A Dream Within A Memory

Jade's world collapses as Joy chooses the path towards a broken heart and in the process breaks the heart of the one who tried to guard her heart

I made my way through the crowds of drunken teenagers who were all dancing to Katie Perry’s ‘I kissed a girl’. I saw Luke and Joy still standing where they had been before Savannah had dragged me off to the girl’s room. 
Joy looked so beautiful in her white miniskirt with a matching T-shirt. She deserved better than me, I knew she did and that is why I had to forget these ever growing feelings towards her. Besides she was straight and was happy with her boyfriend. I had to remember that I wasn’t fighting with Savannah to win Joy but to protect her, but it was just so hard to remember that. 
I struggled through the crowds and made my way over to the corner where I was greeted with a hug from Luke and Joy just looked over my shoulder with a confused look on her face.
“Where is Savannah?” She asked me, her eyes bearing into my soul. She knew I had done something but she wanted me to admit to it.
“She is just taking some time to gather her thoughts after our little talk.”
“And what exactly were you talking about?” I couldn’t stand lying to her but I couldn’t tell her the truth, it would make her hate me and that would be worse than just dealing with the guilt of a little white lie.
“We were just setting straight everything that happened here. You know just saying apologies, making little jokes about everything.” Joy didn’t look convinced about what I had just told her. I think what helped her realise I was lying was the fact that Savannah was making her way through the crowd towards us, dripping wet from toilet water. 
“What did you do to her?!” Joy yelled at me while rushing over to Savannah and giving the distraught and humiliated girl a hug. That was just great, my little escapade hadn’t broken up their friendship but instead it had brought them together and pushed me further away from Joy. I could sense that my job was about to get a little more difficult.
“She shoved my head in a toilet!” Savannah exclaimed. I couldn’t believe she was using this whole thing for her own gain, even after I had threatened her that this little war would get worse if she didn’t quit while she was ahead. Actually thinking about it I could believe that she would do this but I couldn’t believe I was so stupid that I didn’t even see this coming.
“I’m sure it was just an accident,” suggested Luke who had just recovered from a laughing fit.
“This was no accident! That b***h threatened me!”
Just at that moment I felt that greatest pain I ever thought I could feel, it was even worse than the pain I had felt when I caught Savannah cheating on me with some guy. I felt my heart shatter when Joy’s furious eyes glared at me. I knew at that moment that the girl I loved hated me and there was no way I could ever change things back to the way they were.
Joy gently grabbed Savannah’s hand and escorted her out the door but just before the door closed behind them she shot me one last wrathful look, a look of pure hatred. At that moment I just felt my legs give way beneath my body and I fell to the dance floor. Streams of tears ran from my eyes and my sobs could just be heard over the thumping music. 
Luke scooped me up in his arms and carried me out of the building. The whole time I couldn’t stop myself from crying. He sat me down on a bench while he went to call his parents to get them to pick us up. While I waited for him to stop pacing (as he always did while talking on the phone) I could feel my eyelids grow heavier and heavier. My chest ached like crazy from me heaving in breaths, my lungs desperate for air. It felt like I could hardly breathe because of the throbbing pain in my neck. Slowly my eyelids started to give up on fighting my sorrowful exhaustion and the next thing I knew my world had gone black.
My dream wasn’t even a dream but rather a memory, a memory of a time when I would never have felt such sorrow. It was a summer morning and I could smell my mother toasting some English muffins. I could hear Shadow barking at the television because ‘the dog whisperer’ was playing. I could hear Echo crawl around his Terrarium as if he didn’t have a care in the world and in fairness to him he didn’t. The sound of a metal guitar came to my ears and I knew that my sister was practicing in her bedroom again. 
Back in the days when these mornings were real it never felt as blissful as it did in my dream. I would always feel hunger pains growing fiercer as the smell of food wafted into my bedroom. I would get annoyed at Shadow’s constant barking and would get agitated at the sound of Echo’s claws scratching on plastic rocks. My anger would only grow as my sister played her music and I would always blame her for waking me up so early when I’d had such a late night as I always did when I didn’t have school in the morning.
Looking back now though I realised just how special those mornings really were . The hunger pains only made the food taste so much sweeter. Shadow barking at the television would actually make me laugh and watching Echo crawl around his terrarium would always fascinate me. Also depending on what song my sister was playing I would actually sometimes enjoy it. I realised that these mornings made me feel both good and bad at the same time and it was that feeling that I loved so much. 
Now all I ever felt was sadness, all on its own. I always looked back on my past as those memories were the only things stopping me from falling into depression as they always reminded me that there was happiness in this world. 
My dream then took a turn from memory lane into fantasy world as I turned in my bed, refusing to wake up, but instead of me turning to see a baby blue wall I saw Joy laying there beside me. Her eye lids were fluttering as her dreams filled her mind and her hand would occasionally twitch. Slowly her eyes began to open and I watched as a beautiful smile crept across her face before she lent in to kiss me before saying, “Wake up Jade.” Something was odd though and her voice sounded strangely like Luke’s...damn I knew what this was.
“Jade!” Luke shouted while shaking me gently. I opened my eyes and saw I was in his bedroom. Morning sunlight shone through his half closed blinds. I sighed with frustration from realising everything had just been a blissful dream and now I had been awoken to deal with the nightmare of reality. Memories of last night flooded back to me and I could feel myself shiver with regret and sorrow at the memory of Joy’s furious eyes.
“It’s time to wake up to get ready for school. My mum went and picked up some clean clothes for you and fed all of your pets and obviously walked Shadow. We thought it would be best to leave you to have a little lie in since you had a rough night last night, and I’m not talking about drinking too much alcohol.”
“Ugh, do I have to go? I’ll have to sit on the same table as Joy and I’m not sure if I’m ready for that...not after the way she looked at me last night.”
“I’m afraid you don’t have much choice. We could always go in late so we can miss morning form but you won’t be able to avoid this forever. Maybe you should try talking to her about what happened. Maybe try talking to her at break time or something.”
“I guess you’re right Luke but I won’t blame her if she doesn’t forgive me. She doesn’t know what kind of monster Savannah is, to her Savannah is just a really nice girl who is desperate to make a new friend. She doesn’t realise Savannah just wants to seduce her, have sex with her and then dump her on the side walk. Why on earth would she accept my behaviour last night?”
Luke looked at me for a few seconds too long. I knew I was right and he knew it too. It would be a waste of time trying to get Joy to forgive me and we both knew that. Maybe it would just be better to leave things how they were and let Joy learn the hard way, but I knew no matter how much I thought about doing that I wouldn’t be able to actually do it. I had to at least try and protect Joy.
“I still think you should try asking for her forgiveness.” I knew Luke was right, after all at least trying and failing would be better then never trying in the first place, right?
I gave a frustrated sigh before picking up my things and going to the bathroom. I got dressed as slowly as I possibly could, determined to get to school late so I didn’t have to see Joy until I got the courage to ask for forgiveness. Unfortunately Luke had gotten me up earlier then I would usually get up so no matter how slow I went I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. Reluctantly after getting dressed and after I made my way outside I crawled into the backseat of Luke’s mum’s car. For once though luck seemed to be on my side and road works had just started at the top of their estate and we ended up arriving at school just after morning form.
I looked at the open school gates and could feel my heart beat quicken as I thought about what I had to do today.
“Come on we’re already late enough, please try not to make us later,” begged Luke while tugging on my arm. I gave one last anxious sigh before making my way through the school gates, totally unaware of how bad this day was actually going to be.