In my Dreams by Courtney Barnes (each kindness read aloud .txt) 📖

her ribs. The woman still didn’t look up at us.

She had unnaturally blonde hair that was in a high ponytail. Her bangs were teased, almost standing straight up above her forehead. Her blue eyes were highlighted with dark blue eye shadow.

“Excuse me,” I said leaning forward.

She looked annoyed that I had interrupted her conversation. “Hold on for a minute would you?” she said to the person on the other end, and then placed the phone on her messy desk. “Yes?”

“We would each like a manicure and pedicure.”

“Do you have an appointment?” Her voice was full of impatience.

“No we don’t, is that a problem?” I really hoped we hadn’t just driven an hour for nothing.

She sighed heavily, as if I was asking her to do something that wasn’t in her job description. “Actually the girl for Suzie’s one o’clock appointment didn’t show up, so you can have hers,” she said nodding to me. “And Hannah is free, so you can both go on back. I’ll let them know you’re here.” She picked up the phone and continued with her previous conversation.

We stepped through the cream colored curtain, entering a very relaxing room. There were four black leather chairs with footstools, in the center. Along the side of the walls, were shelves of nail polish and creams. Soft music poured out of invisible speakers, and I could smell the scent of vanilla and cinnamon wafting all around.

We took a seat on a bench against the sidewall.

A few minutes later, the curtain opened, and two women walked in. One was tall, with short, wispy blonde hair. The other was shorter and a little round, with long brown hair. The tall one, who must be Suzie, called my name and motioned for me to come over.

I picked the kind of nails I wanted for both my feet and hands, then I leaned back, ready to be pampered.

Emma sat in the chair next to me. We chatted back and forth, engaging the women in a conversation about the movie we had seen the night before. The hot guy in the film became the main conversation with them. I just sat back and listened. When Suzie was putting the finishing touches on my manicure, we heard a girl’s raised voice coming from the other side of the curtain.

“What do you mean, you gave my appointment away? I made it a week ago.”

“I’m sorry, but you were an hour late and now Suzie is booked solid until tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? How dare you give my appointment away and then tell me that I have to wait until tomorrow. Do you know who I am?” the girl asked with a snooty tone, which made me glad I was in here, and not out there. The voice was shrill, and had the air of superiority, the combination was vaguely familiar. They argued some more as we finished up.

Emma and I said our thank yous, and pushed through the curtain.

Stephanie Brown stood in front of the desk. Her long, honey blonde hair flowed down her back; hand on hip and tapping her high heeled shoe on the tiled floor.

I averted my eyes hoping she wouldn’t notice me. I pinched Emma’s elbow as we walked over to wait our turn to pay for our treatments.

Stephanie glanced at us quickly; an uncomfortable expression crossed her face when she recognized me.

I flashed her a fake smile, refusing to acknowledge my hatred for her. Expressing any negative emotion would only make her think she had hurt me in some way.

“Oh my god Sarah, is that you?” Her tone of voice was as fake as my smile.

I nodded slightly, trying to avoid contact with her.

She turned toward me leaning against the counter. “How are you?” she asked loudly, her voice held an edge of sympathy.

“I’m great, how about you?”

“Oh you know me.” She tossed her hair, pausing for effect. “My dad has me so busy with charity events and what not; I barely have time for myself.” Yeah right, who was she trying to kid, there wasn’t a charitable bone in her body.

“Mmm” I mumbled, knowing she wasn’t looking for a conversation.

“You know,” she said softly, glancing around. “I always did want to apologize for that incident your first year of school?” She acted as though she didn’t want to embarrass me, but if that were true, why bring it up in public?

That was the last straw I was tired of this girl treating me like crap. I wasn’t going to cower any longer. “What incident?” My voice was loud. I tapped the corner of my chin, as if I was thinking. “Oh right, that night your friends held me down while you cut my hair off,” I said louder than necessary with a big smile on my face.

The lady at the front desk looked at her with disapproval as she rang up our bill. Emma paid, and then leaned against the counter beside me.

I continued speaking before Stephanie had a chance to defend her actions. “That was the day before I got that adorable hair cut at that salon my mom took me to, remember Emma?” I turned to look at my friend.

Emma matched her voice to mine, a few octaves higher than normal. “That’s right, it was such a great cut, the guys were lining up at school to date you,” she said adding her version of the story.

I blushed. “Emma, it wasn’t that many, just a couple of guys asked me out. God remember how much fun we had, that day at the beach.” I stopped as if suddenly remembering she was there. I turned to look at Stephanie. “Did you ever get back together with your ex boyfriend, what was his name…” I snapped my fingers. “Ryan, that’s it. What happened there?”

Her face reddened. “Oh yes, I did after you transferred. He asked me out again, and we’ve been happy ever since.” She nervously picked at a button on her brown leather jacket.

Oh wow, this was fun. “Huh… you know that’s funny, because I just remembered, I heard he transferred to a school in New York shortly after I left.”

Her skin paled. “Oh right, yes he did. But we call each other, and he visits on weekends.”

“Really, because just last week in an email, he told me how happy he was with his girlfriend he’d been with since he moved back to New York.” I raised my eyebrows at her and added a faint smile.

She scowled at me, all pretence evaporated.

“You have a good day now,” I said as sweetly as I could. I added a little finger wave, and then quickly exited the spa.

Once we were inside the car, Emma turned to me and stared. “That was amazing.”

I giggled. I had imagined doing something like that for three years. “God that was fun, I want to do it again.” I was so happy I couldn’t stop smiling.

Our drive home was quieter. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, we were home. “Wow, that didn’t take long,” I said, my voice sleepy.

“Maybe for you. It was a little long and boring for me.” Even though, her voice was hard, she smiled.

“I’m sorry, the next road trip I’ll drive, while you sleep.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.” Emma smirked at me as I got out of her car, and then honked as she drove away.


Ch.2 The Dream

The fact that he was present, made me realize I was dreaming. In reality, he wouldn’t be caught dead talking to me. It was early evening, and I was sitting on one of the swings from my brother’s old swing set, staring up at the starry sky. It was peaceful, with a warm breeze gently brushing my face; my hair fell into my eyes.

I had just pushed off the ground and swung upwards when I heard a creaking sound behind me. I glanced back to see him open the gate and walk into our yard. He smiled at me, his hazel eyes sparkled in the moonlight as he sat down on the swing next to mine. We just sat together silently, swinging gently, looking up at the moon and the stars. It was so…familiar.

Suddenly a bright light shone from behind us, followed by a very shrill noise….or was it a scream?

Thump, Thump, Thump. There was a banging sound coming from somewhere, interrupting my sleep. I wasn’t ready to wake yet, so I threw the pillow over my head to muffle the noise. “Sarah, get up, Mom’s been calling you for over an hour,” Alex, my fifteen year old brother, bellowed from the other side of my bedroom door.

“I’m up,” I yelled, then closed my eyes. I jumped at the sound of another thump. “Go away!” God, can’t anyone sleep in around here. I heard him walk down the hall, leaving me to nestle under my covers to go back to sleep. Just as I was drifting off again, I realized what day it was, Monday. Darn it, I was going to be late for school. Filled with panic, I jumped up to have a quick shower.

By the time I was finished getting ready for school, my mom had already left. There was a note on the kitchen table telling me that she had taken Alex to school and that I had better not be late. There was a threat in there too, but I wasn’t worried. She was pretty lenient. Well, only when my dad was away on business, she was always joking with him that someone had to be the grown up. My dad was more like a kid than an adult, more like a friend than a father. My brother and I were lucky in the parent department, yes my mother was a little more responsible than my dad, but we didn’t really have many rules. She trusted us to make the right choices.