I gasp for air as I awaken, the normalcy of the setting takes a while to travel from my brain to my lungs to tell them they're okay and that they're not filled with water. I look at the alarm clock on the bedside table, eight am. Shit! I missed my alarm, again! I rub my eyes, removing the exhaustion that felt more than skin deep these days, the sun shines through the drapes though and that definitely puts a smile on my face. I roll out of bed and press the on button on my stereo, Letlive's newest album begins to fill the room, which then plants an even bigger smile on my face.

We're here to fulfil every one of your dreams,
A small nominal fee,
It only costs you your soul.

I check my phone, nine missed calls from Becca. I call her back.

"Jesus you midget ass, long haired, tanned, emo piece of shit you're late again!" She yells down the phone as a greeting.

"You sound happy, get laid last night?" I retort with a smirk, brushing my 'long hair' off of my face.

"Best lay since I lost my virginity to you, you asshole now get a fucking move on." She retorts to my retort, I laugh down the phone

"Signature hot chocolate please, with extra cream" I say and she huffs

"Yeah yeah I got it, fucking get ready" we both laugh before hanging up simultaneously. Becca has been my best friend since elementary, she was also my first real girlfriend, and I was her first real boyfriend. We both kind of realized we're better off as best friends though and soon broke up and its been that way ever since. I crank the volume of the stereo.

Swallow pride until you feel sick,
My stomach hates that, hates the bitter taste of the truth,
Well I swallowed pride until I felt sick,
Bulimia tastes better when you swallow the truth,

I pull on some skinny jeans over the boxers I slept in because I'm late and have no tolerance for changing my underwear. I pull on a shirt that's probably insanely creased but I know looks more than okay on me. I pull on a black beanie and some black vans to match and grab my phone. Before leaving I allow the song to finish and then turn of the stereo.

The smell of waffles and burnt poptarts meets my nostrils as I enter the kitchen, mmm, food. My mouth waters. Mike is sitting at the table eating what looks like the entirety of the worlds supply of poptarts, I slap the back of his head as I pass him, just to piss him off.

"You fucking dick" he says mocking irritation, some of his food spills from his mouth as he talks and I raise and eyebrow.

"Michael Christopher Fuentes, you watch that filthy mouth of yours, boy!" My mother scolds and I laugh and give him the middle finger as she turns away. He shakes his head and smirks.

"Morning" I say to my mom as I reach past her for the poptarts that have just popped out of the toaster.

"Hi darling." She says distracted by making Mike more food. Fucking pig. I put the poptarts on a plate and sit opposite Mike at the table, he kicks me under the table and I give him the finger again.

"Vic you little shit" I hear Becca's voice from the entrance way - another great thing about our friendship, I never have to move to let her in because she practically lives here and just walks in without knocking like that's the case anyway.

"In here" I call out and she heads in, holding my Starbucks signature hot chocolate, I smile as she puts it in front of me.

"We don't really have time for you to be stuffing your face, shit head, we're late" she says, taking a seat next to me and tapping her invisible watch on her skinny wrist.

"Rebecca, language" my mother calls from the other end of the kitchen.

"Yeah yeah, sorry" Becca waves her hand in dismissal.

"You guys" I say abruptly, remembering my dream. "I had the strangest dream..." I finish my poptart and take a sip of my hot chocolate (which fucking burns my tongue) and then begin to tell them:

"Mike, you and I were in a band, a real band, just like we've always wanted to be, but for some reason we were announcing our break up and dad died and I met this girl and she was perfect and I uh kind of killed you by running over you and I drove off a bridge with this girl in the car and...yeah" I trail off, getting more and more confused at the events of my dream. How random?

"Weird" Mike comments

"Yeah, very weird" Becca agrees. Her attention span is extremely short and only seconds later she shrugs and stands.

"Get up, get your shit together, lets go" she says slapping my arm "We're late for school, once again, because you can't just wake up when your damned alarm goes off" she rolls her eyes

"It's not like I plan it" I laugh and stand up too, picking up my Starbucks.

"Late for school again, Vic?" Someone says from the doorway.

"Oh hey, the man, the myth, the legend, look who it is, Papa Roach, the painter!" I announce like he's on some sort of tv show and then I slowly head towards him and wrap him in (what I hope is a) manly hug.

"What's that for, champ?" My dad asks.

"No reason" I say as I pull out of the hug. I couldn't say: I just woke up from a dream where you died so you know it's good to see you alive and kicking. Could I?

"He's just realized he's really into males" Becca says and then pushes me from behind past my dad and out of the front door before anyone can say anything.

Once we're in her convertible I give her daggers.

"You're an asshole" I say plainly

"And you're really short for your age" she replies with a shrug "And you're a shit time keeper and you're a shitty best friend too"

"Good to know our hate or each other is mutual" I nod in amusement and she peels away from the curb outside of my normal house in normal San Diego where I'm just a normal kid.

Maybe not a band member with an amazingly crazy life just yet.

But maybe some day.

Notes

There you have it...

sorry to disappoint you all.

Hope you liked it.

Thanks to everybody who commented throughout the whole story or to anyone who commented just once. also, thanks for just taking the time out to read it, you're all awesome.

Much love.