Dream of Me

After stopping at a fast food joint to grab some food, I walked through my apartment door and threw my keys up onto the counter, kicked my shoes off and shrugged my coat onto the back of my couch. When I looked up, I saw three pairs of eyes staring at me and when I recognized them as my mother's, father's, and older brother, Nathan's, I scowled. I re-folded my leather jacket across the top of the couch and licked my lips, this couldn't be good. "What are you doing here?"

"A mother couldn't visit her son?" My mother said innocently, a hurt expression pulling over her features as she stood up from my small round kitchen table, her hands pressed to her chest.

I narrowed my eyes at her, I still hadn't forgiven them for that stunt they pulled, not telling me about the possible death of my Dreamer, and I definitely didn't forgive them for trying to tell me how to act, love, protect, and treat my Dreamer. "No, not when I'm actually not considered your son, you can't."

They still didn't understand this whole emancipation thing, and that meant that I was practically divorcing my family. Is it still your husband when you divorce him? I don't think so. Am I still their family member when I divorced them? I don't think so. I pushed away from the couch and crossed my arms over my chest, my eyes darting from each face. I didn't want to be anywhere near these people, and the rigid way I was standing, my irritated scowl, and the narrowing of my eyes made it very obvious that it was exactly how I was feeling.

"Noah, son, I don't understand why you thought this was necessary to begin with. Every family has their disputes, I don't get why you can't just forgive and forget. Can't you see what you're doing to your mother?" My father said as he swept his arm back so I'd follow the movements and follow it over my mother - Jade, I mean.

I felt I had an equal right to be very rude and cold-hearted if I so chose to, so I went with the vibe. "Well, because we aren't like other families. To forgive and forget what you did, how you dictated my love life, how you told me how to do something that was instinct wasn't in your court. And I see what I'm doing to Jade. I see her crying, but that doesn't make me want to run over to her and hug her and rip the legal document that keeps us separated into shreds. You don't seem to understand that I am fully and completely serious about this, that for the last two and a half years, that I've gotten on quite fine without all of your money. I make my own money to live comfortably and still have money left over at the end of the day. I got a one bedroom - one bathroom for a reason, because it'll be just me and my Dreamer living here. Bi-weekly, I make an average of sixteen-hundred. I don't need you guys to support me, I can pay my rent, I can shop and clothe myself, I can make my car payment. I can do it all without you."

My father nodded to my mother and brother. They got up and kissed my cheek and walked out of the building, heading downstairs and out to their car most likely. It was just my father and I staring at each other, five feet apart. His eyes hardened and he stared at me with accusation, his lips twitched into a frown as he pointed at the door, "You are causing your mother distress like you wouldn't understand. Every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, every birthday she's waiting for you to walk through the door with a smile on your face and for you to stay. What do you have to say for yourself?"

I shrugged my shoulders half-heartedly, crossing my arms over my torso once more and sighing out of exasperation and boredom. "I have nothing to say. You can cry, you can all cry, you can wait every day of every year. It makes no difference to me. You tried to tell me how to love my Dreamer, I remember you specifically saying to me, Nolan, that it's natural instinct to know how to love your Dreamer. You hypocrite. And you kept something so vital and nerve-wrecking like that she could have been possibly dead somewhere away from me. I don't care if it damn near killed me, I still had an outspoken right to know that, and the fact that you disagree with me shows how you should eat your own words. I'm not going with you."

He gritted his teeth, "The Hell you're not. You will go and pack everything up this moment, Noah, and you will make an overnight pack and get down in that damn car."

My eyes hardened as I merged my eyebrows together, shifting my weight from foot to foot. I shook my head, "You aren't going to tell me how to live my life, I'm not some scared little kid. I'm nineteen years old, I'll be twenty in July, I don't have to live by your rules anyway. I'm considered an adult by law, and since the lease is in my name, I could have you escorted off private property. And don't think I won't. Your strict rules, your dictatorship, the way you think you know what's better for my Dreamer - my soul mate than I do, that doesn't fly with me. I had it up to my eyeballs. I will live and do as I please, and you cannot tell me what I can't and can do. Now, remove yourself from my property before I call the cops."

Nolan glanced between the ground and the door I was now pointing at. Begrudgingly, he walked coolly past me, his eyes never finding mine and his face turned straightforward. He reached the door a heartbeat later and finally turned his head toward me, my eyes scaling over the man who looked exactly like me plus twenty-four year. He looked me from my head to my toes, "I'm proud of you, son. I've always been proud of you, and even though this dispute doesn't show it, I want you to know that our home - your home is always open, you can come back whenever."

I nodded, "Thank you. Now, please, just go." I turned my head down, I didn't want to see the disappointment in his eyes any longer, I just wanted them to disappear and pretend that this wasn't how I started the new day. When I looked back up, though, my father was gone.
I left this for another day to think about and moved toward my bedroom with my mind clouded over. Once I pushed the door open and saw my queen sized bed, giant and plushy with the brown bed set, I jumped into my closet, grabbed sweat pants, stripped and pulled them on. I ran and dove into the bed, rolling around until I could crawl under the blanket and buried my face into the fluffy pillow. "Oh God, yes!" I screamed as I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep, but not before I set my alarm clock for six-thirty.

***

When I woke up, two minutes after my alarm sounded, I shot out of bed and into the shower down the hall. I sang myself a shower tune and hopped out ten minutes later with a towel wrapped around my waist, running into my bedroom and grabbed some clothes to change into. I grabbed a blue and white plaid flannel with a white wife beater to put on beneath it, a pair of dark denim jeans and slipped on my own black and white checkered slip-ons. I grabbed my name tag and ran out to my baby.

When I got to work, I had two minutes to spare, so I walked in and typed my ID number and name, plopping down into the computer chair that I normally occupy and stretched out. Alex Ortega walked over by me with his arms crossed over his chest and a smile resting on his lips, he was one of the good guys and one of my closest friends. He gestured around me and said mockingly, "What? No grand entrance tonight?"

I waved my hand away and made a face at his comment, "Oh, pfft. That's only on special occasions... like when my boss is standing around and waiting to see if I'll show up on time, and possibly get fired for pulling a stunt."

"But you didn't get fired." Alex shot back with his eyebrow up out of confusion.
I clapped my hand against the top of his shoulder, throwing my feet onto the counter, "Not yet. That's because if anyone else tried to do that, it wouldn't have been okay, but for me, well, I usually get off the hook."

"Just that awesome?" I nodded, smiling at him as I folded my hands behind my head and grunted out, "Yep, Alex, just that awesome."

For the next hour and a half I kept him talking about his family, his home life, his girlfriend, my girlfriend, movies that were out and playing, a couple of concerts that were coming up that we needed to go and see together, and other stupid little topics so I didn't tune into Angel and see what she was doing, see what Zak was doing, or see what they were doing together. I visibly shuttered. "You okay?"

I looked at Alex and smirked, but I stopped in the middle of making my face when I heard Angel's voice fill in my head. Noah, I need you, I need you to abandon your laws, I needed you to get off your ass and come love me, come protect me, come save me the way you are supposed to. I blinked my eyes, anything Alex was saying at this moment wasn't being heard. I was seeing through Angel's eyes, feeling the hand grappling against my chest, feeling the pressure of the hand against the back of my neck, feeling the tongue swivel around mine, and feeling the lips crushed against my own unwilling ones. She was groaning, but it wasn't from pleasure, and all she wanted was for him to leave her be and walk away, never talk to her again.

He was kissing her, he was groping her, and she was hating every second of it. Not only was this a message from God, this was sending me back into my rage that I had last night complete with the tunnel vision, shaking limbs, and how the world turned red. I blinked myself out and shook my head, Alex had taken a couple of steps from me. "Take my shift for tonight, I'll pay you a hundred bucks if you do it. I have to go."

I didn't wait for him to reply to me, I just turned and jumped over the counter, shouting over my shoulder, "This is my grand exit." I ran out the door, dodging a random person coming in to work out at eight-thirty and running out to my car. I jumped up and slid across the hood, throwing myself down onto my feet as I ripped the door open and closed in the same second, shoving the key into the ignition and backing out of the parking lot in the next second.

I pulled the picture of the warehouse into my head and before my eyes, taking a look at the street that it was placed down. That was at least a ten minute drive that my Angel was going to suffer through in order for me to get to her. I was abandoning the law at this moment, I was going to get hunted by this, I would most likely get taken away from her as punishment for a couple months, but I'd do whatever I had to in order to make her feel safe. I turned out of the parking lot and drove onward.

I continued to turn down different streets, reading from a map in my head until I finally found the street that the warehouse was parked down. I looked left and I looked right, there were no houses, there were no farms, there were no stores - there was just silence. Not a cop car in sight. I had already wasted five minutes in driving thus far. I stepped my foot to the gas pedal, my speed reaching eighty-five until I braked and turned left, shooting through the gravel and grass until I turned behind the warehouse and stopped beside a tree. It was time to get down to business. I got out of the car and pushed the keys into my pocket.

Walking in through the back entrance, I grabbed a guy who was surrounded by people and I saw Jules laughing at whatever this boy was saying. I threw him up against the wall, gripping his shirt between my fists as I growled, "Where's Zak?"

The drunken kid's eyes widened and he pointed toward the center, I dropped him and the kid fell to the floor. Damn high schoolers always getting themselves into trouble. I walked briskly toward the center where I saw Angel's hands clenched into tight fists and her this Zak gripping her chest roughly, his hand pressed against her neck, and his head swiveling back and forth in his endeavor of kissing her. Anger rose inside me once more as I slowed my pace, tapping his shoulder two times and waited for him to turn toward me so I didn't hurt Angel.

When his head turned toward me, his eyes held hate and anger in them, much as mine did. He held a scowl over his lips and said in a vehement tone, "Can I help you?"

I shrugged my shoulders and nodded. I raised my hand and launched my white knuckled fist into his face as hard as I could. When Zak stumbled away from Angel and pressed his hand to his face, I turned toward her. She was spitting out the saliva released from the kiss and wiping her mouth, shuddering from feeling his hands all over her. "Thank you, seriously, thank you so much."

She slowly started to raise her head, her eyes taking in every detail of my body but her expression didn't change until she started to take in my chest and above, his eyes bugging out of her head and her body freezing in its spot. The only thing she could manage when she saw me was my name. "Noah?"

The livid rage inside me hadn't even begun to die out yet. I stared pointedly at her as I spread my arms out, "Abandon everything you know, you said. Come find me and love me the way you're supposed to, you said." I flicked my eyes to the side, staring at the boy who was slowly advancing toward me. The next words that came out were aimed at him, "Well, here I am."

I turned halfway on my heel and threw the punch deep into his stomach, I could have sworn I could feel his spinal chord against my knuckles. As he bent himself over my arm and released a ghostly groan, I pulled my fist up at a vertical angle and let it shoot full force down into his face, his head jerking to the side. I pushed him off me and he spit a glob of water red spit. I really did hope it hurt. I turned my head up to see Angel whose eyes held nothing but terror, and where I thought it was aimed at me, I turned my head toward Zak who punched me in the face. My head jerked to the left, my jaw tingling from the hit and Angel's screams sounding through my ears and rattling my brain, my anger resounding once more. Time seemed to stand still when he hit me, and when I jerked my head back toward him, I raised my foot and shot it into his stomach. It was the kind of move you only saw in movies when you wanted to kick a door in, and it felt amazing when it was a person as their body curved around your foot. Zak flew backwards and fell flat on his back, his chest heaving, but I wasn't done. I jumped forward and crouched down onto one knee, I held his shirt between my grip and punched him another six times before his eye split open, his nose emitted blood, his lip split and his cheek was puffy. He looked like he had an allergic reaction, and I guess it was to me. I had the perfect medicine, it seemed.

"You ever touch her - talk to her - you ever blink in her direction ever again, and I find out, I'm coming back to finish you off. Got that?" I sneered down into his face, gripping his hair and tipping his head back. All he could do was groan like a ghost and shake his head from all of the pain inside. Well, if you're going to defy me, then I'm going to have to make myself clear on the topic that I was trying to drive into your skull. I sat back and punched him in the stomach and he groaned once more, dry heaving. I screamed, "Got that?"

"Yeah, I hear 'ya. I got that." Zak said through a strangled voice, hacking up some more blood spit and crawling onto his hands and knees where he dry heaved.I nodded and pushed away from him.

I got up and went to Angel's side, taking her hand and towing her through the crowd. She kept glancing up at me and then away, and the scowl I held on my face wasn't aimed at her, like she probably thought, but it was aimed at myself. How could I have let it get to this level? How could I have waited this long, why hadn't I ever explained it better to her so she understood like she needed to, instead put it into simplest terms? If I hadn't been so foolish and rude, all of this would have never happened.

We were rounding my car and I needed to take into account everything that needed to get taken care of before we left. I unlocked the car doors and pulled her open. "You think Jules can get her own ride home?"

Angel nodded, that's all she could manage. I looked down and for once in the last three years, I wondered if I was everything she thought I would be. I was wondering if she was disappointed that she'd get stuck with this for the rest of her life. I gripped the top of the car and looked between her and the car, watching as her eyes followed my own gaze. Where I expected all of the reunion stuff to happen when we got back to my apartment, Angel threw her arms around me and started to sob into my shoulder. I felt like it was concluded right there for me, she wasn't happy with what she was going to be stuck with for the rest of her life. I let her cry for the next couple of minutes, wrapping one arm around her back and the other across her shoulders as I kissed her shoulder and buried my face in her scent. "Why are you crying? I thought you'd be happy?"

She nodded into my neck, as she sobbed and cried a bit harder, her arms around my neck tightened as she kissed the skin where her lips were, "I'm so happy, I've never been happier. You... You abandoned your law, you left it all behind for me, why?"

I crushed her into me, my arms holding her to me like restraints as my tongue darted between my lips to wet them. "Because I'd do anything you ever asked me to, anything at all. Now," I jerked his head to the side, "You're staying at my place tonight. Let's go."

All she did the whole ride back to my apartment was stare at me. I flicked my gaze toward her and then back to the road continually, but she didn't play coy and look away, instead she ended up turning her body toward mine and stared pointedly. I turned my head toward her when we got stopped by a new red light, looked down between us and then turned my eyes back up toward hers. I shot across the limited space and pressed one hand to her cheek and the other to the back of her head, kissing her fully for the first time and she flowed into the kiss, gripping my arms and groaning softly.

When there was beeping behind us, I pulled back and kissed her lips once more and sat correctly back into my seat. I pressed my foot to the pedal and shot across the street. There was a silence and I glanced at her through my peripherals and I mumbled, "Now, are you done staring at me?"

I could see her smile, shaking her head slowly so as not to break the limited eye-contact that we had going on between us. I nodded and two minutes later we were pulling up to my parking space. When I got out of the car, I waited for her by the side entrance where she shot to my side, wrapping her arms around my waist. Another two minutes later, we were up in my apartment. I nodded around, "Front room, kitchen, bathroom," I stopped by the only closed door in the whole apartment. "My bedroom."

I looked at her and she moved forward, grabbing my hand and towed me into the bedroom, flinging herself like I had done earlier onto my bed with me in tow. Her arms closed around my neck as she laid beside me and took my lips just before I was going to speak and I kissed her back. I pulled away and whispered, "Was it everything you were expecting?"

She shook her head, her eyes and her lips smiling like she was the happiest woman in the world just like I was the happiest man in the world. "Not in the least, it was so much better."