Maybe I'm still dreaming as I'm feeling for my blanket now, shivering from the cold. The air conditioner is certainly up on full blast today.
I hear the 'drip, drip, drip' and imagine a beat that would have worked well on drums, if I knew how on Earth to play them. Ugh. I pull the blanket closer to me. It's leaking again.
Sitting up, I stare at the window. You know how some people say it's unlucky to face your bed to the window? Somehow staring at that painting Ryo hung up calms me, even though I'm squinting in the dark. So maybe it isn't unlucky for me. Besides, I don't believe in superstitions.
The more I look at the swing, the more I envision myself on it, flying through the air, smelling the sweet scent of the grass and looking at the vast, almost turquoise, sky.
I wonder who the painter was. Suddenly I wish I could have one of the painter's paintings. It definitely would calm me having it in my room. I would stare at it for hours and hours after having the strange dreams I've been having for the past few days.
The last time I spoke to Ryo was at the canteen last thursday. After that I didn't really see him. He wasn't in any of my classes, of course. I think he takes Japanese outside of school. Obviously we wouldn't share any other class other than mother tongue (even that is out of the question) because we would stick to our form class like Amber wishes to be stuck to Wen Yu.
We don't even have CCA[4], because we only have 23 days and 3 hours and 19 minutes and counting left to the O-levels and our CCAs are already a thing of the past.
Besides, I know his move was very sudden and strange, if you ask me, because who moves at such a crucial stage of their life? Of course I knew he only just moved to a new school (who knew why), because of that stupid drilling, which, thankfully, have since stopped on Friday.
I guess my new neighbours only had so many things to drill.
But the odd thing is that on Thursday, I started having these really, really weird dreams that would shake me up at a time only Vampires would be awake, and every single time I'd be crying when I wake up, except I would immediately forget about what I was dreaming about because I'd be too busy trying to keep myself warm.
And the air con just got fixed on Sunday. Now it's leaking. Again.
The only thing I really remember about those dreams is a face, because it was very clear in those dreams of mine, though I guess they can be called nightmares. Except I don't remember much from them. Nothing except that familiar face, again and again.
I don't know that face, but I always feel a sense of deja vu thinking about it. It, or rather, the person, always look different, but I know it's the same person because the difference in his faces was his age.
He could be 6 on one day, and 14 the next. But there's one thing certain, he's definitely growing in my dreams.
Maybe one of these days I would no longer wake up from these dreams because he would be dead. I would vanquish the demon of my dreams!
But somehow, I've a feeling that he isn't so bad. He doesn't look menacing. He just looks... lost.
As lost as Ryo looks now, staring right at me through the windows, as if he were trying to make sense of my sleep pattern.
He turns on his light and opens his window, leaning a little out.
I get out of my bed, aware of his gaze which is undoubtedly following my every move, and avoid the puddle the air conditioner is making. I switch my lights on, turn the air conditioner off and open the windows.
The air outside is cool on my face. I see him holding a paper airplane and positioning the airplane for immediate take off.
The airplane landed perfectly on my desk. I picked it up and unfolded it.
On it, the words were scribbled, not because of Ryo's illegible handwriting, but I can tell it's because of the hurry he was in.
I briefly wonder how he had gotten pen and paper before I even noticed, but swiftly turned my attention to his words.
'Melanie,'the note read,
'I would have told you this in person, but between school and settling in, I had little time.'
I look up, and see him giving me a apprehensive, yet cheeky grin.
Quickly I try to decipher the rest of his note, which says,
'You had restless sleep these days. So restless that your screaming often woke me up. I don't know why your parents don't come and check in on you because you were terrified of something every night and every single night the shrieking just gets louder.
In fact, it sometimes get so frightening, because really, you sound like you've seen a ghost. Or worse, like you morphed into one.
I'm seriously contemplating getting soundproof windows. :P
Jokes aside, if anything bad is happening in your life, you can come to my mother. She used to be a counsellor, so it'd be cool.
Besides, I wouldn't want to spend any money on that soundproof windows.
Ryo.'
Okay. So maybe the dreams are scaring me more than I thought.
But that doesn't mean I needed counselling! Who did he think he was, my mother? We don't even go to that family counsellor anymore.
Counselling is something only people who have serious problems do. My family is perfectly fine, thank you very much.
How dare he even suggest counselling to me? The only thing that messes me up (other than the impending Os, of course) is the guy who just threw a paper airplane through my window.
I glare at him and he looks confused.
Fiercely, I grab the first pen I see, which turns out to be a red marker, and scrawl over the paper diagonally,
'I DO NOT NEED TO SEE A THERAPIST,'not caring if that makes me sound more disillusioned.
Then I crunch it up and throw it back at him. It bounces off his chest and I watch as he scrambles on the floor for it.
And I saw his face turn from concern to anger, but somehow he manages to tame the anger into irritation because he doesn't slam the windows as I would have.
He just closes them as though it were his nightly habit to breathe in the cool, fresh night air and turns around, climbing into his bed, I assume, because all I saw was the darkness, and the moonlight seeping through, illuminating the painting, almost making it look real.
[4] My favourite Co-curricular Activities.
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