubtful. I even tried to push him away in the beginning."

Mrs. Moore exhaled before continuing on. "I don't know if your dream is anything like mine or if you should trust in them. What I'm simply trying to say is that you should listen to your heart." She gave Melissa one final pat before she stood up. Before she walked out the door, she gave one final piece of advice. "The only thing that I can tell you for certain is that if you follow your heart, you can never be led astray."

That was great advice, but what was her heart telling her? That she was in love with a dream? A figment of her imagination? No, that didn't feel quite right. It felt almost like she was missing a piece of the puzzle. That there was something more that she wasn't seeing. What that was, she didn’t know.

. . .

"How was your visit with your parents?" The two girls were laying on Emily's bed. A bag of popcorn sat between them while music videos played on the laptop in front of them. Seonpung, the little brown pug, laid in between them.

"Boring and hectic. They were at work for the most part so I packed some things that I wanted to take with me." Her parents worked as teachers at the high school so she spent most of the day by herself. She spent that time rummaging through her belongings packing a box for donation and a box to take with her. Other times, she found herself hiking in the woods behind their house.

Now that she had her undergraduate degree, all that was left was for her to obtain her graduate degree. She planned on doing that at Berkeley while studying underneath Dr. Hilton, a dream come true.

Emily rummaged around in the bag of popcorn. "Did you finish the popcorn?"

"Me? I'm not the one digging in the bag every couple of seconds." Melissa scoffed. "So, are you gonna tell me why the forced visit?" The week before they graduated, Emily demanded that both she and Connor be in New York the week after they graduated. Both of them hadn't grasped the fact that the trip was mandatory. They didn't find that out until Connor denied the request. He was going to visit but later on. Now he found himself at his parents a week before he planned.

Emily let out a dramatic sigh. "I guess I should show you." She reached into the nightstand and fished out three concert tickets. "They're for tomorrow."

Melissa snatched the blue and white tickets out of her friend's hand. There in bold, black print read Vortex. And that wasn't the only thing that she noticed. "We're in the pits!" She exclaimed in an incredulous tone.

Emily nodded. "Dad and a couple of his workers helped me. I couldn’t believe their luck at first either and it only cost me nine-hundred dollars."

Melissa leaned over and hugged her friend, careful not to bend the coveted tickets. "Does Connor know?"

"Nope. He'll find out when we go to stand in line tomorrow morning."

"Ooh, mean." Melissa waved the prized tickets in the air. “Remind me to thank your dad.”

"It was a surprise from me and him. Speaking of surprises, I do have one more." Emily climbed out of bed and made her way to the closet. She reached in and pulled out a hanger. Hanging from it was a knee-length skin-tight green dress with shoulder-length loose ruffled sleeves. She flipped the dress around to reveal a black leather jacket hanging from it.

"This one is yours." She put it back in the closet and pulled out another hanger. This one had a cream-colored pink floral dress that matched the first one. She flipped it around revealing a pink leather jacket. "This one is mine. I thought we could match." She shrugged then hung the dress back up.

"You know I don't wear dresses. I'm pretty sure you chose those for a different reason than to friend-sister matching thing. You just wanted to catch the eye of a certain member."

"First off, that is not what you call that. You really need to hang out with more girls because I am apparently not enough for you. Second, it is easier to catch a guy's attention when there are two hot girls instead of one.”

Melissa laughed at her friend's reasoning. "It's not happening."

"Please!" Emily pouted. "I got you Vortex tickets, you could at least wear it. Please."

“Technically, your dad got the tickets.” Emily continued pouting. Her blue eyes shimmered with fake tears. Even though Melissa knew the tears were fake, she still caved in. “Fine, but you better have the boots to match.”

Emily dug around in the bottom of the closet before pulling out a pair of black ankle-high boots with low heels. Cute. "Those will work."

Emily beamed at her, practically jumping up and down in joy. "We are going to attract so much attention." She clapped her hands together, that gleeful smile still plastered on her face. "Something good is going to happen, I know it."

Melissa laughed caught up in her friend's excitement. "Now, there is some wishful thinking. One of us, with a member of Vortex." As if one cue, an old music video from Vortex played.

“I’m telling you, it’s fate.” Melissa shook her head. Emily would chalk anything up to fate when it came to Vortex.