Wake It Right

8:10

Feb. 14, 2022

It's still 8:10 in the evening but why does it feel so draining? Here I am in my table doing all the backlogs that I need to finish before 12am. Am I hungry? Am I sleepy? No. I definitely don't understand myself right now. Maybe I just need to take a bite of that sandwich I regularly eat across my apartment since I didn't have my dinner yet. I picked up my hoodie to go get the sandwich. As I arrived in the store, I immediately fuelled myself. I noticed this guy from other table spacing out at his noodles, I don't usually look at people but this guy seems familiar in some ways. But anyway, I don't know this guy, maybe he only has a common face or maybe he looks like someone I forgot to remember.

My name is Johnny, a third-year college taking up Physical Therapy, I live alone in an apartment not far from the university I am attending. Now that I already had my dinner, something still feels off about myself. I laid in my bed and looked up the ceiling. Am I sick? Why does my head hurts now even if I already fed my stomach? I should sleep but I have to finish all of my assignments. Now that I think about it, I don't really love the course that I took, never in my college years that I find myself happy in what I'm doing. But next year will be my last year so it's too late to give up. Will I graduate? Will I pass the board exams? I don't know, I just wanna die. I wanna die tonight. I wanna kill myself. I don't deserve this, my parents don't deserve me. I wanna-

"ding dong" *the doorbell ringing*

Huh? It's 10:08 in the evening. Who could it be? I immediately went to the door to open it. It's the noodle guy spacing out in the convenience store earlier.

"Uhm hey! What's up? Do you need anything?" I asked him.

"Do you wish to die? Or do you just wanna escape? He asked.

"What are you talking about? It's late, I need to sleep." I answered.

This guy is weird, now I'm scared. Will he kill me? Well, this was what I'm praying for right before this guy showed up. But still, I'm scared of him, I'm scared of death. But what's the scariest among all my fear is the future. I'm scared to disappoint the people around me but I fear on the decisions I make as long as I'm alive.

"So you have chosen to escape?" the guy said.

"What-" everything is on pitch black.

What happened last night? All I could remember was that guy punched my face. Who's room is this? Where are my papers? My assignments, I did not finish them all. What really happened? This room is familiar, but I don't know where this is. I found a picture of me and that guy beside the bed. I'm confused.

"Hun, I gotta go. I already made you a breakfast. See you later" the guys kissed me on the forehead.

I'm still processing myself of what is going on right now. The guy who punched me last night just kissed me and called me Hun. And I am on an unknown but familiar place. What is happening? I got out of the bed and looked around the places. It's the same as my apartment. But the interiors changed and some of my stuff were gone. I'm still thinking what happened last night. Nothing special, just the guy punched me and now it seems like my life has changed. I went to the drawers to investigate if maybe I could find some answers as to what is going on. I found photo albums. It has a lot of pictures of me and that guy. I also found pictures of me when I was young and when I was with my parents, but it's weird, some of the events that I found in the photos never happened. Now I'm scared. Where am I? is this a dream? It seems so realistic. I suddenly remembered last night that the guy asked me some questions about dying or escaping. Is this what he meant about escaping? Then I shouldn't be worrying my assignments and future anymore.

I found a clock and a calendar in the kitchen where I was eating breakfast the guy told me he made. It's 8:10 in the morning, February 13, 2022; does this mean I travelled in the past, 2 days late in the present? I spent whole day thinking why and how does this happened. After I ate my breakfast, I tried to sleep again hoping that this is just a dream. But I cannot sleep, maybe because it's daytime and the sun is so bright? Or maybe because I have too many questions regarding this phenomenon. I looked up the time again and it's already 1:08 in the afternoon. I wonder what have I be doing right now if I was in the normal world, I think it would be my first subject in the afternoon- cardiopulmonary. If I were in the university, I'm about to present my reporting assignment now. Maybe the advantage of being in this strange wold is that I don't need to think about my academic responsibilities.

It's now 8:10pm and I'm already sleepy. This is it, maybe if I sleep tonight I'd come back to my present world.

"ding dong" *the doorbell ringing*

"Hun, it's me Jacob." The guy knocked.

So his name is Jacob? Why does this name sounds so familiar when I don't even know someone who has a name same as his? I opened the door. Maybe this is it, if he punches me again I'll get back to reality where I belong. As he entered, I closed my eyes expecting to be punched but instead he kissed my forehead.

"How was my baby, huh? Is it fun doing nothing at home? Sorry if I left you for too long and came home later today, the prelim exams are coming so I needed to study at the library. I brought you your favorite sandwich and let's eat dinner together." Jacob gladly said.

I really don't know what to say but it feels like I want to talk to this person for a long time, it feels like I have missed him so much even though he's a stranger.

"Why am I here? Why are we together? I don't know who you are and how I ended up being here? But please, I wanna go home." I answered.

"Johnny, come here." He sat on the couch and asked me to sit beside him.

"Even if it takes a hundred years before your memories come back, I'll wait for you. I'll do everything just to be with you. Every night you ask me the same question you asked a while ago. You are my boyfriend, the love of my life. So now I'll tell you again and again the story of when and how you forgot about me." He said.

"August 11 last year, it was our 3rd anniversary; on that day, we got on an accident that made you comatose for almost 4 months. Early December, you woke up with an amnesia until today. I will never get tired of telling you the same story every single day even if it was a painful memory as long as you are alive beside me, even if you forgot about me I'll wait for you and love you as long as I'm alive." Jacob cried.

I don't know why but my tears start pouring and I can't stop myself from crying. I just hugged him even though I am not the person he was talking about. I was speechless. I don't know what to do, my name is Johnny but I'm not the Johnny he was talking about.