FIONA

Four nights in a row.

That's how many times she'd appeared in her dreams and that was the number that made Fiona Coyne question her ability to lock the memory of that woman away into the depths of her mind. At night, when she'd wake up in sweats, with a fierce pounding in her heart and a state of confusion as to why she'd been having those dreams, she would stay up and design fashion.

It started the day Fiona had finalized a new apartment and her plans to move back to Toronto. She'd gotten her best friend Eli Goldsworthy and his wife Clare Edwards to scope out the place before she signed off on it and the night after approving, her first dream occurred. It was short, and vague but still bizarre like any good dream. Nonetheless, it baffled Fiona how she could be dreaming about someone she hadn't seen or talked to in over five years.

"Maybe it wasn't her, maybe I just made up a random woman in my head."

Fiona sat across from Eli and Clare in a booth at the local Italian restaurant, attending to a plate of cheesy pasta and garlic breadsticks. She had just arrived back in Toronto that afternoon, picked up from the airport by her married friends.

Eli took a small sip of his water before it clanked down against the glass table.

"But isn't it a thing where when we dream, we can't physically make up a random person in our head?" Eli discussed, looking across at Fiona with a slight scrunch of his brows.

Fiona shifted her eyes to Clare who wore a tiny smirk before pausing to think about her friend's words. She set her fork down, turning her head to observe the other people in the restaurant. She tuned out the classical music that played throughout and she focused on a lesbian couple with their messy baby whom they were trying to take a photo of. They giggled and showed each other the photos they took on their phones, their smiles couldn't be contained. Fiona found herself putting on grin and a sudden surge of sadness washed over her. Fiona thought by now she'd be settled and with a woman she'd spend the rest of her life with. Yes, she was still young at twenty-four, but after many failed relationships she longed for stability.

Fiona's trance was broken by the clearing of Eli's throat so she snapped her head back and regained consciousness to the real world.

"What?" Fiona asked, feeling the eyes of Eli and Clare staring her down. She put an elbow on the table to prop her head up with her hand on her cheek. When she looked down at the pasta, her stomach churned and her taste buds felt burned.

Eli chuckled. "You zoned out."'

The couple's baby started to cry which almost distracted Fiona again and the surge of new customers arriving at the restaurant made the place noisy and headache inducing.

"Sorry, what were we talking about?" Fiona twitched her eyelashes a few times in a row.

"The dreams you've been having lately," Clare reminded, dabbing her lips with a napkin.

Fiona's dreams flooded her mind again and suddenly she was very aware of the cracked leather seating of the booth she sat at. She squirmed against the leather, crossing her legs and uncrossing them, before finally settling.

"Can we talk about something else?" Fiona pleaded, rummaging the fork around her pasta making it all one mush.

Fiona sighed, staring down at her pasta before she took a deathly stab at her salad, briefly sending a jolt through the table.

Eli exchanged a glance with Clare.

"So, how's your business going?" Clare asked Fiona, sensing her friend's tension as she took a delicate bite of Bruschetta.

"Yeah, isn't it launching soon?" Eli added, his curiosity perked.

Fiona lifted her head, life reappeared in her blue eyes followed by a proud smile.

"So soon!" Fiona clapped her hands together, now widened her smile so her teeth peered through her lips. "Which is why I'm back in Toronto just in time for the launch."

Eli flashed his signature smirk-smile while his wife of two years grinned. The tension and awkwardness of the previous discussion vanished as the trio dove right into a new topic.

"Ooh, and you're showcasing it at the Degrassi Alumni Gala right?" Clare said after taking a tender sip of her water.

Fiona nodded with a smile. "Absolutely and I cannot wait."

Fiona picked up the fork and loaded pasta on it before she stuffed her mouth, washing it down with a large gulp of water.

Eli raised both brows as he locked a glance at Fiona. "You know who's going to be there, right?"

Mid another loaded bite, Fiona replied, "You and Clare obviously and I think Drew and Bianca too and—"

"And Imogen," Eli added.

Fiona's jaw froze all while she still had a mouth full of noodles.

"Shit, seriously?" Her words barley escaping her mouth due to the food.

Eli nodded. "She went to Degrassi too you know?"

"She did? I had no idea." Fiona rolled her eyes.

"More water?" A young waiter showed up, holding a pitcher.

Fiona whipped her head in the direction of the voice. "Huh? What?"

"Would you like some more water?" asked the waiter again.

Fiona swallowed down the food. "Yes sorry. Yes please."

The waiter reached over and began to fill up the glass as Fiona sat back and awkwardly waited for him to finish.

"What happened with you two anyway?" Clare asked once the waiter left. "I thought you two still talked when you left for Italy?"

Fiona's eyes focused on the waiter leaving and once he disappeared behind a corner, she leaned back against the booth, folding her arms across her chest.

"We did, for like the first few weeks, but then I guess we both got busy, and it stopped. No texts, letters emails. Just like that, we didn't talk anymore and we haven't talked since."

Clare softened her eyes and she spoke gently. "Not at all?"

Fiona shrugged. "She likes my posts and I see her view my stories online, but she won't message me."

"Have you tried messaging her?" Eli wondered.

"Hell no! Why would I do that?"

"Then how can you expect her to message you if you haven't either?" Clare pointed out.

Fiona uncrossed her arms, leaning forward. "Why are we even talking about this, I don't care and besides, she broke up with me anyway."

"I don't know," Eli smirked. "Sounds like to me you do care."

"Shut the hell up, I don't care," Fiona fought back, falling against the booth again. "I'll just try my best to avoid her at the gala."

"She will be showcasing her work there too. It'll be pretty hard to avoid her," Clare told Fiona with genuine care in her voice.

"Crap," was all Fiona could spit out and soon the lunch had finished and she found herself hugging Eli and Clare goodbye.

On the cab ride to her new apartment, Fiona powered her phone for what she wanted to be a quick scroll on Instagram. But with the curse that was social media and technology, her thumbs found their way to Imogen's account and before she was consciously aware, she'd scrolled far down to three years ago. With a slip of her finger, she clicked "heart" on a picture of Imogen...from THREE years ago...on the beach, in a bikini.

Fiona's heart dropped down to her stomach and a tsunami of panic drowned her.

"Shit! Crap! Dammit!" Fiona scrambled to exit the app, but what had been done was far too late.

"Everything okay back there Miss?" The driver asked, taking a peek at her in the rearview mirror.

Fiona chewed at her thumbnail after she'd quickly shut off the phone, shoving into her purse. She ignored the driver completely and looked out the window with a fierce sense of frustration and anger mixed into one uncomfortable smoothie. Throughout the whole drive, she sat in those uncomfortable feelings and now she was anxious about the gala for the first time, and not with excitement like before.

"Thanks, I got it," Fiona said to the driver, hauling her suitcases out of the trunk of the cab parked in front of the apartment building She thanked him again and gave him a generous tip.

"Dammit Fiona, you just had to stalk her Instagram didn't you?" she spoke out loud to herself as she hauled her luggage through the apartment and up the elevator.

"Crap, and now she's going to see that I liked a photo from three years ago and think I'm some creepy stalker."

Fiona pressed the number two on the keypad and as she waited to be lifted to her floor, she shut her eyes and attempted to slow her breathing. Breathe Fiona, it's just a stupid Instagram post. You'll just avoid her at the gala and you'll never have to see her again.

Ding.

The elevator popped open to her floor and she rolled her luggage down the hall and strutted down with confidence, her long black trench-like coat swaying along with her and a designer purse slung around one arm. The floors of the hallway were cracked, dirty and the all the doors looked a hundred years old. The light above her head flickered and nearly went out. Certainly not as lavish as Fiona's old loft during high school, but it would do, with it being a last minute decision moving back to Toronto and all.

Fiona shook her head, shaking away the memories of her old loft. She fished out her new apartment key from her coat pocket, letting out a long, angst filled breath as she put the key in the lock.

"Are you serious? What the hell!" Fiona cried out, jiggling the key that was now stuck.

As she aggressively shook the key in hopes of forcing it out, the door across from her's opened. A tender but also timid voice appeared out of nowhere sending a shock from Fiona's head all the way down to her black heeled boots.

"Fiona Coyne?"

Very excited to write this story. It may be cliche, but I don't care. Still excited to write anyway. I hope whoever reads this enjoys it too! Each chapter will try and switch between POVs of Imogen and Fiona.

Hope you'll considering reviewing. Thanks! Xoxo