Future Complex

5.

Ethans p.o.v

Me and Dominic spent about three more hours at the park. And then he even walked me to my house. It felt like a date. And that was kind of awkward.
Anyways.
It pains me to say it, but us hanging out was the best time i have had in months.
It was so comforting seeing someone I was familiar with and being able to carelessly spent time with them. Someone other than family of course.

Dominic was still behaving in similar ways to his child-self. Of course he changed and matured, but there were still some undeniable similarities. It was great.

I didn't have to adjust to a completely new, different person. Just an evolved one.
And that's what's great about catching up with old friends.

When i came home I told my mum all about it. She seemed even more excited than I was. I warmed my heart, seeing her so happy over something so simple.

We have an amazing relationship. She never underestimated anything in raising me. Always took me seriously, always tried her hardest to understand, always accepted me the way I am and she just overall always had my back. Because of that I know i can tell her everything. And I actively use that. Obviously i can be a little snarky sometimes, but she knows that's just the hormones doing what they're supposed to.

When I finally stopped rambling to her about how amazing my day was, she suggested I should ask him to come around for dinner.
Eh, Nope. That's not happening. At least not in the near future I hope.

I went up to my room to get some rest.
I basically skinned myself out of the tight jeans I squeezed myself into before leaving and took a pair of comfortable sweatpants out of my drawer. I went to the bathroom and took a refreshing cool shower. Then I put on all my comfy clothes and brushed my teeth.
This was much better.

I layed down on my bed and just thought about today some more.
I can't really say I made a friend, but I definitely made an acquaintance. And that's more than I could hope for.

As I was still going around in thought circle, I slowly started to fall asleep.
It was still very early, but I wasn't resisting the urge to take a walk towards the dreamland.

Except it wasn't a dreamland today.
.
.
.
I found myself in a white room. Just a plain white room with a plain white bed. I tried looking around, but there really wasn't anything else in here. I took a step towards the bed when suddenly Luke appeared in front of me.
His curly brown hair seemed to be in the way of his vision, just like always.
"Luke..." I whispered softly and tried to hug him. My arms went right through him though.
"Ethan" he said also very softly and put his palm onto my cheek.
There was no pulse, there was no warmth. Just a feeling of empty space.
That feeling made my eyes hurt, because suddenly there were thousands of tears trying to escape from them.
"Don't cry baby" he wrapped his ghostly arms around me. Again, I didn't feel anything. And that was making me feel infinitely worse.
"I'm sorry" was the only thing I was able to say to him.
"I'm so so so so so so sorry" I kept repeating it until it lost all meaning and it was just rolling off the tongue into nothingness.
"There is no need to be sorry" Luke tried to make me look at him, but I just couldn't.
I suddenly felt the aura in the room switch to an angry, violent one.

"You Just have to redeem yourself" his voice became cold. It made me freeze in place. Any compassion of comforting in his voice was gone in a seconds notice. It made my heart skip a beat and my stomach drop.
"But how do you want to redeem yourself. How do you want to help others, when you couldn't even help ME!?" he screeched and I just started crying more. I wanted to scream, I wanted to shout but I couldn't.
I just wanted this to be over already.