It was about an hour before her alarm was set to go off. SHe knew she wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep after that so she thought now might be as good of a time as any to get a shower to try and clear her mind. Every once in a while a dream like this would pop up, which was usually easy to ignore and forget about because he wasn't right in the next room when it happened.

When she finished with her shower she wrapped a towel around herself and then grabbed a smaller one to dry her shoulder length hair. She was startled when she opened the bathroom door and almost walked right into Randy as he stood there.

"Sorry." She said, her eyes looking down. "I didn't know you were there."

"You're up early." He yawned.

"Yeah well, some days you need to be up earlier than other days...you know?" She said quietly as she passed him. "Sorry if I woke you."

She went back into her room and quickly closed the door behind her as he went into the bathroom. She stood behind the door and let out a sigh of relief. She almost wanted to lock the door so he couldn't come until she had gotten dressed, but that was also pretty silly. What she dreamed didn't actually happen, and he didn't even know that she had dreamed it. At the moment he was in the bathroom he was still half asleep! But she knew she dreamed it, and she wasn't able to face him right now. She sat down on her bed and grabbed her journal out of her nightstand that she wrote down all of her thoughts and ideas in. She had lost track of time and was still writing when her alarm went off. She scrambled to get up and get ready for work as she was still sitting on her bed in her towel. She grabbed a nice blouse and a skirt and put some make-up on before rushing out of her room. She saw Randy sitting on the couch eating a bowl of cereal.

"Heading out already?" He asked with a mouth full of food.

"Yeah, I uh, have some things I have to get taken care of early." She said as she tried to get out of the apartment quickly. She didn't even wait for a reply from him before leaving. She got into her car and drove off as quickly as she could hoping that she would calm down during the day if he was still going to be there when she got home.

She had been at work for about an hour when she heard her text message alert go off.

'Hey are you ok? You were acting weird this morning.'

"Aw crap." She said to herself. She knew she thought maybe he had been mostly asleep or not really paying attention to her to notice, but now she had to think of something.

'Yeah, I'm just not really much of a morning person.' She lied.

'You sure? It seemed like something more than that.'

'Yup. I'm good. Just rushing around too much. Thanks.'

She waited a few minutes to see if he would reply to that, but nothing. She was thankful he bought it and went back to doing her work at her desk. But then about another hour later, she heard her phone go off again. She grabbed it to see a picture message.

'Look what I found! How cute.' It was a picture of her and him at her prom. She had a small one framed in her room along with a few other important life event pictures. SHe actually hadn't even wanted to go to her prom, so their mothers got together and insisted Randy take her. Neither of them really wanted to do it, but they did it to make their mothers happy. And they actually did end up having a nice time.

"Yeah, I guess we can have some good times together huh?' She replied.

'Nothing's impossible.' Randy replied. 'Are you going to be home on time for dinner tonight?'

She was feeling a little bit better with the normality of the conversation, but she really didn't think she was ready to sit across from him at a small table at her place and attempt to eat and chat with him.

'I think I'm going to have to stay here a little late tonight. You can just eat without me." She figured maybe she could leave work on time and grab something to eat then go home, avoiding the whole situation.

'Can I make something here? Or would you rather I do take out?'

'If you can find something you like there go for it. I know there's pasta, chicken, eggs, stuff like that.'

'So you don't care if I make a mess?'

'I'd prefer you clean it up if you do…'

"So, you're not saying I HAVE to, just that you'd like me to.'

'I'm going back to work now Randy.'

She sighed with a small smile. He was a huge pain in the ass most of the time, but when they weren't annoying each other they could actually have a nice relationship. She almost debated on actually going home on time and joining him for dinner, but she thought she better not push her luck. Then she'd have to explain why she was all of the sudden home on time, and she thought maybe the extra time physically away might help. When 5:00 came around, she gathered up her things and stopped at a diner to grab a little something to eat before heading home. When she got back to her apartment, she closed the door and dropped her purse on the floor like she usually did. Everything inside was dark.

'I guess he decided to go out and not make a mess.' She thought

Just then she was surprised when she was shoved against the wall and a hand came down over her mouth. She tried to push off whoever was there but the weight of their body was too strong for her. Everything was slowly coming into focus from the dark, but not fast enough that she could see who was in front of her.

"Glad you're finally home." A deep voice said.

She recognized that voice. And his face was coming more and more into focus. She was able to shake her head to the side to get him to remove his hand.

"Randy! What the hell are you doing?! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" She exclaimed.

"Well that wasn't the plan. That would actually put a damper on things. So don't do that." He said as he stood in front of her with his one hand resting on the wall by her head. "Do you frequently work late?"

"No, not always. Just when I have things that need to get done." She lied as she tried to wiggle away, but he wasn't leaving much space between them. "Can you please move?" She asked annoyed.

"I figured out why you were so weird earlier." He stated, ignoring her keeping his position. He brought his other hand up and started stroking a piece of her hair.

"What are you talking about?"

"I went into your room today after I got out of the shower and I saw a book laying on your bed."

Her eyes went wide and she felt her heart drop. With her rushing to get ready for work she completely forgot to put it back into her nightstand. When the alarm went off she just threw it to the side on the bed and left it there.

"It was quite interesting."

"You didn't." She said as she swatted his hand away from her hair.

"Well, I was only going to read the most recent thing you put in there. FIgured I'd be able to find something to poke fun at you for. But since your most recent entry was about me, I couldn't help but read more." He said with a sly sadistic looking smile.

She couldn't look him in the eyes right now. She should probably be mad, but at the moment she was just embarrassed. "Look, that wasn't meant for anyone to read…"

"And if it had been away I wouldn't have. I don't go snooping for things. But when it's just right there, it's fair game."

"Can we just pretend that you didn't read it and don't know the secrets of my life?" SHe asked in a slightly shaky voice doing everything she could to avoid contact. Things had really come into focus now and as she dipped her head down she was able to see that Randy only had on a pair of jeans as he stood in front of her.

"You know, after all these years, I never would have thought you of all people liked it rough." He stated again ignoring her question.

"I don't…"

He reached the hand that wasn't leaning on the wall up lightly grabbing her by the throat. Not enough to actually hurt her, but hard enough to push her into the wall. He brought his face down next to hers. "Oh, I read the whole thing. I think you do."

She put her hands on his wrist. "Randy, please." She started to say but he shushed her and slightly tightened his grip.

"They'll be plenty of time for begging later."

He released her throat, but before she had time to think he wrapped his hand into her hair and forcefully walked her to the bedroom. She kept trying to wake up just like earlier, but she soon realized this was not a dream.