hear his voice in my dream. But they sound terrified, like he’s having a bad dream.
“They’re coming. “
“Who's coming?”
He’s shaking now. But he won’t turn around, and I still can’t see his face.
“They’re coming for us Rowena! Hide!” He shouts, but he’s still sleeping.
“Shhh, shhh, no one’s coming, love.” I say, trying to calm him down.
Something’s hit the window. I turn to see what it is, just as a figure opens up the window. The figure was big and bulky. He smelled like dogs. Usually the scent comforts me, but this one is different. I began to tremble in fear.
“Who are you? What do you want?” I hear my own voice waver as I say this. The figure stays
I wake up just in time as the figure stabs a knife through the body next to me.
I bolt awake to the sound of the loud advertisements in the television. I’ve dropped my pen and notebook when I dozed off. I pick them up and hear loud knocks in my door.
As I opened it, I see Mrs. Tsu’s frowning face glaring at me.
“Keep it down!”
“Sorry, sorry. I fell asleep in the couch.”
She glares at me even more and left without another word.
I turn the television off and sigh. Sweat had trickled through my face. That was the creepiest dream I’ve ever had. It seemed so real. I go to bed and tuck myself in. It says 1:32 am in my alarm clock as I see a fly buzzing through my window. I let my thoughts wander from unicorns to mythical gods, anything to keep myself from remembering the nightmare I just had. Anything, to keep myself from succumbing into fear.
I fell asleep once again. But this time, I don’t dream anything.
***
The next few days, Daniel and I begin our brainstorming. He presents all his prototypes to me as I scribble down quotes about it in my notebook. I feel the tingling familiarity again, but I don’t say anything. Instead, I keep my head low, and avoid eye contacts with him as much as I can. I force myself to look at him every once in a while, just so he doesn’t get suspicious of my avoiding him. I suggest improvements about his illustrations to me and he does the same about my writing. Even with the awkward aura, we manage to finish half of the total 100 required designs for the spring season in less than 2 weeks. Mrs. Cheng is very pleased with us that she’s given all the investors a copy of our samples. Its nerveracking enough presenting an idea to the investors, sending them samples has got to take a lot of guts, even though it seemed that simple. The company had a reputation to keep after all.
We are an incredible team, Mrs. Cheng had said to us when we reported our progress to her. Two peas in a pod. I smile shyly as Riley teases us when I tell him about it on our way to lunch.
“You did a very good job Rowena. I was lucky to have you as my partner.” Daniel says, and I don’t know how I can still stand in front of him when deep inside I know I’m falling. I’m falling? I can’t be falling too fast. I have to remember my dreams, my book, I can’t have distractions right now. Especially not with my co-worker.
“That’s very nice of you to say Daniel, you did just as well.”
I say that to him genuinely. I can’t have my feelings bias my judgements. I remind myself that I have a goal, that I have a dream. And that is where I should put my focus on, not this petty crush.
My good mood finally began flourishing until Martha came to my vision.
“Hi Rowena! You look nice in that sweatshirt. Really hides your belly very well. Mind if I have lunch with Daniel today?” She said.
How can so much evil be inside in this girl? She’s even wearing sparkling shoes for christ’s sake. Literally sparkling shoes.
Glitter was everywhere Martha’s feet landed on. But she was obviously not pleased about all this. She manages to drag Daniel to her table before I can even reply. He was nice enough not to