REM // Van McCann

68. You Should Prepare Yourself

I was a good 45 minutes late to work and didn't say anything in the group chat. By the time I remembered to, I was only ten minutes away from work so it seemed pointless. When you come in late for work, what do you do? Act like you're out of breath or walk in like you're not even late? I tried to remember what Larry did. Seems like he's always out of breath.

To simulate being out of breath, I took the stairs instead of the lift and ran up four flights of stairs. Once I reached the fourth floor, I was actually so winded that I had to take a moment to catch my breath. Gone are the days I could do this no problem. I'm practically wheezing, though the cigarettes I smoke probably aren't helping.

By the time I reached work, I tried my best to calm my breathing but I was still breathing loudly. I pushed the door open, walked in, and let it close behind me. It was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. Bondy looked up from his desk and smirked.

"Good morning, Van," he greeted me.

"Sorry I'm late. Slept through my alarm," I answered. You could still hear that I was out of breath.

"What'd you do? Run all the way to work?" Larry teased.

"Shut up. You're late more than I am," I snapped back.

The both of them are always picking on me. I walked over to my desk and removed my bag, taking out my laptop and charger. Once things were set up and I logged in, I walked over to the kitchen to boil some water. There was some old water from the day before so I poured that out and put new water in.

"Van, if you've got time today, I'd like to talk to you about the frog dream," Bondy told me.

My back was to him so he couldn't see how thrilled I was (I'm being sarcastic). As much as I'd like to talk about the frog dream, I just managed to sort of fix things between Florence and I and wanted to put it behind us but here I am being reminded of it again. I forced myself to look more thrilled and turned around to face Bondy.

"Yeah, I've got time. Just give me 15 minutes to finish my tea."

The water finished boiling and I poured hot water in the mug. While I waited for the tea to steep, I opened a sleeve of biscuits and began munching on a biscuit. I wasn't hungry nor was I thirsty. I just had to be doing something to distract myself from thinking the worst. It wasn't until I ate half the sleeve that I was done with my tea. I pushed my chair towards Bondy's desk and sat down, waiting for him to talk.

"I've been thinking about the frog dream and I can't wrap my mind around how that happened," Bondy started. He was staring off in the distance which was always what he did when thinking. "So I want to replicate it."

"You want to replicate it?" I repeated. "How'll you manage that? You can't expect her to have the same dream twice!"

"Recurring dreams are more common than you think. Nearly two-thirds of the population report having them. They may not be identical each time but the themes remain pretty consistent. So she might not dream about kissing a frog again but she might dream about you."

"Mate, did you see how quickly she ran off yesterday? What makes you think she wants to face me, let alone kiss me again?" Bondy chuckled and I rolled my eyes.

"I don't think she'd mind! You're her handsome prince. That dream is very telling of how she feels about you. By the way, how do you feel about her?" Both Bondy and Larry were watching me, looking for any signs of me swinging one way or the other.

"He's not denying it as quickly," Larry noted, smiling. My face was getting warm and I was squirming under their gaze.

"Fuck off, Larry."