Back to the Real World

And indeed, my eyes opened, and they beheld the ceiling that was familiar to me, though not at an angle I was used to. Instead of being on my bed, I had apparently fallen asleep on the couch. When I lifted my sore neck off the back cushion of my sofa, I saw the TV screen in front of me, still on and still displaying a jiggly 3D ninja girl in a bikini on the beach. Yep, that explained the dream all right.

It was totally obvious now, especially in retrospect, that I had dreamt the entire island resort experience. I dreamt up the Firefly Resort full of hotties, I dreamt up Abigail, I even dreamt up Vivian. I shivered at this last realization and actually felt a slight disappointing weight in my chest.

Now that I thought about it, I must have dreamt up that sexy redhead, Red. Wait, no, the name she used for herself was… “The Scarlet Consort”? What a weirdly specific and out-of-place name, no wonder I changed it to Red. As I thought this, my eyes fell on the end-table next to my couch, there was a little red leather-bound book on it.

Red. Huh, interesting.

I picked it up, turned it over, didn’t find a title anywhere on it, opened it and found nothing but blank pages except on the first:

A new erotic fantasy is born…

My memory was rushing back. I’d gone to the campus store and found this along with some other supplies. Since it was unmarked and mostly blank, I thought it was meant to be a journal or something. The clerk said it wasn’t part of their stock so I could just keep it. When I got home, I cracked it open, read that line, and was really confused. I remember thinking that it was a really weird thing to open a journal with. I wondered if it was something to write down my kinks in, or keep sexy ideas in. Then I got horny thinking about that, so I decided to play TOA Xtreme 3 for a while. I guess I must have fallen asleep at some point during that gaming session.

I shrugged and tossed the book back on the table it came from, stretching and beginning my morning routine. I woke up early, and only realized this fact because the alarm scared the shit out of me as I was wandering to the kitchenette. I looked around my dingy apartment and immediately thought about Vivian’s… room? Even this crappy studio apartment was bigger than that room.

Huh, that was weird, I could remember every last detail from last night’s dream with perfect clarity. Hell, trying to remember what I ate yesterday was harder than recalling the details of the Firefly Resort. Even really minute details like the number of buttons on Abigail’s blazer, or the location of all of Vivian’s tattoos.

There was also the feeling, even stronger now that I was awake, that I had seen Vivian somewhere before. Maybe from a TV show or something? She was hot enough to be an actress for sure.

I shook my head to clear it; I needed to stop thinking about this. I felt unusually well-rested today and I wanted to take advantage since I had college classes to focus on. I did my best to keep the dream free from my mind as I continued my morning routine and eventually walked out of the door.

It only got worse.

It definitely didn’t help that my first two classes of the day were with Professor Yoko. She was both my English and Japanese instructor, back-to-back, and I had a pretty big crush on her. I wasn’t stupid, and understood that a student-teacher relationship, even in college, was a really bad idea; but it didn’t stop how irresistibly hot she was to me. And the day after having an extremely vivid erotic dream was a bad day to have a class with someone I was hopelessly attracted to.

I was pretty sure she caught me staring at her large chest a few times, though I did my best to play it off as just staring into the middle-distance. I found that most chicks didn’t seem to think much of where your eyes were if they think you’re just zoning out. Plausible deniability was a powerful defense. Or it least it seemed that way to me, I could be completely wrong, nobody had ever said anything to me one way or another.

The point was, I wasn’t paying attention to the lessons, instead I was imagining what Ms. Yoko might do if she were at the Firefly Resort. I didn’t know a whole lot about her other than the fact that she was some sort of academic prodigy, if the massive list of degrees she had in various fields was any indication. Maybe she would just relax on the beach or at one of the pools and read a book while sunbathing. She also seemed to enjoy teaching, perhaps that meant she’d be instructing some sort of class, like yoga or something.

When she finally ended the second class, I was relieved and immediately headed for the commons to get some lunch. Along the way and once inside I encountered some couples in the plaza making out or enjoying their day which, of course, made me think about Vivian again.

Man, I was in trouble, wasn’t I? I was thinking a lot about a girl that wasn’t even real. Like, this was worse than those weebs who took the concept of a “waifu” or “husbando” a little too seriously. At least anime characters had a fictional foundation, Vivian was literally the equivalent of an imaginary girlfriend.

I sighed after getting my basket of cheese fries from one of the outlets and turned around, scanning the various tables in search for an empty one. The commons were pretty packed at the moment, so it was looking sparse.

Then my eyes fell on something that almost made me drop my food on the floor. Oh, I was in real bad trouble all right.

Sitting alone at one of the circular tables reading a manga was a punky goth girl with thick-rimmed glasses, piercings on her face, shaved temples and raven black hair with a neon blue streak pulled into a ponytail.

I blinked, convinced I must have been hallucinating. She didn’t disappear. She was there. It was Vivian. She was real. What the fuck?

“Hey, quit standing around,” someone said from behind me, and I instinctively stepped out of the way to let them walk by me. This kicked my brain back into gear and I tried to clear my head.

No, wait, there was definitely a reasonable explanation for this. There was no way this girl was the actual Vivian from my dream, that just wasn’t possible. Clearly, this girl went to the same college as me. Even if I didn’t explicitly remember ever seeing her, I probably did see her at some point in the halls and my subconscious noticed because she was really cute. Maybe I actually had the thought man, it would be great to have a girlfriend like her, and that was it.

So, then I have a dream where I have a girlfriend, and my subconscious mind grabs that random memory and puts the image it saved of her in that role. That’s what dreams were, after all, right? Just random stuff from your brain occupying it while you sleep. Simple, easy, normal.

But then I wondered if perhaps my dream was trying to tell me something. I wasn’t one of those weirdos that thought dreams had predictive powers or anything, but I did believe sometimes they could be our subconscious trying to tell us something. I’d been single since high school, seven long years, and hadn’t had any action with the ladies in that same span of time. Then, outta nowhere, I have a dream where not only am I able to get away with being more forward with the ladies, but I also have a girlfriend that is literally a girl I probably thought would be a nice girlfriend at one point.

If my dream was trying to convey a message to me, it was probably that I should just put myself out there and take a risk. I didn’t like taking risks, and that had been the one thing that held me back from relationships until now, but now my brain was telling me “enough’s enough, pal, go out there and do something”. Maybe I should at least try. I took a deep breath and walked right over to her table.

Then I panicked, what the fuck was I supposed to say? “Hey, I think my dream was telling me I should be more proactive when I pick up chicks. Thought you’d be a great place to start”. No, I needed a plan, and fast, my feet were already carrying me toward her. Then I noticed the manga she was reading again, now that I was closer, I recognized the cover. It was from a series called “Demon Kanojo”, it was one of my favorites, actually, a pretty horny title but with a good plot too. She was a woman of culture, that was a good icebreaker.

Then again, was it? Like, when random strangers come up to me and comment on the manga that I’m reading without saying anything else it’s honestly kind of annoying, even if positive. On the other hand, I wasn’t attracted to the gender that normally would make those sorts of comments. Did that matter? Maybe I needed something else. At the very least I needed some excuse to be heading directly for her with food in tow.

Then my heart went on a sudden roller-coaster. It first sank after seeing someone suddenly approach the table from the restrooms and sit down at the table. Things would get complicated if she was with friends, I’d be fighting against their first impression of me as well as hers. Maybe they were even her lover; I had no actual idea if she was single or even into guys in the real world, after all.

But then my heart soared again when I realized that I recognized the newcomer, he was my friend, my best friend, Saoirse, in fact. He must already know her if he was comfortable enough to sit down next to her. He just saved my ass because now I didn’t need an excuse to introduce myself, she was sitting at the same table as my long-time buddy, of course I would go to sit next to him.

“Saoirse!” I called out to him, and he smiled and waved then beckoned me over. Hell yeah, my best friend to the rescue.

Calvin T. “Saoirse” Williams may have been one of those “weebs” I was referring to earlier, the kind that take terms like “waifu” and “husbando” too seriously, but he was my best friend. We just understood each other. I actually met him online four years ago, he had been using the screen name “Saoirse”, pronounced “seer-shuh” apparently, so that was the name I knew him by. As it happened, he preferred that name over his real one anyway. Once I started going to college, he moved here and signed up for the same school.

Saoirse grinned, “Hey, Wy!”

The Vivian-proxy looked at me then and seemed to freeze up, simply staring at me but not saying anything. She was probably just shy.

I sat down next to Saoirse and asked, “Who’s the newbie?”

“I met her in class today, your name’s Vivian, right?”

I was stunned but did my best not to show it. That was too weird, my subconscious mind apparently knew her name, too?

“We’ve had a class before,” she said in the same voice she had in my dream.

“U-uh, we did?” I asked, my voice cracking a little.

“Yeah, Philosophy 1000, last semester,” she replied. “Your name is Wyatt, right? Wyatt Frost?”

“Yeah,” I calmed down significantly. Now that she mentioned it, I did remember sharing that class with her. “I remember you now,” I smiled.

She never talked much so I guess she must have slipped my mind, but now that she mentioned it, I could clearly recall her in the back of class, nose usually in a manga. Now that I thought about it, I also remember consistently debating whether or not I should try and talk to her after class. Damn, she was buried pretty deep in my subconscious.

“Oh damn, now I feel like the odd one out,” Saoirse joked and smiled, pulling a lock of his long ginger hair out of his face and behind his ear, a straggler from the low ponytail he was sporting today.

It was strange, was Saoirse always this cute? I’d never really thought much of him because we’d been friends for so long, but the femboys at the island had me seeing him in a much different light. Actually, if he put on makeup, he could actually pass for a femboy, especially with that pink hoodie he was wearing.

Actually, he kinda looked like Red. Like, they looked like they could be related. Siblings, maybe? Did Saoirse even have siblings? I don’t think he’s ever mentioned any.

“So, how are you liking Demon Kanojo so far?” Saoirse asked Vivian.

“I like it. The main character is really cool. The fanservice is pretty nice too.”

Saoirse’s jaw dropped a moment, and he gave me a look. When I didn’t return the surprised face he said, “A girl who actually likes the fanservice in Demon Kanojo?”

Vivian rolled her eyes, “It may surprise you to know that not all women are sexless prudes. In fact, most aren’t. And not all ecchi authors are men, Demon Kanojo was made by a bigender person, for instance.”

Even I didn’t know that fact, that was neat. I spoke up, though, sensing that my friend needed some assistance, “You’ll have to forgive him,” I said, “he hasn’t met many real women.”

He shot me an angry look that I couldn’t help but find cute, “Like you’re one to talk, Cassanova. You’ve been single since high school.”

“You’ve never even had a girlfriend,” I said.

“I had a boyfriend, though!” I noticed the past tense in Saoirse’s response. Last I heard he had been living with a guy he called his “Master”. Now that I thought about it, the choker he usually wore was missing too.

“I’ve had a boyfriend and a girlfriend at the same time,” Vivian said, matter-of-factly and grinned victoriously as her gaze lowered back down to her book. “And we only split up because I started coming here for college.”

“Fatality…” Saoirse said, slumping over in defeat.

I felt much more comfortable than I was just moments ago. The three of us continued to have pleasant conversation until eventually Vivian left, claiming to have another class to go to.

Once she was gone, I turned to Saoirse, “You okay?” I was thinking about his lack of collar and past tense verbiage a moment ago.

He sighed, “I’ve been trying not to think about it too much.”

“We don’t have to talk about it.”

“Later, for sure. But uh… I might need to crash at your place for a while, is that cool?”

“Don’t even sweat it. You still have the key, right?”

He nodded and then sat back upright looking at the spot Vivian had just been in, “God damn, am I right?”

“God damn,” I agreed. Saoirse didn’t know that I already had this reaction to Vivian in my dream, but the real her was just as cool and chill, it seemed. Even had a similar sense of humor and personality.

“Any girl who says her top waifu is Viel from Demon Kanojo is an instant catch for distinguished gentlemen like ourselves,” Saoirse grinned. I knew what he meant, Viel was not only such a deep and complex character, but she was also the one who had the most fanservice in the series by far.

“Yeah, I agree.”

Saoirse eyed me and his grin widened, “Say, little Wy here wouldn’t happen to have a crush on the new girl, would he?”

“Yep,” I agreed out of pocket. Explaining the actual intricacies of the situation seemed like a bad idea right now, so being honest about at least that much seemed like the lesser of two evils.

He wasn’t expecting that response. He pouted, “Aw, bummer, I wanted to keep teasing you about it. It’s no fun when you just agree.”

I laughed, “No point in denying it, I guess. How about you, huh?”

He shrugged, “You know I prefer tops. She is definitely a bottom. A sassy bottom, but a bottom.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve got a sense for these things, just like that surprisingly accurate sense you have about cup sizes. By the way, how’s she lookin’? She’s gotta be like… a G?”

“F,” I replied, “but they have really nice shape.” I realized that I was basing this analysis on the dream version of her, but she didn’t seem to have all that different of a body type in the real world. It was sort of hard to tell with the jacket she wore today, though.

Saoirse nodded, “Ah, fair enough. I don’t think she was wearing a bra either. God damn.”

“God damn,” I agreed again.

There was a bit of silence before Saoirse spoke up, “Got any more classes today?”

“Just one, but I think I’ll play hooky today. I need a nap.”

“Stayed up late fapping again?”

“You jest, but you’re not that far off. I fell asleep on my couch playing TOAX3. It gave me a really weird dream. I could use proper rest in an actual bed.”

He laughed, “Damn, dude, that’s normally the kind of thing I’d do. All right let’s blow this joint.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, and we both quickly departed campus and made our way back to my place.

On the car drive home Saoirse spilled the beans about his break-up. He didn’t give any real details, just explained that the guy he was staying with was trying to turn Saoirse into something he wasn’t, and when he stood his ground, they got into a big fight and Saoirse walked out. He figured that meant the relationship was over, but even if it didn’t, Saoirse was prepared to make it official himself. If nothing else, the experience made it clear that they really weren’t very compatible romantically.

“Sorry to hear that, dude,” I said, consolingly.

He shrugged, “It’s all right. Not your fault.”

“If you need to talk to someone about it, I’m here. I mean it.” This statement was actually a little out of character for me. While we were close, it was always kind of an unstated bond, and we weren’t normally this emotionally open with each other. Later, I would admit that me seeing Saoirse in a different light today was probably the culprit.

“Thanks, man,” he said, looking at me, seemingly a little shocked that I said it. “That actually means a lot to me. I appreciate it.”

I waved away his concern and we continued our drive home.