The blinding light that’s coming through the window reminds Dave of his hangover as if the squealing sound of his roller blinds wouldn’t get that point across. He squeezes his eyes waiting for that poking pain in his head to disappear.
The room has stopped to spin around him and he thinks it’s safe to walk down the hallway.
As he stumbles into the kitchen, he feels a little better. Good enough to wonder how he has a hangover. Isn’t that like alcohol withdrawal? There is definitely still alcohol left in his system but whatever. He opens the fridge and takes out the milk. He puts a bowl onto the counter and tries to pour in some cereal. He gets about 90 percent in.
Now the milk. Take aim and make sure not to miss. This time all goes in. He picks up the bowl and swipes in the remaining ten percent of cereals that landed on the counter. He sits down at the table and realizes that he forgot the spoon. Fuck.
So, he stands up again, walks back into the kitchen, grabs a spoon, and sits back down at the table. At the very least, the light got dimmed a little. A cloud has taken its place to block the morning sun.
As he brings the first spoon to his mouth, he notices something at the edge of his sight. A girl sitting on the couch. Elbows on knees and her face supported by her hands.
Fuck, Dave thinks, I didn’t even know that you can hallucinate from too much alcohol. The girl looks kinda strange. Her skin got a touch of green and she wears a beautiful red dress.
Dave grunts which gets her attention. She turns her head. “Can you see me?” she asks.
“No,” he says and goes back to his breakfast, “I’m definitely not seeing some girls over there.”
“And you can hear me! Fi–na–ly! You don’t know how long I have waited for this.”
The girl stands up and, well, she flies a bit closer.
Yeah, I’m definitely hallucinating, Dave thinks. Did someone put drugs into my drinks? This can’t be normal. Nah, don’t think anyone even had drugs at the party. Maybe a bit of weed but try to put that into a drink. I’ll give you a dollar if you succeed.
“You can see me!” The girl is annoyingly happy. Dave closes his eyes and opens them again. She’s still there. Fuck.
She sits down across from him and keeps on watching while Dave eats. “You can see me,” she repeats. The excitement in her voice is almost unbearable.
“You said that already. Why’s my mind so unoriginal?”
The girl tilts her head. “Your mind?” she asks.
“Yeah, if I got hallucinations, I hoped there would be a better dialogue but it seems I’m just shitty at that, too.” Dave looks up. Accepting that she isn’t going anywhere soon, he studies that girl’s face. “Even though I have to admit, that you’re very beautiful. I like the detail my subconscious mind had put on you. Didn’t think I could imagine a dress that doesn’t suck.”
A smile forms on that girl’s face, “You think I’m just a part of your imagination? Well, of course, you do. I mean who wouldn’t. Silly me. But I’m real, I promise. Here feel.” She extends her hand, reaching all the way over the table. She has to lean forward and as she turns, she reveals her back. The dress is cut out pretty deep making room for, eh, wings? Ah right, she flew closer, right. Definitely hallucinating, Dave thinks again. But let’s humor it.
He tries to take her hand, deeply believing that he would feel nothing but the air. To his surprise it’s solid. Perplex, he grabs her hand pulling her even further over the table. He runs over her skin, feels her knuckles.
“Hey, that’s still attached to my body,” she says but doesn’t try to pull away. Instead, she leaves her seat and is now hovering over the table. Her wings are moving way too slow to keep her in the air. Well, seems like hallucinations don’t care about physics. She feels real, though.
“You know, just because I can touch you doesn’t mean you’re not in my mind.”
David lets go of her hand and the girl sinks back onto her seat.
“Then how do I convince you that I’m real?”
The door to the kitchen opens. The sound feels way louder than it actually is. Dave shrugs together as his brother enters the room. “Oh, you’re awake. How was your night?” he asks unaware of the fact that he just interrupted a conversation between his little brother and some girl with wings. “Mom said she was surprised that you found your way home, considering how drunk you were. I think she is overreacting, though.”
Careful not to increase his pain, Dave turns his head from the girl to his brother.
“Shit, you look awful. Even for your standard,” Dave’s brother says.
“Thanks”
“You’re welcome. Maybe drink some water, take a shower. I heard plastic surgery can help.” He laughs but Dave really isn’t in the mood. Instead, he goes back to eating his cereals.
“Well, I’m going now. See you later, then.” With that, his older brother leaves the room.
Dave looks back at the girl. “If you’re as real as you claim, then why didn’t he say something about you?”
The girl smiles again, “That’s because he can’t see me.”
“Not looking too good for you if you try to convince me that I’m not hallucinating.”
“He couldn’t see me because no one can see me. Nobody but you.”
Dave takes another spoon of his breakfast. “Of course,” he grunts, “Listen, fairy. Can I call you that? I mean you are a fairy, right.”
“Some used that name to describe our kind but you could just give me a real name, you know.”
“Give you a name? You mean like, you don’t have one?”
The girl wants to answer but Dave changes his mind. “Wait,” he says, “I don’t want to know. At least not now. What do you want from me?”
The fairy giggles. “That’s funny,” she says, “With the whole ‘finding the one that can see you and do whatever he wants’ thing, that’s probably something I should ask you.”
“Er,” It’s way too early to deal with this shit, he thinks.
“So, what do you want me to do?” she asks, and as if his head wouldn’t hurt enough already someone turns the light that’s falling through the window up to ‘painfully bright’. The cloud that hid the sun has flown by. The room begins to turn and Dave has to concentrate not to puke in his breakfast bowl. With his head supported by one hand, he leans on the table and quietly mumbles, “Fuck me.”
“A bit blunt but ok, if that’s what you want.”
The light is still unbearable. At least the spinning stopped and his headache feels like a walk on the beach in comparison to a second ago. As he looks up, he finds that the fairy is now sitting naked across from him. Her well-formed breasts catch his eyes. She jiggles them a bit or is it the alcohol? It’s still a hallucination, isn’t it?
“What the. Where did your dress”
He stops and buries his face into his hands. Rubbing his eyes, he grunts again. “I didn’t mean that literally.”
“Oh, of course,” and just like that she’s back to wearing her dress, “I understand.”
Dave goes back to his breakfast. The two of them sit there in silence. As Dave brings an empty spoon to his mouth, for like the third time in a row, she can’t stay silent anymore.
“You realize that the bowl is empty?”
He looks up and gives her a stare that says he’s way too tired to tell her that she should please shut up and let him work through his pain alone.
“Just saying.”
The fairy bites her lip. “I hope I’m not overstepping here but do you usually drink this much?”
“Do I look like I’m used to this?”
The fairy shakes her head. “No, not really,” she says, “but maybe …”
Dave interrupts her, “Please. You seem like a nice girl. How old are you?”
“Don’t know. It feels like I’ve been there since the beginning.”
“The beginning of time?”
She chuckles, “No, don’t be ridiculous. Humankind, of course.”
For a second a sharp pain breaches its way through Dave’s head. “As I thought,” he says, “It’s really not a good time to talk. Just give me a few hours till I no longer feel like shit, ok?”
With that, he stands up, waits for a second, no spinning, and brings the empty bowl into the kitchen.
“Ok,” the girl says, “And what should I do until then?”
Just shut up, he thinks, and takes some painkillers. “I don’t know,” he grunts, “you’ll figure something out.”
A bit confused she follows Dave around until he shuts the bathroom door right into her face. “Hey!” he hears her saying through the wood. Then her voice becomes clear as if she was standing right in front of him. “Well, that’s just rude,” she says, now standing inside the bathroom, right in front of him.
Dave rolls his eyes. “Teleportation? Long way to go till you convince me that you’re real. And I’m sorry, am I not considerate enough for your feelings?”
The girl pushes her arms into her sides, “Listen, even if I’m just part of your mind, I’d be a part of you then. The least you can do is to not treat me like shit.”
“Ever heard of self-hatred?” he asks.
The fairy raises an eyebrow. He’s kidding, right? He doesn’t look like he’s kidding, though. David takes off his shirt and drops it to the ground.
“Do you mind turning around?” he asks.
“You’re self-conscious about your body?”
“My body’s fine, it’s just,” he grunts. The headache gets better with time but he still doesn’t feel like arguing, “would you please wait outside?”
The fairy crosses her arms, “If that’s what you want.” This time she uses the door and it actually makes a sound. Either his hallucinations are worse than he thought or she might be real after all. But now he takes a shower, it’ll help. Maybe even a cold one.
Fresh and clean, a towel wrapped around his waist he steps out of the bathroom. His mood has significantly improved. His headache is practically gone. The painkillers have kicked in. Maybe he’ll even do something productive today, he thinks as his eyes fall on the fairy again.
“You’re still here,” he says surprised. She is sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall.
“Of course, I’m still here. You told me to wait outside.”
The girl gets up without using her hands to support herself. Instead, she floats up onto her feet. It looks so cool like CGI turned real somehow. Dave takes a deep breath. What the fuck is happening to him?
“So, what now?” the fairy asks. She looks at him and realizes that one of his eyelashes has fallen off. It’s stuck to his cheek, now. “Oh, wait,” she says and tries to get it.
Dave instinctively takes a step back.
“Are you afraid of me?” she asks, “I see. Maybe this will help.”
The fairy now turns into a real human looking girl. Her skin tone changes, the wings disappear and her dress doesn’t look that mythical anymore. Dave even knows the girl she has turned into. Man, she really chose the wrong form here. Everyone but Julia.
“Not her,” Dave says.
“I thought …” she tries to explain herself but he doesn’t let her.
“Turn back,” he insists, “please.”
Confused, the fairy does what she was told. “I thought you liked her,” she says.
“I do,” Dave sighs, “It’s complicated.”
The fairy tilts her head a little. Then her eyes wander back to his cheek and she giggles, “Oh, it’s still there.” She reaches for the little hair and asks, “May I?”
He nods, and she takes his eyelash onto her index finger. “Make a wish,” she says and holds it in front of his mouth. He blows and the eyelash flies into the air.
He waits a second till he says a bit disappointed, “You’re still here.”
The fairy crosses her arms again, insulted by his wish, and fires back, “You said that already, I hoped there would be a better dialogue.”
Dave shakes his head and walks past her. No sense in outsmarting your own unconscious “Give me a second,” he says and shuts the door to his room before his nonhuman friend could enter.
A moment later Dave presses down the handle. The door opens slightly, and the fairy steps into the room. Dave’s already wearing his jeans. She watches as he puts on his shirt.
He starts his computer and sits down at his desk. When the fairy looks over his shoulder to see what he is doing, Dave already googles the keywords, “hallucinations from too much alcohol”
He clicks the second link that pops up.
He reads, “Alcohol-induced psychotic disorders, on the other hand, involve secondary psychotic episodes that may be similar in presentation to other primary psychoses, but arise due to alcohol-related conditions. …”
The fairy giggles, “You’re for real right now? I told you, I’m not part of your mind.”
While reading the next paragraph he asks, “Then how did you know Julia? The girl you transformed into.”
“… Once a person develops a substance-induced psychosis, the symptoms usually appear quickly and resolve within days to weeks. Though symptoms resolution is usually quick, continued drinking after experiencing an alcohol-induced psychotic episode could trigger the onset of longer-lasting psychotic disorders in those predisposed to such conditions.
Features of an alcohol-induced psychosis include alcohol hallucinosis, a rare complication of chronic alcohol abuse that occurs during or after a period of heavy drinking. These hallucinations are typically auditory but may manifest as visual or tactile.”
The fairy reads along. “You could be right about you’re theory of alcohol-induced hallucinations. But you said you weren’t drinking regularly. They sometimes manifest themselves during a hangover, it’s mostly sounds that aren’t real but you can even see and feel things. But I’m telling you, I’m as real as you are.”
Dave turns around on his chair. “Sit down,” he says and points to the bed.
The fairy doesn’t move. Instead, she crosses her arms as if she feels insulted again. Maybe it’s his harsh tone.
Dave rubs his temples, he closes his eyes and counts to ten in his head, then he tries again, “Could you please, sit down on the bed? I want to talk to you.”
“Here we go,” the fairy says and takes a seat. Her legs crossed; her hands neatly folded in her lap. A body language that’s looks like she is attending a meeting.
Dave raises an eyebrow.
“I’m just trying to make you feel more comfortable,” she says, “but fine, I see that it’s not working.” Her posture feels younger now. It fits better. “What do you want to talk about?” she asks.
“Why did you choose Julia when you changed to a human?”
“Trying to question your unconscious? Well, I don’t really know but I felt you liked her.”
“You felt?” Dave repeats.
“Yes, I felt that you liked her. We have a bond of some sorts, you know. That’s how I found you in the first place.”
Dave shakes his head. “Let me summarize,” he says, “You can fly, even though it’s not physically possible, you can teleport from one place to another, you’re as old as mankind, you can read my mind, and I should believe you when you say that I’m not hallucinating?”
“You missed the fact that you’re the only one that can see me, and I can’t really read your mind, it’s just a bond that we share, but other than that, yes.”
Dave leans back on his chair, lets his head fall into his neck, and looks at the ceiling. “Oh, Jesus, what have I gotten into? I swear I’ll never drink alcohol again.”
“You’re not religious, right,” the fairy asks a bit curious because of his last statement.
“Nah, it’s just something you say.”
“I know. Just wanted to make sure.”
Still looking up, Dave realizes something. “If you’re as old as you claim, then tell me, is it all bullshit? Jesus, the Bible, God?”
The fairy doesn’t answer, so Dave looks at her. “Yeah, you’re right,” he says, “I don’t want to know.”
He leans forward and continues the conversation, “earlier you said something about not having a name?”
The fairy is surprised, “You’ve been listening? So, you do care. Yes, I don’t have a name. They say that only you can give it to me. Why? Do you have one?” She gets excited again but it’s way less annoying and kinda cute.
“Who’s they?”
“My friends, of course. Even though I don’t know where they got it from. Maybe our kind just figured it has to work that way since we didn’t have names.”
“There are more like you?” he asks.
“Yes, there are more like me. Or at least, there were. I haven’t seen one in a while, now that I’m thinking about it. Eventually, we got less.”
“When was the last time you saw one?”
“I don’t know. Maybe eight or nine decades ago? Times have changed. There are more and more humans, eventually, most of us found the one that could see them, turned human themselves and died.”
“Turned human and died?”
“Yeah, that’s what happens when we find the one. It’s just like Hancock but without the superhero part and the fact that people were able to see Hancock, and of course, I don’t have an alcohol problem but that’s maybe your part in this story?” She stops for a second and thinks, “Well maybe it’s not like Hancock but the part with the soulmates that become human when they find each other is.”
“I’ve never seen it.”
“You’ve never seen the movie,” she repeats, “I took you as a movie guy. My bad. Let me explain it to you,”
He interrupts her, “I think I got it. And I’m that soulmate that you’re talking about?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, let’s leave the topic for now. You said you don’t have a name but you had friends. They must have called you somehow,” he says.
“Sunny. They called me Sunny.”
“Good enough for me,” he says.
“But you’re supposed to give me a name.” her eyes water a little. There’s a tear slowly running down her cheek.
Dave brushes it away. “Don’t be upset,” he says, “you said you feel like you’re here since the beginning. What do you think about Eve then?”
“Eve?”
Dave nods.
“I like it,” she says and smiles again.
There we go, Dave thinks. It’s crazy what an effect a crying woman has on him. Even if he potentially only imagines her.
A moment of silence.
Then Eve decides to ask the question that is bugging her. “Why didn’t you want me to look like that girl from earlier. Julia, wasn’t it?”
Dave sights. “Bad memories,” he says, and he knows that that’s not enough of an answer to be satisfying. He swallows and begins to explain. “Last night I was at a party and she was there, too. I got a mad crush on her and we are seeing each other. At least kind of. Well, we were texting for a while and I hoped there could be more. I’m a bit shy and I tried to gather myself to talk to her but then a friend of mine asked her to dance. He didn’t know that I liked her but I never felt so jealous before. She looked at my reaction when she danced in front of me. I think she hoped that I’d ask her to dance, too. But it was my first real party, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I missed my shot, I think.”
“That’s sad,” Eve responds, “You’ve never been to a party before?”
“Not r…”
Dave stops in the middle of his response as he realizes what he is doing. Why is he even telling her about this? It’s crazy. Yeah, talking to his unconscious through his hallucination, deriving valuable information from it, sounded like a good idea, but his unconscious should know all this. He’s got to get out of here.
He doesn’t even bother to say anything, he just stands up and walks out the door. Eve follows him. Again.
“What are you doing?” she asks, “You’re ignoring me?”
“You’re serious right now? I thought we were past this.”
Dave grabs his smartphone and Bluetooth-headset. Looks a last time at the fairy and starts an episode of his favorite series.
Eve sits down next to him and waits, unsure what to do. At some point, she tips on his shoulder. “Can you please play it on loud?”
As much as he’d love to just ignore the fairy that he’s probably only imagining, he has some pity on her and turns on the subtitles.
Eve leans in to watch. After a while, she rests her head on his shoulder …
In contrast to how Dave felt this morning, in the evening he feels way better. So good that he decides he could do a workout. Strangely enough, Eve didn’t go away as he thought she would. She was silently watching him all day long, mostly while he was playing computer games.
Now she’s hovering in a corner of the room as if she was laying in an invisible hammock, looking at the ceiling.
Dave is at his third and final set of wall-supported handstand push-ups. The fairy watches as he struggles to do his last rep. “You shouldn’t break form in an exercise like this. You could get long-lasting injuries,” she comments.
Dave gets off the wall, walks over to the table, and writes down the number of reps he has done in this set.
“You can’t ignore me forever,” Eve says getting down onto her feet. Catching a look on the paper she adds, “Your chest-workout misses out on lower chest activation. You got gymnastic rings over there, use them.”
Dave looks at her and raises an eyebrow. “I’m not ignoring you,” he clarifies, “And what do you know about bodyweight strength exercises? I thought you just snap your fingers and you have the body you always wanted.”
Eve smiles, “You live long enough, you pick up a thing or two.”
Dave tries to squeeze the words, “Ring dips” between the other exercises on his paper and starts to set up the gymnastic rings. After his first round the fairy asks, “So, you accept that I’m real now?”
David drinks some water before answering, “I’m ruling out alcohol. I think I’m sober, which means either what you’re saying is true or I got crazy overnight. But I’m not sure what it is, yet.”
“Fair enough,” she says, “Do you want me to spot you?”
Before Dave could ask why she thinks that she has to spot him doing unweighted dips, his brother opens the door. “Oh, you’re already working out,” he says, “don’t mind me then.” With that, he walks to the table and tips a bit on his smartphone. Music fills the air. La Roux – I’m Not Your Toy (Nero Remix)
“You shouldn’t talk to me while your brother’s in the same room, he might think you’re nuts,” Eve says.
Dave only looks at her as if he can’t believe she felt the need to clarify that. Wasn’t going to, he thinks and finishes his second set on the rings.
While doing his third set, Eve gets bored and decides to take Dave’s brother’s smartphone. Maybe the internet holds something interesting for her.
What the fuck, Dave thinks as the music stops. Eve must have closed the app. She just took the phone like it is nothing. He looks to his side, but his brother didn’t notice. He keeps on warming up with his jumping rope.
Eve holds his phone but Dave knows that his brother can’t see Eve. Does that mean that he sees the phone flying in the air now?
“Got to cool off, for a second,” Dave says to his brother but he’s not sure if he even notices. Before leaving the room, he signals Eve that she should follow him. She smiles, still holding his brother’s phone.
“What just happened there?” Dave asks in the hallway.
“You see this?” Eve asks in return and points at the phone she took.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m serious. Do you see the phone?” Eve asks again.
“Yes, I see the phone. The question is whether my brother just saw his phone hovering through the air?!?”
“Relax,” Eve counters calmly, “It’s hard to explain how things work for me but the short answer is, that nothing I do matters in the real world. It’s more like an illusion.”
“An Illusion for who?”
Eve scratches her head. “An illusion for me, for my kind. And as it seems, for you too, now. You see, if you really want to, you could look at it as if with everything I do I create a different reality. The thing is that eventually if I don’t look at my reality, it goes back to being the reality it was before I did something.”
Dave looks at her as if she just tried to explain to him the theory of relativity.
“I give you an example. I got the phone here, right?”
David nods.
“For your brother, the phone is still at the place where he left it. If I were to leave the phone here in the hallway and we would go back into that room, then the phone would be back at the place where it really was. It would no longer be in the hallway where I left it but …”
Eve wants him to finish the sentence.
Dave looks like he’s working through some thoughts but eventually says, “It would be on the table, playing the music, my brother put on in the first place.”
Eve smiles, “Exactly. See, it’s not as complicated as it seems at first.”
“Great,” Dave says, “I now have to consider multiple realities.”
“You’ll get used to it, and it’s not forever. I’ll become human eventually and it won’t be a problem anymore,” Eve says.
The phone in her hand vibrates. A text. “Hey, honey. Come over, my parents aren’t home.”
“Is that his girlfriend?” Eve asks.
The next moment his brother enters the hallway. He probably wonders why his younger brother is standing there like he’s talking to himself. “Tell mom, I’m going to stay with Stacy tonight,” he says.
“Ok,” Dave answers and nods. Surprised he watches his brother walk right through Eve as if she wasn’t there at all.
Eve giggles because of Dave’s confused expression. “Oh, that’s a thing too. I can’t touch a human. It’s like they aren’t even there.”
Dave rolls his eyes deciding to just finish his workout and maybe think through the stuff he just learned.
With his brother gone, he adds, “Remind me that we have to try out the boundaries for this illusion thing. Like, can I hand you things? Can you hand me things? I don’t want to be thrown into one of these white rooms, without even telling someone that I’m speaking with a fairy.”
After a quick shower, Dave grabs something to eat. His parents came home, so he couldn’t really talk to Eve. He still managed to ask her if she needs food. She explained that she can taste things and that she sometimes eats for fun but also that she doesn’t need it to survive. She also mentions that it’ll change eventually when she becomes human.
Now Dave is sitting on his bed. It’s time to sleep. He’s got school tomorrow. Eve smiles, “You’re sleeping in your boxers?”
Dave doesn’t say anything.
“What?” she asks, “You’re back to ignoring me, or are you just shy? Am I that intimidating?”
Dave avoids eye contact. A thought doesn’t want to go out of his head and there is no avoiding it anymore.
“Do you sleep?” he asks.
The girl raises an eyebrow. What is he asking? She giggles, “Yes Dave. I do sleep.”
Shit. “Well, do you,” he hesitates, “do you want to sleep next to me? I mean my bed is big enough for two. There would also be the couch downstairs or my brother’s bed, if you want.”
Eve smiles, Dave’s acting strange. “Would you prefer that I wouldn’t sleep with you?”
“No,” he says, “It’s not like that. I mean it’s your choice.”
The fairy changes her appearance. She’s now standing there as beautiful as ever but without her dress. Dave’s eyes widen. He can’t stop himself from looking over every inch of her body.
“I’d like to sleep with you then,” she says. Again, amused by the effect she has on Dave. She walks to the other side of the bed and crawls under the blanket.
Dave clears his throat. “You’re sleeping naked?” he asks, on which Eve raises an eyebrow. “You’re very beautiful,” he adds as he lays down too, trying to not show how flustered he is about that.
The size of the blanket makes that the two of them have to be pretty close together. They turn to their sides, so they face each other.
Eve looks into his eyes and sees that he’s somehow terrified right now. Unsure what to do. Uncomfortable to be this close to her. Of course, he tries to hide it but a couple of thousand years of experience are hard to deceive. And suddenly she realizes, “You’ve never been with a woman before!”
“What?” That comes out of the blue, Dave thinks.
“You’ve never slept with a girl before. Did you have a girlfriend?”
David gives her a sad smile.
“Have you ever even kissed a girl?” she asks.
Naked.
Laying so close to him that he can feel her breath on his face when she speaks.
David looks away. That’s definitely nothing he wants to talk about.
“Well, that explains a thing or two,” she says and reaches for his hand, “You don’t mind, do you?”
With that she rolls over, snuggles closer to him, and places his hand on her belly, making him the big spoon and her the small one.
Dave doesn’t mind at all. His only concern is that he might not be able to get much sleep tonight but then he figures that there is really no need to think too much right now. He pulls Eve a little closer to him, tightening his grip around her. Her wings are gone. They’d only be in the way right now.
“There we go,” Eve says and giggles. It’s such a nice sound, Dave thinks, and just like that he drifts into his own dream world which pales in comparison to the mythical things that happened to him today. Luckily, it still excites reality in one regard, the number of naked girls in it.
Or did it? The last pieces of his dream slowly fade away. Dave tries his best to hold on to them, the warmth, the sweet touch of skin on skin, the smell of flowers, maybe a shampoo they used, and the way his hard cock felt inside of them.
Dave hears someone giggle, he feels the vibration in his stomach. For a moment he doesn’t know where he is but then realizes it. Maybe dreams can come true, he thinks as he whispers, “You’re awake?”
Eve adjusts her position a little. They are still laying there in the same way they’ve gone to sleep in.
“I think a bee woke me up,” she says, “it has stung my backside.”
A bit ashamed but more amused Dave realizes that he got a morning boner. Not surprising considering his dreams. Also, not surprising for his present situation. It would almost be insulting if he didn’t get a boner from cuddling with such a beautiful woman. The fact that she’s naked really helps, too.
“Well, that’s awkward,” he says.
“Only if you make it that way. Just enjoy the moment.” Eve tries to comfort Dave. The way he acted yesterday, he just needs a bit more confidence, she thinks.
But Dave surprises her, “Nah, I mean that you thought it was a bee. You sure about that? I think it was a rhino that lightly poked your ass. They sometimes sneak into my room, you know.”
They both laugh, as David gently gets out of the position, they are in. He sits up and touches his chest. It’s really sweaty. Sleeping skin on skin does that to you, not that he’s got any experience with it.
Eve turns around, “Yeah, maybe it really was a rhino. Hard to tell when you are sleeping.” She uses the blanket to cover herself up. Not that she doesn’t want him to see her naked, that ship has sailed, but it probably looks sexy. Also, maybe Dave’s more comfortable that way. “So, you’ve finally found your confidence?” she asks. Hard to imagine that the Dave from last night would say something like the rhino comment.
Dave smiles, “When you’ve put my hand on your stomach, a thought hit me. The way I see it, there are only two options. Like I said, maybe you’re real, maybe you’re not but in both cases, I don’t see what I could be shy about. If I imagine you, then who really cares, I might just have fun before they give me these drugs that make you disappear. And if you’re real, then God only knows what that means. You have like a couple of thousand years on me. And it’s not like you gave me any reason to be shy. You’re not, that’s for sure.”
Dave stands up and grabs his clothes for today. Eve is still laying in his bed. Dave has to resist the temptation to lay back down and see where things might lead to with him and Eve but he knows that in about ten minutes his mom would make sure that he hasn’t overslept. After all, he’s got school today.
“You don’t want to get up?” Dave asks.
A smile forms on Eve’s face. “If you want to see me naked, you only have to ask,” she says and playfully reveals one of her legs from under the blanket.
Wow, she’s really testing his limits there, Dave thinks. What is it with her and sex?
Dave looks at his alarm and clears his throat. “I’m gonna take a shower, grab something to eat, and go to school. You’ll be following me around again?”
“It’s been a while since I last been inside a school. And I don’t really have something better to do, right?”
Dave raises an eyebrow, “You could literally do everything that the world has to offer and you want to go to school with me?”
Eve laughs, “How do you say it? Been there, done that. Go take a shower, we don’t want to be late, right?”
Dave gives his alarm clock one last look before he leaves. But as he was just about to step out of his room, he turns around again. Eve decided to stand up. Looking out the window she stretches her arms above her head. Her silhouette framed by the warm morning light is one of the best things Dave has ever seen.
A smile forms on his face as he counts down in his head, “three, two, one”
All of a sudden, his alarm clock begins to ring. The loud sound makes Eve jump, she looks where it’s coming from and without touching it, the sound stops. She must have used some kind of magical power to stop it. If she’s real, she sure is powerful.
Eve notices that she’s being watched. From one moment to another, she’s wearing her dress again. She tries to look angry but Dave’s smile is contagious. “Hey,” she says, trying to suppress a chuckle, “that’s not funny!”
“No?”
Eve tilts her head. “You wanted to take a shower,” she says a bit annoyed.
Dave walks down the hallway, happy that he was able to play with her the same way she tries to play with him. Thousands of years and she hasn’t become cynical. She has to be a hallucination, based on that fact alone. Hell, he’s pretty cynical and he’s only eighteen. But if she’s real, then maybe the world isn’t such a bad place after all. If a thousand years don’t crush your spirit …
The shower was refreshing, his breakfast as mediocre as expected. As Dave was just about to leave the house, he ran into his brother that’s coming home. He teases him by asking if he had a long night. Dave was just about to close the front door behind him as he realizes something.
His brother is about to make himself breakfast as Dave enters the kitchen.
“Didn’t you just leave?” he asks.
“I need a favor,” Dave says, “No questions asked.”
His brother raises an eyebrow. “No questions asked,” he repeats.
Dave nods. He’s serious.
“You’ll owe me,” his brother clarifies.
“Whatever you want,” Dave says, “What’s the text Stacy send you last night, word for word? The message right before you left, when you were working out.”
“The text from last night?” his brother clearly doesn’t remember and takes out his phone. After reading the text, he adds, “Oh, you’ll owe me big time after this.”
“Just tell me.”
His brother slightly shakes his head, “Hey, honey. Come over. My parents aren’t home.”
Fuck, Eve has to be real then.
There is just no way that his unconscious guessed that right. The reason is easy. He often sleeps at her house when her parents aren’t home but his brother would rather be caught dead than let Dave know Stacy calls him honey. There is just no way that he knew that.
She has to be real. But what does that mean?
Dave leaves. “You’ll owe me,” his brother screams after him but that’s the last thing Dave cares about right now.
“Are we gonna talk about it?” Eve asks as they walk to the bus station. She has eavesdropped on his conversation with his brother and it wasn’t too difficult to realize what Dave was going for. Knowing is one thing, accepting a whole other.
“What’s there to talk about?” he asks. Eve sees that he’s working through some stuff right now. She imagines that a bit of time will probably help. At the station Dave talks to a friend, they share a row on the school bus.
Dave is pretty good at acting as if she wasn’t there. Eve doesn’t make it hard for him. She watches from afar, staying silent. It wouldn’t be smart to talk with him while so many other people are around. Even though, she really wants to.
When they enter the school through a side entrance, the friend that accompanied Dave splits off. Eve is awe-struck by what she is seeing. So many kids wait for the bell to tell them that it’s time to learn. Her face lights up with excitement. She quickly leaves the ground so she could get a better view. Dave can’t really share her excitement, nor does anyone else in this school. Even the hardcore nerds dislike Monday mornings but Eve doesn’t care. For her, it all looks beautiful.
Dave sights. For a moment he wonders what she might be thinking right now but then he shakes his head and keeps on walking. Time doesn’t stop. Even though, it sometimes feels like it.
Eve catches up. “I almost lost you,” she says, “where is your classroom?”
Dave would answer but talking to himself isn’t really something a sane person would do. Instead, he simply raises an eyebrow, hoping that Eve would understand.
Then he walks into an open classroom. A few of his classmates are already sitting at their desks, chatting. Dave’s seat is in the second row. He takes out the things he needs for class and turns around to chat with the row behind him. More like listening to what they talk about. Sounds creepier than it actually is. It’s Monday morning, no one expects people to actually make Smalltalk.
With the final bell, the room becomes silent. Sometimes there are teachers that really can’t control their class and then there is Mr. Brown. His mere presence squeezes any fun out of school. At least that’s what the lower grades say. Yeah, he’s pretty harsh and can be scary but he’s not unreasonable. But in the end, he’s not that bad. He’s a good teacher. The students in his classes have way better grades in the final exams than all the other courses. Most are more than willing to put up with him in the higher classes if it means that eventually, they get better grades. Also, it’s not up to the students to decide which teacher they get, so deal with it.
“Let’s see,” Mr. Brown says, “who do we question today?”
He looks over his list of students. The whole classroom is silent and the moment stretches itself for what feels like a very long time. Dave’s friends claim that Mr. Brown already knows who it’s gonna be but he does it because he enjoys seeing the students suffer.
“David, I believe you’re missing a grade. Why don’t come to the cupboard?”
Dave swallows dry.
“That’s bad, right?” Eve asks.
Dave nods and walks to the front.
“You’re nervous,” Mr. Brown says, “don’t be. If you’ve studied this should be no problem for you.”
But that’s just it, he hasn’t studied.
“Ok, what did we talk about last lesson?”
Dave hesitates, “Reasons, why Hitler was able to grab power after the first world war.”
“Good. After they lost the war the Germans formed a new government, do you know what it was called?”
Dave thinks but doesn’t get the name. Then his eyes land on Eve. She’s standing next to his teacher.
“Republic of Weimar,” she says, “There was a communist uprising in Berlin so they couldn’t use their capital to form a new government.”
“Republic of Weimar,” Dave repeats.
Mr. Brown nods. “Name at least three reasons that lead to the rise of Hitler and explain them.”
Eve immediately begins to help Dave, “Reparations that lead to an economic collapse. You could also mention the world economic crisis which both lead to a hyperinflation. There were old Elites, like military personal that didn’t want to lay down their weapons but because of the treaty of Versailles, they were forced to. It played into the hands of the Nazis since they were saying that …”
Dave doesn’t let her finish. “Three reasons,” he repeats, “there were economic reasons that led to masses of unemployed people. They had a welfare state that was supposed to help these people but it was just founded and was overrun after the world economic crisis. Also, the hyperinflation hit Germany hard. All savings people had, were gone. Of course, these reasons play into each other and you can’t separate some of them but another reason would be the treaty of Versailles and how it was perceived by the general public. World war one propaganda claimed that the Germans were winning the war. Losing came to them as a surprise. Many were drawn to look for someone to blame. The Nazis gave them an easy solution, Jews and socialists. And lastly, people back then weren’t educated enough to see through much of the lies.”
“Very good, Dave. I see you’ve paid attention,” Mr. Brown says.
Eve stares at her new friend in a mixture of disbelieve and admiration. Not as helpless as he looked at first, she thinks.
“That would be all, thank you. You can sit back down.”
The rest of the day was long and almost as boring as expected. Eve made things a whole lot better. She was genuinely interested in the things his teachers said and corrected them if necessary. When Mr. Brown gave a slightly wrong translation of some Latin engraving, Dave got to hear what specific grammatical error his teacher made. He asked if she’d knew all languages. She told him that he shouldn’t be ridiculous. There are way too many slangs to keep track of. Germany alone has more than 30 for example.
Finally, back home, Dave throws his backpack into the corner where he’s gonna pick it up tomorrow morning and jumps onto the bed. It’s a nice feeling. By now he’s almost used to the fact that Eve is following him around. Right now, she’s standing at the foot of his bed. She’s not tired at all. Full of energy she asks, “What now?”
Dave sits up, “What do you want?”
Eve knows what she wants. She still looks into the air as if she’s thinking for a second. Then she suggests having a bit of fun. Before she could lower one of the straps that are holding her fancy dress in place, Dave stops her.
“Not now,” he says and sits down in front of his computer.
Is he serious, Eve thinks? I mean, it’s not like she could make it any more obvious what she wants from him. And he doesn’t want it? Is there something she’s missing?
Eve turns Dave’s chair so he has to look at her. With crossed arms she asks, “Why don’t you want to sleep with me?”
He rolls his eyes, sights, and wants to go back and enter his password but when he tries to turn, the chair is like a spring and snaps back to Eve. This girl is all-powerful, Dave thinks, are there any limits to it?
“Don’t you think I’m beautiful?” she asks and to drive that point back home she’s now standing naked in front of him, posing to make it even more obvious how good she’s looking. Or so it seems. Her face tells a different story, though. She’s really considering the possibility that Dave finds her unattractive.
“It’s not like that,” he says, trying to hide how flustered he got.
“Then what?” Eve asks and as he doesn’t answer she adds, “You’re not gay right? Not that there would … “
“No, I’m not gay,” Dave reassures her.
Eve stems her arms into her hips, “Why don’t you want to sleep with me?” she repeats.
Yeah, Dave. Why don’t you want to sleep with a gorgeous fairy that throws herself at you? Do you have an answer to that, unconscious, he thinks? It’s a rhetorical question because of course, he knows why he hesitates.
Feeling like Eve wouldn’t let go if he didn’t give her something, he snaps,” Well, maybe I want more!”
“More?” Eve’s confused and a bit taken aback.
“Yeah,” Dave says, “Maybe I want more from my first time, than this. Maybe I want it to be special, to be with a person I feel deeply for, and hopefully, she’ll feel the same way about me.”
Eve’s eyes widen. She thought he’d just give in if she’d push him a little and now this? How should she think about his reaction?
“Maybe I don’t want it since the only reason you want me is because fate deemed it so. It’s not like you have any choice, from what you told me. Wandering the earth, finding your soulmate. Congratulations, you’ve found him. Now what? You’ll spend the rest of your life with me because that’s how it goes? Don’t you want more? Don’t you have dreams of your own?”
Especially the last words hurt. It’s like a punch in the gut and Dave knew about their effect the moment he heard them hall through the room. They don’t feel good to say.
They don’t feel good to hear, either. Eve’s eyes become glassy and Dave immediately regrets his little outburst.
“You’re an asshole, you know that,” she says. Her voice has a high pitch, “And of course I have dreams, why do you think I tried to sleep with you.” For the first time in two days, it’s Eve that shakes her head, “You talk about fate as if you’d know anything about it. Thousands of years and I’m still not sure if it exists. When is it going to happen, how is he going to be? Then you finally find the person that sees you and he’s actually someone you like but then …”
Eve’s angry. She doesn’t even know what it is. All she knows is that she doesn’t want to be in a conversation right now. A tear runs down her cheek.
Again, a crying woman. Dave would love nothing more than to pull her into a hug and tell her that everything is alright but are you even allowed to do that if you’re the reason that girl’s crying?
He tries non the less, reaching for her hand. Eve pulls away. As she tries to leave the room, Dave wants to stop her but he bumps into an invisible wall that separates him from her. With widened eyes, he sees how the fairy closes the door behind her.
Angry at himself he wants to hit the invisible wall that Eve created but his fist only finds air. It reminds him, though. Too many emotions, he should let them out somehow.
Dave looks into the living room. Eve’s sitting on the couch, eating ice cream, staring a hole into the floor. She doesn’t even notice him, or maybe she’s ignoring him. Doesn’t matter. He leaves her alone.
A few minutes later Eve notices that the floor begins to vibrate. An earthquake? Nah, that’s impossible she thinks. It almost got a rhythm to it, but it’s not music. As it continues on, she decides to look where it’s coming from.
After Dave found Eve in the living room he went down into the basement and put up his punching bag. He doesn’t box. He doesn’t even know the first thing about it but sometimes it feels good to hit something.
Eve clears her throat. She got into the room without Dave’s notice. Eve closes the door behind her. She didn’t teleport?
“Hey,” she says, hoping his response would tell her if he’s angry with her.
Dave says nothing, maybe it’s better if he doesn’t talk, he thinks. Instead, he takes off his boxing gloves.
“I’m sorry that I called you an asshole,” Eve goes on, “I just …”
“You didn’t mean it?” Dave’s voice is soft.
A bit ashamed Eve answers, “No, I didn’t mean it. I was just …”
She can’t find the right words. Well, who can blame her? It’s hard. As she speaks Dave takes off the bandages that supported his wrists.
Eve doesn’t know what to do. She’d wish he’d say something but there is nothing more than cold silence. She wanted to apologize, she wanted to talk with him, see if things are alright between them. She even had this whole speech formulated but now she can’t remember a single line.
Dave on the other hand looks a bit sad, a bit frustrated, angry, scary, calm? Holding eye contact he gets closer.
Following her instinct Eve takes a step back.
“Are you afraid of me?” Dave asks with a smile.
Eve looks to the lower left. Then she shakes her head.
“Good,” Dave says. His voice is warm, almost a whisper. He’s gotten so close. Eve feels her wings touching the wall behind her. Then her butt, her back. There is nowhere to go.
Dave slides his thumb over her cheek. He lifts her chin and presses his lips on hers. In her surprise she tightens up but after a second Dave feels her lips soften.
“I thought you said you wanted …”
Dave doesn’t let her finish, “I was stupid.”
Eve smiles, falls around his neck, and pulls him down into another kiss. Dave buries one of his hands into her hair, the other he rests comfortably on her hip. He caresses her ass through the dress. Then he pulls up the fabric, exposing her beautiful panties.
Eve feels that his hand leaves her now half-naked backside but doesn’t think too much about it. His mouth is pretty good at holding her attention. It just feels so good.
Dave shifts their position a little. While doing so his tongue tries to find its way into the fairy’s mouth.
He moves a second time and Eve can feel the wall behind her again. Time for her wings to go, she thinks, making them disappear.
Dave pulls away.
“Condom.”
Eve doesn’t get it. Dave brings his hand up to her face, he’s holding a slim piece of plastic.
“The condom. Put it on,” he says and Eve finally gets a grasp of what he’s asking. She looks down and is surprised to find Dave’s hard cock hanging out of his boxers. Seems like he got rid of the shorts.
Eve takes the piece of plastic, rips it open, lets herself glide down the wall, and puts it on his erection.
Dave pulls her back up. They lock eye contact as he grabs one of her legs. She knows what he wants to do and quickly makes her panties disappear.
Dave would have simply pulled them away but this way works too. He guides his penis to her entrance and watches Eve carefully as he slowly slides in.
For a moment it’s like she doesn’t even see him. Her eyes are focused on something further away like she’s looking right through him. Then she snaps back and Dave starts to penetrate her. He rests his forehead against hers, feeling her warm breath when she moans.
It feels incredible. Dave hopes it feels the same way for Eve, it’s not like she waited a long time for this.
As her pussy clinches Dave doesn’t know what happens. He never felt what a female orgasm is like. Also, he could have bet that he’d finish early. Isn’t that how this works? The average virgin man lasts about a minute or so. In his surprise, he almost forgot that he’s on the verge of cumming himself.
The moans muffle as Dave presses his lips on Eve’s. It feels like she’s still orgasming as he finishes inside of her.
Dave looks at her in amazement. This was awesome and he almost ruined it, simply because he thought he wasn’t up to the task.
Eve’s face tells him that he was. She smiles. “You want to pull out?” she asks.
David laughs.
The blinding light that’s coming through the window reminds Dave that it’s already morning. It feels so much better to wake up with the light, than if his alarm has to do the job. It seems like they forgot to close the roller blinds last night. He squeezes his eyes together, giving them time to adjust.
He feels Eve move a little. Her head rests on his chest. He leans down and plants a kiss on her forehead. “Rise and shine, beautiful.”
Eve responds with a sound of protest and Dave laughs.
She gets up and yawns. It’s the cutest thing. Then a smile forms on her face. Dave has seen this one before and knows what’s coming.
“You want to keep going where we left of?” Eve asks.
Dave looks over to his alarm, there’s still time. Then he laughs, “We’re out of condoms.”
Well, that’s no problem, Eve thinks, and from one moment to another, she’s holding one in her hand.
Dave takes it and reads, “Size: extra small, the way you use it counts.”
“Ha ha, very funny,” he says.
Eve chuckles. “I don’t think I could get pregnant. I don’t even have a period.”
Dave rolls his eyes. “Just give me one my size. For all we know, you could turn human tomorrow. It’s just an unnecessary risk.”
“You want me to start taking the pill?”
“You want to fuck or hope that this bee shows up again?”
“I thought it was a rhino,” Eve says and hands Dave a condom his size.