Strangers in the Rain

“Are you going to answer any of my questions then? One at least one?” I said, after we’d been eating in silence for about 15 minutes. It was beginning to get awkward, the only sounds was us breathing and us eating. Oh and the rain outside tapping on the roof of my car and the pavement outside. Also I could hear the occasional car pass and a bus pass and people walking around, a couple of kids complaining about the rain, splashing water as cars drove through a bit to fast. Also the hum from my cars heating I had left running. It costs more petrol but I take that over freezing to death. I turned to Gerard when he made no reply. He simply shrugged. I dropped the subject for now but I was going to bring it up later. I wasn’t going to forget until I get my answer. I'm stubborn like that. “Don’t think I'm going to drop the subject. I can be stubborn when I want to be.”

“But I have seen examples of winning you round changing your mind, I have done so several times through the last two days.” He smiled finishing off his food. I had almost eaten all of my dinner myself. “And Lexi I am going to have to leave. I have some very important cleaning that needs to be done. I will see sometime over the next week. I don’t know when but I'll pop up at sometime or another.”

I watched as he walked from my car and ran towards the parking lot turning round to wave goodbye just before he entered. I sank back into my chair. This quiet was worse than the one between Gerard and I. At least when he was here there was a chance of someone talking to you who was in the same breathing space. Now I'm pretty much alone in a car that is filled with Chinese containers.

When I had dumped the rubbish in a bag in my boot I began to assemble my bed for the night. I had nothing better to do.

Before I went to sleep I had a few things on my mind, the time I had spent with Gerard over the last few days, what he had said about second kisses, when that kiss was going to be, if we would ever really have some kind of a relationship, why I was going to see him again, but mostly, on the subject of Gerard why he wanted to be around me so much. Why he wanted me to be with him and why he had attached himself to me over all the other girls in this town. I'm not imagining all this stuff with Gerard, I know I'm not; sometimes I may second guess myself, but not this time. This time I am sure that it isn’t just me. That anyone else would agree with me. And then there’s everything not so much Gerard related, my job tomorrow, where I was going to stay when I had some money, putting the rest of my new life into place, so getting friends, a place too live things like that. But the last thought which seemed to shape my dream tonight was what my ex is doing now. I hate him. I don’t ever want to see him again but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t cross my mind from time to time. I'm sure anyone would tell you it happens to them to. Again this one isn’t just me. I'm a hundred percent sure that this is something that is quite a common occurrence which happens to all normal people from time to time.

My dream started off like a day in my old life. I woke up in my apartment, my ex lying next to me, my alarm waking me up for work, my life was running smoothly. My apartment was lighter than usual. It used to not get any natural light because of it’s positioning, but somehow the sun was shining into my window, brighter than it should be. And then the place was spotless, my place never used to be spotless, one of the many reasons why both my land lord and my neighbours hated me so much. My stuff wasn’t there. The furniture was all in place, but the shelves were empty and it felt bare and unlived in. So I was kind of aware this was a dream. But it didn’t sink in, that’s how my dreams are, I'm aware this isn’t real but I never belief it’s a dream until I wake up.

I got out of my bed and made my way through to my bathroom. The floor was warm, again that isn’t normal. There were no towels in my bathroom, no robe on the back of my door, no clothes in the draws. As I was about to go ahead and take my shower I head my name from my bed. It wasn’t my ex’s voice. And it wasn’t far away. I turned around expecting my ex to have some kind of sore throat.

“Alexis?” No one calls me Alexis, well my mum used to when I was in trouble and my teachers, but every one else calls me Lexi or Lexis or anything else. Just no Alexis. The voice in my bed was covered by my duvet. I walked over, my floor still warm. It unnerved me. “Alexis?” I pulled back the duvet expecting my exes head of messy blonde hair all in toughs and in no state to be seen by anyone else. But there hair was black and longer than my exes. And he was taller as well. A little rounder. Paler. His eyes were hazel and not blue. Gerard was lying where, Oliver, my ex, should have been. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back into my bed. He attached his arms around me. It was nice, but when I turned around he’d gone.

I raced through my apartment looking everywhere someone could fit, I was scared, and I needed Gerard. But he’d disappeared.

I woke up a little scared and confused. I hate dreams sometimes.