City of Dreams

Chapter 1- Daydreams and Nightmares

A satin, baby pink gown dropped to the velvet carpet and on went a pair of skinny jeans. Light music was echoing into Cynthia's room from the party downstairs. She could even hear the clink of the wine glasses against each other and forced laughter among the guests.

              It made her head ache.

 She put on a jacket, and slowly opened the balcony doors. Cynthia looked around slowly, and checked again if her door was locked. With a deep breath, and a happy smile, she stepped outside into the cold night air.

 Suddenly, all sounds of the music was gone, and Cynthia could only think of one thing. Him.

Pulling her jacket closer around her frame, she briskly walked across the front yard. Unexpectedly, a voice pierced the cool night air. "Cynthia? Where are you going? And why aren't you in the dress?"

Cynthia turned around to see her mother glaring at her from the porch of the house that was illuminated by party lights. She had to think fast.

 "Needed to go and pick up some people that were coming. I'll change when I get back!" She yelled to her mother and sprinted, before she could get a reply, through the metal gates. She took her keys out of her pocket, and unlocked her car she just got a few months ago for her birthday. Hastily, she jumped into her car, and sped out of the driveway. Cynthia laughed giddily; she finally felt free. And she would finally meet him.

She pulled into the beach adjacent to her neighborhood, stopping right at the dunes. She peered into the empty stretch of sand and could make out a figure sitting patiently. She unbuckled her belt and hopped out and took a big breath. Her stomach did flips as she called his name. The figure turned and beckoned her to come over.

"Jay " she whispered into the closing vacancy between them. 

The silhouette shifted, and moonlight illuminated his face. Cynthia found herself pulled into an embrace. “I missed you,” he said into her hair.

"Me too." She could stay like this forever in the comforts of his arms. Cynthia looked up, his mouth opened and she expected his amazing voice to caress her. Instead, a whiny girlie voice shrieked "Cynthia? Cynthia! Snap out of it!"

Jay smiled and vanished. So did the car. So did the beach.

 Cynthia found herself sitting lazily on a vintage floral couch with her sister staring at her as if she just dropped out of another world. That wasn't far from the truth.

Cynthia groaned, and attempted to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "You are such a deep sleeper," Joanna, the youngest sister remarked. Cynthia frowned, trying to piece together what just happened. Don’t tell me it was a dream! I never even slept, she thought to herself.

 "Donna asked me to wake you up, something about another family meeting." 

Still a little dazed, Cynthia replied hazily, "Family meeting? Mom and Dad are a thousand miles away!"

Donna waltzed into the room with a phone in her hand. "It's for you," Donna said, shoving it under her nose. Cynthia expected it to be another call about her missing Girl Scouts cookies, but almost dropped the phone when she heard the voice she dreaded the most. 

"Cynthia. How are you?"

"M-mom?!" 

"Yes, so how's the New York lifestyle? Have your instrumental talent been found yet?"

Her voice hitched in her throat. "Um, it's going fine," she said imagining the dusty instruments in her room.  A sigh of disapproval came from the other end.

"Please tell me you’ve used your money wisely and are living in a nice apartment with your sisters. We did give you quite a lot,"

Cynthia cringed.  It was true, her mom did give a lot of money, enough for the steep real estate market of New York. Gripping the phone close to her ear and cheek she said, "Oh definitely! In fact...we’ve struck it rich! I.......played for the.....Neighbor’s cousin- who is a producer! And she offered me a lot of money for my...talent!" The line was quiet. Her sister had looks of anger on their faces.

 "Oh really?"

"Of course mother! When have I ever lied to you? In fact, all the money you gave use, is in a savings account." Guiltily Cynthia remembered how most of the money was spent on gambling. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans. 

"I'm very glad to hear that! Your father and I were completely worried!" 

"Definitely! In fact, we live in an incredible house a little outside the city. Gorgeous! It has a pool, and really an unnecessary amount of bedrooms  and -"

"That's great then! Your father and I were planning to pop in next month!"

"Wait, what?"

"You heard me, we are planning to move in! Isn't it exciting! Hopefully we can move in with you,"

Cynthia paused, and gave a worried look to her siblings. 

"When...," she cleared her throat," when will you be moving in?"

"In a month?"

"Oh," Cynthia was officially screwed. 

Think Cynthia, think. "Do you want to talk...to Donna or Joanna?" She hoped they could get her out of this mess.

"Already did! Well, I've got to go, but call soon, okay? Bye!" The line went dead. And so did any attempt to save Cynthia from her own lies.

Cynthia groaned, and looked around. The walls were faded, and pretty close to losing all its paint. Some mansion.

"What have I done?" 

"Well," the youngest sister said, inching forward. "This is your problem. Not mine! Good luck!" She skipped out of the room. Donna glared at Cynthia. "She's right, you know. You brought this on yourself,"

"Can't we just call her back?" Cynthia asked.

"And tell her what? It was all a big joke? We were just messing with you, and we are barely passing by?"

"I'm sorry, okay!" Cynthia sighed in frustration.

"You have to fix this. I don't know how, but use that crazy brain of yours, and fix it," Donna said as she picked up some old magazines from the floor. 

On the cover, posing like a king, was - Cynthia’s eyes bulged out of her head. The guy from her daydream. Jay Peirce, otherwise known as the youngest billionaire in the East Coast. Must have been the work of the subconscious, she concluded after mulling over how he got in her head.

 Cynthia studied the photo for a few seconds, before grabbing the magazine from Donna's hands.

"What are you-"

She flipped open the magazine. The full page spread showed Jay staring so intently at the camera, that you could see the concave reflection of the camera in his eyes. The caption read “The Most Influential Man in the World” Not true, Cynthia thought to herself as she flipped across the magazine, he's barely scratched 30.

            A smile tugged at her lips when she stumbled across a full-spread picture of his estates. In a coolly calm voice, she confidently told her sister, “I know how to fix this,”

Author's Note*

Finally updated! Thanks to the help of @theyellowhighlighter and her little sister, lol.

Don't know when the next update is, hopefully each update is monthly ( sorry for the long wait, we don't meet very often and texting the whole story is a pain in the butt :P)

Anyhoo,

Happy New Year!