“I still can’t believe he chickened out on it.”

Daniel’s view was locked on top of the bench, unable to turn or move his head — if he even had one. He faced two young men, leaning against the railing outside of a playground. The scene felt familiar, like he had just been at that playground, but the dreamy glow obscured his thoughts, blanketing them with fog like it did the young men’s faces.

But something still felt familiar.

The second young man, a stocky, wider build, laughed. His laugh was silent, yet the following words came through clearly. “I would’ve done the same.”

“But with a perfect setup like that? I mean, we got her away from her friends, we got him next to her, and he just still fumbled the bag! H-Hey…Carmen? How are you? Sucker shit, man.”

“You expected more from him? The guy never had a girlfriend, let alone asking anyone out. Just the same crush on the same girl.”

“Yeah, but he was funny, though. He could make us laugh. Couldn’t he do that for her?”

“You ever confessed to someone you like?”

He shook his head.

“Then you don’t really know. It makes your brain shut down, makes you doubt everything from the shirt you’re wearing to how your face looks to how you’re even walkin’ up to ‘em. It takes real courage to do something like that.”

“Like facing down a lion.”

“Like facing one that you don’t really know if it’s gonna attack you or not.” The second young man stretched. “At least, that’s how people describe it.”

“What, you ain’t never asked no one out, either?”

“Hell nah. It ain’t for me.”

“You never know, bro. Maybe you just need some of that ‘real courage’.”

“Shut up, man.”

The second, stocky young man punched the other in the arm, casting all the fog away like a beacon of light piercing through darkness.

Alex. Ryan.

And the playground behind them was the exact same playground as the last dream — his playground, the exact place where the three of them would play together in grade school.

The place where he saw his universe’s Carmen Garcia in the last dream.

Daniel woke up in sweltering heat. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and morning light streamed in through the window, but his bedroom looked eerily different. The desk was in the wrong place, the bed felt different, and he never remembered putting art up on the wall.

Because he wasn’t in his bedroom. Rafiq glanced over at him with his eyebrows raised, toothbrush half in his mouth. He spit into the sink. “Uh…you good, bro?”

Daniel buried his face in his hands as the dream replayed a dozen times in his mind. Again. Another vision, there, at that same playground.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

“I’m…yeah. Yeah. What time is it?”

----------------------------------------

Eight…nine…ten!

Daniel sat the dumbbell down and took a deep breath, running a hand along his pulsing biceps, panting. He ran a thumb underneath his sweatband, cold and damp with sweat. After eating breakfast at the hotel, Cedric gave them directions to a nearby gym, and Mr. Stone jogged there with them as a warmup. Both he and Carmen had gone outside to the outdoor track, leaving Daniel and Raph together.

“Whew! Alright. Break time over.” Raph sat down at the leg press machine beside the bench Daniel sat on with his dumbbells. He flexed his legs as if standing against the vertical platform, pushing again and again, straining his face with the effort.

Daniel couldn’t find the effort to laugh at his face. The dream still replayed in his mind. Alex and Ryan — that was them. That was their childhood park. As Raph continued his exercise, Daniel opened his phone and scrolled all the way back to the old pictures he had from back home, his gaze lingering on a photo he’d taken during lunch.

Lunch with Alex and Ryan, last year.

And the first dream with Carmen Garcia from back home flashed through his mind, too. There had to be a reason. He swiped over to the webpage he had open, a tutorial on learning to lucid dream. There had to be a way for him to explore further; twice was too many to be a coincidence. Twice at the same park was absolutely too many times to be a coincidence.

Whether it was a coincidence or a trick by his subconscious, their words were right — he was still just a coward. He let his head hang. His time here in this world had tricked him into thinking otherwise. All the times he’d fearlessly challenged anyone knowing he was outmatched had deluded him into thinking he was anything more than a coward. For goodness’s sake, he couldn’t ask out Carmen or the Carmen back home either, apparently.

Raph finished the last of his set, and panted as he relaxed on the machine. “Damn, bro. Is the rest that serious?”

Daniel perked up, and laughed it off. “Oh! Nah, I’m good.”

“You sure, man? You been acting weird ever since you got up this morning,” Raph said. “Woke up like you were getting shot.”

Daniel took a swig of water from his bottle.

“Are you sure you’re good?”

Daniel rose to his feet, stretching his arms. “What gives you the energy to work out so hard?”

Raph shrugged. “It is what it is. It’s what I’ve done, so it’s what I’ll do.”

“Do you have a goal in mind? I mean, Carmen’s talking about going after that Stylus guy, I have one in mind,” Daniel shrugged. “I don’t think you ever named a target yet.”

“Oh, I got one for sure.” Raph drank from his water bottle. “I just haven’t thought of it yet.”

“You haven’t? We only have, like, six days left here! You know if we don’t—”

“I know all that, man! I just…” He sighed. “You gotta put yourself in my shoes. I’m going from having a guy that always told me what to do and who to do, to a real teacher that tells me to ‘follow my heart’, and shit like that. It’s a shift. I gotta adapt.”

“Do you need help finding someone out?”

“Nah. You have enough missions of your own, here.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean missions?”

Raph smacked his lips, grinning afterwards. “Come on, Daniel, bro. You picked Paris of all places. You can’t act like I don’t know.”

Daniel chuckled. “She isn’t the only reason.”

“What’s stopping you? I mean, y’all been friends for this long, right? Y’all already survived a few life and death experiences. Just bite the bullet!” He playfully punched Daniel in the shoulder.

“It’s not that easy!”

“What, ‘cause you’re thinking of it as more complicated than it is? I’m just saying, it’s a mental thing,” Raph said, circling a finger towards his head. “Just go for it. Look on the bright side — if she says yes, you got a better track record than me.”

Daniel gasped. “You got rejected the last time you asked someone out?!” he said, laughing.

“This ain’t about me! You’re done with your set, right? Come on. Let’s go see if they’re done with theirs.”

Raph quickly rose to his feet and paced towards the exit to the outdoor track, but his foot clipped Daniel’s bottle. His water spilled onto the floor, and Daniel’s heart dropped.

Raph glanced behind him, gasping. “Oh, my bad.”

And yet, he kept walking, without sparing a second to grab a paper towel to help.