Once Upon A Sketch

7. Dream

The three of them ended up at Jess' house. Jess and Mandy slept on Jess' bed while Ethan got the guest bedroom.

Mandy woke up to the sun halfway up in the sky. She looked to the side and Jess was still asleep. She woke up from the need to pee and quickly got up and out of the room. The bathroom was behind the kitchen and when Mandy first passed by it in a hurry she didn't notice the person there.

Mandy was getting back from the bathroom when she passed by the kitchen and saw someone there that almost made her scream. She forgot that they brought Ethan back with them.

"Morning" Ethan greeted holding a spoon he was using to taste test the soup he was cooking.

Mandy's eyes almost fell out of their sockets at the sight of Ethan cooking in Jess' kitchen. In her excitement Mandy didn't greet Ethan back and ran back to Jess' room.

Jess was still asleep on the bed when Mandy entered the room. She got a pillow and began slapping Jess' sleeping body with it while squealing.

"Wake up! Jess! Wake up!!" Mandy couldn't contain her excitement and continued slapping Jess' with her hands this time.

"Ow-shit ouch!" Jess' woke up from Mandy's slapping and slapped her arms away.

"What's your problem?!" Jess irritatingly threw her blanket and sat up.

"You need to get up right now and get to your fucking kitchen right this instant" Mandy was smiling wide from ear to ear that Jess couldn't help but be curious and obediently go to the kitchen. Mandy followed two steps behind and knew when Jess finally saw what she saw earlier.

Jess stopped dead in her tracks in front of the kitchen. There Ethan was, turned away from Jess and was busy stirring the pot of soup. Jess quietly sat in the table facing the stove where Ethan was and when Ethan turned from the stove the ladle nearly flew from his hands from the startle of seeing Jess sitting at the table in front of him.

"I-I didn't know you woke up already" Ethan gulped nervously and Jess laughed at his startled face.

Mandy knew she should give them some space but she was shamelessly hungry so she stayed for lunch and bolted out of there after.

Mandy was sitting under a tree at the park when she remembered what happened the last night and all the giddiness she felt for Jess and Ethan quickly vanished and was replaced with dread and self loath.

"Why the fuck did you think it was a good idea?!!" Mandy remembered how she nonchalantly took Matthew's offered hand and danced with him to a slow dance in a party full of people.

"Why did he even ask for a dance!?!"

"What the fuckk!!" Mandy was rubbing her face and screaming into her hands for a good few hours before deciding to go back to the dorms.

It was Tuesday at lunch when Mandy thought to visit the library again.

When she got the folded piece of paper inside the book and opened it, she was surprised to find no new notes from her pen pal. She examined every corner of the paper front to back but there was nothing new. Feeling bummed that her pen pal forgot her, Mandy spent lunch break gloomily eating her burger on a bench.

Jess messaged her that she won't be able to hang out with her for a while because she'll be having dates with her boyfriend, Ethan. So Mandy sat in class wondering what to do in her free time when an idea popped in her head. Why didn't I think of this before?

When her last class finished, Mandy practically ran to the library. She was heaving loudly when she got inside that the librarian shot daggers at her direction. Mandy tried her best to silence her ragged breathing before the librarian approached her.

It felt like forever until she finally reached that particular bookshelf keeping their notes. She quickly opened the book and got the piece of paper. She was the last to write and there was no response yet. She got out her pen and wrote again.

09*********, Here's my number, I think it would be better if we keep in touch through our phones instead.

Mandy spent the afternoon and night waiting for a message to arrive. She would always stare at her phone willing it to ring a message notification.

She tried to watch tv but every so often she would look at her phone beside her on the couch and open it only to close it again in disappoinment upon seeing there was no new message.

Mandy was eating dinner when her phone dinged, indicating a new message. In her hurry to pick it up she tripped on a stool and went crashing down with it on the floor.

"Ow!" Mandy rubbed her knees irritatingly and limped to the couch where her phone was.

Upon opening her phone, she learned that the message was from Jess, inside her message was a picture of Jess posing to a sleeping Ethan with his face covered in doodles in marker.

Mandy sighed in disappoinment and threw her phone on the couch again.

She didn't know when but Mandy found herself falling asleep on the couch.

Mandy opened her eyes and she was inside the school campus. Walking around looking for something, but what that something was, Mandy had no idea. She went to the lockers, bathroom, classrooms, and outside but she still didn't find anything. Outside, she saw the library and went inside. It was open but no one was inside, the librarian that usually never left the library wasn't there either. It was void of people but the tables were filled with books,bags, notebooks, pens, and papers. It was like the people left in a hurry and left their belongings behind.

Mandy remembered that piece of paper again and went to find it. But when she got to the bookshelf housing it, the book was gone. Dread filled Mandy and she frantically looked into every corner of the bookshelf for it. When she couldn't find it she started removing all of the other books, opening them then tossing them to the ground when they were empty. She got to the last book and flipped every page open but the paper was still nowhere to be found.

She was full on panicking when a hand grabbed her shoulders making her scream and kick the stranger. The owner of the hand quickly stepped away from Mandy to avoid getting hit more. Mandy looked up when the hand left her shoulders and her eyes widened.

Matthew.

"What are you doing here?" Mandy asked irritatingly.

"Are you looking for something?" Matthew asked with a smirk and Mandy's body filled with cold sweat.

"N-no" Mandy stuttered and Matthew's smirk grew even wider.

A book materialized in Matthew's hand and Mandy gasped, it was the book with the piece of paper.

Mandy watched as Matthew opened the book and got the piece of paper Mandy and her pen pal has been writing on. Matthew skimmed the contents and looked back at Mandy.

"Poor guy, it's so obvious that you have a thing for him" Matthew stated in a pitying voice.

"But he hasn't even messaged you once, pity" Matthew continued on and Mandy had enough.

"I don't have a thing for him!!!" Mandy woke up screaming. She looked around and she was on her couch at her dorm.

"A dream?!"