I Can Feel You

Chapter 4

3 weeks go by and we've met each week to attend collaborative therapy. Kate and I have been talking constantly; she's fun to talk with and is pretty sweet. She's so caring and thoughtful, to be completely honest no one's ever cared for me like this. Still, we wore our masks during therapy sessions, she said she's shy. I'm dying of curiosity I want to see what she looks like.

I stared at her trying to imagine what her features look like but I can't help but just see the woman of my fantasy. She's busy looking at the view again as we are on our "talking session", but soon she noticed my gaze and turned to me. "hmm?" she hummed tilting her head to the left. Cute.

"Kate..." I started. She's fully giving me her attention now. "What is it? You can tell me anything" she smiled; I know she did because I can see it in her eyes. I nodded "Do you know maladaptive daydreaming?" I slowly asked "Yeah I have it" she said so nonchalantly, which took me aback.

I guess she trust me enough to be comfortable to just blatantly admit that. "Really?" she nodded excitedly "Well, I do too. And uhh...there's something I would like to share" she propped her elbows on the table and leaned in "Okay go ahead" I heaved a breath, rethinking my decisions right at this moment.

Oh, damn it! I'll tell her. "In my daydreams, there's this one girl that I always see. This is not a lie by the way but you have the same name as her, which is why I was shocked when I first heard your name; even though, it's a pretty common name. No offense!" she chuckled "It is a common name, tell me more about her"

"I met her first in my dreams and it went on from there, her image so vivid in my memory. She's a brunette, she has black eyes but if your stare at them thoroughly they're dark brown, she has full pinkish lips and you know, she's sweet, caring and talented" I narrated recalling all of my fantasies and the stories I have lived.

She was silent for a while and is just staring down the table. I started to get worried, although we both have the same condition, she might find me weird because of my obsession to that girl. I'm afraid she'll distance herself from me. "Can I tell you something even crazier?" she finally talked after who knows how long.

"Sure" she stared straight at me; I can feel her gaze piercing through my soul. "I also have this one girl in my daydreams. The reason I can't really look at you when we first met is because of that. I felt anxious. You resemble her, for a moment I had thought I was hallucinating or am I in one of my daydreams. Well, I mean, blue eyes and blonde hair, it's pretty common too. But...the fact that your name is Annie too and that we have the same height is a pretty baffling coincidence"

I don't know what to say "that's crazy" she nodded "yeah" then chuckled. "Sometimes, I really feel like we live in a simulation. Or is it that we are living in a book and one of us is writing the story." I just silently agreed. There are times where she would just say things like this and I would start to question everything I know.

The day ended as usual as we parted our ways. Though after that conversation I feel somehow more connected and drawn to her. Something has changed, I know. Time goes by we still somehow talk through messenger and the start of the school year has rolled in.

Classes are done online so; I just prepared a table in my room. My gang and I are lucky to be put in the same section. We are about 41 in the class, we are told that this is the section with a lot of students that are in online modality, 33 students as other sections only have students ranging from 10 to 16. They said we would be able to get comfortable better with many classmates and participate in group works.

This is our first week and apparently our schedule and teachers haven't been finalized yet so, for the first few days we don't have "heavy" school works yet. And because there are a lot of transferees, we are told that it is in our best interest to be comfortable and familiar with each other; so, they gave us group works. I wish I could roll my eyes on them.

We are told to make a piece of art whatever it is, a photo collage, a film, a drawing etc. In that piece of artwork, we are supposed to put a piece of us individual, for participation, I guess. We are divided into 5 groups; the four other groups have 8 members while us foreigners are all in the same group and with another classmate so 9 members in total. They did ask us if we wanted to be distributed into the other group, we declined and said that we would like to work together and that's what we are comfortable in; I just let Emily handle the talking to our other classmate.

I feel like we are getting special treatment but maybe that's just their way of accommodating foreign students. I couldn't be bothered honestly, as long as they're not giving us a hard time. We had talked a bit to our other classmates and they welcomed us warmly. They also warned us of the teachers and workload, it couldn't be that bad, right? They said no. So, that's something to worry about.

It's currently 8:30pm, we all have eaten and we'll be having a zoom meeting for this project. I think we're all gonna talk first and get to know each other, while that on classmate will guide us. It feels okay to not rush it because it's Monday and the due date for this is Friday, so maybe we'll just brain storm first and we could also just ask questions to that one classmate.

So, we just started the zoom call and one by one the gang entered. We have our cameras open because it's just us anyway and one other, I'm currently wearing a mask because I just came back from the convenient store; I decided not to take it off. "Uh guys hold on, I just sent her the link." Emily announced.

"How is she?" Caleb asked "She's pretty nice, I wonder what she looks like" Emily is sweet and approachable, which is why she's the one to talk to that girl. "Well, we're about to find out" Ruby said, I have a strong feeling that she will try and hit on the girl; this is not uncommon for a flirty girl like her.

"I honestly don't mind as long as she's willing to work with us" Ashton said, being twins we are very similar. "I'm excited to meet her" Haley said which earned an annoyed look by Ashton. Haley is bisexual and I know my brother likes her, but he's too stupid to confess and now he views everyone as a threat.