Kingdom Keepers: Once Upon a Dream

Chapter 12

A/N: Um....I'm sorry. Enjoy the chapter!

The next day, Finn was at work, waiting at the counter during another uneventful day. His best friend Dillard, who also worked at the rec center, stood next to him, fiddling with a game on his phone.

"So you just invited these strangers over your house?" Dillard asked.

With nothing else to do, Finn had been telling Dillard about his experiences the past few days. He knew he probably shouldn't, but he couldn't help it: he told Dillard everything.

"They actually turned out to be pretty cool; I'm seeing them again tonight," he said.

"What's her name?" Dillard asked suddenly.

"What?!"

"Come on Finn, I know you," Dillard said. "You're not exactly on the lookout to meet new people, or you wouldn't complain to me every other day about how your parents nag you about it. If you're this interested in this thing, there's gotta be a girl."

"You're..." Finn started to protest, but Dillard simply raised his eyebrows, causing Finn to laugh and sigh, giving up. His best friend knew him better than anyone, maybe better than he even knew himself.

"Her name's Amanda," he said, giving in.

"Oooh," Dillard teased, before Finn punched him in the arm, and he laughed.

"I don't know," Finn continued, trying to find the right words to describe the situation he didn't even understand himself. He didn't dare tell Dillard about the moment at Disney Springs, feeling like he'd met her before. He didn't need his only close friend thinking he was crazy.

"We haven't even talked that much. It's just....I've never felt like I feel when I'm around her. She's just...intriguing."

For as much as Finn had tried to ignore thinking too much about his confusion over Amanda, he found himself smiling. It was freeing to be able to tell someone about her, about how he felt. It made it feel normal, like that was the way it was supposed to be.

"Have you asked her out yet?" Dillard asked, popping a potato chip into his mouth.

"What?! No! Why would I do that?"

"Because you like her?"

"But, she's not gonna say yes!" Finn stammered. The joy that he'd started to feel was very rapidly evolving into embarrassment.

"You don't know that!" Dillard insisted.

"I just met her Dill,"

"You know what I say dude," Dillard quipped. "If you don't take a chance, you don't have a chance."

Finn sighed and rolled his eyes. The phrase, which Dillard had happened upon while writing a paper on his ninth grade English final, was his favorite point to use against Finn, or to use in any situation really. He looked to Dillard and saw him already laughing, knowing what Finn's reaction would be.

"Why are you obsessed with that sentence?" Finn asked.

"Hey," Dillard said. "In twenty years, I've been able to milk one singular piece of wisdom out of this old noggin: I'm gonna run with it as far as I can."

Finn started to laugh, and Dillard did too, but all of a sudden, something stopped him. A feeling of aching crossed his gut, one that he'd never felt before, but one that felt alarmingly familiar all at once: he was beginning to experience that sensation way too often for his liking. His eyes went to Dillard, back at his phone, and still laughing from the moment before. It should've made him happy, should've taken his mind off of whatever was happening, but instead he only felt worse, and he felt like he was going to start hyperventilating.