As Dreamed by Tegan [ Part 1 ]

“Goodnight,” Tegan called over her shoulder to her roommates as she walked past their door. The two young ladies that shared the room next her both replied with their goodnights as she was walking under her door frame. After flipping on the light, she tossed the large book she had been reading and her cell phone onto her bed then turned to close the door behind her.
As soon as the door clicked letting her know it was safely shut, she unbuttoned her jeans and shimmied them off her hips; they crumpled into a heap on the floor. She reached behind her back and unclasped her bra and worked it off her arms and through one sleeve of the t-shirt she was wearing. She reached down, grabbed the heap that were her pants from the middle of the floor and tossed them and her bra on top of the pile of dirty clothes that were collecting in front of her bookshelf.
She stood there, looking around her room for a moment hands comfortably resting on her hips, her last two fingers touching the bare skin that her jeans had been covering just seconds before. Her eyes moved to her bed. It was unmade, it had been left that way almost every day for the past two weeks since she moved in. Her body lightly twitched reminding her of how tired she was and of how glad she was that it was finally time to crawl back into that unmade bed. She took three steps toward it, a small smile forming at the corners of her mouth. She situated herself next to the mattress that laid directly on the carpet and allowed her body to fall and land limply next to her book and phone, on top of her forest green comforter. She used her last ounces of energy to grab the book and phone and set them on her makeshift nightstand, a cardboard box left over from moving in. She rolled over and buried her head between her two pillows, so relaxed, almost drifting in to sleep right away. It was only then that she noticed that she hadn’t turned the light off. In frustration with herself, she cursed the light and spitefully wished it would to turn off on it’s own. The bulb obeyed her thought instantly, it flicked off. She rolled back onto her side, put her head back under the pillows, and let sleep waft over her consciousness without giving the light a second thought.

***

Tegan laid on her back in an open meadow surrounded by trees. It was as if someone came along and plucked all the trees out of this exact area to form this dazzling circle of over grown earth. It was like magic. It was perfect in every way possible. A mild breeze in the air rustled the weeds and the blades of grass that stood feet tall. The sound of crickets met her ears. She closed her eyes and felt the slight gusts of air flow over her pale, exposed forearms and the curves of her legs. The sensation raised the hair on her arms, forming goose bumps. She smiled, the soft whisper of a giggle left her lips. Hearing the small sound of her own voice surprised her. It was like nothing she had ever heard. She wondered if it was really her that had made the sound. She sat up and craned her neck to see over the tall plants around her. She looked in all directions and found no one. She decided that it really was her that produced the beautiful tinkle of sound. Tegan tested it again. She made her lips meet lightly and hummed a few notes. The sound sailed over the wind, which had picked up greatly since the first sound left her throat. The sound seemed to travel on the thick breeze. Her eyes searched for something, she expected to see the notes flying like birds. Her heart thundered, sending adrenaline racing through her veins. She was amazed and frightened at the same time. She was full of wonder. Tegan let another long line of made up music leave her lips. The song echoed off everything it touched, doubling the sound. It hit every piece of grass and seemed to weave into them, bonding with them. She fell in love with the feeling in that instant. She hummed more testing what different sounds could do. The crickets accompanied her and they pretended to write symphonies. She stayed like this for hours until her voice caught…

-BAM BAM BAM-

***

Tegan woke with a start. Her eyes fluttered open. Light flooded the room through the blinds in her window. What time was it? It could have been any time from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon with the way her sleep patterns went. There was another knock on her door, it rang as if it came from the hand of someone who was becoming impatient.

“Tegan! I swear! Open the door. Tegan, I’ll just walk in if you don’t answer me in the next thirty seconds.”

“I’m up, hold on,” she yelled at the door. Her voice cracked. It was sore and raw, like she had been screaming for hours straight. She threw her comforter off of her, grabbed her phone and checked what time it was: 12:48pm. She groaned then coughed at the pain it caused in her throat. She scrunched into a sitting position and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and rolled off of her 6 inch thick bed and onto the tan carpet, she stayed there for a few seconds more, then got to her feet. She shuffled through the pile of dirty clothes on the floor and found a pair of faded pink pajama pants and hurried to pull them on. Tegan walked hesitantly to the door and grabbed the knob and took a deep breath, she had a bad feeling. She twisted it and pulled. Standing there with her arms crossed, glaring was one of her roommates, Lillith.

“Took you long enough to answer, Tega’.” her expression changed. “For sleeping all night and day you look beat. You feelin’ okay?”

“I’m fine,” Tegan’s voice sounded withered and old. She winced at the searing at the back of her throat. “ I just had a really vivid dream. It was pretty weird. I guess it just took it all out of me.” Lillith looked at her with worry in her eyes. “Lilli, I’m fine. What’s up?” Tegan noticed something in her hand.

“Oh yeah,” she noticed Tegan’s gaze, “Mail for you,” she handed Tegan a long white envelope, Tegan took it.

“All that chaos outside my door just to give me some piece of mail that will probably end up being junk any way, Lil? That’s a little ridiculous.”

“That’s how I roll, Tega’. Get use to it or forever live in misery. Well not forever…but for this year at least.” She winked and hissed then turned and walked away, leaving Tegan standing in her doorway holding her junk mail, shacking her head trying not to laugh because it would hurt.