Adventures in Dreamscapering

nathan woes

Distantly, I heard someone calling my name. Then, a few thuds against my temple.  I snapped back to reality. I was recalling my dream, wow, what a beautiful and strange one it was. I saw that Nathan Black was berating me in our science class, poking a mechanical pencil against my head when I didn't respond.

"Get it together, Greeney," he said.

"Try that shit again, Nathan," I glowered at him. 

"Greeney." Nathan makes another lunge to poke me but I grabbed his pencil mid thrust and snapped it against the table. 

"You bitch! " Nathan said under his breath, clearly loud enough for me to hear but not enough for the teacher, who  would have a stroke if you swear in her classroom.

"My name is Gwendolyn, and don't call me any different." 

Nathan leaned across the table into my face, his pretentious student council reject breath infecting the air. I resisted the urge to knee him where it hurts under the table.

"We need a topic," Nathan said, sneering at me over his glasses.

"Anything you'd like Nathan," I replied saccharinely, which is clearly what he wanted to hear.

"Let's do our project on Mars, then!" Nathan shouted. Nathan looked like one does when they are about to slay you in Scrabble (or I don't know, something similarly uptight and dorky). 

"Stupid. There's like two other groups doing Mars as their subject."

"You don't have any other ideas Greeney." 

I took a deep breath and wondered if a catching a suspension was a good trade off for assaulting Nathan. After two deep breaths, I subsided with an "Alright, whatever. "

Then Nathan disappeared to go harass another group, perhaps to bully them out of our unoriginal project idea. I sighed annoyedly and opened up Instagram, scrolling through my feed without liking or posting anything. I looked up from my phone and saw Ms. Boyd giving me a look that read I'm not going to say anything, but you should put your phone away until class is over. So I did because Ms. Boyd is chill and I don't like to anger her.

"What's your phone number?" Nathan reappears again, looking embarassed.

"Um, what?"

Nathan played with his jacket strings, clearly not wanting to ask again. He looked at me pleadingly, if he wasn't such a pompous jerk it would've been cute.

"For our project. So we can work on it?"

"Oh. Sure." I scribbled my number on a piece of paper barely legibly, and as soon as it came out of my hands his nervousness went away and he was back to being a dirtbag again.

----

Class couldn't be over fast enough. Actually, I couldn't wait for everything to end. I just wanted to sleep, sleep sleep and see Max again. He seemed really invasive but I was curious about his motives. But even as it came time to go to bed, I found I couldn't go to sleep. Was I too excited? Eventually I succumbed to one of those dreamless unrestful sleeps that children usually have the night before Christmas. Disappointing.

The next day I was very tired and not in the mood for Nathan's crap, but he still brought it anyway.

"Did you do your research?" he asked as soon as I got inside the classroom. 
"What?"

Nathan made a face like he can't believe the lowlife he's been stuck with (the feeling's mutual). He held up what appears to be a thirty page printout fresh off Wikipedia.

"Research?!" He said, wiggling the packet in my face.

Oops.
I may have forgotten.

I give Nathan my best "Sorry!" look and Nathan rolls his eyes and jams his thumb toward the computer in the corner of the room to get to work. There's a line, but I don't mind; anything to get away from Nathan works for me. 

--- 

That night I try again to reach Max. I close my eyes and think about him, try to breathe him.

An hour passes. I drift in and out of fever dreams. Another hour. My eyes are half closed; shadows flit in the corners of the room.

And then Max is here, blurry and blocky standing over my body.
The blue marble pressed against and then sinking into my lips, so cold it burns like dry ice.
He lifts me up from my body, the experience just as unsettling the second time as it was the first.

Max is in vivid contrast now, the rest of the room blurry like he once was. Still black and white though, like a cartoon.

"Hey." Max makes a little peace sign wave
I sit in the edge of my bed. "Hey."
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah! It's not like I have all night."