Dream

Story

    "Ummm, I guess I'll tell you about my second trip to China," I say trying to think of a good story. "Ok, so I went to China for school. It was over the summer for a month." I begin, as we exit the aquarium. "Ok before you start I'm hungry. Wanna come with us, Jack?" Mark asks. "You ok with that?" Jack asks Signe. "Yeah, I'm kinda hungry too!" Signe says giggling. "Same here." Jack agrees. Before Mark or anyone else can ask where a good place is I already have a place in mind. "I know a barbecue place near here." I say, already walking in the direction.
"Anyways," I begin again "so my friend and I shared a dorm. By the way our group stayed in Nan Jing University." I inform them before continuing, "We were packing stuff for our weekend trip to the Beijing to see the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, since we don't have class on the weekends." I say, looking for the place, "Then my friend, Walker said "We should push out beds together!" I had immediately agreed." I tell them, turning a corner, seeing the restaurant up the street. "So once we did we had also finished packing so we decided to watch some Chinese Soap-operas. Lemme tell you, we had no idea what they were saying at all. So we made our own dialogue." I conclude now standing in front of the barbecue restaurant.
"Is this the place?" Mark asks me. "I've been here quite a few times." I confirm as we walk in.
...
    We're about to exit when I see my friend Violet and her sister about to walk in. "Hey Vibes!" I say, she looks over and gives me a goofy smile.
"I had no idea you were here." Violet says, "Yeah, Mark, Ethan, Tyler and I  went to the aquarium." I tell "Oh yeah, I we have Jack and Signe too." I say while gesturing to the group.
"So are those your YouTubers?" Violet's Dad asks, pointing to Mark. "Yeah! Can I go with Emeili to talk with them for a second?" Violet asks her Dad while giving him her puppy dog eyes. "Sure, just make sure you don't run off." He says while walking to a table with Violet's sister in tow.
    I walk out and see that everyone is all in a group by the door. "Hey Mark you remember Violet right?" I ask him while gesturing to her. "Yeah I do. She's the crazy friend," he tells me, while smiling. "Is this a friend?" Jack asks me, while walking closer. "Yeah, she's from school." I tell him, while nudging Violet to introduce herself.
"I'm Violet! I'm that crazy friend in the circle," she tells him while giggling.
...
After Violet left we continued back aquarium. "What do you think of Atlanta Jack?" Mark asks him while checking his phone. "I really like it here." Jack replies while smiling. I decided to listen to music, so I put in my earbuds.

~Mark~

    We're walking back to the aquarium when I notice that Emeili stoped talking. I look over and see that she's listening to music. I tap her in the shoulder, "Watcha' listening to?" I ask, remembering that her Mother told me to make sure she's socializing. "I'm listening to Twenty Øne Pilots." Emeili replies while humming along.
"What song though?" Ethan bursts in.
"It's The Judge," she replies continuing to hum along. "So what's your favorite song from their Blurryface album?" Ethan asks, at this point I walk away from their conversation and towards Tyler, Jack, and Signe's conversation.
    "If you don't mind my asking but, is it weird to find a family member that you had not idea existed?" Jack asks politely, "Yeah it's kinda weird. She's also told me she spends a lot of time on YouTube." I say, looking ahead. Then I hear someone yell, "Shit!" I look over at Emeili and she's bending over, holding her hand to her right temple in front of a lamppost. I jog over to her and place my hand on her shoulder. "Are you ok?" I ask her, hoping she didn't hurt anything. Emeili looks up and I see a line of blood dripping down from her temple. Everybody runs over to see. "Do I need to call your Mother?" I ask her already taking my phone out. Emeili shakes her head and cracks a smile. "Nah, I'm ok. Don't worry about it," she tells me nonchalantly.  "I turn around and look at Ethan, "What happened?" I ask, trying to keep my agitation out of my voice, but it seems to fail, because he flinches slightly. "We were just walking and I guess neither of us were paying attention." Ethan says, fidgeting with his hands. "Oh, please," Emeili interjects, "we were just having an interesting conversation and I wasn't paying attention." Emeili corrects.
...
When we get back to the aquarium, Jack and Signe say their goodbyes and walk to their car. "So, Emeili," Tyler begins, "do you have any deep thoughts?" Tyler asks. "The friend you're willing to take a bullet for, may be the one holding the gun," she places a hand on her chin, "Your life can't fall apart if it wasn't even together." Emeili concludes. Tyler looks at me with a look of disbelieve. "How?" Ethan asks, confusion evident in his voice. "I don't know. It's just a thought that kinda stuck out," she responds calmly. "Do you have any more?" Tyler asks her, daring to get her input. "It's hard to be yourself, if no one understands you."

Completed 2/9/17