Day ?
Adam
“Alternate reality,” Eve starts as we get ready for bed.
“Hit me.”
“We met as kids,” she suggests. “Maybe around ten or so. Maybe I took you home to live with me.”
“How did we meet?”
“Like we always do.” She smiles at me as I settle under the covers next to her. “I find you.”
That’s her favorite part of the game. Reminding me that all that time ago, she was the one who found me.
“Where?”
“Where were you living at around ten years old?”
“Wherever it was, I probably spent more time out in the street than inside the so-called home.” There’s more amusement than bitterness to my voice.
My past still makes her sad when I talk about it, but I couldn’t be more at peace with it.
How can I not, when my present and future are so safe and perfect?
She waits a moment before she leans her chin on my shoulder. “Then it was in the street,” she decides for us, and I sink into her arms as well as into her game of make-believe. “I didn’t like that you were alone out there and I brought you home with me.”
“Ah, yes, and your parents were completely fine with it.”
“We grew up together.” She ignores my sarcasm and there’s nostalgia in her voice, almost as if she can see it in her mind’s eye, missing something that’s not even real. “We went to the same school. Studied for finals together. Kissed under the bleachers…” Her tone becomes teasing.
“What, you weren’t a cheerleader in high school?” I taunt.
“No. Aren’t you listening?” Her grin is audible. “I was too busy kissing my punk emo stepbrother to cheer for the football team.”
I let myself sink into it with her. “So I’m the troublemaker and you’re the straight-A student.”
We paint a whole canvas of that reality in our heads, but before we fall asleep, I make sure to whisper out into the darkness, “Good one, but no.”
“No?” she mumbles, half asleep.
“Nope. Not better than this.” I tug her close to my chest, and her huffed, soft laugh melts into my steadily-beating heart.
We’ve said those lines countless times before while discussing countless alternate realities, no matter the setting, no matter which scenario we conjure up. Some things never change.
She always finds me. And I always pretend to consider her offer before declaring it inadequate. No other reality could ever come close to this.