Golden canopies and lavender scent

It was a very long sleep. Almost felt like an eternity before I opened my eyes to a golden canopy. I stared at it for quite a long time; admiring every lovely golden thread and how lovely the frills collected at the ends. It was different to what I usually wake up to—a ceiling fan that looked like it would fall on my head any moment.

There was the smell of lavender and vanilla instead of the ramen smell from last night cooking I usually wake up to. I didn’t have an air freshener that smelled like such; it smelled more of water—if you get it.

I spread my hands and groaned as I stretched my body. My hands touched something soft. What is this I feel? It was squishy, but moist.

I looked to my right and I saw a human. Yeah, a live human. And this human had the features of a man.

I screamed.

“What the fuck?!”

My scream woke him up as he sat up, revealing his naked torso and stared at me with half-opened eyes, “My lady? What’s the matter?”

“What are you doing in my room?!”

My drunk nights never ended with me sleeping with a random guy. I would sleep over at a friend’s house, but not with them.

“My lady, your dress is…” he shyly looked away, pointing at me.

I looked down to see my nightgown was practically slipping away and I was wearing no undergarments.  

What have I done with this man?

“You…” I snatched the blanket from the bed and wrapped myself with it. I screamed again when I saw this man wasn’t wearing anything! “Cover yourself, you shameless man!”

The guy stumbled over to the other side and quickly wore his garments, that were apparently stripped on the floor. “I am sorry, my lady. I didn’t expect you to wake up—”

“What did you do to me?”

“Pardon?”

I grabbed a lamp from the side table and pointed at him, “Am I virgin?”

“Very much you are, my lady.” The guy was practically looking like me like a crazy buffoon. Who wouldn’t be crazy after waking up to see you are partially naked with a fully naked man?

“How do you know that?”

“Because you never let me…” he once again shyly looked away, blushing like a ripe tomato, “We never went till there.”

“Have we met before?”

It was the guy’s turn to be confused. “My lady? You call for me every night.” Boy, I sleep alone every night. Only on some rare occasions do I sleep with my laptop and assignments.

What if this was a dream? I usually do have stupid dreams, but they depend on what I watched or read or saw. Yeah, I love to fantasize in my dreams.

“What did I watch before sleeping?” I mumbled to myself.

Before going out to drink and meeting with my friend, I watched—oh, right! I was watching that movie where the girl sleeps with a lot of guys and in the end, she finds her true love.

So, am I dreaming of the same thing?

“It’s just a dream then,” I sighed and stood up. “You. Get out of my room and don’t ever come back.”

“My lady?”

“I’m done with you.” If it’s a dream, it won’t hurt right? But then the guy started to cry! “Yoo! Why are you crying?”

“I thought we were more,” he sobbed, rubbing his eyes ever so brutally, “I thought we shared a bond that transcended beyond dimensions, beyond the universe.”

“I don’t know what you are saying, but whatever you are saying, I don’t agree with it. please, do go out so I can dress in peace.”

“May I dress you?”

“No.”

With a sullen face, he went out through the balcony.

Balcony?

What?!

And he jumped.

I ran to the balcony, with the bedsheet flying behind me. “What in—”

He was fine, apparently. It was two floors high and yet he was standing there like nothing ever happened.

“Are you alright?” I said out of concern. I have experienced jumping from first floor and trust me, it hurts those knees of yours. Even worse, if your shoes are not for jumping, it rattles your bones.

Now then, why am I asking even though it’s a dream?

“I’m quite alright, my lady,” he said back, “However, my heart bleeds from your cruel rejection.”

“Let it bleed then.” I rolled my eyes and shut the doors.

I jumped onto the bed, surprisingly it was fluffy unlike my bed in reality, which was hard like sleeping on a rock. My mom said that it was good to have a hard bed than a soft bed. Didn’t ask why, because what mom says is absolutely right.

“Now then, back to reality I go.” I have assignments and deadlines hanging round my neck, so I need to wake up early and submit them.

I drifted to sleep.

“Hey! Are you listening to me?”

I was in a café. There was the fresh smell of bread and cakes, as well as the strong coffee present before me. It was all so different to the room I was present in before. When did I even wake up and come over to the café?

“You dead?”

Sitting opposite to me was Sheil. The last time I saw her was eight years ago; her dad transferred abroad due to his job and her family shifted along with him. It was a tearful goodbye, with both of us wailing and promising to never lose contact.

Sadly, two years back I lost my phone and I hadn’t saved her number anywhere else. That’s where we lost our connections till, I met her again on social media just a week before now. She texted that she back in town and we decided to meet.

“I am very much alive, thank you,” I sipped my coffee. “Is this a dream?”

“You are seriously dumb,” she shook her head, “No, you are not in a dream.”

“I don’t remember waking up.”

“You did, girl! Let me brush up on your absolutely mind-blowing day which you just narrated to me minutes ago. You woke up late, ran to class without taking bath and turns out the class was cancelled, turned in the wrong assignments and missed a deadline. Then you forgot your lunch at home and you had no money with you. You decided to bunk the day, but a professor spotted you and yanked you back to class. Your face was oiling up like an oil factory and you cried in the washroom for no reason. Finally, you went home, had a lovely bath, and met the lovely me. Remember now?”

“Very much, thank you.” I guess I was zoned out the whole day. It was all so stressful. “I had a weird dream before waking up today?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I was like in this fancy hotel room and everything was like golden-ish. But that’s not the best part. I was sleeping with a man!” She almost choked on her drink. “Yeah, a man. Exactly! Me! And then I said to the guy to leave the room and instead he started to cry.”

“He’s a keeper.”

“It was a dream.”

“Still.”

“And yeah, he jumped out the balcony and I went to sleep, later got up and had a shitty day.”

“You didn’t dream about any of the spicy things?”

“No…?”

“Then that’s a shitty dream. Hence a shitty day.”

“I’m not like you, thinking about horny stuff 24/7.”

She smacked my head with the menu card. “Says the girl who speaks about it 24/7 but won’t do a single thing about it. At least I do something about it.”

“Ouch.”

“What?” she looked up from the menu, “Don’t worry. You have a boyfriend now. Do him well.”

“I broke up with him.”

“What?!” she yelled loud enough for the entirety of the café to turn at us. We apologized for the sudden outburst and continued with harsh whispers. “When?! How? Why?!”

“Because he just didn’t seem like he was interested in me,” I said, chipping at my nail paint, “Besides he seemed interested in this other girl and she was quite cute. So—”

“Aren’t you just assuming things?” she asked, “I’ve known for you a long time and if there’s one thing that you love to do, is to assume. What if you just asked him about it?”

“Then he would definitely lie and say something else.”

“That’s again your assumption,” she sighed and shook her head, “When you broke up, how did he feel? What was his expression?”

“I…broke up through text.”

“And that’s why you are the dumbest girl alive.”

“I couldn’t say it to his face! He would definitely persuade me with that adorable face,” I groaned, covering my own with my hands from embarrassment, “I couldn’t say it to him.”

“Because you are a coward.”

“Can we change the subject?” I asked, begging her with my eyes. I still wasn’t over that breakup that happened just today. Yeah, today. That’s why my day was shitty from the very beginning.

“Fine,” she nodded. “But we are coming back to this topic sooner or later. Right now, you look like you are about to cry, so we’ll have this discussion back at your home.”

“Sure.”

“You know, I have been reading this reincarnation comics for a while now,” Sheil said as we shifted the topics to books. Back in middle school we were such dorks about novels that even now we still haven’t gotten over that habit to obsesses over fictional characters and scenarios.

“I’ve read all,” I said, “And all have like the literal same plot. But then again, I still love reading them. Have you read the one about the princess one? Where her dad is just super mean but she ends up softening his heart? I love that!”

“Oh my god! Same here! Binge read the novel more than five times. However I just recently finished a novel and let me tell you, this one is good. Not a reincarnation one. A normal fantasy book.”

“What’s it about?”

“It’s the story of twins, one good and one—"

“You are long dead. Wake up from your dreams.”

 I opened my eyes and there was that golden canopy. The lavender and vanilla scent and the expensive room. The same nightgown and the same bed. Seven fluffy pillows and a satin bedsheet.

I just woke up inside a dream. Was this what they called lucid dreaming? Where you know you are dreaming and yet are navigating through this dream.

But still! I don’t want to be sleeping for so long that I end up getting dreams! I must go for my class.

I fell back on the bed and tried to fall back asleep. Alas! It wasn’t possible. Maybe sleeping in a dream wasn’t possible, but then again isn’t it possible to wake from it?

I tried and tried so hard, yet my eyes were wide awake and all they stared at was the golden canopy. I was getting sick of it now.

Minutes turned to hours and I was just lying there. Dead. Mentally dead.

Dying with the assignments was better than dying from boredom in a dream. I decided then. If I can’t wake up, let’s roam around my dream and maybe somewhere I’ll stumble and get myself back to reality. Else I’ll just skip class and suffer in the future.

I got down from the softest bed and glanced at my surroundings. It indeed looked very expensive. Very posh.

I felt my bare shoulder tickle from my long hair. Come to think of it, in real life I have hair that’s like bob short. So why is it long in the dream?

“The subconscious fantasizes your deepest desires in your dreams.” Something Sheil told me when we met. “Whatever you see in your dream, is what you subconsciously want.”

Expensive bedroom? Check.

Very posh life? Check.

Long hair? Check.

Boy in bed? Check.

The last one need not be present in the desires list. I’d rather not have it there. Makes me sound like a lonely woman when in fact I’ve dated for some time now.

If I had long hair, how would I look facial wise in my dream?

I need a mirror.

There was a dressing table right in the corner and I skipped over to it when suddenly I stepped on something squishy.

“What’s this—ahhh!! Oh, my kadavule!!”

I was stepping on a dead body.