I am floating in space. I don’t mean emotionally. Literally! I am floating in space. I look around. This must be a dream. Suddenly, I realise that the constellations around me resembled different shapes. Trees and mountains. The moment I realised this, the constellations began to colour themselves, until I was in an actual forest.

“Weird…” I say, then I look around.

It is pretty dark. The sky above me is still full of stars, but now, Northern Lights are there as well, which gives the place a magical look. The forest all around me is bleak and dark. I can barely see what a meter in front of me is.

“Where should I go?” I ask myself.

Yeah, I know, I talk to myself a lot, but it helps in stressful situations. Suddenly, a few trees start to glow, until they light a small road. What kind of fever dream is this?! Doesn’t matter. I’ll play along for now. I follow the road until I see something glowing even brighter than the trees. It must be a clearing I think to myself. But when I reach the ghostly blue glow, I realise that it is a river. The road continues on the other side. I don’t see a way across, so I try the water. It’s freezing cold. I’d be dead if I would enter even for two seconds. So, I decided to walk by the river, maybe there is a bridge nearby. After a bit of walking, I hear a voice:

“You’re going the wrong way.”

I look around confused, then I decide it must have been my imagination.

“If you don’t turn back and face them, they will come for you sooner or later.” the voice continues.

I try to ignore it. It must be a trick. But then, I hear a roar behind me. The river begins to flood the forest and a gigantic wave is forming behind me. I scream and run for my life, but the water is too fast. In a few seconds, it catches up with me and I am pulled into its wet depths. It’s dark all around me. I can’t see anything. Then, I hear voices. It was my parents. I try to call them, but they don’t answer. They continue their conversation.

“Have you seen how bad his grades are?” my mom asks.

“Yes.” my father answers disappointed.

“And the ugly sweater he wears? He’ll embarrass us all.” my mother continues.

“The sweater is bad enough! But what about him being gay?! That is how he’ll embarrass us all! He’ll destroy our family name!”

“What should we do?” my mother asks worriedly.

“I don’t know.” My father says defeated. “All his talk about trying to be perfect and now he just brings disaster after disaster.”

I start to cry and shout to them that it isn’t true. I’m not gay! Suddenly, I can see them looking at me. My classmates are behind them. They all look disgusted at me before turning their backs and leaving. I try to repeat that I’m not gay again, but every time I say it, I sink deeper into the water, and I feel like I’m losing more oxygen until everything goes black. I wake up, cold sweat on my face once more. I wipe it away with the blanket, then, after I calm down, I check my phone. It’s five am. I decide that I have some time to kill till my alarm sets off, so I just look at stuff on social media. I’m not a big fan of it, so I barely have any accounts. Rafael though, has an account for everything. I laugh thinking about that. I look at his Facebook page, then I realise something:

“That evil!” I say out-loud.

His birthday is today!