Bane Of Time (Completed)

Another not so normal day

   I open my eyes to the sound of music playing somewhere deep into the castle halls. It enraptures me. I stand up, putting on a robe to cover myself from the cool breeze, and follow that sound, oh that beautiful sound. I run down the halls, each footstep echoing. Running into the ballroom, I'm blinded by the soft sunrise. Is it morning already? I slowly open my eyes and take everything in. There he stands, in the midst of it all. My eyes meeting his raging ocean ones. A smirk creeps its way onto his face. He takes a step towards me, then another, and another, and all of a sudden, our noses are an inch away from touching. He grabs me by the waist and pulls me in. We dance to the rhythm of the music, swaying here and there. Lost in each other's gaze, we both dance. Safe in each other's arms, we both dance. Forgetting the world, we both dance. Knowing the true bliss of love, we both dance. The music started to quicken and the next thing I know is our feet tripping over each other and falling to the ground. 

   I open my eyes to realize that I'm still in bed, and that was another of my fantasy dreams about this boy I've never seen in my entire life, nor a castle I've never visited before. These dreams I've been getting lately looked more real than a dream, like a distant memory or an event I can't remember when it happened. I don't want to talk with anyone about that, my father would say that's just another silly thing in my teenager mind and it's a completely normal thing in my age, besides I'm visiting my mother's small house in northern Ireland, and my friends would think I'm crazy not that I have many of them.

   The only friend I was able to have is my best friend Aishling, I've known her since I was a baby, she's my mother's friend daughter and we grew up together. She's the only one who stood by my side when my parents divorced and accepted me the way I am and didn't call me a nerd for reading and living the way I like.

   I get out of bed to change into a knee long plaid skirt and a black turtle neck sweater, I'm the only one in this neighborhood who still dresses up like that, all the other girls wear these crop tops and ripped jeans, I never got the hype about these outfits. I looked at the clock and noticed that I was running late on my morning meeting, so I brushed my hair and added a cute black headband, threw my book into my purse and ran downstairs, past the kitchen where my father is eating his breakfast before going to work, opened the door and into the busy streets of Dublin.

   I opened the coffee shop doors to be met by the mesmerizing and the awakening aroma of coffee beans, "Good morning Ciara! You want the usual right?" I'm a regular at this place, every barista already knows my coffee order schedule by heart.

   "Hey! You know it but I'm waiting for a friend so I'm going to wait for her first." I sat down on one of the couches and took out my book, it is normal for Aishling to be late for our gossip meetings.

   The café is my refuge, this place I can make believe that I am in a caring society. At the tables are my imaginary friends in a transient community. We are born to need social bonds. We are born to need a sense of others, even if we are alone. It is terrible for the higher brain to know that we are solitary, that our life path has asked us to learn how to be the warrior instead of the cosseted, the protector and not the protected. Yet there is a need to fool the senses that this society is a safe place and we belong to a tribe. In the coffee shop where the awkward lovers, pretending to be there of convenience, afraid of our need to connect to one another. This place filled with people always so close and so far apart, this is the community of our era, as close as we can be without admitting the truth. So in this café, among the noises of people, their scent, their occasional glances and the chatter of the baristas, I give my primitive brain a little of what it craves, just enough to see me though.

   After a couple of chapters, my best friend finally decided to show up, I burst into a fit of laughter at first glance, she was drenched with sweat and looked as if she ran a marathon. "What happened to you?"

   "I realized that I was running late, plus my car is getting crazy so I decided to walk in my high heels to meet you since you weren't responding to any of my texts and calls, and well you see the rest is how I'm looking right now." She responded.

   I took a glance at my phone and saw about twenty text messages and fifteen missed calls from her, guess I shouldn't put my phone on silent mode anymore. "I'm sorry I was reading my book and didn't check my phone, here sit down and I'll grab out coffees."

   Just as I was saying that, the barista came and placed two cups of coffee in front of us and left. The coffee cup rested upon the wooden table; it was white, and so the playful splashes became an impromptu work of art. The smooth, brown milk created a contrast with the mug that lay on the table with others of its kind. The lustrous texture, topped with chocolate crumbles outdated the effect created by the coffee beans which placed themselves outside the mug, begging to be crushed! The vibrant aroma seemed to have extricated itself from the thick, cream coating over the surface, penetrating deep into my nose, watering my mouth! Just what I needed to start my day.

   "Howya doing?"

   "Oh you know, I'll start packing for my vacation at my mother's, wish you could come with me."

   "I have work next month, you know I need to start saving for college, we'll stay in touch I promise." We sat down and chatted for a while before we had to part ways and continue our day.