They walked for about 10 minutes before Ray asked, “Do you even know where you’re going?”

“Of course I do. I have Woogle Maps.”

“Look up, it’s right there. That devil device is broken. Woogle sucks.”

“What? Do you not like cell phones or something?”

Ray held up a flip phone. “Yes.”

“Oh. Drug dealer.”

“Am not, just don’t like smartphones.”

The sound of running filled the silence. Soccer players were dribbling down a field beside the cafe. A girl with bright purple hair stood out the most, although she was on the sideline jumping and performing tricks. Another girl with pastel pink hair was kicking a ball back and forth with someone.

Tanner went to go watch the girls play while Ray got them an Earl Gray tea and a caramel frappuccino. Shouting was suddenly heard.

“I said fuck off, Kenney!”

“Darling, it’s Kay. Don’t be that way.”

“Kenney, I think you should leave,” the purple haired girl said.

“This isn’t your conversation, Willow. Move along.”

“You made it mine when you started harassing my girlfriend.”

“He’s mine, back off of Charlie.”

“Firstly, it’s she. Secondly, I'm with her. Lastly, I'm not anyone's possession, I'm a human being who needs to be treated as such,” Charlie said.

Before Tanner knew it, Ray was up in Kenney’s face, pushing him back and shouting for someone to call the police. Before anyone did, the boy ran like a dog with his tail between his legs.

“Thank you.”

“No problem hon, my names Ray.”

“Oh, I’m Charlie, the one in with the purple hair is my girlfriend Willow. The one with the pink hair is Riley, and the jerk who stormed off is Kenney.” Charlie explained.

“The long haired boy is Tanner. He doesn't like to talk much so I wouldn’t expect much from him.” Ray said with a laugh.

Tanner walked up behind Ray and hit him on the head. “I talk dumbass.”

“I said not much. You didn’t even want to tell me your name.” Ray protested.

Tanner rolled his eyes, waved at the new people, and started to walk off.

“Where are you going?” Ray yelled after Tanner.

“Back to the dorm. You’re welcome to join me if you want.” Tanner yelled back as he kept walking.

Ray huffed, said goodbye to the soccer kids and ran off to catch up with Tanner.

----------

The boys got back to their dorm room and plopped down on their designated beds. When they did they heard a ruckus in the hallway.

“Walk on the right side of the hall jackass.” they heard one boy yell.

“I was trying to, but there were boxes in the way so I couldn’t.” another voice was heard.

Ray groaned getting off his bed to see what was happening. There was a short boy with puffy brown hair and a purple hoodie was arguing with a taller boy with square glasses, brown hair covered by a red backwards facing hat, and a red flannel over a gray t-shirt.

“What’s going on out here?” Ray asked crossing his arms over his chest.

“I was just minding my own business walking down the hall until this kid moved to walk in front of me making me run into him.” The boy with square glasses explained.

“There were boxes in my way. I didn’t want to run into them.” The puffy haired boy argued.

“I mean, if you need to move to not run over someone else’s stuff then that is reasonable, but you would need to pay attention to someone else coming down the hall. If there is someone stay where you are until they walk past then keep going,” Ray said to the puffy haired boy, “or you could have waited to let him by. It goes both ways.” he said turning to the boy with square glasses.

“Now that that is settled, My name’s Ray. Yours?”

“Gem.” the boy with glasses said.

“Dylan.” the puffy haired one said.

“Nice to meet you. Now if you’ll excuse me, a much needed nap is in order.” Ray said turning around and going back into his room.

----------

A dark room. Water filled the floor, rising higher. To his knees, waist, shoulders, he gasped for air but there was none. Water filled his lungs.

Ray woke up in a cold sweat. Looking around the dark room. Tanner was up at his computer, headphones in. Ray stood up and walked over to Tanner’s bed. He tapped him on the shoulder making him jump taking off his headphones.

“What do you want?” Tanner asked Ray annoyed.

“I had a, um, bad dream.” Ray said scratching the back of his neck.

“And that is my problem how?” Tanner raised his eyebrows.

"It's not I just-"

"Sit. Tell me about this dream of yours."

“So, I get this recurring nightmare. Almost every night.”

“What happens in it?”

“I’m in a room. There’s usually nothing in it but sometimes there’s a few chairs and a table. It starts to fill up with water,” Ray began tearing up.

“How far up does the water go?”

“It reaches my knees then speeds up. My waist and speeds up. Shoulders and it fills even faster. Suddenly I’m trying to breathe but there’s no oxygen left, it’s all just water.”

“Anything else?”

“No, I wake up once I breathe in the water.”

“Have you ever tried escaping? Stopping the water? Or diving into the water before it fills the entire room?”

“No, I guess I haven’t. I could try but I’m not sure it would work.”

“Do you know what caused the dream?”

“Yes,” Ray didn’t continue like he normally would.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Okay,” Tanner seemed concerned.

----------

The next night Ray tried to escape. There were no doors, he couldn’t figure out a way to stop the water, so that left Tanner’s last suggestion.

Ray breathed in the remaining air, and dived into the water. Instead of hitting the floor like he expected, he was met with a beautiful coral reef. There were all kinds of fish whose names he didn’t know and plants of all colors. There was pink, yellow, red, orange, purple.

He swam for God knows how long, and only woke up due to his alarm clock. Tanner was passed smooth out, and though Ray was tempted to wake him he knew the boy’s strange sleeping habits would leave him even grumpier than normal.

So he kept the dream to himself, grabbing his sketchbook and drawing various items from the room. He drew characters and people. When he ran out of ideas he looked at tanner sleeping.

He sketched a person sleeping. This slowly turned to him filling up a page with drawings of someone resembling Tanner. Next thing he knew a shadow was covering him.

“Is that me?”

Ray slammed the sketchbook closed, “No!”

“Let me see.”

“It’s not you!”

In the sternest voice he could muster, “Let. Me. See.”

Ray sheepishly opened the sketchbook, flipping to the pages with the Tanner-look-alike. For a few seconds Tanner said nothing, just analyzing each sketch.

“They’re good. More attractive than me, but good.”

“What do you mean? You look better, wait. That’s not what I meant, and I’m just going to shut up now,” Ray looked down, flustered.

Tanner chucked, “I wasn’t even thinking about that.” He said while walking to his desk.

He grabbed his wallet and phone and walked towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Ray asked, still in his sleepwear, as he stood up and got his wallet too.

“To get some tea. If you want to come you can, but I would prefer that you would get out of your sleeping pants.” Tanner said pointing down to Ray’s unicorn pants.

----------

They boys walked over to the cafe and were met with Charlie, Willow, and Riley chatting outside the cafe.

“Hello ladies, how are you doing on this fine day?” Ray said as he strut up to their table.

Tanner rolled his eyes as he walked up to the girls along with Ray. He just gave a shy wave and let Ray do all of the talking.

“So, what are you girls majoring in?” He asked, “I'm majoring in art. Don’t know what this guy is doing so don't ask.”

“I’m in music, you’re allowed to ask me things, you know.”

“Aw, you too are so adorable,” Willow cooed.

“What?” The boys said in unison.

“They really are,” Riley agreed.

“They’re so in love.”

Willow and Riley giggled while the boys and Charlie rolled their eyes.

“Anyways,” Charlie coughed, “I’m here mostly for the soccer team so I’m just getting an Associate's degree.”

“I’m in fashion with Willow,” Riley said.

“Sweet,” Ray grinned.

They sat at a table, sipping coffee and chatting. Two hours passed and the girls had to leave. Tanner and Ray sat in a comfortable silence, eating the rest of their food before leaving.

“What do you wanna do?” Tanner asked.

“Is there an arcade around here?”

“We have computers and phones to play games.”

“True, but arcades are wonderful. Besides, I’m old school.”

Tanner attempted Woogling for an arcade before Ray snatched the phone.

“Nope! Not doing that and risking getting lost again.”