Adventures in Dreamscapering

return

I didn't sleep at night for two days after, instead finding meager rest in microsleeps during church, school, breakfast, anywhere would work.

I didn't want to see Max again, and I wasn't quite sure how to evict him.

I was pretty much resigned to just never sleeping ever again when something very peculiar occurred.

First, I was sitting in class, trying not to fall asleep. Because not falling asleep was all I could focus on, my notes were obviously crappy.

My eyelids dropped and then shut completely, and I jolted myself awake.

Except my classroom looked a little...filmy.
A little glitchy.
A little like an old VHS tape, shimmering and graining...

"No," I said, slamming my ghost palm against my real body. "No, no, no, no, wake up!"

"No!" I slapped again, this time only hitting the desk. My teacher turns to face me, her dream filter disappearing.

"Gwen, something wrong?" she asked. My desk neighbors eyeballed me like I was a total weirdo and I certainly felt like one.

"No," I said, my voice like a whisper.

I put my head down on my desk, which is the danger zone for sleeping in class but I didn't want to draw anymore attention to myself.

Yes, I did fall asleep and I sat up gasping, back in the dream world again.

"Gwen-"
I heard my name from a familiar voice.

"Leave me alone, Max! I...I don't know what's wrong with you or...with me. But just stop-"

"No, Gwen, it's me."

I looked around, and in the doorway stood...me?

The other me. The one I met at the karaoke bar that Max had linebacker rammed me out of the Dreamscape for interacting with.
Dream me, if you will.

"Oh. Hi, other me," I said, sending an awkward wave her way.

"You need to stop hanging out with Max," Other Me said. She didn't move from the door.

"Yeah," I replied, standing up. "I kinda figured that out."

"Max is--wait, what?" Other Me seemed surprised at my quick realizations.

"I dunno. He seemed kinda shifty. Always feeding me drugs. Very suspicious."

I shrugged at her, and Other Me shrugged back, and then, catching herself mirroring me (herself?) she squinted at me.

"He's...he's not good news."

"Again, tell me something I don't know, Other Gwendolyn."

Other Gwendolyn gave a prissy little sigh (is that what my subconscious is really like? Ew.) and motioned me to go with her, so I did.

We walked through the hallways in silence for a while. Finally, Other Gwendolyn decided to speak.

"Gwen, Max doesn't love you."

"Elaborate."

"Well, he does. But it's not the real life you. It's the dream you. Which is me."

I squinted at Other Gwendolyn.

"You're jealous of me!" I exclaimed loudly.

Other Gwendolyn flushes.

"What? No! It's not like that. Max is dead to me. He's a liar and a user and I'm just trying to protect you!"

"You still have yet to explain your full story. I suppose I have all the time in the world inside the dreamscape so, let's hear it."

Other Gwendolyn looked around nervously.

"Okay, okay. I will tell you. But let's... go somewhere else. Has Max dreamscaped with you here before? I sense his presence," Other Gwendolyn said anxiously.

"Yeah...he has."

"Wow. It's worse than I thought."