I Never Dreamt Because I'm Just Too Busy

“You have got to be kidding me!” Angel said, practically bursting with excitement. “He asked you out!”

“Yeah.” I on the other hand wasn’t as happy. Don’t get me wrong, I was thankful that someone had finally taken interest in me. I was more worried that I had no idea what to do. This was the first time this had ever happened, and my lack of experience kind of scared me.

“When is it?”

“Saturday.”

“Eeeeee!”She squealed. “Hey Mysti, Anabelle’s got her first date Saturday!”

“No way!” I heard her faintly. She made her way to the phone, and took it from her sister, “I can’t believe it!”

They began to talk fast and excited.

“Yeah, yeah. You guys aren’t going to stop talking about this for a while, are you?”

“Nope.”

I laughed, “I’ll see you guys when I get to school.”

“Bye!”

I pulled my clothes on in a haste, rushing downstairs. Could I ever be on time for anything?



The day flew by, and before I knew it, lunch was here.

Trust me when I say, the only thing I saw were happy faces. Every one of my friends was grinning like no tomorrow, Angel having filled them in sometime this morning I’m guessing.

“I don’t understand why you guys are so happy.”

“Because this is a first for you.” Chantel said.

“Yeah, but really. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“And yet it is.”

“So, are you planning on letting us dress you for this special occasion?”

“Nope.”

“But Anabelle!”

“Nope.”

“But –”

“I’m not budging on this.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “No offense but you guys seem like you’d go overboard.”

She huffed. “Fine.”

“God though,” Luna said, “Who’s have thought you’d ever end up with an older boy!”

“That’s not a big deal either.”

“He’s out of high school though, so it kind of is.”

“Nah, not really. He’s only a year older, so I don’t see why.”

They chattered along, and after a while the conversation drifted off to other topics.

“So Chantel, how are things with whatshisface?” Mysti didn’t even try to cover up her contempt.

“You mean Manny?”

“Yeah.”

“Fine.” She said nonchalantly, playing with her finger. On closer inspection I found there was a simple ring there.

“Did he get you that?” I asked.

She tried to keep a straight face, but within an instant she was grinning from ear to ear. “Yes.”

Everyone at the table gaped. It was simple, but even so, the fact that he gave her a ring, of all things, definitely said something.

I smiled, “That’s great Chantel!”

“I know!” She bit her lip. “I think this is a first for me. I think I’m actually going to stick with him for a long time.”

Chantel wasn’t…the most dedicated girl. This was definitely a good thing. She wasn’t exactly a bad person…she just didn’t really think too much about how her actions affected others. She was a heartbreaker in a sense, but she didn’t realize it.

I’ve said before, how I hate girls who cheat and lie, and Chantel was probably the only exception. It’s not as though she toyed with boys on purpose, she just didn’t notice she was doing so.

I’ve had arguments with Luna about this a lot of times, and before she’s told me I’m just making excuses for her because she’s been my friend since elementary school. That wasn’t the case though. Chantel explained to me her views on boys once when I was at her house, and with the way she spoke, it then became apparent to me that she was really clueless to the effect she had on guys. She knew that they liked her, but she had no idea that they would be hurt when she broke up with them a month from now.

I turned to her and we continued to talk about her and Manny, though I knew my friends weren’t happy that I was encouraging their relationship. I didn’t care though. She deserved to be happy. As continued to talk it was obvious that she really meant every word she said.
Maybe things were changing.



I sat in the usual seat next to Stephen, and was greeted with a “Hey. Someone’s looking oddly happy today.”

I couldn’t help it, I was smiling all day. “Yeah.”

“And why might that be?”

“Well, you remember how I told you I was going to that dinner with my parents this last weekend?”

“Yeah. And you sounded really angry. I mean, I guess I would be too if my parents tried to set me up with some girl I hardly knew.” He paused. “What changed your mind about it?”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, it was just as bad as I had expected. The boy was a total jackass and had an ego the size of a truck. He wouldn’t leave me alone.” I sighed. “But I suppose one good thing came out of it.”

“And that is?”

“I –”

The teacher interrupted and began to dive into her long winded explanations. We were stippling today, which is a type of drawing where you use only dots. The closer they are, the darker they look. The further apart, the lighter it looks.

In all, it’s a time consuming process. She’d told us to choose out of the pictures she had, and some plants and other various objects.

I chose a skull, not thinking much about it.

“So what were you saying?”

“Oh.” Suddenly I felt as shy as the first day I met him. “So after I kicked the idiot–”
Stephen laughed, “You kicked him?”

“Well he wouldn’t leave me alone!” I shook my head smiling, “That’s not the point.”
“I’m sorry. Continue.”

“After that I ran into someone, his brother. Who strangely enough, I’d met with the day before when my friends forced me into getting a haircut. Anyways, we talked and well…” I’m seriously telling him this? “He asked me out.”

Stephen laughed at my reaction. Once the words escaped my mouth, I looked down at the paper and blushed furiously.

“It’s your first date right?”

I nodded.

“Have you always been this innocent?” He chuckled. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing…but you know. It’s okay to let go once in a while.”

“Between the constant nagging of my parents, I don’t think I’ve ever had time to think about what I want. It’s kind of always been about them and what they think is ‘best’. I don’t even know what I want to do with my life because I’ve never had time to dream about the possibilities.”

Stephen frowned slightly. “Does this mean you’ve never done anything that the stereotypical teenager would do?”

“Nope. Ever since the sixth grade, I’ve had the pressure to be perfect on me. I’ve maintained a 4.0 and believe me when I say that wasn’t easy at all. My parents don’t care though. They think that you have to be a big shot business person to be worth anything, complete with a master’s degree.” I sighed. “I don’t want that life. I don’t want to be stressed with all this paper work. I’d rather do something that I have control over.”

“Like art?”

“I suppose. I’ve thought about hat before, and when I was little they said that’s all I ever talked about doing. I had no support though. All they ever told me was how is that going to make me any money? It’s hard enough as it is to get started, and apparently I wasn’t good enough to make it anyway.”

“That’s not very supportive. And as a matter of fact, you’re a really good artist. I don’t know exactly how you’d go about becoming one, but I know that once you’ve got that figured out there wouldn’t be anything stopping you from getting to where you want to be.”

“Really?”

“Sure. Dreams can come true. You have so much drive to do all of these things. I have no doubt that if you tried to become an artist you would make it.” He paused. “Dreams are there for a reason, they keep you going and moving toward something in hopes it will become a reality.”

“You sound like you’ve put a lot of thought into this kind of thing. What do you hope to become one day?”

“All I want to do is make music with my friends. I don’t know if it’ll ever happen, but I can only hope. Playing up there with them, it’s just something that makes me feel great. I can’t explain it, but ever since I learned how to play, I’ve felt like there was nothing else I could do in my life that could compare.”

“And your parents are okay with that?”

“They’re actually really supportive. They’ve told me before how hard it would be to get started, but they’ve also said that if I’m as passionate about this as it sounds, that they’re sure we’ll make it.”

“Wow.” I was actually pretty envious. “They don’t expect you to go to college?”

“No. They’ve left that up to me. As long as I’m happy, so are they.”

“What I wouldn’t give to have some support like that.”

We were silent for a moment.

“Your parents sound like they have everything mapped out for you.”

“Oh they do. It’s kind of sad. Everything is set in stone and no matter what they never fail to remind me that ‘this is the only way to become someone in the world’.”

“So you’ve really never had time to do anything? No sneaking out, no wild raging parties, no…fun?”

I laughed just a bit. “Not at all.”

He smiled mischievously. “Well we’re going to have to change that aren’t we?”