I had a Dream…

I had a very interesting dream on Monday night. Thought you might enjoy my recounting it to you.

For some unknown reason (I find reasons are often unknown in dreams) I was on a half day at work. But rather than enjoy the afternoon just chillin’ or shopping or what not, I returned to my old school for a Geography A level lesson. Which itself is odd since I didn’t do geography A level. It’s even more odd that my old school was just around the corner from the office and not a hundred miles or so away like it is in the non-dream world.

I was very apprehensive of the lesson – having missed so many while working – but things actually went okay. I sat next to my best friend from school, who looked just like he did when we were at school together almost twenty years ago. Come to think of it, all my old school friends were there and they all looked like they did back when we were at school together. And so did I!

But that’s not the point. Or maybe it is. It was a dream so who knows.

Anyway, after the lesson (during which I learnt nothing) I left the room with Nick (my friend – who didn’t do Geography A level either if I recall correctly) and we went back to the common room, passing my locker on the way where I deposited my bag and books for lunchtime.

We entered the common room and found ourselves in a nightclub that we used to hold our school discos in. Well, not so much a nightclub, more an upstairs room in a grotty pub that we hired out, but the point is that we went through the door to the common room at school and ended up there. Hey, it was a dream, freaky stuff happens in dreams.

It was coming towards the end of the night – I was tired out from all the dancing (??) and had a few pints of Wolverhampton’s finest in me. The DJ had stopped playing the fast dance tunes and started on the slow ‘smoochy’ songs. On the dance floor, couples were coming together – there was even a couple of guys dancing together, which I don’t remember happening back when I was at school. Naturally, I was looking around for someone to dance with.

Now, before I go on with the dream, there’s something you need to know about me. Back when I was sixteen and had just started the Sixth Form, I’d recently been dumped by my girlfriend of nine months. It took me a while to get over it, to be honest, and during my ‘mourning period’ I didn’t have eyes for any other girls. That all changed though around about the time of my seventeenth birthday at the end of October. Okay, so two months isn’t much of a grieving period, but I was only sixteen.

But after I did get over it, I noticed this girl. Her name was Claire and she was gorgeous. Far too gorgeous for me. At least, that’s what I thought at the time. And so I did nothing about it. Nothing. At all. Just kept on being a miserable little git, working hard and finally earning my place at University far away from home and basically making a new start on life.

Back to the dream.

Who do I see standing the corner of the room with one of her friends? Yep. Claire. Now, this is a dream, right. So whereas in the real world all those years ago I’d have sank into a chair with another beer, in this dream I strode right over to Claire.

“Claire?” She turned to look at me. “I was wondering… I mean… would you…?”

“What? What is it, Marc?”

“Dance with me?” I held out my hand to her. She smiled, took my hand and allowed me to lead her to the dance floor. It was pretty full and we could only find a spot at the edge, but it was enough. I turned to face her and put my hands on her hips. She put her arms around my neck and danced up close, bodies pressed together. Her head rested on my shoulder. I could smell her and it was intoxicating. I could feel her breath on my neck and it was all I could do not to shiver.

She sighed and at that moment I knew she was as content as I was.

I turned my head to try and glimpse the look on her face but she was too close. She must have noticed my movement because she lifted her head to face me. We stared into each other’s eyes. The sensual, sexual beat of the power ballad washed over us, adding to the tension.

“What?” she said, her voice barely audible over the music.

I hesitated then said, “You have no idea how much I want to kiss you right now.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I bet it’s as much as I want to be kissed.” She looked down for a few bars of the song then back up into my eyes. “So what’s stopping you?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I’m scared, I guess.”

“Scared? What’s there to be scared of?”

“Everything. I’m scared it won’t be good enough for you. I’m scared I will. I’m scared it won’t be everything I ever dreamed it would be. I’m scared it will. I’m scared it could be the start of something spectacular. I’m scared it won’t.”

“Oh.”

“But most of all, I’m scared of putting my heart on the line and getting hurt.”

“Marc?”

“What?”

“I promise, I will never, ever hurt you.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Really.”

Slowly, our lips came together.

And then I woke up. Bugger. Sometimes, I really, really wish I didn’t have an alarm clock.