Adventures in Dreamscapering

some fun

"Just to clarify, what sort of fun do you have in mind?"

Pizza croissants were what we had in mind.

The place we went to was upside down, a never ending bar appearing to stretch infinitely from the door. Leather bar stools and people hung from the ceiling; above us a busy restaurant operated.

"What is this place?" I said in awe. 

"Well, it doesn't really have a name," Max said, "but I know it has the best pizza croissants of this dimension!"

"Pizza croissants?"

Pizza croissants--literally the best thing in all of existence. After Max showed me how to navigate the topsy turvy barscape with a little bit of Inception-like walking up the walls and a little holding your breath we walked up to the bar and took a seat.

The bartender, one of many, strolled up to us.

"Can I get you something to drink?" he said, sounding bored. I couldn't place what was off-putting about his face, but something about it disturbed me and I looked away from him.

"Oh! Okay, I'll have some vermicelloni, and for my beautiful maiden over here--" Max gestured at me and I blushed, putting my hands in my black dress clad lap, "I think we should start her off with calamaretti. She probably wants it in a wine glass."

 I raised my eyebrow at Max and he grinned because he knew he was right.

 "And pizza croissants!" Max continued, "The shareable kind."

The bartender nodded and wandered away.

"Are we drinking?"

"Sure. It's a bar, why not?"

"Because I'm fifteen."

"There is no legal age in the Dreamscape." Max stuck his tongue out at me. I couldn't help but thinking He's kinda cute which I might as well had said out loud.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry. That's embarassin--" Max pressed his lips to mine all of a sudden. Max tasted bitter and sweet, not like dark chocolate is, more like how salad bar green jello cubes taste. He grabbed my hand but I immediately pulled my face and my hand away. 

"Oh my god! Stop kissing me, I don't even know you!" I said, laughing nervously. Max shrugged and smiled. 

"Sorry. Can't help it. You remind me of someone that I used to know. I guess I have to start all over with you!" Max said. 

"Um." The bartender, a different one or perhaps the same one for it seemed they all were identical had returned with our food delivering a wide circle of pepperoni croissant mozzarella goodness was garnished neatly on a black platter. On the tray in the other hand of the bartender was ... pasta? Pasta and sauce, some in a tall and wide wine glass with a thin stem and some in wide rimmed martini glass.

"Didn't you order drinks?"

Max took the glasses from the bartender, handing me the steaming wine glass. The sauce was white with specks of pepper and something green, basil maybe? The pasta was cute and ring shaped and artfully arranged inside the glass. Even though the contents were clearly hot the glass was cool to the touch.

"You must not know the names of basic pasta if you think that!" Max said, pretending to be surprised.

"What?"

"This is drinkable pasta. Not alcohol."

"It sounded like the name of a cocktail, geez." I punched Max in the arm and he laughed.

"Haha, I suppose I should have clarified. This is a spaghetti bar. You eat, drink and breathe pasta. And pizza, sometimes. But only if they have good pasta. No alcohol. Sorry to disappoint you." Max laughed at his own joke, then leaned back and sucked down his own glass of red sauced pasta like it was liquid.

"I do not recommend you drink anything in the Dreamscape." Max said, wiping his mouth with his hand, suddenly sober.

"Why not?" I asked. Max shook his head and instead gestured at my pasta. 

I swirled my glass' contents in my hand. I leaned forward and took a sip. It did not feel like pasta. It felt more like soup and tasted fresher than I expected.

That's ... interesting, I thought.

"Now try the pizza croissants!" Max said, pushing the plate towards me.

The pizza was great. It was unusually flaky and buttery, even for a croissant. But the flavor was too familiar, I have to have had this before somewhere...

"These taste like the ones at Starbucks," I finally decided.

Max feigned the look of the offended. "I assure you, your real world one-stop-shops are nothing compared to the gourmet eateries of the Dreamscape."

=-=-=-=-=-=
"Absolutely not! This building's like what, two thousand feet in the air! I'm not jumping!"

Max looked very high strung with a weird coked out smile. His eyes were diluted grey-blue and grey-green to match the glass of the tall skyscraper we were teetering on. The wind was blowing through his black hair and through my own dark locks.

"It's the most fun thing you can imagine, Gwendolyn."
"I appreciate you using the correct superlative form of fun." I looked down hesitantly.
Max laughed a laugh like a socially awkward anime character, loud and choppy.
"I knew you would."
And then he launched himself off of the building, his hands crossed over his chest like he was a dead body.
Leaning forward in surprise, I too fell from the building. My heart was pumping way too fast. Tears from the wind and of fear streamed from my eyes in odd shapes from my face into the sky. I swam in the air for a bit, my arms and legs wiggling like a thirsty fish.

Max was giggling way too loudly. He looked at me with his eyes changing every color of the rainbow.

"Stop being so uptight, Gwendolyn."
I heard his voice loud and clear like we weren't whipping through the air like bullets.

I started laughing too. I reached out my hand across the space between Max and I; we passed through a cloud and the ground became visible.

Max grabbed my own hand, I could feel our unsyncopated pulses throbbing in our grasp.
"Okay," I said.

I open my eyes.

"Don't do that," Max said.

The ground was very close and flat like a Google Maps image. In fact, the whole world is like a Google Earth, all angular and smushed and lopsided.

SMASH.

Everything was very quiet. I opened my eyes, just a sliver and see a figure standing over me--it's me.

Another figure is talking to me (her?), presumably Max. He's running his fingers through his hair sheepishly.

I blink and open my eyes a sliver again. We are back into the cathedral bathroom, Max is carrying me, running.

Another blink, I'm in my bed. My eyes won't focus on Max, he is blurry and smudged at the edges. He leans forward and kisses my forehead and disappears.

"Gwendolyn!"
It's my sister.
Waking up is the hardest part.