A young woman awaited her next flight in a New York airport. She scrolled through her contacts on her phone until she reached a name that now gave her all sorts of unpleasant feelings.
She stared at the summary of the person's details, before deleting them for good.
The seemingly mismatched couple reached a rather tidy looking street after their day out and Matthew slowed down on his walk, looking around at the houses with a sense of familiarity. He stopped outside a small grey door marked with a number twenty-seven and came to a stop, turning to speak to Mei.
"That there is my secret lair."
"Secret lair?"
"Yeah, I used to go there all the time when I was a kid." Matthew explained, his pleasant boyhood memories bringing a smile to his face.
"Can I see what's inside it?"
"Well, it's not really a girl friendly place. Sometimes I had friends come over to do 'boys only' stuff..."
"Oh, ok..."
"Anyway, do you want to see the house I grew up in?"
Mei nodded and he took her hand, looking both ways for oncoming cars before they crossed the road together to the other side of the street.
As Matthew looked upon the pretty red house, he found himself feeling inexplicably lonely. Perhaps it was being face to face with his childhood home that made him realize how shallow all of his relationships had become. He glanced at the girl beside him and began to doubt whether he could actually enjoy a future with her.
"So alone..." He moaned as his legs suddenly gave way and he felt himself fall down towards the pavement.
Everything went black for what seemed like a few seconds, then a flash of light blinded him and the next thing he knew, he was stranded by himself in the middle of a scorched desert with only a lone cactus to keep him company.
"You're not alone! You're just having some idiotic dream!" A female voice with a noticeable American accent echoed behind him.
Before he could react, a woman with wavy blonde hair rolled past him on roller skates, leaving a thick trail of dust and sand behind her. Her old fashioned pilot attire and the goggles she wore around her head appeared to hark back to the forties.
Watching her, Matthew briefly felt as if a figure from some vintage film or photo had come to life and colour in front of him. His mind then swayed towards the most logical explanation for why he was apparently seeing somebody from the past.
"Excuse me, are you a time traveller?!" He blurted out to the woman but she did not answer, continuing on without another word until she disappeared into the distance.
"Oh gosh..." Matthew groaned, sitting up in bed and looking around in the darkness.
"What is it?" Francis whispered as he too sat up next to Matthew.
"I had a pretty weird dream."
"Did it involve your ex-girlfriend?" Yet another man asked, emerging from beneath the sheets beside Francis.
"Other Matt, we do not talk about that girl in this house!" Francis hissed to the object of his latest fling.
"No. There was a woman dressed like an World War Two pilot, as if she was from some old movie..." Matthew explained, getting confused looks from the other two.
"Speaking of old things, weren't you supposed to take your little girlfriend to the library half an hour ago?" Francis finally thought to tell his younger cousin once things had settled down.
"Huh?"
Matthew slid out of bed and went over to the other side so that he could see the time.
"But it's six in the morning!" He complained, going over to the bathroom door so that he could take a leak. He opened it and a bright flash of light suddenly blinded him.
"I feel like I'm back in high school..."
Matthew stood by the bookshelf in boredom as Mei stacked heavy calculus books into his arms. She seemed satisfied only she had picked seven and together they went down the stairs to scan the books at the checkout.
A young woman arrived there ahead of them and handed a package from to the librarian. She turned to look momentarily at Matthew and he almost dropped all seven of Mei's books when he recognized her from his dream.
"Do you know that girl?" Mei asked after noticing him staring shamelessly at the blonde woman.
Matthew himself did not hear his girlfriend's words, the image of the stranger's face still imprinted in his memory. He lost track of time as he stood on the stairs, unable to think of anything else.
"Matt! You've only been playing one note for the entire song!" Alfred's voice snapped him out of his trance.
Matthew looked at his bandmate and highschool friend then down at his hands, which were now cradling his bass guitar.
"Huh? How did I get here?"
"Is your girlfriend distracting you?" Elizaveta snapped harshly from her chair behind the drums.
"I'm sorry. I'll be as quiet as I can." Mei whispered in guilt, as she sat on the couch watching another rehearsal session by her favourite band.
"Let's try this once again..." Alfred prompted Matthew and Elizaveta, sighing in annoyance.
The three members of Sex Bob-omb along with Emil walked together down the freezing street to a stated destination that Matthew had long since forgotten.
"Where we are we going again?" He asked Alfred hesitantly.
"To Vicky's party! I've told you like five times already!"
"Herl?"
"Duh."
Matthew didn't feel any good about having to attend the party later. He'd first met Vicky (her real name was Victoria) in university when she had just moved from London and was trying to adjust to her new life. Unfortunately for him, the more she settled down, the more mean she seemed to become until he couldn't stand being her roommate anymore.
He'd begun dating one of her misfit friends in an attempt to get back at her, but never thought he'd end up liking the strange girl for real. They were close for a year until she became sullen and cold, losing her interest in the activities they used to enjoy.
He had a vague memory of confronting her at a party where she was clearly quite agitated, but he couldn't remember what happened precisely afterwards for some reason. All he knew was that whatever happened had been enough to end their relationship for good and he didn't realize until it was over how empty his life was without someone by his side.
The four young adults arrived at the front door and were let in after a brief glance at their faces and clothes. As Matthew walked in behind Alfred, he told himself that it would be best to simply avoid his former roommate for as long as possible.
Elizaveta and Alfred both went off to have some alcohol as well as seek out gossip, while Matthew kept young Emil company and drank coke with the teenage boy.
Minutes went by with very little happening that was exciting in his opinion, so he excused himself and told Emil that he needed to go to the bathroom.
Matthew left the bathroom and saw a familiar bespectacled boy standing leaning against the stair rails talking to a pretty brunette.
"Eduard, you know everyone." Matthew alerted him. "Could you tell me about this girl?"
He produced a crude drawing of a faceless girl with yellow squiggles for hair and waved it at Eduard, who nodded in recognition.
"That's Amelia Howard. I heard she would be at this party tonight, why are you interested in her?"
Matthew wasted no time in speaking any further and quickly left Eduard's side in the hope of finding the girl from his dreams. He gently pushed his way past other party goers as he didn't want to cause any chaos, until he saw what he was looking for standing alone by the wall holding a plastic cup.
She wore a plain t-shirt and jeans as she too sipped cola while appearing bored. He inched sideways towards her until he caught her attention and she stared at him.
"So, uh...do you like hockey?"
"Not really."
"Well then...did you know that moose hair is hollow? It helps insulate them from the cold..."
"Moose? Seriously?" Amelia raised an eyebrow.
Perhaps bringing up facts he learned from a school project he once did, wasn't such a good idea.
"Um, I think I'll leave you alone..."
He backed away from her and found his way back into the crowd, hoping that she wouldn't notice him among the other guests. He soon encountered Eduard again and took the time to find out more about his mystery girl.
"What do you know about Amelia Howard?"
"All I know is that she's American. And she just broke up with her boyfriend."
"So, she's single?"
"Most likely."
Matthew went to bed that night feeling inexplicably excited and in high spirits. He rolled over on his side and nestled his head into his pillow, smiling calmly and closing his eyes.
He was disturbed an hour later by the sound of Francis returning and shutting the apartment door. The older man collapsed on to the bed next to him and whispered under his breath.
"I...I shouldn't have had so much wine. I have a splitting headache now..."
"Francis?" Matthew mumbled without opening his eyes.
"What?"
"The girl in my dreams I told you about is real. Her name's Amelia Howard..."
He tried to work up the energy to think of what to tell Francis next, but gave in to sleep before he could even resume speaking.
I'm calling her Amelia Howard here because, I did a search on the internet and it turns out there are well known people by the name of Amelia/Emily Jones and let's just say, it was a little awkward.