A/N: Yes, this is a new story and if you read the latest chapter of my story DiscoveringUs, this was the story I said I was working on. Also, to anyone reading DU, I am working on the next chapter and I'll be posting progress I make in it on my profile when I remember to.
This is a different concept and this is just the prologue, but I'll explain a bit more at the end.
On a side note, I got back from the dentist five and a half hours ago and I still can't feel my upper lip. I look a mess and feel like it too. And it was only my third of five dentist appointments this summer. On a positive note though, after the dentist and the nitrous oxide finally wears off, I seem to usually feel like writing and hopefully it's turning out well.
Head Trip: a dream; an intellectually stimulating experience; an exploration of one's own thoughts and feelings
Prologue
Time travel is impossible. There's no such thing as ghosts. Miracles don't happen. Nothing of a supernatural nature exists. That was what he always believed, but as he began his junior year of high school life would prove him wrong.
It was the second day of the new school year and it happened, he went back in time. He went back to the day that she left. He swore he never thought about her, he didn't keep in touch, and he most definitely didn't care about her. But that second night of school he was with her. He dreamt of her, a dream that felt unbelievably real, and it was his entire last day with her exactly the way it had occurred.
Though it was late May and sunny it was unusually cool for southern California weather. He didn't know she was leaving, he didn't know that this day would be the last time he saw her, so he treated her the same as he did every other day.
"Butch," he greeted her as he sat down across from her for breakfast with their friends who were slowly trickling in.
"Logana," she returned out of habit barely acknowledging him as she continued to pick at her muffin.
Nicole, Zoey, and Chase sat down. Nicole and Zoey sat on either side of her and Chase in between Zoey and him. Seriously, he had told Chase he wasn't at all interested, but if he was ever in the slightest proximity to Zoey Chase got all freaked out. It probably didn't help much that he usually tried to get close to Zoey because Chase's jealous reaction, without ever actually taking any action, amused him greatly.
"I'm going to miss you guys so much. I'm totally going to call everyone everyday," Nicole rambled and he thought that he was definitely going to need to screen his calls over the summer. It wasn't that he didn't like Nicole, he just didn't like her enough to listen to her everyday, or week. Plus, who could possibly have enough time to listen to her. Even now as his mind was wandering to what girls in his neighborhood he had yet to make out with, Nicole was still talking.
He glanced around the table and his eyes landed on her. She was shaking her head at her roommate, but writing down all of her contact information anyway so they could keep in touch. He was surprised. He knew they didn't always get along, and frankly he didn't think she was the type that would ever let anyone get closer to her. And here she was, doing something to let the rambling brunette in. Maybe it was just him…maybe he was the only one she didn't want to be around.
Zoey had written down her information in Nicole's notebook she was passing around and Chase was just staring at it. Logan rolled his eyes and muttered so Chase could hear, and probably Michael considering he was just to his other right while Chase was to his left, "Either just copy it or ask her for it. Some of us wanna get putting fake numbers in there over with."
Chase simply glared at Logan, quickly wrote down his information, and passed the notebook to Logan. As Logan said he would do he wrote down fake numbers and made all of his fives look like they could be eights so he was well covered with excuses as to why he couldn't be reached.
Logan was pretty sure everyone was talking about their summer plans, but he wasn't actually sure since he completely zoned out. It wasn't that he didn't have any interest in what his friends were saying, but for the last week they had been having this same conversation. Though, now that everyone was suddenly standing and picking up their empty trays, Logan realized that it had been so long since he had paid attention to this repetitive conversation that he couldn't remember what anyone said they would be doing over the summer. Oh well, if someone actually mentioned something important he would have remembered. She hadn't mentioned anything at all; that, he definitely remembered. Not that he listened when she talked or had an interest in her or anything.
Logan, Chase, and Michael had their room pretty much packed the day before so Logan just sat around playing a video game for a couple of hours trying to keep occupied while he waited for five in the evening to arrive when he would finally be picked up for the summer. Chase and Michael weren't supposed to leave until late afternoon, but they were hanging out with the girls who apparently needed help with last minute packing, but Logan wasn't the volunteer type, nor was he the agree to help when asked type.
In the early afternoon Logan remembered that he needed to go pick up his last paycheck from Kazu. He blew off work pretty often and he only got the job because his parents asked him why his grades were so low and he said his job had been taking up his time. Then his parents wanted to talk to his boss so he had to get a job so they could have an employer to talk to. But delivering sushi wasn't at all bad. Hot girls ordered sushi and he absolutely didn't mind knocking on their doors. He also took tips in other forms than cash.
On his way to Sushi Rox Logan got distracted a few times by some former flavors of the days who once again caught his attention, but eventually he made it there. Kazu was going to close for the summer so when Logan went in he wasn't surprised by all the chairs stacked on the tables and the fact that it didn't at all smell like food since none had recently been prepared. What did surprise Logan was that she was there and Kazu was hugging her. They pulled away and Kazu noticed Logan. Since he knew why Logan was there, Kazu said, "I've got your paycheck. It's kind of low since you've been blowing off your shifts, but I'll go get it." Kazu gave her a pat on the shoulder and muttered something that Logan couldn't hear from across the room. She said something back and they both smiled. Then Kazu went into the back, presumably to retrieve Logan's paycheck.
As she turned towards Logan her smile disappeared instead forming a glare. She walked towards him since he was near the door and she wanted to leave.
He wasn't going to just let her go though. He questioned, "Got an older man fetish Anna Nicole?"
She kept approaching, not at all intimidated. "I was just saying goodbye so you don't have to over work your tiny little brain coming up with lame quips," she said as she finally came to a stop just in front of him and patted his head to add to her belittling attempt.
He ignored her insult, stuck too much on the first thing she said. "Saying goodbye?" he questioned because she never seemed like the sentimental type or even like she got along with the sentimental type.
If he wasn't in front of the door she could have just walked right past him without even replying, but he was. She sighed agitated and replied, "Yeah, I say goodbye to the people I like. Notice how I haven't sought you out and move now because I'm already late."
That stung a bit. He could have seen it coming given their history of fighting and pretty much nothing else, but still, it hurt. Maybe that it was a sort of rejection and he wasn't at all used to that, but it wasn't like he was going to let her know that he cared about what she said or that he was even going to admit it to himself later. For now he dealt with it the same way he dealt with most things, he let his ego take charge. He took a step closer to her, close enough that she could surely feel his breath on her cheek as he whispered in a tone that he seemed to think was sexy, "How about we say goodbye my way?" He stared at her lips, while his tongue unconsciously flicked out to lick his own lips. What he wanted to do was obvious; it was what he always wanted to do.
His hand reached out to caress a curl that was near the base of her neck, but she hit his hand away as she replied, "It didn't happen all year and it's not happening now." She stepped around him and opened the door. Instead of just leaving she paused and turned back to him. She said, "Maybe I'll see you around sometime Logan."
The sun was softly lighting her up from behind. It was like she was glowing. She looked beautiful and in an instant the door shut and she was gone, gone forever he would later find out. And he was left to ponder her final words as Kazu emerged from the back with his paycheck.
His mind returned to her and that brief moment while she stood in the doorway. The light of the sun was so bright behind her not only making her look luminous, but almost like when she turned around and walked off it would be towards a bright white light. And she had the smallest form of a smile, the corners of her mouth ever so slightly tilted upward as she said, "Maybe I'll see you around sometime Logan."
Logan awoke with a start, suddenly sitting upright in his bed with his eyes wide open.
"You alright?" Chase asked from across the room at the closet where he was grabbing clothes to change into for the day. Logan's head snapped to him, suddenly noticing he was in the room. The sun flooded in their windows and he noticed that the clock said seven and his alarm would be going off in ten minutes.
But today was the fifth day back at school and the third time he had awoken from that same dream. The dream of his last day with her, a day that took place over two years ago. And it was exactly the same for the last three days. The dream would always end when she left and only after he had replayed her leaving, her last words, the closest thing to a goodbye he had from her.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Logan replied, but he wasn't at all alright. For three nights he had dreamt of her. Every dream felt so real it was like if he pinched himself in them he would have actually felt it. But he always suddenly awoke and found that she had actually been gone for over two years and that was truly the way things were left with her.
Logan rose from his bed and got ready for another day, but his night would be far more interesting than his day. For when he would fall asleep later that night, praying for a peaceful dreamless slumber and deep down hoping that she would be there again, that he'd be tortured by that day again so he could simply see her again, he would find that one small detail of the dream would change and cause another to change. He may have been dreaming the same dream of their last day for three nights, but he would never dream the same thing again. Yet she would always be in his dreams and he would later realize that what was more important than why his dream was changing was why he was dreaming of her at all.
Logan would dream of Dana Cruz every night after the second night of his junior year, but he wasn't being haunted by regret, he would find it to have a much greater purpose in both their lives.
A/N: Super short for me, I know. But chapters shouldn't be much longer and absolutely not as long as Discovering Us' chapters.
Anyway, this story and the purpose of Logan's dreams is not simply to get Dana and Logan together. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that Dana needs Logan to figure out what the purpose is. This whole story is sort of a process for Logan, he needs to learn and experience certain things before he can even start to figure out the purpose the dreams have or realize that they have a purpose at all. So the pace will seem slow at times and quick at others. Dreams will consume most chapters and, as usual with my stories, everything has a purpose so pay attention. If something in a dream changes, it changes for a reason.
Well, I'll stop rambling. I hope you enjoyed the story and please let me know if you did and if you'd like it to continue. And let me know if it wasn't clear where the dream began and ended.
Please leave any thoughts!
Thank you for reading!
-Sarah