Chapter one.

After months of restless nights, the only thing Cassandra Andrejevic wants to do anymore is sleep. But she's got a job, and the alarm clock next to her is blaring. She groans and manages to feel around for the snooze button but she doesn't get up.

No, she doesn't even stir at all until she hears her dog's nails hitting the wood floors.

She rips the blanket off of herself and shuffles across her room, grabbing a sweater as she goes. Cassie's only half awake when she opens the backdoor to let the dog out and then turns the coffee maker on. She nearly has to drag herself to the bathroom to freshen up for the day, but after she showers the coffee's ready.

Cassandra pours herself a large cup and dumps the rest of it into a large thermos for the rest of the day. Even now that she's sleeping, the few hours that she gets isn't enough. She needs to catch up on months of zero shut eye and at this rate it'll be quite a while. The coffee isn't really even sufficient, but it's better than nothing, and she can't afford to stop at the high end cafes around town. Now she dumps the sugar and cream in both her mug and the thermos. 

While she stirs this, she reminds herself that it's Friday. Reminds herself the weekend's right around the corner and she silently thanks God that the damn building isn't open on Saturdays or Sundays.

While all her co-workers and friends are out partying this weekend, Cassandra will probably be sleeping.

She's 24 years old for Christ's sake and she hasn't gone to a night club or bar, or even out to dinner on a weekend for a year.

Really, Cassie doesn't even mind this. She doesn't care for the loud music and the blinding lights, or the half naked girls grinding against anything they can find. She doesn't care for getting hit on by any damn pervert with a pulse. And she never cared for fancy restaurants, and besides she doesn't have a boyfriend, so no one would take her out anyways. She's content with sleeping all morning and night. She really is.

It takes her an hour to get ready to leave for work, and this is mostly because she finds that she doesn't want to move from the kitchen table, and once she moves back into her room to change she just wants to crawl back into bed. 

Her keys jingle in her hand as she brings them to the front door and then she's feels the brisk wind outside and remembers how much she hates the weather in Chicago.

The walk to work isn't too long, but the streets aren't incredibly safe. Still she refuses to buy a car, all they really are in her mind are money-eaters. She could always try to get a taxi but she was too impatient for that, and then that would be even more money she was wasting.

She took long strides, all the while gripping the warm thermos, but like every day, she had to stop walking at nearly every corner. The traffic was ridiculous, and it was another reminder why she'd hate to drive.

Cassie sighed, watching her breath float out of her mouth. And then, she straightens up and looks intently at the other side of the street. It was hard to tell for sure, as there was a pretty crowded group of people huddled on the corner, but she could just swear she knew one of the girls in the middle. As she walks closer, she dismisses the thought. Most likely, Cassie had just seen the girl walking around town before. But as they pass each other, she saw the familiar face staring back at her.

It isn't long until she finds another person who she is completely sure she knows, but she just can't put a finger on the name.

By the time she gets to work, all in all, she sees four people that she "knows".

And, all of them, just like the first girl, were staring at her.

Cassie brushes this off as she settles into her desk. She was mistaken, of course.

The phone rings and the only thing she's thinking of now is that it's too damn early for this s**t. It's her bosses wife confirming dinner reservations for tonight. Cassie puts on a fake smile as if the b***h can see her and says, "Oh of course Misses Bunke, I'll remind him." But she hangs up the phone and doesn't bother to listen to any more of the old lady's ramblings.

Her boss isn't even in the office yet, and probably won't be for the rest of the day. Cassandra wouldn't be surprised if he was out with some other lady that his stupid wife didn't know about.

With him gone, really, Cassie didn't even have to show up. And she didn't have to do anything all day, no she could even go into his office and lounge on his chair and sleep.

But she knows if she does any of this one of her a*****e co-workers would rat her out. She also knows that if they were her they'd do the same things. 

The phone rings all of five times the entire day. No one ever really calls, and when it does it's personal calls for her boss. She lies and tells them all he's on a lunch break, or on a very important business call but she'd let him know they called. But when her boss gets in late that afternoon, and asks who called, she says no one.

"No one called today yet, Hugh."

By this time she's drank all of her coffee, and what's left in the break room is cold and weak. Even after heating it up Cassie can only manage to take a few swallows before throwing the rest out.

As she makes her way to her desk, she notices someone's waiting by it for her. And as she gets closer she recognizes him as one of the familiar faces she saw in the streets.

"How can I help you?"

She says this while looking down at some papers at her desk. There's nothing even written on them, but she shuffles them mindlessly in an attempt to look busy. But she's sneaking peeks of this guy out of the corner of her eyes.

"Uh yeah, I need to talk to Mr. Bunke."

Cassie peers into her bosses office and sees he's snoring in his goddamn chair. A*****e. 

Doesn't show up until one and then has the nerve to sleep on the job.

"He's unavailable right now, would you like me to leave him a message from you?"

Cassie actually considered, if only for a moment, letting the guy walk in on the snoozing d-bag, but she knew this would lead to her getting in trouble. Whether in the form of a pay decrease of a pink slip.

"Just tell him Gavin Millston stopped by." The boy fumbled around in his wallet searching for his business card, and then placed it on Cassandra's desk. Then he stared at her for a while.

"Do I know you from somewhere? You seem awfully familiar."

Cassie picked up his business card almost studying it and says, "No, I don't think so."

Gavin nodded and turned to walk away. And then Cassie knew where he was from.

She throws his business card in the trash bin under her desk.

He was from her dream last night. And she was almost certain the other people in the street had been in it too.

Author's Note

I feel like the end is kind of lame, but I hope it isn't too bad. I've also probably messed up the tense in a few places (or a lot of places) so let me know if you notice anything.

Reviews

[Carrigan]

I really like this! Dream plot-lines are probably one of the best (in my opinion). I only noticed a few things like "had" and "straightened" but otherwise you kept great tense. The ending is good too, leaving a cliff hanger that's not too stressed and not to blah; very nice.

[Taylor]

Thank you! I was kind of worried it was too rushed or something. I'll check over it again for any tense mistakes. But thank you again!

[Carrigan]

Anytime love!