Match

10: Dream

The field is lush green, with only a faint breeze petering out in the valley. Overhead a blue bird sky envelops the land. Jonah and Cole are standing a few feet apart wearing their soccer gear. Behind Jonah is the net. Suddenly, a ball materializes in front of Cole. As if all instincts hone in on his legs, he begins dribbling the ball. The obstacle - Jonah - is in front. He bends his knees, anticipating Cole's next move. Cole tries to dodge around him, but suddenly trips on a shoelace and face-plants into the ground. Strangely enough, he feels no pain, nor any pressure from the impact. He sits up and shakes his head. In front of him is Jonah. His softened face compliments his umber eyes. He holds out a hand for Cole. As Cole's about to grab it, the area brightens to a piercing white.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Cole wakes up as soon as his alarm goes off. He barely parts his eyes apart due to a thin line of sunlight peeking through the curtains onto his face. He checks the time reading 7:00am. Work starts in an hour. He rubs his heavy eyelids then stretches. To his right, Hayden's buried underneath all his blankets with only an arm poking out. He presses the palm of his hand to his face as his eyes adjust to the natural light in the room. What the hell was that dream? Cole shakes off the confusion, knowing full well he'll forget it during the day. He changes into clean clothes, brushes his teeth, and grabs a granola bar to much on the go.

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"Cole, here's the orders for table three."

"Cole, did you clean the booth table at the far left?"

"Cole give this black coffee to the woman at table one."

It's been Cole do this, Cole do that for the past hour. He feels like the tasks he got assigned have already beat his mom's nagging by a landslide. Without haste, he quickens his pace and almost slams into a waitress.

"Sorry," he bows his head in apology and trots on, ignoring the stink-eye she gave him.

Two people sit at a table, browsing through the menu. Cole approaches them with a customer service smile.

"Good morning," he says. "Have you figured out what you'd like to order?"

The man lowers his menu and glances at the woman.

"Babe do you know what you want?"

"Hm?" She glances at him then up at Cole. "Oh, yes."

Cole pulls out a notepad. Although he's gotten the gist of the menu front to back and has memorized customers who frequent their orders here, these two are new.

"What would you like?"

"We'll share a breakfast special."

"Okay, there's a choice of bacon, sausages or ham."

"Bacon's fine."

"And for your eggs?"

The man looks at his girlfriend, awaiting her answer.

"Oh, sorry." She says. "Sunny side up."

"Alright," he scribbles it down. "What kind of bread?"

"What kind is there?" The woman asks.

"Sourdough, multigrain, white-"

"Just white's fine."

"Okay," he says. "Would you also like a small bowl of fruit to go with it?"

"That'd be lovely," the man chimes in.

"Great."

"Oh, and can I get some orange juice?" The woman smiles.