Sweetener

fifteen | r.e.m

"Imani."

Imani opened her eyes to see Drew smiling at her. She was in a huge field filled with the most beautiful flowers imaginable. She was laying down in the middle, enjoying the breeze that passed over her face. She had flowers in her hair- ones that Drew had placed there. She stared up at him with a wide smile on her lips.

Her eyes worked their way over his soft dark hair to his beautiful green eyes and all the way to his pillowy pink lips. His gaze remained on her eyes the entire time and Imani felt herself blush.

"What?" Imani whispered back.

Drew moved closer to her, taking her hand into his warm ones. She felt his lips against the back of her hand, her cheek, and her forehead. Imani felt butterflies flutter around her stomach from the gestures.

"You're beautiful."

His grinned as he leaned in closer to her and she felt his breath fan her face from how close he was to her. She couldn't keep her eyes off his lips as he leaned down, moving closer and closer to her lips...

Imani woke up from her bed with a start. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest and she held her palm over it as she tried to remember to inhale and exhale.

What the fuck? Imani couldn't figure out why the hell she was dreaming about Drew so much lately. This wasn't even the first time she had dreamt about something like this. And every dream always ended the same way- right before his lips would actually touch hers. What was going on? Why was she dreaming about kissing him? And why the hell did she actually wish it happened?

Imani looked to her side and saw Jade slumped in her bed. She quickly got out of her bed and made her way to Jade's side of the room. She needed someone to talk to because she felt like she was going crazy.

Imani sat on her bed and shook her. "Jade."

She didn't even budge.

"Jade?" She tried again and this time the blue-haired girl turned over in her bed, a faint "leave me alone" departing from her lips as she did so.

"Jade!" Imani yelled and Jade groaned as she sat up.

"What the hell do you want Imani?" Jade whined before looking at the clock on her desk, "It's three in the morning! Are you insane?" She whisper-yelled.

"I think I might be! Jade, I really need your help!" Imani whined as she shook her best friend awake. Jade glared at her and sighed.

"Fine, how can I help you?"

There was a stretch of silence before Imani spoke up.

"It's about Drew."

That got Jade's attention. "And what about him?"

"It's like this; lately I've been having dreams about him and I don't know what the fuck they mean. It's so weird and I think I'm fucking losing my mind." She played with her fingers nervously.

"What are they about?"

Imani sighed. "It starts out with us in this huge field and he's playing in my hair. And then he starts complimenting me." She felt her cheeks flush fiercely as she recalled the dream. "And then we're just looking at each other and he slowly starts to lean in to me and we almost...we almost..." Imani couldn't even finish her sentence before the embarrassment caught up to her.

"Almost kiss?" Jade teased.

She was fully awake now and she couldn't believe what she was hearing. It had taken Imani damn near five months before she came to terms with her feelings for Drew. Jade felt like a proud mother as she watched Imani blush and hide her face in her hands.