woke. | II

alex

"What are you talking about?" Cam asked and hesitated, wondering how in the world was I going to be able to condense everything into five minutes or less. I looked at Hady. She sighed.

"You're going to be late." Hady said to her brother point blank. "We'll fill you in after school so if you're not home by the time we are, I guess you'll just have to miss out."

"Oh I'll be there, you crazies." He said with a laugh, as though taking up the challenge.

Once his car slid away from us, Hady bumped my shoulder roughly and asked, "What was that, Alex? You couldn't leave well alone, could you?"

"What's the matter with you, Hads? Do you hate your brother so much you can't stand to share some dream space with him? And you've been hanging out with Danny too much. Leave it well alone." I mimicked, which she ignored.

"It's not that." Her voice was troubled and she got this look that said she's been thinking way too hard, too much.

"Well?" I let just enough of my impatience show. My mom's always told me I was great at manipulating people and when I was younger I would wear that badge with pride. But then it occurred to me that it may not be a compliment, and I've resented her ever since. Who tells a kid that you had the potential to be Hitler? I'm sure he was charismatic and cunning, as all great leaders are. He might have been evil but no simple man could have persuaded an entire country of what was right or wrong.

"Well..." Hady started slowly, "I have this theory."

"Wow!" I faked my enthusiasm, "You? A theory?" She isn't the kind of person to share her deepest darkest thoughts. I do it because life is too damn vanilla otherwise, and if no one dares to give a voice to truth... The world's just a ball of fake ass people pretending to be normal, whatever that is. But people like Hady, what they need is just a little push in the right direction.

"No. Serious, listen." She said with passion, and I shifted myself in a way that insinuated I was only patronizing her. I couldn't overdo it, otherwise she'd shut off.

"I think there are two groups of people. The ones who, like you and Daniel, are able to remember their dreams and then there those like Cam and I. We can't, not without plenty of help. Now, I'm not sure why this is... Or if there's a correlation between levels of consciousness and the percentage of being lost to the eversleep... But I don't want to take any chances. Not with my brother."

"Woa, deep." I bit my lip. I hated lying; I hated doing what I was doing now in order to dig up information. I was selling myself out. That's also why I live on the edge. Uncensored thoughts, uncensored words. Silently, I promised myself I would go about the long way next time. No more shortcuts just because I wanted to know right then and there. I would learn to be patient, which isn't one of my strong suits especially when I've decided what's my endgame.

"Ok, come on. I need to chew on that for a bit." I said, walking off. The truth was, I had guessed as much but to hear her put it into words made me feel selfish. Wasn't I the one who's been incessantly dragging Hady out of her stupor, time and time again? What does that say about me if being aware meant you're marked for the big leagues?

Gotta keep my head, gotta keep my cool. She could still be wrong, but deep down I felt a tingling that said she's onto something. I flipped my phone open and mumbled what I was typing into the glass display.

"Remembering Eversleep." Just as I thought, no hits, just pages of memorials and stupid stuff like that. People forget that life is for the living, and that extends to the internet too. But if Danny was right, then these people who've gone could still return. I waved the results away and typed another: Dreaming Friends. Nothing I was looking for. These stupid search engines were hopeless! I shut the two halves of my phone together forcefully with one hand and headed to class, feeling satisfied at the loud snap it made.

Nobody remembers their dreams. That's what we've always known. What was so different for Danny and I? Was there something wrong with us?

The morning passed slowly. I felt agitated and excited and kinda sick to my stomach. Hady was in a few of my classes and we barely spoke, both wrapped up in our heads. We did whisper briefly about what we were going to do later and tonight. Neither could come fast enough.

After waiting agonizingly for the final bell to ring, it finally did. I caught Hady at the entrance and she looked at me somberly.

"Let him make his own decision, yeah?" I asked, full of gusto I did not completely feel. Trying to lift her up with my spirit.

She nodded.

When we reached her house, Cam was draped over a three seater and we went to the kitchen to bang up a meal. Literally, we made so much noise he wouldn't be asleep by the time we were done. And right enough, a few minutes in, a disheveled boy with his dirty blonde hair curled and sticking up in tufts stood at the island.

"It sounds like World War III in here." He said good-naturedly. "Any for moi?"

"We've got grilled cheese." Hady said, pointing at the disarray of dishes in front of us. "Salmon pasta and I have no idea what that is." She ended with a wooden spatula aimed at my direction.

"It's dessert." I said. "Mung bean soup!" The expressions on their faces did not match my enthusiasm at all.

"Okay..." Cam settled down and started picking at the food.

We both finished what we were doing, chucked the stuff we didn't need into the sink and told him everything.

"Wait a sec. So going to sleep is like stepping through a portal?" He asked.

"Huh, never thought of it before but yeah."

"That. Is. So! COOL!" He virtually yelled. Hady jumped about a foot and looked thunderous. And I was just amused. He's pretty cute. Boyish charm and all.

"What? So Alex's in on this and now suddenly it's cool? I've been telling you for-" Hady said, her voice growing louder with each word till Cam cut her off by lifting a hand.

"Please, you're my little sister. Anything out of you is less convincing than what Bon tells me." Bon's his brother from another mother and also one of the most arrogant, self-absorbed person I've ever met. He's also full of shit and I think Cam hangs out with him only because he likes laughing at people and who's funnier than someone who takes themselves far too seriously?

"Ok," Cam continued, "No question about it. I'm in!"