Jay awakened to the sound of the alarm on his cell phone. He rose out of bed and wiped his nose on his forearm. As he made his way to the bathroom he realized there was blood on his arm from his nose. As he turned to the enter his bathroom his mom stopped him.
"Another bloody nose? I hate this winter weather. Too much dry air."
"Yeah..." Jay agreed reluctantly.
"One more day until my birthday!" His mother smiled and walked into her bedroom.
"One more day? But you said that yesterday, mom." Jay flipped on the light switch to the bathroom and entered, expelling a yawn.
"You been dreaming of me again?"
Jay examined his nose in the mirror, now running with blood again. Jay responds, "Me, dream of you? Psssh."
Taking off his clothing and hopping into the shower, he washed the blood off. He looked at the base of his bathtub where red water ran down the drain.
When Jay got out and put his clothing on, he went back to his room. He began searching for the gift he bought his mother, the silverware. He quickly found his efforts to be fruitless.
At that moment the phone rang. Jay reached for the phone and picked it up, running his hand through his hair. "Hello?"
"Hi, Jay? It's Lauren."
"Oh, hey." Jay said as he looked up his bed covers and around his desk for the gift once more.
"Semi was awesome, I had a great time. Did you put the pictures up on Myspace?"
"...yeah." Jay trailed off in his thoughts as he wondered where his gift disappeared too. It wasn't even wrapped.
"Are you ok? You seem preoccupied or something."
"I'm fine, just looking for something."
"Oh. Hey listen, do you want to go to the mall today?"
Jay stopped searching and looked up. "The mall? We just went yesterday."
"Huh?" Lauren's voice rose slightly as he said this.
Jay stared at the window with its closed shades. "We DID go to the mall yesterday, right?"
"No. Yesterday was a school day. I was at school then had swim practice, remember?"
Jay was silent as Lauren continued, "Did you go without me yesterday? I knew you had to get your mom a present. If you don't want to go today it's no big deal. Just, we talked about going out this weekend."
"No it's no problem, I just could have sworn we were both at the mall yesterday."
"I'll just ask someone else. Never mind, Jason."
"Wait– no, it's fine. You're right. I need to get a present."
"Alright well. I'll meet you there at 10. In the middle, like we always meet."
"Yeah."
Lauren hung up the phone and Jay looked out the window in confusion. It was a dark day, clouds filled the skies. Snow was fresh on the ground.
Jay left the house in a sweat shirt and some jeans. Over his sweat shirt he had his brown suede jacket. He put the key into his old Tracer and started the car. He backed out of the driveway and headed toward the mall. The radio off, and there was no one on the road. It was a Saturday and everyone was sleeping in. Jay sniffed in as he stopped at a light.
"And WHY is my nose still bleeding?" He brought his arm up to wipe his nose but didn't want to ruin his suede, so he used his hand. He started driving again.
"So it all was a dream then." He stared ahead of himself in the road picturing Adam in his head.
He stopped at another light. To his right was some old man getting his mail in his boxers. "He seemed so perfect," Jay said as he continued, "every quality I could want in someone. And he was my age too." Jay wiped his nose with his hand again and looked at all the blood on it. He reached for the wheel again but decided it best to keep blood off it and drove with one hand.
"I don't even search for men anymore. All people look for now is sex. And my type of man is so different from what others look for in a man. I hardly even mention it to my friends, unless they bring it up." He turned right onto another street, sniffing in.
"Even when I think I'm happy, my mind tortures me. Heh." Jay stopped at a light. Cars were in front of him.
Jay watched the set of lights to his right turn yellow. He took his foot off the breaks. "I'm done with men." He said, his car started to roll. Then he stopped to think for a second what he had said in the bathroom in his dream. "This wasn't a mistake. It was fate. It would take a fool to think otherwise," to which Adam responded, "Then don't be a fool." The front end of the Tracer bumped into the bumper of the car in front of him. Jay quickly snapped out of his daydream. The guy got out and started screaming at Jay.
"Doesn't this just beat all."
After a few hours shopping, Jay sat in the middle of the mall with Lauren to his left and Michelle and Christine to his right, just as he sat in the dream.
"Look, Jay, I can see myself in the window on the roof of the mall." Michelle pointed to the glass-pane roof.
Quietly Jay looked left and right for signs of Adam.
"Where did you get your clothing? I like the sleeveless look, and those army pants are pretty cool too." Christine, Michelle's friend, looked over as she asked.
Jay, unaware Christine had asked this, continued to search for Adam to come along.
"Jay?" Christine poked Jay in the arm, reaching over Michelle.
"WHAT?" Jay turned, yelling toward her.
"Sorry." She said looking down.
Lauren quickly grabbed Jay by his sleeve and pulled him to the side.
"What is wrong with you today?" She asked with her hands on her hips.
"If I could explain what's happened in words, I would."
"What is that supposed to mean? You know she lik--"
"There!" Jay pointed to a teen with a mohawk dyed pink, wearing goth clothing. He quickly ran over to this person and asked, "Excuse me, could you tell me where Adam is?"
The kid with the mohawk raised his eyebrow, "Who? Do I know you?"
"Adam, Adam. You know, your friend. Tall, muscular, black hair, brown eyes."
"I don't know who you are talking about." The mohawk kid started to walk away.
"The hell you don't. Where's Adam?" Jay grabbed the kid's shoulder.
The teen with mohawk threw Jay's hand off him and pushed him back. "Get away from me."
"I need to know where Adam is! I need to figure out what's going on."
"I said get away from me faggot!"
"Jay what's going on?" Jay looked over his shoulder and found Lauren staring at him. He looked back at the kid, now walking away again shaking his head.
"Wait!" He said, grabbing the kids shoulder again. The kid quickly turned around and punched Jay in the nose. Jay spun to the ground and put one of his hands on the ground to steady himself.
A police over, watching the scene, quickly ran over.
"What's going on here?"
"This asshole here," the goth kid started, "Has been harassing me, asking about his boyfriend or some shit. I told him to stop and he wouldn't leave me alone so I hit him."
The officer glanced at Jay. "That's how it happened," Jay said.
"What do you think would be an appropriate punishment for you two?" The officer asked the two of them.
"How about we just forget it happened?" Jay suggested, looking over at the goth kid.
"Fine with me." The kid glanced over at the officer for approval.
The officer paused for a moment. "You aren't getting away that easily. I want both of your I.D.s" They both pulled out their cards in dismay. "You come with me," he pointed to the goth, "And you, yourself up and come to the police booth to get your card back. I'm phoning both of your parents."
Jay looked at Lauren and she motioned something was wrong. He realized his nose was bleeding, so he went to the bathroom.
In the bathroom Jay got some paper towels and put it to his nose, looking at himself in the mirror. He looked around and found the bathroom to be empty. Jay went to where Adam was standing in the dream, still holding the paper towel to his nose, and looked around. On the first stall, next to one of the urinals, was the word "Help" written in a ghostly white color. Jay squinted and blinked, looking at the stall again. The stall had no writing on it. Jay walked closer to the stall and examined the wall again, running his hand along it. There were no markings whatsoever. He looked on the inside and found swears and graffiti, but no similar message. He shook his head and threw away his bloody paper towel, heading toward the police booth.