I don’t dare use my tongue, just brush my wet lips against hers—a kiss goodbye, a way of saying that I’m sorry, a—
I feel her eyelashes flutter, brushing against my cheek, and I pull back instantly. Those big emerald green eyes are wide open, and they’re locked on mine. Her mouth falls open, but no sound comes out.
“You’re...you’re awake,” I stammer, smiling at her with a wild grin. I want to shout and cheer, but at that instant, the skinny guard tackles me to the ground.
I feel my head slam against the floor.
“She’s awake!” I shout. “Dr. Bell, she’s awake!”
2
Rose
Seven Years Ago
“Rose,” Dylan says, shaking my shoulders. “Wake up.”
“I’m tired,” I say, yawning.
“It’s like 4 p.m.,” he says. “Don’t you have a date tonight?”
I jolt myself awake and nearly fall out of bed. “It’s four o’clock!” I shout. “How the hell can you let me sleep that long?”
Dylan frowns at me. “I tried to wake you up, but you seemed really, really tired.”
“I went to bed at eleven last night, Dylan, come on. No one needs that much sleep!”
He shrugs. “Whatever, Rose, I’ve gotta go to work. Mom and Dad won’t be back ‘til later.”
Perfect.
Just like I’d planned. Ryan is going to come over at six, and I’ll convince him to stay here alone with me instead of going out.
I get dressed and spend way too long doing my hair and makeup. I want to look really good for Ryan. I want to look perfect.
Okay, it doesn’t have to be perfect. I’ve made a big deal out of losing my virginity, and that’s why it hasn’t happened yet. If I wait for perfection, I might never lose it, or I’ll be super old, like twenty-five or something. Once you are that old and still haven’t done it, guys will just think you’re weird. They’ll think that there’s something wrong with you. Eighteen is a good age to lose it, and Ryan is a nice enough guy.
He’s a bit dopey, but he’s nice. He’s skinnier than I’d prefer, but he’s got a really nice smile, and good hands. I’ve always been a sucker for guys with nice hands.
I’ve kind of...implied that I’m a lot more experienced than I am. I’ve never outright lied to him, but he probably thinks I’ve had sex before. The last time I told a guy that I was a virgin, it scared him off. He said something like, “Virgins always get too clingy, it’s not fucking worth it.”
He was an asshole anyway.
The doorbell rings around six, and I turn the TV on to make it look like I wasn’t just sitting there with my hands in my lap waiting for him to get here. Which is totally what I was doing.
I open the door, and Ryan smiles at me. He’s wearing bright teal shorts and a white polo shirt. And Birkenstocks. Definitely a bit dorky-looking, but cute. And as I said, he’s nice enough.
“Hey,” I say, smiling.
I press my arms together, so that my cleavage looks much more impressive than it normally does. My tank top fits tight against my bra, but the bra is probably too big for me. I like how the tank top and too-large bra makes my boobs look a bit bigger than they really are. They are not very big.
I see Ryan’s eyes look down at my chest. Perfect.
He meets my eyes again and leans in to kiss me. His lips press against mine, but when I go to slide my tongue into his mouth, he pulls away.
“The movie is starting soon,” he says.
“I was thinking we could stay in and watch one—”
“No way!” he says. “I really want to see this movie bad, so we’ve gotta go. I got the tickets already.”
“Deception?” I ask.
“Inception,” he says. “It’s by the director of Batman, and it’s supposed to be fucking sick.”
Great. My boyfriend would rather go see an action movie than make out with me.
“Ryan,” I say. “My parents aren’t home…they won’t be back until after midnight.”
“Cool,” he says. “We can come back here after the movie then.”
I sigh. It’s good enough. I’ll have at least two or three hours alone with him. I’ll just let him get the stupid movie out of his system.
When we find our seats in the theater, I try to kiss him as soon as the lights go out.
“Chill out, Rose,” he says. “People can see us.”
What’s wrong with this picture? Isn’t my boyfriend supposed to want to get into my pants?
“Damn,” Ryan whispers to me during the movie. “Ellen Page looks hot as fuck in this.”
I yawn, feeling too tired to even be mad or disappointed. Maybe Ryan really isn’t the right guy.
I wake up and see a top spinning. It wobbles around, back and forth, and the credits roll.
What? Did I seriously miss the entire movie? I don’t even remember falling asleep. And didn’t I sleep for well over twelve hours last night?
I rub my eyes.
“Holy shit!” Ryan says, shaking me. “Do you think it’s real?”
“What?” I ask.
“His world! Do you think the thing kept spinning forever, or—?”
“I don’t know,” I say, feeling scared. I’m starting to worry something is wrong with me, but I don’t want to scare Ryan, so I just come up with an answer that makes it seem like I saw the movie. That I didn’t fall asleep with no warning. Maybe I have narcolepsy.
“I think it spun forever,” I say, hoping that’s the right thing to say.
“What a mind-fuck!” he says.
I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“Imagine if you were stuck in a dream for decades like that...it’s so crazy!”
I didn’t even dream, it was like the two-hour movie never even happened. I closed my eyes, and then it was over, just like that.
Ryan drives me back to my place, and I relax a bit. It’s Saturday, and I’m a teenager. I had a hard week at school, a lot of tests, and I’m probably just really worn out. It’s probably nothing.
When we go up to my room, Ryan finally seems to be in the mood, and he throws me down on my bed, then crawls on top of me. “Sorry that I said Ellen Page was hot.”
“It’s fine,” I say. “She kind of is.”
He laughs. “Not as hot as you.”
I don’t quite buy it, but I’ll take it. I grab him and press my lips against his, sliding my tongue into his mouth.
We kiss for a long time, and I feel my eyelids getting heavy.
No. I can’t be sleepy. My heart is racing, and I’m about to lose my virginity. How could I be sleepy? What is wrong with me?
Suddenly I hear my mother’s voice above me, almost ghost-like. “What were you doing in her room, Ryan? With her on the bed?”
“Uh,” he mutters.
“Cut him a break,” my Dad says. “We know what they were doing. That’s not important now.”
“Why won’t she wake up?” My mom’s voice is panicked.
Right as I feel myself drifting off to sleep again, I think about what Ryan said. What if you were stuck in a dream for decades?