Olivia arrived home shortly after 630 p.m, another difference between her old life when she was a server and never arrived home before midnight. She definitely did not miss that for a second. Grabbing her t.v. dinner choice of the night, she snuggled on the couch with Oscar and got lost in thought. She shouldn’t be thinking about him, his smile, his wise guy attitude that she found abnormally attractive, or his great leadership skills for that matter. Yet here she was. She couldn’t get her mind off him. He drove her nuts and surprisingly, not in a negative way. He noticed her back then and never said anything to her. It was infuriating, so much wasted time! “Who am I kidding? Of course he didn’t talk to me. I was a book nerd, totally not his type.”

She turned to Dateline, hoping diving into murder mysteries would get her mind off him. It worked for a while, but then she fell into a deep sleep on the couch. Was it weird this show put her to sleep? Probably, and once again she was dreaming of those palm trees and crashing waves.

Taking in the sun’s rays, her eyes slightly open watching for dolphins over her sunglasses, she relaxed once again in her fantasy world. Olivia heard someone coming towards her on her right, sloshing sand along the way. He suddenly said, “OUCH! God bless it, who put this here?”

Ugh..she sighed..”How on Earth did you get through to my dreams? I’m trying to relax here” She got up from her beach chair and met him in the middle. “What do you want? This is my fantasy world, and you were not invited”

“Well, something brought me here, be it a wish or just a lingering thought before your slumber,” he exclaimed. She thought to herself that could be true. The saying goes you dream about what your last thoughts were before you drift away.

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They turned together and walked down the beach side by side. Jack fiddled nervously with his belt loops, looking down at his feet as they walked. She wondered what he was thinking to himself. This was the first time he didn’t have something to say to fill the awkward silence. “So, how long have you been in New York?” Olivia asked.

He looked up at her and pondered how much he wanted to tell her, in her dreams no less. “I didn’t get the scholarship I was expecting, so I had to come up with a different plan. I thought, why not go to the city of dreams? There was so much opportunity there, and I had impressed my English teachers with my papers, so I took up writing and went with it. Now look at me! Editor of Cosmo Magazine.”

“That sounds like a smart decision to me, and it was a brave thing to do. I know I couldn’t just uproot myself and move away from my family at our age. I still had to care for my little brother at the time. He was barely 12. We were so close. I couldn’t just leave him once I graduated. I had to make sure he was alright first,’ explained Olivia.

He stared at her for a minute and said, “What you did is also brave. Bravery comes in many forms. You were his hero. I’m sure of that.”

Guitars strumming a calm melody woke him out of his favorite dream to date. What an odd one it was, a beach walk with Olivia. She looked fantastic in that tankini of purples and greens. He didn’t know the shy girl in the corner would still have a hold on his heart. He missed an opportunity to let her know how he felt so long ago. Jack could never have told her, or he’d have been ridiculed by his teammates and half the school. If only he knew he’d see her again after graduation, he wouldn’t have cared about his reputation. He would have told her he had feelings for her. He would have told her that he noticed every morning she would choose a sausage and pancake breakfast, chocolate milk, and a cup of watermelon…How he watched her collect pokemon cards out in the courtyard during PE..and how he stole glances her way when she wasn’t looking..Yeah. He WOULD have told her.