Crossed Dreams

A Change of Destiny

Spring of 2018

Melissa opened the door to the apartment to find her flatmate Connor trying to lift a backpack filled with a change of clothes and shoes, and caving equipment that were spilling out onto the floor. “What are you trying to do?” She laughed as he struggled to keep everything in the bag.

“Since we’re leaving for our field trip tomorrow, I thought that I would get in a few parties before then.” The bottom of the bag dragged against the floor as he tried to lift it onto his shoulders. “I’m taking this with me so that I don’t have to come back here.”

“Umm…” Melissa scratched her nose, seeing many things wrong with his plan. “What if you, I don’t know, get so drunk that you leave your bag and yourself at one of these places. This field trip is worth twenty percent of our final grade. You have to show up.” Her voice was tinged with sarcasm as she nagged him. She felt like she had to since Emily wasn’t around. If Emily had been there she would have been furious with Connor.

Emily happened to be Melissa’s best friend and Connor’s little sister. And unlike Connor, she was at the top of the dean’s list with high honors.

“I’ll be fine. I’m ending my party parade at Kayla’s and she promised to have my bag and me there in time for departure.” Melissa had met Kayla before and liked the girl. She seemed like someone who had a sensible head on their shoulders, even if she was one that lived for the party.

“What if you forget your bag somewhere?” She still wasn’t convinced.

Connor looked Melissa in the eyes. In a confident voice that did nothing to help ease her worries, he said, “I got this.”

Against her better judgment, she helped him repack so that everything would quit spilling out onto the floor. To be on the safe side, she wrote Connor’s number onto a piece of paper and stuffed it into a side pocket. “Just in case.” She told him when she saw him looking.

After Connor left, Melissa grabbed a quick shower before sitting down in the living room to work on homework.

Melissa found herself floating in a black void of space. The place was devoid of sound and light. She would have found it peaceful if the darkness hadn’t sent fear racing through her heart.

A voice boomed out of the darkness. She recognized it as the one from two years ago. That familiar voice that she had yet to place. The voice surrounded her, pounding into her skull until she thought it would burst. “Melissa Wolfe, two years ago you gave up the chance to be with your original soulmate.”

The voice paused as if it were waiting for her to remember that horrible and painful dream from two years ago. “This path that you have chosen will lead you to your new destiny. To your new soulmate. And that new destiny begins now!”

Melissa awoke with a start. Her head pounded in pain and in nervous apprehensive. What did that voice mean by saying that she will have a new destiny? One that will apparently begin soon, or was already starting? Ugh, this was confusing and it didn’t help that her head was still pounding.

The pounding grew louder and more frequent; more intense. Melissa realized that it wasn’t her head that was pounding but the front door to the apartment.

Fear and curiosity coursed through her. This couldn’t be it, could it? There was no way that her new destiny was literally knocking on her front door.

“Melissa! Mel! Mel, I know you’re in there! Open the door!” Emily’s voice shouted from the other side of the locked door. Melissa got up from the couch to let her friend in.

Emily rushed in, her red hair resembling a bird’s nest. “It’s really windy out. It almost blew me away.” She ran her fingers through the mass of wild hair. “Pretty sure it’s going to storm.”

The punny, weather-worn Emily helped to wash away everything that Melissa was feeling just moments before. “I’m so glad that you are here.”

“Of course. I am the party.” Emily raised her shoulders as if that was something that everyone should already know. Ignoring her friend’s comment, Melissa walked over to the window. Pressing down on the blinds, she peered outside. The sky outside was blanketed by dark grey clouds. In the distance, tree branches were being whipped about by the wind.

Emily walked over and sat down on the couch. “It’s supposed to storm all week. Hopefully it won’t be raining where we’re going.”

She walked over and sat down beside her friend. “Pizza tonight while you help me with question four?” She asked, bumping a black-clad knee against Emily’s blue-clad one.

“Sure.” Emily pulled up the Domino’s online app on her phone. “Same?” She was asking if they were going to order a veggie pizza and a side of chicken wings. The same thing that they ordered every time. Melissa nodded.

“Is Connor still asleep?” Emily asked absentmindedly.

“Nope. He left a little while ago. Wanted to catch a couple of parties.”

Emily’s voice turned harsher and very teacher-like. “That’s why he fails most of his classes. He only thinks about party this, party that! When will he grow up!”

“Lighten up. And help me with this problem!” Melissa tapped a pencil against her homework. She finished most of it before she had her little nap, the only thing left was problem four.

Emily leaned over and looked at the problem. “Your math is wrong. Here.” She pointed to the second part of the equation that Melissa had used. “You forgot to factor in for gravity.”

“Thanks.” Melissa hurried up and fixed it. She wanted to smack herself for making such a silly mistake.

The food arrived late to Emily’s delight. Thanks to her lack of mercy, they wound up getting the food for half off. They spent the rest of the day catching up on the new season to their favorite anime and listening to music. Somewhere in between, Melissa told her about her dream wanting someone to tell her that she was reading too much into it. She should have known better.

“Interesting. I say we let things unfold and see what comes next.” That was so not what she wanted to hear.

Later that night, Melissa crawled into Connor’s empty bed while Emily slept in hers. Emily didn’t want to sleep in Connor’s room for the smell. Melissa couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary. Her eyelids felt heavy and soon she drifted off to dreamland.

“You know you can’t surprise me.” Melissa held back her laughter, not wanting to ruin such an important occasion.

Her boyfriend’s bright smile lit up his puppy dog brown eyes. “I know. Still had to try.” He informed her with a wink.

She wrapped an arm around his neck to pull his head down. “Sure.” She breathed out, her voice sarcastic. He wrapped his arms around her waist. She gave a small smile before she kissed him. “My answer is yes, in case you were wondering.” She breathed against his lips before pulling away still wrapped in his arms.

From behind her, Emily and Connor clapped and whistled from the metal wicker table where they were sitting outside of the little cafe. Their excitement made her smile.

She raised up onto the tips of her toes to whisper something into her boyfriend's, no, fiance’s ear when the dream began to blur. The blurring image danced in front of her eyes. The Swirling image settled to a stop and Melissa found herself in a new place. The warm arms that were wrapped around her were no longer there.

Looking around at her new surroundings, she found herself in an unfamiliar room. It was a large living room with a beige sectional couch, a glass coffee table in the center, and the biggest flat-screen TV that Melissa had ever seen in her life hanging on the wall. She pivoted around taking everything in with wonder.

“Who are you?”

The voice came from behind her. It wasn’t just any voice. It was the same voice that belonged to her fiance in the previous dream.

She spun around to face him before answering. “Your girlfriend? Fiance?” She wasn’t sure what she was to him or if this dream was before or after the dream where he proposed. Dreams and their timelines were so confusing.

“I don't have a girlfriend or a fiance.” Okay, so this dream must take place before her previous dream. Even with that knowledge, his words still made her heart ache. She had no clue why when he was a stranger to her, albeit a familiar stranger.

“Have we met before?” Melissa asked. He looked and sounded like someone that she had met in the waking world. Maybe he was based off of someone that she had class with? “Are you a student?” She asked even though she wasn’t expecting a reply.

He shook his head. “I have been out of school for a few years now and I have never attended a university.”

“Oh…” She wasn’t expecting an answer but she had received one anyways. This guy, this stranger, was so familiar and yet not. If she had been better at remembering faces, she may have been able to place him.

The stranger was dressed in a vibrant colored suit that outlined his tall and lean form. His body reminded her that of a dancer.

She was about to ask him if he was a dancer or if he participated in any kind of sports when the dream began to waver for a second time. It wavered then blurred out until there was nothing left of the dream or the stranger.

Melissa woke to the morning sun shining through the large bedroom window. She flipped her phone over and saw that she had awoken long before her alarm was set to go off. Great!

She rolled onto her back and thought about her dreams. She thought about what they might have been trying to tell her. There was no way that they were trying to tell her that she wanted to get married! That was far from her mind but that stranger wasn’t. He was anything but far from her mind.

She tried to bring the image of the stranger to the forefront of her mind but found that she could no longer remember what he looked like. The more she tried to focus, the more blurred his image became. It was like trying to hold onto water. The more you tried, the more it would slip through your fingers.

Who was he? Who or what was he to her? It was killing her that she couldn’t remember.

. . .

Tae-joon found himself in his room in the house that he shared with the other members. He was curious as to why he would dream about his room. He looked around and found that everything was the same as in the waking world.

A noise caught his attention. Not sure of what it was, he went out into the living room to investigate.

In the center of the room stood a girl. One that he had never seen before. She was taking in her surroundings with a surprised and wondrous expression on her pale face. Completely clueless to the fact that she was being watched. “Who are you?” His curiosity got the better of him. The girl spun around, her eyes widened and her mouth parted open.

Hesitant and unsure, she answered him. “Your girlfriend? Fiance?” A crimson blush rose to her cheeks.

Her words and the look that she gave him made him want to tease her. Instead he gave her an honest answer. “I don’t have a girlfriend or a fiance.” He immediately wanted to take the words back. He knew he should have teased her, or at least played along. The blush on her face disappeared and her eyes turned somber. She looked away from him for a few seconds.

Those few measly seconds almost killed him. His hands twitched, wanting to wrap themselves around her. He never wanted to see such a sad, disheartened look in those beautiful storm grey eyes.

She turned back to him, the previous look gone from her eyes. “Have we met before?” She chewed on her lower lip.

His heart rate picked up and he could feel sweat beading on his back. God, he didn’t want her to be one of his fans. He didn’t want to see those eyes turn cold and calculating as she mocked liking him. He wanted her to be real despite the fact that she was a part of his imagination.

Her next words calmed his racing heart if only a little. “Are you a student?” so she thought that he was one of her classmates. She looked older than the average student. Maybe she was attending a university.

“I have been out of school for a few years now and I have never attended a university.” He felt the strange need to be honest with her. Well, somewhat honest. As long as she didn’t ask him if he was a singer or anything of the sort.

“Oh…” She went back to chewing on her lower lip, tucking it between her teeth. She looked back up at him with a question burning in her eyes. He waited for her to ask it when the dream began to darken and waver before the images blurred together. The colors blurred into blackness then everything disappeared.

Someone was shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes to find the eldest of their group peering at him. “Good, you’re awake,” mumbled Jun-hae. Being this close to his hung, Tae-joon could see the bags underneath his eyes starting to show through the layers of make-up. “You can sleep after we finish the shoot. It shouldn’t be long now.”

Jun-hae dragged him to where the others were. Their exhaustion showed despite the bright smiles that they wore for the camera, and ultimately their fans.