You wake up and look over at the clock: 7 am. You groan as you turn over onto your back, “Why do I even bother looking?”
It’s hard to tell how long you were asleep without the concept of time but you’ve never been a long sleeper so you assume Lucien’s still asleep. Sitting up, you look over at your backpack and decide whether or not you want to get dressed yet, the only person that would see you in your pj’s would be Lucien so it’s not like it matters that much. With the decision to stay in your pj’s, you get up and begin making your way towards the breakfast room. The door to the room is closed when you arrive but it sounds like someone might be in there, Lucien’s probably awake after all. You open the door and can’t believe your eyes. Your jaw drops and it feels like you can’t move, you can feel your heart beating at a rate that you’ve never felt before but the rest of your body is stuck in place. There are 3 people standing next to the cereal, talking casually with one another. Though at the sound of your arrival, they had turned their heads simultaneously to look at you. The woman closest to you looks directly into your eyes and smiles, “Beautiful morning isn’t it?”
There’s nothing you can do, you’re frozen in place. You can feel a scream trying to escape your lips but nothing comes out. Your head is spinning so fast that you can’t focus on a single thought. Suddenly a hand grabs your shoulder and you jolt awake.
You’re back in bed, breathing heavily. Sweat is pouring down your face, “It was only a dream, it was only a dream, it was only a dream, it was only a dream.” Gradually your breathing slows and you start to calm down. You close your eyes, let out a long sigh, and sink back into bed. It felt so real though, you’ve never experienced something quite as terrifying as what just happened and you hope you never have to again. After giving yourself a few minutes to calm down completely, you sit back up and begin getting dressed. Before leaving for the breakfast room, you knock on Lucien’s door to see if she’s awake. There’s no answer so you continue walking. This time when you arrive, the door is open and you can see that there isn’t anyone in there. You walk over to the cereal and stand where the woman was in your dream. Suddenly your appetite is gone so you continue walking and get a cup of orange juice before sitting at an empty table in the corner. You sit at the table and stew over what happened last night, the amount of pure terror in that dream was unbelievable, you can’t figure out why your brain would create such a horrible dream. Deep in thought, a hand grabs your shoulder, “AHH!” you scream as you jump up, knocking your orange juice off the table.
Lucien steps back from you, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you so bad!”
You pull your drenched shirt away from your stomach, “No.. it’s, it’s okay. I just had a bad d-d-dr, I had a bad dream last night so I’m a little on edge,” She looked really embarrassed so you try your best to make her feel better.
She’s already running back to you after grabbing some napkins, “Oh.. do you wanna talk about it?” she asks softly while handing you the paper towels
You sigh and begin to tell her about your dream, she’s leaned over with her elbows on the table and her head in her hands. She’s looking directly at you while you tell the story and nods every so often. Your shirt is still covered in orange juice but you’re too embarrassed to take it off so you ignore it, plus, you don’t want to risk making Lucien any more embarrassed than she already is. At the end of your story Lucien sits back in her chair and let’s out a small “hmm”,
“Do you think that it’s because you’re anxious about this trip to Portland?”
“Maybe.”
“Well be honest,” She leans forward again, “How do you feel about this trip? I know this is way out of your comfort zone. Everything you’ve done so far has been out of your comfort zone!”
“And how would you know that?”
“It’s not hard to tell dude. I can read you like a book, you’re a quiet guy, probably never had a girlfriend, bookworm or some kind of artsy type, only child maybe? Either that or you only have 1 sibling. And you most likely don’t have any friends.”
You sit in awe, how does she know all that? You’re a little embarrassed, “y-y-yea..” You don’t like that she knows you so well, “I have a younger sister, Gracie, she’s 7. I’m a s-s-sucker for books too.” You decide to leave out the part about having no friends.
“See? Told you. So, about this trip, how do you feel?”
“I guess I am nervous. I mean, w-w-we hard-d-d, we barely know each other!”
She looks at you and smiles a little, “would it make you feel better if you knew more about me then?”
“I guess so”
“Alright then, shoot. I’ll answer whatever you wanna know”
You sit for a second to try and figure out what to ask her, “How old are you and are you from Marshall?”
“17 and no, I was just visiting my mom. She lives in Minnesota just outside Marshall.”
“Oh.. where d-do you normally live?”
“I’m from Ohio. I live with my grandparents in a town called Waverly”
“Wait, where did you go w-w-w-when we split up to grab our s-s-s, our things before leaving?”
Lucien chuckles and looks away from you. “I, uh, haha..” She seems to have a hard time saying whatever it is outloud, “I already had my stuff with me. I was.. Uh… running away from my mom. I just didn’t want to seem suspicious so I went for a walk.”
Suspicious of what? “Do you want to talk about it?” you ask
“Not really. Anyways, what else do you wanna know.”
You don’t want to press forward on that topic anymore, you can’t tell she’s uncomfortable, “D-d-do you have any id-d-dea why you can still move around even though everyone else is frozen?”
“No, not really.” She looks confused, “I was in the middle of ordering a coffee when the barista just stopped. I thought she was being rude so I told her to knock it off but she didn’t answer and when I turned around to leave I saw that everyone else was frozen in place too. I didn’t really know what to do so I started wandering around to try and find somebody that might be still moving. When I saw you it had been so long since I saw anyone that I got really scared. Sorry about that by the way, I don’t think I ever apologized for hitting you.”
She didn’t, “It’s alright,” you tell her, “I forgot about that actually,” you let out a small laugh.
Lucien chuckles and looks up at the generic Motel paintings hanging on the wall. Her eyes trace the edges of the room. The corner of her lip is tilted ever so slightly upwards and her hands gently laid across her lap, “You know,” her eyes continue to stare at the cheap painting of an apple tree, “3 weeks ago I was sleeping on a park bench, lost, a little scared actually, and if you would have told me I’d be in a Motel 6 after driving 6 hours away from Marshall on a motorcycle with a boy I just met, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. Well, I might have but that’s besides the point. This is absolutely insane!” She looks at you, grinning wildly, “And I mean that in the best way possible.”
Her laugh fills the small room, her cheer infects you and you smile back at her, “Yea, never in a million years w-w-would I have ever imagined I’d be in this situation right now.”
“If I met you before all this I wouldn’t have believed it either,” She shrugs her shouldres and laughs with you
You make a face at her, scrunching your nose and glaring your eyes, but still smiling, “you’re mean”
“yea but you love it,”
You smile shyly at her, you’re really starting to like Lucien, her smug ‘I’m cool and I know’ attitude is something you really admire about her and her ability to go with the flow makes it just that much more admirable.
“Hey,uh, I’ll be right back,” Lucien stands up and begins to walk away, leaving you alone at the liitle breakfast table.
As she turns away from you, her messy ponytail swings back, the back of her oversized shirt hangs down to her thighs and you just can’t stop staring. There’s something about her that intriques you. Something in the way she moves, the way she speaks, seems so mysterious, like a riddle waiting to be solved. You want to ask more about her, to solve the riddle that she is, but you don’t want to risk asking too much and jeopordize your blossoming friendship, you’re starting to warm up to her and you think she might be warming up to you as well.
You stand up and walk over to grab another cup of juice. You look over towards the spot that the three women in your dream stood, a shiver goes down your spine, the dream is still fresh, replaying itself in the back of your mind. Maybe you are just anxious about going to Portland. Or maybe you’re worried the world will never go back to normal. The thought of never seeing your family again makes your heart break. You imagine Gracie never growing up, never beening able to experience the ups and downs of high school, the possiblity of her creating her own family. You mom won’t see you grow up. Jumbo. Your best friend. You’ll never be able to take her on a walk to the park, to throw the ball and wait for her clumsy butt to stumble back to you. You feel a tear roll down your cheek and you realize you’ve been crying. You quickly wipe the tears off your face and walk over to the sink to splash some water on your face. You find a small hand towel and dry your face.
When you pull the towel away you can see Lucien standing in the doorway holding something in her hand, “Hey, are you, are you ok?”
“Huh? Oh, uh yea, I’m, I’m fine.”
Lucien starts to walk towards you and grabs your hand, “Here, um, sorry I ruined your shirt,”
You look down and see that she’s just handed you a tee shirt, “You di-di-, you didn’t need to get me a new shirt,” you actually forgot that the front of your current shirt was stained in orange juice
“I know, I know. Just take it anyways”
You hold the shirt in front of you and see that it’s a band shirt for ACDC. You’ve never been a rock fan but you appreciate the thought nonetheless, “Thanks”
The two of you smile at one another.
“Well, what do you say we get this show on the road?”
“S-s-sounds good to me”
ns 172.70.175.177da2