I feel funny, like my body is made of air. I extend my fingers beside me to let the warm stream pass through them. I'm holding my breath and breathing, but all I'm doing is… gliding. I don't know how else to describe this.
I'm floating across a rippling turquoise water to a beach with white sand, warm and filled with tall palm trees.. When I look behind me I can see the reddening sun setting in the horizon. I feel like I've seen this sunset a million times from somewhere off the beach, that I know what it is like to have the soft sand passing through my toes, to lay there with friends talking about the future and our dreams, and I suddenly get a feeling that I miss home. But then why can't I remember home, my real home? If this is only a dream, how come I can smell the ocean? I try to remember who I am and what is real.
"Psst…Hey. Roxas. You up? Roxaas." My body is nudged around and my mind is suddenly a blank. I'm back in my classroom chair trying to take a nap.
"Mmmnph" I roll my head over and look up. Ughh the lights are too bright. I squint as I'm brought back to a harsh reality.
"There he is, the man of the hour. You know, you had me worried there for a minute." I looked up to see spikes of red hair, dog tags hanging around his neck, and a playful smile. Even his school uniform is a little unkempt. That's Axel, my friend ever since middle school. I could remember the day he moved here from the city. He sat by me and we seemed to hit it off. I didn't have many friends but Axel was always there. He hasn't changed much. He had those same dog tags and that same laid back personality and I don't think I've ever seen him angry, except… except for one time in middle school.
When Axel and I were in soccer together, a boy on the opposing team slide tackled me and the referee didn't call it a foul. The boy just smirked at me as I got back up. I knew I couldn't fight back because the ref probably was paid off, and the boy was just waiting for me to lose my cool. Then the boy did it again, but he took it too far and my knee got twisted and I was injured and they assisted me to the trainer. From what I heard, Axel lost control and went after the other boy. And before anybody realized what was happening, a fight broke out on the field. Inside the school, I was brought into the trainer's room to get my knee checked out. Before long, I saw Axel come in bleeding and bruised from the skirmish. As he walked over I tried to ask what happened; he walked over silently and hugged me. Our team lost and Axel got suspended for a month, but Axel didn't seem to care. I think he was just glad to see me ok.
"What's the matter? Have you been getting any sleep lately?" Axel waves his hand in front of my eyes. He must have seen me zoning out.
I straighten up in my seat "Yeah, I don't know. I just have been having weird dreams lately." I recalled the images back into my head. They glided in front of my eyes, so colorful and vivid; it's hard not to get lost in them. I think a while, trying to sort my thoughts before I tell Axel. "Ummm, let me thing. It usually starts off with me on a tropical island. And I feel… like I've been there before and my friends are all waiting for me there."
Axel scratches the back of his head. "So I'm making guest appearances now, am I?" I shake my head. "No. These friends. I feel like I know them so well. I can say there's a boy that is my age with white hair, we fight all the time but he's a great guy underneath it all. And there is a girl with red hair down to here." I lay my hands near my neck trying to show Axel. "She's what keeps us together." I shake my head trying to get more, "but I can't remember their names or faces and I feel so bad for forgetting them."
Axel grabs my shoulder, "take it easy. OK? Just take a breath and tell me the rest of it." I nod at him and smile.
"Some nights the dream starts to get creepier. I'm walking around the island. I find this cave. I go in and there's a door. And something keeps telling me not to open it, like a voice. But when I open it I... just wake up." I lie to him. "Mean anything?" I share the thought and then shake the images out of my head before they sink in too deep. The classroom's white walls and desks are all that I see now.
Axel's leaning back in his chair, thinking while enjoying a sucker. "I dunno man. That might be a stress dream. You just gotta relax, like me. You've been working yourself too much lately." He kicked up his feet onto the desk.
"Yeah, I guess." I lie my head down on my arms trying to figure out where my problems are. Axel unwraps a sucker and hands it to me. "Here. Have one." I take it.
As I pop it in I can taste the Sea Foam Ice Cream, Axel's favorite. I guess it's grown on me, too.