Alan (Leave Me To Dream)

Chapter 2

Dan flopped, completely exhausted, into his bed. It was now a little after 1:00am and they had only just arrived home after a gruelling drive back up the coast to Manchester. Louise had dropped Dan and PJ at their flat, practically shooing them out of the car in desperation to get home and sleep. They didn't take much shooing however, both of them slumping out of the car and trudging their way inside almost instantly, mumbling a short goodbye to Louise as they left.

Dan smiled as the memories of the day filled his head; the ultimate dogem car battle, Louise falling off her horse on the merry-go-round, that crazy psychic lady and those amazing caramel scones. However Dan's reminiscing was soon interrupted as he quickly fell into a deep sleep, soft snores eventually sneaking their way out of his mouth.

~ ~ ~

Dan checked the time table again, running his finger down the board until he came to his bus. It was five minutes late already. This was the third time this week and Dan was damn sure the city council was going to hear about it. Dan looked up, peering into the distance, hoping to catch a glimpse of a bus rising over the horizon. Nothing, only a strange, dark green rain cloud quickly approaching him. The cloud gradually slowed as it drew nearer, coming to a complete halt over Dan's head.

"You have got to be kidding me." Dan groaned. Thanks, once again, to the council and their crappy work ethic, this bus stop came with a one of a kind invisi-shelter. A grumbling Dan began kicking up the grass beside the pavement, expecting to be drenched and freezing within a few minutes. His feet began getting splashed with water as he continued kicking at the grass. But, strangely enough, the rest of him didn't seem to be getting wet. Dan looked up, puzzled by the situation, only to be greeted with a large, goofy grin from the young man standing next to him. His charcoal hair was sightly damp with rain, allowing small droplets to occasionally dribble down to rest on his eyelashes, only to be blinked away again. Dan stared, captivated by his bright blue eyes, for a little too long, before realising what he was doing and snapping himself out of it. "Um... hi," Dan mumbled, hoping the young man hadn't noticed his staring. But Dan was probably safe, as the young man was currently preoccupied with plucking a small chunk off of the umbrella he was holding over Dan's head. He slowly inspected the yellowish chunk before bringing it closer for a quick sniff.

"UGH!!!" The young man threw the chunk to the ground, furiously wiping his hand across his pants. "CHEESE!!!" Dan looked up, noticing the cause for his dryness. Above him was a large umbrella made entirely, minus the handle, of cheddar cheese.

"Where on earth did you get an umbrella made of cheese!?" Dan exclaimed.

"...It's a chumbrella."

"A what?"

"A chumbrella!" The young man smiled, obviously pleased with himself, and apparently now over his previous disgust for the material the umbrella was crafted from.

Dan spent a moment a little bewildered, then smiled. "I'm Dan."

"Phil," Phil stuck out his hand for Dan to shake. Unfortunately this was the same hand that was previously holding the umbrella, which now lay in two pieces on the ground. "My chumbrella!!!!" Phil knelt down, holding the two broken pieces in each hand.

"For someone who was disgusted by cheese not one minute ago you seem pretty broken up." Dan chuckled at a rather unimpressed Phil who was now trying to create enough friction between the pieces to melt the cheese back together. "Come on, this bus is never going to come, I was waiting here for an hour yesterday before I gave up. Let's go get out of this rain."

In what seemed like a millisecond Dan was sat in a cafe. The boy, Phil, from earlier was sat across from him. It was no longer raining, but the chumbrella, in seven broken pieces, lay on the floor by their table. They already had food, a small muffin and a drink each. Dan moved his cup across the chessboard they were sitting at. "Checkmate, I win." Dan took a bite out of his muffin, lounging back into his chair.

"Aww... How about an all or nothing round?? First person to take another player's piece wins overall!" Phil chimed hopefully. But Dan shook his head, he already had his mind set on the merry-go-round in the street outside.

"How about we go outside, it's stopped raining." The two boys got up and began walking past the rows and rows of cats, sat up on their hind legs, playing each other in chess. As soon as they exited the shop Dan began making a beeline for the merry-go-round, not even che-

~ ~ ~

Dan's eyes blinked open. He turned groggily to look at his alarm clock, it was 11:28am. He'd managed not only to miss his visual design class and half his economics lecture but also his alarm itself. He checked his phone and low and behold he'd left it on silent the night before. Dan huffed, kicking himself for not checking it before he let himself fall asleep. Oh well, he'd just have to con PJ into teaching him what he'd missed.

But as he let his university worries pass, his strange dream began drawing his attention. The green rain, the boy... Phil, cats playing chess and chumbrellas!? What on earth is a chumbrella? Where in his brain did that even come from? And the vividness of the whole thing. Dan would often remember remnants of dreams but never in this much intense detail. It was odd. But Dan had better things to worry about, like breakfast, and soon the dream, much like his university studies, drifted far into the back of his mind.