Clear in my vision is a boy and girl, standing together. From a distance, I can only see the fuzzy outline of their silhouettes. The closer I get, the more I can observe the fine details of this escapade. The girl’s arms are clinging to his waist, her body cascading into his. Faces barely apart, I start to wonder how they could breathe so close together. The pair gazing into each other’s eyes, probably falling in love. It is as though the couple were cut out of a scene and placed in a black background. The girl’s face is distinct, yet I can not recognize her from my reality.  My mind will only allow me to focus on one facial feature at a time. I find myself staring into her eyes first. They are a plunging blue that bleeds into a playful green right at the pupil. Second is her mouth. A plump bottom lip that balances out her thin upper lip is enhanced by a pink, high shine lip gloss. Third is the nose, small in the center of her face, with a round tip.

On the other hand, I know exactly who the boy is, even before he turns to look at me. My heart falls to pieces when he does. We lock eyes as he makes his way over to me. He appears to be happy to see me, though I cannot return the favor. The boy is a friend named Mike, and the girl is named Tilly. I’m so naive to think that he will not fall back in her trap, with her undeniable beauty. I hear Mike’s voice in my ear of broken promises, telling me he would never let this happen. Though promises fall through, and betrayal is not a kind friend.

I close my eyes, wishing away the red-faced anger currently present in my mind. I don’t take a deep breath to calm myself, that just isn’t my style. I stand still in the empty abyss, waiting for my feelings to flush out of my system. Knowing I just can’t run away from my problems, I open my eyes.

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A glistening parking lot awaits before my newly open eyes. A beige shopping mall with blue windows is standing tall behind me. The splotch white divider lines vibrate in the heat. Sweat drips from my neck to the bottom of my spine. A small child yells something inaudible in the distance, through it was high pitched and rings in my eardrums. I make a 360 turn to investigate what is around me. A blue and crimson bouncy castle sits little kids, jumping up and down, laughing. They’re fuzzing in the distance and it strains my eyes. Just a wash of bright colors bouncing up and down. None of them turn to look in my direction, though I seem to be the only other person in this parking lot. Their fun absorbs their brain.

I hear my name come from the mall, as well as a rush of footsteps. So my surprise a flow of my school friends rush out of the building. They grab my limbs and carry me to the bouncy castle. Legs pumping us up and down, we laugh and scream, childhood in our grasp yet again. The blue and red leaving a lasting imprint in my memory. So much going on around me, the image of Mike and Tilly slipped away, or so I thought.

Looking down at my feet, I notice a hand clasped onto my ankle. I think this is funny at first because I didn’t even feel it was there, to begin with, but then the hand pulled me to the ground, I become paralyzed. I want to scream for help but the words never leave my tongue and escape in sharp breaths. My friends turn into the blurry children bouncing on the castle before. They were never really my school friends.

The hand slinks up my thigh, gripping onto my bare flesh. Sinking its nails into my skin it shaves the skin away when I resist. I’m trapped and helpless. At the end of the arm was a filimar face.

“Mike?”

I wake up in a cold sweat.