Nick jumped from the couch with the sudden ringing of the telephone. He smiled to himself when he realized that everything was okay and headed towards the phone. Brushing away the light coating of sweat that had formed, he walked into the kitchen and grabbed the phone.
"Yeah?" he answered.
"Is that how you answer the phone when all your dates call?" Natalies voice asked.
"Natalie! Sorry, I just fell asleep on the couch. Besides, I thought that it was AJ calling me to bager me for details about our date," Nick explained.
"That would be the AJ we both know," she joked with a laugh.
"Sure is. So what can I do for you?"
"I was just bored and I thought that maybe we could move our date up to now. Unless you're doing something, then I understand."
"Now sounds great. I was just sleeping. I'll be over there in like half an hour alright?"
"Alright, I'll see you then," she answered. "Bye."
"By Natalie," Nick responded and then moved to hang up the phone. Nick streached his arms and yawned as he sat up on the couch. He groaned when the phone rang again.
"Hello?" he answered.
"How's it goin' Nick?" came AJ's voice.
"I can't talk now AJ. Natalie just called, I'm meeting her at her house in half an hour," Nick explained before AJ could say anything.
"Why? What happened?"
"Nothing happened. She just wanted to move the date up."
"So you said yes?"
"Yeah. It's not like I was doing anything. I was just sleeping."
"You didn't have another dream did you?"
"No, thank god. I don't know what I'm going to do about all this man. This shit is getting out of hand."
"It's probably just stress Nick. A lot has been going on lately. You've been buggin'."
"Yeah but that doesn't explain the dream about Natalie that I had before I met her and the dream about you. Stress doesn't do that to you, at least not like this. You've been stressed before, have you ever had dreams like this?"
"Okay, I get your point. Maybe we should look into this," AJ suggested.
"What do you mean?"
"We could go on the internet and see what people have to say about this stuff. Maybe there is some site on dreams out there that can clear all of this up."
"I don't know. That sounds a little farfetched doesn't it?"
"Not really, but it is worth a shot Nick, at least we'll have something to go by."
"Alright," Nick replied. "You start looking into it. Let me know what you find, I've got to go."
"Okay, talk to you later man."
"Bye." Nick shook his head when he hung up the phone. If the internet was anything like he knew it to be, then AJ wouldn't find anything that could be of any help to them. There would just be story after story explaining something completely different about the same exact thing. Nick knew they would be better off talking to a professional. But a professional about dreams... okay, that doesn't sound so strange, but once he explained what sort of dreams he'd been having, they would probably lock him up.
Nick grabbed his keys and attempted to push those thoughts from his mind. He wanted the time that he spent with Natalie to be perfect and most of all, happy. He entered his car quickly and headed towards Natalies house. The drive over seemed shorter than he had anticipated, mainly due to the fact that his mind had been wandering the entire trip. He pulled into the drive way and exited his car. Nick put his keys in his pocket as he walked up to the door and rang the bell.
"Hey Nick!" Natalie greeted when she opened the door. Nick smiled at her. "Come on in!"
"I want to be honest with you.." Nick started as he walked into the house. His eyes gazed over everything.
"Honest?" she repeated with concern in her voice.
"Natalie, I really like you.. I like you a lot actually.. but.."
"I'm not your type?" she said.
"No... I haven't met anyone more my type! You're perfect for me. It's just I've been having these dreams," Nick admitted. A smirk appeared on Natalies face as Nick took a seat on the couch.
"I think I know where you're going with this.."
"No, not those kinds of dreams," Nick replied his face heating with embarassment. "This is going to sound really weird, but you've got to believe me. The night before I met you, I had this dream, I was getting married which was just crazy at the time but the freaky thing about it was that you were who I was marring and I hadn't even met you yet. Everything seemed so real.. even your name was the same..." he explained trailing off. She watched him, waiting for him to continue because she could see in his eyes that there was more to be said. "It ended right after you were killed though."
"Are you serious?" she asked, not really knowing what to say to him. He seemed to be genuinly frightened by everything that he had just confessed to her.
"Yes," he whispered, "and I've had a few of these dreams. Each one is different but you die in all of them.." She let an uneasy laugh escape her lips.
"If you don't want to see me anymore, you don't need to lie Nick. You should have just told me the truth when I asked for it," she snapped suddenly.
"I'm serious Natalie, I didn't want to tell you about this because I knew this would be how you would react," he said, tears building in his eyes. She seemed to take note in this and lightened up. "But I felt wrong keeping it from you."
"Nick, I'm sorry," she replied softly. "I just thought that you were coming up with some crazy story to try and scare me away. I didn't realize you were being serious."
"Only you and AJ believe me," he told her. "So what are we going to do about this? I can't keep living with these dreams. They're just too real. Each time I have a dream I wake up and totally freak out. I can't keep that up 'cause it'll drive me crazy."
"Maybe we should see a doctor," she reasoned.
"And what am I going to say? I've had dreams about my girlfriend dying over and over again. Yeah, that won't sound like I'm some freak."
"I'm sure he won't think you're a freak. Maybe your mind is just trying to tell you something and maybe he could tell us what that is."
"But will he be able to explain the dream of you that I had before we ever even met?" he questioned. She looked at him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Besides, AJ said that he was going to start doing some research about all of this to see what he finds."
"You're leaving your mind in AJ's hands? He's a cool guy and all but I wouldn't do that," she said with a smile on her face, hoping to relax Nick. "Why don't we look it up together. How 'bout that?"
"I don't know," Nick replied reluctantly. "We don't even know what it is that we're looking for."
"We could just get basic information so we know at least something," she informed.
"Like who invented dreams in the first place," Nick joked. She smiled at him before replying.
"Technicaly, dreams were never 'invented.' They've always been part of the bodies subconsious."
"It looks like someone knows something about dreams."
"Nick, you're insane," she told him. "What I just told you was obvious. Even you had to know that much!"
"Hey I resent that!" Nick returned with mock pain. "Not all blondes are dumb you know, that's just the stero-type that people like to give us."
"Let's just look up something alright," she replied with a smile still on her face. Nick grabbed her arm before she could go anywhere. She looked at him questioningly.
"Not right now," she answered, his voice soft. "I came over here to get my mind off of all of this just for a little while. We can look into all of this shit later."
"The sooner we look into it, the sooner it'll go away."
"What if there's no way to get rid of it?" Nick questioned. "What if we don't find anything and we go to a doctor and they turn me into some sort of science experiment?"
"Now you're just being irrational. They are not going to make you a science experiment. If you do have to talk to a doctor I bet all they'll do is ask you a few questions. There's nothing to worry about."
"Easy for you to say," Nick replied bitterly.
"Come on Nick, do it for me," she asked kissing his cheek softly.
"That's not fair," he answered with a sigh.
"So you'll do it??"
"Nat.." he started and she pouted. He looked at her and sighed in defeat. She was the only person that held this power over him.
"Fine, if it'll make you feel better."
Chapter 11