In Your Dreams by JaCorey Brown (unputdownable books txt) 📕

I woke up in front of a vending machine in some beat up hotel with spiderwebs in every crack and crevice.

This would all seem realistic if said vending machine wasn't filled with tiny people dressed in suits. They stood still as toys but they definitely weren't made of plastic.

"Would you hurry up!" A man said behind me.

I turned to the stoic man with a flushed tiny man on his shoulder, my brow rose.

"Some of us have places to be!" The tiny man yelled. I was expecting his voice to be high pitched, that would be less headache-inducing and more laughable.

"Like what? You're not even real." I said.

"Hey dipshit, maybe you should listen to someone for once and hurry!" An eerily familiar voice said from the vending machine.

Tanya, a girl in my science class, was in one of the vending slots, banging her fists against the glass.

What was she doing here? I hardly ever talked to or thought about her. Not a girl I was really into either, I prefer the more feminine type.

"Would you hurry up and buy me, my legs are freezing!" She said shivering.

"Your fault for wearing shorts," I muttered fishing in my pockets for change. I learn not to question much in my dreams, they had a tendency to never end.

I pulled out a dollar and pushed D4 on the machine. Luckily for her, she was on the lower rows.

She climbed onto my palm much heavier than I expected. It was actually pretty exhausting to hold her. How that guy could casually have someone this heavy on his shoulder amazed me. "You're welcome," I said.

"Whatever just put me down and open that door." She said, pointing to the door that I hadn't noticed.

"You were less bossy when you were bigger," I said lowering her to the floor.

I held the door open for her since she was too small to hold it on her own. We were apparently on a pirate ship the entire time, specifically the captain's quarters.

Why would a pirate have a vending machine you might ask? Like I said, you shouldn't ask too many questions.

The sky was covered with puffy but dark clouds. I wondered what it could possibly fall from it. If you guessed rain, clearly you aren't familiar with my dreams.

Tanya, who was back to her normal size looked around as if she didn't trust the normalcy. I couldn't blame her.

She started fanning herself, "Kinda hot isn't it?" Now that she mentioned it, it was kinda hot... no, scratch that, it was scorching hot.

Tanya peeked over the deck, her eyes widened. "What the hell!" That couldn't have been good.

"What?" I asked.

"Take a look for yourself!"

I looked over the deck that had a strange glow emitting below it. The sea, turns out, wasn't made of water but lava.

Nothing to fear though, it's just a dream. Which was why I was confused by Tanya, who was panicking and muttering curses as if it were the end of the world.

"Relax, it's just a dream," I was tempted to say 'calm your tits' but I didn't wanna risk getting punched.

"Exactly!" She yelled inches away from my face. Everyone seemed to love yelling today. "You know how people die in their dreams? THIS IS HOW THAT HAPPENS!"

"I'm standing right in front of you there is no need to yell!" I shouted back, it was sorta hypocritical but she asked for it.

"Alright, I'm sorry. We need to focus." She started massaging her temples as if trying to relieve a headache.

The very last thing I expected was for her to apologize. That wasn't normal coming from her. I kinda felt guilty for yelling at her.

The parts of the ship began to fall into the sea of fire. Who dies in their dreams? It seemed like bs.

Her hoodie caught fire from the flames that spread like wildfire (aren't I the comedian?). Tanya cursed and threw it to the wooden floor, showing her shirt that had Japanese writing on it, she probably couldn't even read it.

Her hoodie fell on the wooden deck. The inside, however, was dark with stars and nebulas, that I could've sworn were moving.

"Is that-"

"We're saved!" Tanya said before she grabbed my wrist and jumped inside of the hoodie as if it were a portal, pulling me in face first.

I landed on top of her in the back of a taxi cab. "You two aren't getting frisky back there are you?" The hippie driving the cab said.

My face heated up. "Wait, what. Timeout." I scrambled off of her and into my own seat. Tanya just got up and brushed herself off. Strange... I was expecting a black eye.

The Beatles played from the boombox in the passenger's seat. Why didn't he just use the car radio like a normal person?

"Uncle John?" Tanya said. Was this guy her uncle? Her uncle's a hippie? I tried to hold in a laugh. She punched me in my shoulder.

"I go by the label Genesis now." He said. Whatever that meant.

I looked out the window, we were on the Golden Gate Bridge but the road ahead of us was so foggy it was impossible to see anything ahead of us, even the sky was cloudy.

"What's your label, kid?" He asked.

I snapped out of my thoughts. "Huh? My label?"

"Your name," Tanya translated.

"Oh, Jason," I said.

"Groovy," He made the rock n' roll hand sign with his thumb sticking out. It made me roll my eyes. Tanya punched me again, this time I yelped.

I glared at her but she sent a harder one back.

She broke her glare and looked at her uncle. "Where are we going?" Tanya asked.

"Dunno, I'm floating right now." Again, whatever that meant.

I leaned against the car door, feeling kinda tired. Ironic, how you can still feel exhausted when you're still sleeping.

Publication Date: 05-25-2018

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