The Distance Between Dreams and Reality

Dream Boy

I watched, still irritated, as Grace's car disappeared in the distance. I regret yelling at her. The ride home had been filled with a sad and awkward silence. The whole time she was staring at the road with no expression on her face. When she dropped me off we kind of mumbled our goodbyes and she drove away as if there was a herd of zombies chasing her.

I sighed and turned around and walked along the side of the four-story mansion to the back. I really do not want to wake up my aunt or uncle and get into trouble for getting home late, so I'm going through the back. Well...it's kind of not the back door...it is a secret door I discovered one night.

When I was a kid, my brother and I would come and spend the night. We would spend most of the summers exploring the mansion. When we got to my room, we found a lot of passages in and out of the room. So after the fire, my aunt and uncle took me in, I chose the room with the secret passages in and out of it. I was very paranoid that a fire would start and I would have no way out...again.

I was also paranoid about the people who enter and exit the mansion. So my room is on the fourth floor in the east wing. If a person were to try to get to my room, it would be kind of hard. My door has three locks on it, and I have all three keys in my possession at all times. Anyone who does not know the mansion by heart, as I do, then it would be very easy to get lost very quickly. There are a total of five ways to enter and exit my bedroom.

The first is through the main door, which has the three locks.

The second is the wardrobe. The mirror opens to one of the hundreds of secret passages in this mansion.

The third is the window beside my bed. Under the window, there is a small secret drawer that holds a very long rope. I can tie the rope on the hook outside the window. (I kind of spent a half hour trying to screw the dang thing in the wall). The rope reaches the highest, stable branch of the tree, which sits outside my room about two stories down.

The fourth is through the freaking hole that is under my bed. I covered it with my blue fluffy rug so no one could see it and become curious. There are stairs, in the entrance of the hole in my floor, which leads to the main level, outside of the mansion. This is where I am currently headed.

The fith is also a hole in my floor. The second hole is located under my desk, I covered that with my purple rug. The hole has a slide that leads to the main floor. I have no idea why there is a fluffing slide in the floor of a really old mansion, but hey I am not judging. The slide is a really fun way to get to the main floor.

Ya...I guess I might be a little paranoid. I pressed a hand against the cool stone wall, trying to find the hidden latch. I was so focused on finding the stupid latch that I barely noticed anything else. Then I ran into a random person, making me yelp. As if a reply, the wall grunted back, then the random wall put its...strong arms on my back to help stabilize me as I stumbled backward.

"Wow, hey there," The strange wall greeted me in a deep and familiar voice, "Why are you out here at this time of night?"

I took a step back so I could look at the boy's face. His arms dropped to his sides, as I stood up straighter and looked at...Aiden. My breath caught, as the moons light let his features, making him look like an angel of the night.

"Oh..." Is the only thing I could think to say as I stared at Aiden's super-model-worthy-face. After a moment of staring at him, he cracked a smug smile with amusement in his ocean-blue eyes.

"Like what you see?" He asked smugly, shaking me out of my shock (and stupid fantasies). I shook my head and searched for a freaking answer.

"Ummm..." Aiden's smile widened. "No, not really...what do you like what you see...uh.....never mind." Mentally smacking myself after that freak show I just acted out. Letting out a frustrated and angry sigh, I tried again, "OK, first, don't get smug because I wasn't staring at you because of your uh... looks. I was staring at you because you appeared out of nowhere while I am trying to find the stupid latch and go to bed because I am fluffing tired."