Dreaming.
It’s that wonderful place where anything can happen. Every time you drift off it’s a new place, a new story… a new life. Dreaming wasn’t just something you could do when you’re sleeping, but also when you’re awake; day dreaming is simply divine if you can do it for long enough.
Stella was a professional dreamer. At least that’s how she saw it. Some would define her as lofty, spacey, or even daft; they said that without truly knowing her. She would say that she simply was a dreamer, one who longed for more than what reality could offer. Her imagination served her well throughout her life, keeping her optimistic even in the most desperate of times.
If her parents fought too loudly as a child, Stella would simply pretend that they were quarreling dragons and that she was a valiant knight who would slay them with her adorable sword. If her classmates teased her about her birthmark on her arm, she would tell them that they were buttons to her robotic arm and that the other kids would be lucky to have them. And if she fell in love…oh how she would dream of them together, always together: traveling the universe, marrying one another, and simply being happy.
Now at the tender age of 21 she was being pressured to grow up. Wasn’t that what she was doing? She made it through high school, got into college, and finished a degree in writing. She was a grown up. Granted, she was a free-lance writer and maybe didn’t have a steady job, and her home was a rented basement apartment under an elderly couple. All of that didn’t matter though, Stella was happy; she didn’t need to grow up.
Stella did what she needed to in order to make it through day to day, she never wanted to think long term; it didn’t suit her. She took in temporary jobs when she needed the cash, she liked it that way. She would tell you that it gave you a better perspective. One week she’d be working at a bank, then another week she’d be at a concert venue. You couldn’t beat the experience that these jobs gave you. Plus, it gave her plenty of time to write and to dream.
This month she was able to snag two jobs; one at a daycare center during the day and at night a job at a tattoo shop. The daycare center job was fun enough, she worked the earlier morning hours before the children were sent to school and then after would run to the tattoo shop to complete her tasks there. She loved both the jobs more than any other she had held before; the daycare center allowed her to be her most creative self with the children, while the tattoo shop gave her time to learn more about people from all walks of life.
The tattoo shop was busier than normal that week since they were moving into a larger building and needed the extra help packing and organizing everything. On occasion, Stella would work the front desk: taking in clients, making appointments, screening phone calls, and of course, day dreaming. It was the end of a long first week for Stella and she was more than happy to curl up in bed after a long day.
Dragging herself down the cellar stairs, Stella made her way into her basement apartment. Her leather boots shifted heavily from step to step and she had to quietly remind herself that Mr. and Mrs. Posey were probably asleep by now, lucky bastards. Sighing deeply, Stella reached out and flicked on the light switch with one of her ringed fingers and quickly raised her hand to run through her caramel hair. As her fingers reached the ends, she pulled on her tresses, watching as the flattened curls straightened and bounced back to a soft wave. Setting her bag down on a nearby recliner she pushed her boots off at the base of the chair before turning to look over her shoulder at her apartment.
It was dark down in the basement and cooler than what she’d normally feel comfortable at. Walking across the 1970’s orange shag carpet, Stella stooped over to a small space heater and turned it on before sauntering the short distance to her bed and nearly belly-flopped into the tangled sea of sheets and blankets. Sighing deeply, Stella raked a small collection of the fabric to cuddle with as she closed her eyes. Though she loved to day dream, she had the best dreams when she slept.
Usually, she dreamed in stories; something that would fascinate her endlessly, following her from her waking consciousness to her magical dream world. Lately she had been finding herself spending many hours dreaming of a particular member of a boy band. She had overheard a One Direction song being played over the radio at the daycare center and she couldn’t deny the catchy melody and fun lyrics. One of the little girls brought in a magazine one day and showed Stella the pictures of One Direction and how much she loved Harry, a curly headed fellow who seemed far mature for a 5 year old to be infatuated with. He was cute, Stella thought, but she preferred another member… Liam.
In her dreams they’d meet up and be the best of friends, taking on crazy adventures and talking, always talking. She rather liked this dream man but Stella was well aware that her time spent with Liam would be only in a make believe world. She accepted it and took every moment she could, some companionship was better than none in Stella’s eyes.
—
Unlike Stella, Liam was living his dream. He had been travelling the world, making music, and hanging out with 4 other lads who were nothing short but family to him. He couldn’t ask for more and was thankful for everything he had worked for. He was logical, level-headed, and clear about his intentions. He didn’t feel the need to waste time with lofty expectations or dreaming for that matter, why bother when the world is at your fingertips already?
Shifting his backpack over his left shoulder, Liam signed as he climbed the steps to enter the airplane. It was going to be another flight back to London from Frankfurt to do some promo work on their fragrance line. He was the first to get into the plane and quickly found a window seat near the front. In one quick move Liam had slid his backpack down from his shoulder and to the crook of his elbow, then swung the entire bag into the overhead bin before shutting the container close. He snatched up the blanket and pillow that sat in the seat before making himself comfortable. He looked up as the other boys followed in and picked out their own seats.
They were all tired; exhausted really. It had been so long since they had an extended break and though they were close to one it still seemed like it would take forever to get there. Curling up under his airline-provided blanket he let his eyes trail over the familiar cabin atmosphere. He knew that the flight would be short but it seemed like the hours and minutes just bled together at this point. Shifting his weight again in the seat, Liam raised his hand to run over the short buzz cut of his hair and over his face; he wouldn’t sleep on this flight, he just wanted to sleep in his own bed.
Reaching in the front seat pocket, he pulled out a few of the magazines that were stuffed inside. They were a few months old and a bit worn out but Liam didn’t mind it was better than seeing pictures and gossip of him and the rest of the boys. Liam shuffled through them like a deck of playing cards, looking over each one carefully. There were a couple business magazines, and one gossip mag, but then he saw a literary magazine. It was plain with very few pictures inside, mostly of the authors or illustrations done to accompany the stories. The paper was heavier than that of a traditional magazine, showing that it wasn’t something put out as quickly as a gossip rag. It was something that sophisticated people read, well at least it felt that way. It had been awhile since Liam had read anything that wasn’t complete dribble and he was not interested in starting a fortune 500 company, so the literary magazine it was.
“Paragraph,” he read aloud, his eyes skimming the title of the magazine. He pushed the blanket down so it rested around his legs and began to flip through the first few pages and to the table of contents. Listed on the cream colored page were titles of the various written works and their respected author.
Short Stories
Perfection Achieved – Christopher Alper, p. 10-14
Mighty Winds – M.T. Yemen, p. 15-20
The Lies I’ve Told – Stella McBride, p. 22-28
Checkmate – Pollyanna Baumbauer, p. 30-40
Poetry
6, 7, 8 – Stella McBride, p. 40
Golden – Tessa Walker, p. 41
… - Anthony Poole, p. 42-43
Common Knowledge – Riley J. Stimpson, p. 44
There were more listings for other types of writing but most seemed to be connected to something from previous issues or were interviews with authors. Liam flipped to the first author and checked the margin of the story to see a picture of an older male who looked pensive while looking out an old bay window. He read to himself about the gentleman, “Christopher Alper, 67, is a science fiction author from Boston, MA…” he stopped there, he liked science fiction but wasn’t in the mood.
Flipping to the next author he began to read once again about the author and once again it just didn’t strike him. He liked knowing the people and seeing their photo helped the connection to the story that he would eventually end up reading, but this was just draining. It was then that he turned the additional pages to the next story. Staring at him was a beautiful girl who couldn’t have been much older than him. The photo was done in gray-scale but he could tell that she had beautiful light hair and two different colored eyes. Compared to the other authors she was so young and yet published! He was rather impressed. He decided that she was worth reading about and continued down to the about the author section in the margin of the story.
“Stella McBride, 21, alumna of Carnegie Mellon University with her Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing. A California native who spends her time taking as much risk as she can and learning from it. Currently resides in southern California. This is her 5th time being published in “Paragraph” magazine.”
Five times? This girl has been published 5 times. That was just in this magazine alone, where else could she have been published? Liam was rather impressed, especially for someone so young. Granted, he was her age and he too had accomplished much in his short life with this amazing group of men, but for some reason he never lost sight of the achievements of others. As he found the beginning of her story the plane was just beginning to take off. Settling in as the pilot spoke over the intercom he began reading Stella’s story, and occasionally his eyes would drift to that simple portrait of her.
…
By the time the plane landed Liam had read through Stella’s story and poem at least 3 times and was on his laptop searching for more of Stella’s work. He was so entranced by the way she wrote, especially her poetry, he loved that the most. As a singer he had read over hundreds of songs but there was something that struck him so deeply that he had to know more.
Once the wheels met the ground at Heathrow airport Liam began to pack up his things and carefully tucked away the “Paragraph” magazine away with his laptop in his backpack once they had stopped. The boys shuffled around in the cabin as they packed up and readied themselves for deboarding.
As the boys filed out of the plane, Niall punched Liam in the shoulder as he walked behind him.
“You’re still down to head out to San Diego for a few days, yeah?” He asked once Liam turned his head.
“Yeah, man. Yeah.” Liam replied with a bit of a half-smile on his face towards the other male.
“Good, I think the other lads are down too. It’ll be good.” Niall replied as he walked through the narrow covered bridge to the gate.
“Yeah we’re down. It’s beautiful down there, I can’t wait.” Harry replied in a husky tone as he adjusted his beanie over his curly locks.
“I still gotta get it passed through Eleanor first, but if anything she’ll love to go.” Louis chimed in.
“Boys vacation, Lou. No girls.” Zayn said in a hushed tone as his eyes drifted to Liam before returning to Louis. “We gotta get him over Dani,” he whispered, “He doesn’t want to see you and El all snuggled up together!”
Liam let his hand run over his face and further to his neck to scratch there as the conversation turned awkward for him. Danielle and he had broken up just a few weeks prior. Everything about it remained very hush-hush, even the boys didn’t know what really happened, just that it was over and Liam didn’t want to talk about it.
“I can hear you. It’s fine. Don’t worry about me and don’t feel obligated to come on the trip, honestly.” He said before shutting his eyes as the first flash of a camera took him by surprise. Immediately all the boys grew tight lipped and began to walk with their heads down as the flashes continued and a few questions about the boys were shouted out. They remained quiet but made sure to stop with a few fans so that they could sign items and give them a bit of time for some pictures.
Soon they were ushered away from the crowd that was quickly gathering around all the boys and into a waiting SUV. As everyone was filtered inside, Liam kept his eyes fixated on the back of the seat in front of him as they drove off, the flashes of the cameras still filtering through the tinted windows.
“You okay, man?” Zayn asked as he saw how solid Liam looked as they drove off and noted how the tension in his neck didn’t die down once they were a safe distance from the airport.
“Yeah, peachy.” He replied shortly as he finally sat back against the seat and curled up to shut his eyes. He figured he’d get a few winks knowing that the drive to the office to discuss the fragrance line would be long, but mostly it was to ignore the boys politely so that they wouldn’t ask about Danielle.