Every time my eyes closed and I finally managed to drift off to sleep, the same dream would play out.
Nothing. In front of me, behind me, to my right and left, absolutely nothing. A pristine white void where only I existed, yet, was unable to speak in any way, shape, or form and any attempt at doing so resulted in nothing more than the feeling of fingers pressing down on my throat. Not hard enough to truly hurt but just the right amount to completely silence someone.
Thankfully I could move so I wasn't completely glued to one spot. Five minutes, ten minutes, an hour? The amount of time spent in this first stage always varied. At least it felt like it did. There was no real way for me to truly tell how much time had passed. No matter the actual answer, after a while of trekking through this dreamscape that seemed endless, my vision became blurred and a single book would appear. It was this second and final phase where I would spend the rest of the night, only to wake up in the morning with the feeling of listlessness resonating from deep within my gut.
While I would absolutely adore going over possible reasons why this had been happening from the night of my middle school graduation until now, I'm not going to. I've already been racking my brain over a bunch of different things this past month so this dream was placed on the back burner in the grand scheme of things. What I will tell you, however, is what's in this book.
A princess and a peasant, facial features unrecognizable due to the bright watercolors used for the illustrations being smudged, were worlds apart. One day, the peasant decided to climb the tower she resided in with the hope of getting to know her. He continued to climb day after day until eventually, he caught her attention. The tower itself grew higher with each moment that passed, keeping them just far enough away so that they could only stare at each other. A handful of pages of the peasant climbing later, the book ends there— or rather the person making it left the rest of the pages blank.
Although this is mostly said out of ignorance, I couldn't help but ask. Let's say they were able to meet and strike up a conversation, and that the peasant isn't immediately killed for trespassing on property that belonged to royalty. What would happen next? How much they talked or how close they would eventually get didn't matter, they just couldn't compare to each other. Their life experiences, the way they carry themselves, even simply speech patterns. All of these things are vastly different so is it possible for them to truly understand each other?
To me, no matter how hard they tried, the outcome would be the same. No contest.
["Haru. Wake up, darling."]
Those words echoed throughout my mind, pulling back me into my apartment. Rubbing at my eyes that desperately wanted to keep sleeping, the sound of birds chirping outside and people continuing to call out to me blended together, creating a harmony that was both annoying and music to my ears.
"Haru! Up and at 'em, man!"
"Yeah, we're going to be late."
In reaction to my dear friends shouting, I put my head underneath my pillow in order to drown out the noise.
["You didn't forget, did you, sleepyhead? If you don't get up soon, I'll have to go in there and fish you out myself."]
Unfortunately, that was the only voice that I couldn't block out, no matter how much I plugged my ears. Heat rushed to my face which oddly enough woke me right up. Trudging through a few magazines, clothing that had been left on the ground, and a poster that must have fallen during the night, I grabbed my uniform that hung on a hook outside my closet and made my way to the bathroom.
After a quick shower, I changed into it. A grey dress shirt paired with a white vest, black tie, and black dress pants, something that felt alot more stuck up compared to what I used to wear in middle school. Nothing I could do about it though. Despite what was said by the bubbly, extremely loud, unfortunately unblockable voice, I didn't forget that today was April 7th— our first day as high schoolers. I wasn't her so the chance of me forgetting was basically zero.
I went outside and immediately squinted due to the glare of the sun. Before my eyes could fully adjust, Kaede put his arm around my shoulder and aggressively poked at my stomach.
"Must have been a pretty nice dream for you to sleep in like this, huh? Lemme guess, it was about a certain someone, right, right?"
He was being awfully friendly for someone who tried to kill me just a month prior. Almost annoyingly so. Pushing him aside and walking past without saying a word, I headed toward Yui and Sophie who were waiting patiently at my gate.
"Morning, Haru," Yui said, waving at me.
"Yo," I replied.
Stopping in front of Sophie with my hand on the back of my neck, I looked up. There wasn't a choice in the matter. I've always hated how much taller everyone else was than me and Ishihara Sophie, who I've known for most of my life, was the biggest example of this. It wasn't all that long ago when we were the same height but as soon as middle school started, she shot up like a weed. Not like that mattered or anything, my growth spurt was coming, and then she'll be the one looking up at me. I'll have the same big dumb smile, put in red contacts, and even grow out my hair and dye it blonde. Unfortunately for now, we both stared at each other. Her with hands in front of her, smiling with no worries in the world and me, trying to act bigger than I actually was.
["Morning! Is there something on my face? You're staring pretty hard,"] she said, lips not moving an inch.
"T-talk to me normally, will ya? I ain't your darling either."
"Woops." She scratched the back of her head. "I kinda have it on autopilot in the mornings."
"Find a way to turn the volume down or something, it's loud. Can you even do that?"
Sophie gasped and began touching my face. Pulling my ears and squishing my cheeks. An outsider could look at this as a playful display of affection.
"Hands off! People might be staring...it's embarrassing."
"I didn't hurt your ears did I?!"
The iron gate slammed shut as she frantically checked me over, locking Kaede in. He kinda just shrugged, crossed his arms, and tapped his foot as if he'd seen it a thousand times before. Nobody could see it but she was glowing. Not in the 'she's so pretty that it's almost like she's glowing' way. She was cute but that wasn't what was happening. No, in this case, it was more like: the hero is powering up since you hurt one of their best friends. Now run.
A calming grey aura covered her head to toe which contrasted how much she was freaking out. The same thing formed on the nearby pole with the missing cat poster that had been there since middle school began. And it was gone. Ripping it out of the ground and exposing some wires, the pole slowly flipped like a hand on a clock as it floated in the air. Flowers, clumps of dirt, even some brooms and bedsheets that were left out got caught in the crossfire and circled around the pole.
"Next time we see a computer, we're definitely looking up how to turn down telepathy! I swear it."
"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm not hurt!"
"Ah." Everything dropped to the ground as she went back to her normal smiling self. The damage was already done but it was still nice to see her calm again, even if the way she smiled was dumb. "Great! That would make me feel horrible."
"Dummy," I mumbled. She knew with how close we were, we had to be extra careful with our powers. I grabbed her hand and she began to stare at me in surprise. This didn't mean anything, of course. Surely, this was 100% necessary in order to keep her safe. "You...scared me. We're walking to school like this now, so there! Don't read into it either."
"Kay, it's been a while since we've done something like this. I missed it."
As if I could ever respond to something like that. This was for if she got too excited and started making things float, that's all. Besides even if that wasn't the case, it wouldn't be the most horrible thing in the world if I wanted to hold her hand.
Yui put a hand over her mouth and giggled. "My, my, at it early in the morning I see."
"Hello. Is no one going to open this for me? Guys?" Kaede said, rattling my gate as we walked off. "Hello?"
This is the story of a not so normal boy, a not so normal girl, and their not so normal relationship together.
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