An Incomplete Volume of Short Stories

Living A Dream

       In a sunlit field, far away, we find a girl and her friends telling stories of their latest adventure and laughing together, completely content with just being around each other. The girl smiles as one of them starts talking about their animatedly about how he tripped as they were escaping the cops. They had all been running through the woods after they had gotten into a fight with another group of teenagers and were now trying to escape the police officers on their tails. As they ducked behind individual trees and bushes, they started to split up and soon the cops were lost far behind them. The group were now laying peacefully by the fire as they watched the stars. The girl thought about adventures past and wondered how she could have ever been happy without them. It was like she was living a dream.
       They spent the next few days in that field, goofing around and occasionally going into town to get supplies as they planned where they would go next. One day they set out to find a new member for their group. A young boy who had shown interest in being apart of their group was living a few towns over so they packed up their stuff and started on their way.
       They passed people from all walks of life. Some living in homes barely bigger than a garden shed, others living in mansions the size of a hotel, and yet everyone of them looked tired and broke. Not the girl and her friends though. People stared as they walked down the different streets laughing, shouting, and dancing. When they met the boy it was immediately clear he would fit right in. He had a smile that could make the sun and the stars jealous and laugh that made the most beautiful pieces of music sound like nails on a chalkboard.
       The group, now with a new member, ran around town playing a large game of hide and seek before heading to the park at the center of the town and setting up camp. As the girl looked around, she couldn’t help think about how different her laugh before meeting them was. A tedious, monotonous excuse for a life. She hadn’t been happy then. She had been going through the motions of daily life as she dreaded each and every coming day. And yet now, now, she was ecstatic at the thought of what new, amazing feats they would accomplish the next day. One by one the group members fell asleep in anticipation of the new day to come and what it would bring.
       As the chapter came to an end, the girl closed her book and she found herself, once again, lying on the couch in her living room with a dreamy expression on her face. She heard someone call her name and sighed, finally coming back to the real world. “Real world”, what a joke when the emotions and relationships she had in her books were more real then anything she had ever experienced in real life. But then again, to quote one of her favorite books, just because it was happening inside her head, why should that mean it wasn’t real?
       She finished the day tired and upset,  finally going to bed. When she was asleep, she found that that land was not so far away, for she was once again with her friends, not through the pages of a book, but through wonders of  her own dreams. They were all laughing and joking.
       And she was happy once more.

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- Asteria ♡: Hi everybody! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I haven't had a lot of inspiration lately. I hope you enjoyed this story and found it relatable. I tried to capture the feeling of reading in this one, which is hard enough for a great writer, but nearly impossible for a beginner like me. Any suggestions, requests, or constructive criticisms, please put them in the comments or feel free to message me. Have a wonderful day/night!