Chapter 4

“I can see,” Mel remarked with a nod. Sara was about to return to her feet, but Melleny bent her knees and lifted them from the towel. “Okay, I think that’s good,” she decided, curling and flexing them, manually asking Sara for the towel on her lap. She wrapped it around her feet and sat up. Sara drummed on her now unoccupied thighs.

“Okay, that was fun. So…what do you wanna do now?”

“Hm…” Melleny played with her hair again. “I’m actually kinda starting to get hungry…but not for chocolate, for real food.”

“Aha. You don’t want dessert now; you want actual dinner.”

“Okay! You want me to order a pizza?”

“Oh, that would only be divine,” Mel sighed. Sara gleefully hopped up to grab the phone.

“…A woman after my own heart,” she heard Melleny add.

Sara felt a warm rush of happiness ride through her. A phrase with a possible double meaning, she thought, dialing the pizza parlor.

Saturday, December 14th, 2013, 8:07 p.m.

The sun had been down for about three hours. At 27°, it was still flurrying outside. Sara and dozens of neighbors had their Christmas lights plugged in, many with trees visible in the windows as well. Inside the house, they lay on their bellies on Sara’s picnic blanket in the living room. They let their feet dangle behind them, watching a funny holiday movie, giggling together, enjoying the sounds of each other’s laughs. Sara’d ordered them a medium pie with everything, of which they’d put away three quarters. The remaining fourth sat in the box, also on the blanket. As Sara’d just gone over to Jake’s two days before, she’d taken the blanket back to her place.

Sara couldn’t believe how good she was feeling about the way the evening had gone. Spending these four brief hours with Melleny had restored a lot of confidence in her dating abilities, and indicated to her that she was more of a catch than she’d thought. Yet, she had sense. She knew nothing was absolutely a hundred percent perfect, nor was any one person. But as dates went, Mel was looking pretty darn good to her; if not a hundred percent, Sara was thus far putting her upwards of at least the eighties.

However, great as she felt about the event, it was driving her equally crazy on the inside not knowing how Melleny was feeling about it all, and dying to find out. Sara could ask her harmless questions, and chip away at the answer that way. Though direct, blunt questions, like “So, do you like me??” or “What are you doing for the rest of your life??” seemed very forward and could scare a new mate away. If Mel really truly liked her, even questions like those would cause little damage, but that was a big chance Sara wasn’t yet ready to take.

She could, however, pose normal, innocuous inquiries that could lead her towards the truth. Such as “So, how are you feeling?” “What do you like to usually do on dates?” “What do you think might be fun if or when we might see each other again?” Or even “So what turns you on in a girl?” It might also be a good idea to throw in something reassuring, like “You can tell me the truth if it’s something about me, really, even if it’s not the nicest thing in the world; my feelings won’t be hurt.” Just for good measure.

A hundred thoughts with varying degrees of intimacy raced around her brain. For now, until she chose a suitable one to start peeling away the layers, she went with—

“You want any more pizza?”

Mel stretched out on the blanket and let out another yawn. “Oh, no, please, thank you, Sara. That was wonderful; I’m stuffed.”

Sara pushed to her feet and grabbed the box with the two remaining slices. “Me too. All right then, I’m putting the rest in the fridge.” Doing so, she called back from the kitchen.

“Is there anything else I can get you, Melly? Or do for you? Or anyth—…?”

Her lips and tongue finished, but her larynx went off duty as she returned to the darkened living room, illuminated only by her TV screen and Christmas tree, to see that her date had…yes, she had. She’d fallen asleep on the blanket. She lay on her side, one arm outstretched under her head as a pillow, the other tucked under her breasts.

Instead of feeling disappointed or let down at all, Sara just melted inside with affection, watching her. It was clear she’d drifted to unconsciousness. Her tummy pushed out and in at a slow pace, her head tilted downwards into her elbow, her mouth was frozen half-open, and her breathing bordered on a very light, silent snore. And coupled with the fact that Mel told her she’d only slept three and a half hours last night, it wasn’t hard to arrive at this conclusion. She could guess the pizza also played a part. The chocolate had kept Melleny awake, but any time Sara herself too had a big plate of some delicious Italian fare—especially pizza or lasagna—her belly also mellowed her into drowsiness.

She took the remote and muted the TV volume, but didn’t turn the set off just yet. As she also actually wound up doing quite often with Jake, she grabbed the afghan on the couch, unfurled and slipped it over Mel’s slumbering body to the shoulder. She then laid on her own side, facing Mel, resting her head on her arm to watch her sleep.

“I really like you, Melleny,” Sara whispered. She couldn’t exactly say everything she wanted to in Mel’s awakened state, but being asleep presented no problems.

“At least I think I do. And I really hope you like me too. This has been one of the nicest nights I’ve had with another woman in a long time. I’m just…so glad you came up to me that night and asked me to call you. You’re so pretty…and the part of you I’ve gotten to know today’s really sweet and nice. And you look like an angel just lying there like that…like you should have a sleep halo over your head.

“Of course, my very nice afghan helps too.”

There in her quiet house that evening, she eventually got herself a pillow and blanket, and resumed her spot next to Melleny, just watching her peaceably dozing on her floor, making out her subtle nuances from the TV glow. Part of Sara wished Mel was awake so she could work up the courage to say what she wanted to say. And part of her was glad she wasn’t, because she secretly liked having the girl sleep in her house.

The pizza had been filling, and taken its toll on Sara’s energy too. It wasn’t much longer until Sara began to drift off herself. The carbo-loaded meal had done just the opposite to their subconsciouses, stirring them up to intensify what would happen in their dreams.

Neither of them in a hundred years could have guessed what the next several hours held in store for them.

Sunday, December 15th, 2013, 12:11 a.m.

Sara yawned, stretched and sat up, facing away from the TV. Unable to see anything but darkness in this direction, she turned around. The Christmas tree was lit up, but on the wrong side of the room. She looked at the TV. Still no sound, but she remembered muting it. What disturbed her a bit was that the picture was distorted and she couldn’t recognize anything. She almost became a little weirded out, until she dropped her eyes to the floor to see both Melleny’s and her own bodies, still on the floor, fast asleep.

It took a moment, but she realized what was going on. She looked down at herself—not her physical body on the floor, but the active form of her that had just sat up. Ghostly and transparent. Of course, she thought, I’m Dream-Sara now. Now she recollected something she hadn’t noticed for the last three weeks since her birthday. When Dream-Velette, her sleep-Goddess, appeared in her mind—in her birthday dream, as well as every time she’d dreamt about Her before—She was also visible but translucent.

Of course, it felt as real as any other dream, and now incapable of recalling if Mel was still in her house in real life or not, Sara could only hope. How fortunate, she thought, that she should have a dream taking place in her home, continuing the same night from where her conscious mind had left off. At least she presumed it was the same night; the Christmas tree was still there—with her date, Melleny Hayes, still asleep next to her.

In dream form, she closed her eyes. Melleny? she thought.

Yes? came the telepathic response.

She opened them. To her delight, there sat Dream-Mel beside her, also translucent. Both sat up on the floor, casting invisible shadows over their respective sleeping bodies.

“Oh my gosh!” Dream-Sara exclaimed, throwing her arms around Dream-Melleny. “This is so cool! We’re in my dream!”

“Holy smoke,” said Melleny. “But…should we be just…talking like normal? As…y’know, as opposed to whispering? It seems like we might wake ourselves up.”

Sara, since her encounter with Dream-Velette three weeks ago, had done some reading and learned a thing or two about life in Subconsciousland. She assured her as follows.

“No, honey, no, it’s totally okay; it’s all in my head. We’re not real, Melleny—or at least our dream-selves aren’t. And our physical selves can’t be woken up by something that doesn’t exist. Watch.” She leaned down over her own body and shouted.

“SEE?! WE CAN YELL AS LOUD AS WE WANT, AND IT WON’T WAKE US UP!!”

Her body remained asleep.

“Whoa!” said Melleny. “Wild!”

“I know, right?” Sara said. “Lucid dreaming’s the ultimate surreal experience. Everyone should get to try it.” She rolled her eyes. “God, I sound like I’m advertising it on TV.”

Dream-Melleny couldn’t understand all of what exactly was going on, but it seemed pretty cool to her. Something jumped down from the coffee table and walked past, illuminated by the TV. It had orange fur and green paws. Melleny became alarmed. “What’s that??“

“That’s Dewdrop, my dream-cat,” Sara explained, giving him a stroke. “His fur changes colors at random when we’re not looking.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Melleny marveled. “We really are in a dream, aren’t we…”

“Not only that…if we close our eyes…” Sara told her, pausing excitedly for effect, “…We can even read each other’s minds.”

“Shut up!” said Mel. They closed their eyes.

WHOA…super-freaky!

Yeah…and the freakiest part is, Melleny, none of this is actually happening. It’s like virtual reality. I mean, in theory, we could do anything right now. We could go barefoot in the snow…we could imagine Velette here singing for us…we could rob a bank and get away with it—not that I’m that type, but—hell, we could make love if we felt like it.

Melleny’s inflection positively glittered with intrigue.

Sure! And we wouldn’t have to worry about anything. Like where it has to lead, drama, bed death, nothing! That’s the best part, is that we can talk about this right now, and not have it mean a thing we don’t want. I can tell you the truth right now, that I couldn’t tell you when we were awake. I think I really like you, Melleny. I mean, really really like you. You’re pretty, you’re nice, you’re fun, you have a good sense of humor, and we seem to have lots of good stuff in common. And your smile just…blows me away, Melleny. The impulsive part of me wants to tell you this is the best first date I’ve ever had. And again, no need to worry about being too forward or moving too fast in our dreams. So if you’ll forgive my impetuousness…that side of me would also like to kiss you right now.

Melleny smiled, indeed blowing Sara away.

…I believe I like that idea, Sara.

They opened their eyes to see one another’s beaming, lust-tinged faces. They scooted closer and leaned in, attaching paws to each other’s bodies in a delicate embrace. The sensations and realizations hastened their heartbeats, and finally, each inhaling the other’s warm scent and breath, all four velvety soft lips achieved contact.

A mutual, unisonous sigh emanated as the first kiss charged them mentally and physically, sending crackles of sensuality radiating through both. The next sounds they made were very different. Melleny’s was an overwhelmed squeal of passion, Sara’s a hungry growl. Their hands eagerly searched and explored, fingers and palms extending the tactile pleasure yet further. At last, their mouths detached like suction cups.

“Well…that happened…” Sara palpably stated. She indicated down to her slumbering body on the floor. “Look! Look at my face now. I’m smiling in my sleep!”

“Yeah…let’s make that happen again.“

Sara grinned at her. “I like a woman who goes after what she wants,” she commented.

Hearts bursting through their chests, they initiated kiss number two. Instinctively incorporating the French element, they opened up to let their tongues tango. They delighted in the sumptuous taste, bringing yet another sense onboard. They breathed deeply through their noses nuzzling them together. Their hands meandered and roamed even more adventurously than before, finding ways under and inside clothing. The feel of hot skin on hot skin sent sparks shooting. It didn’t take long to escalate to the next level. Twenty seconds in, eyes closed, Sara telepathically communicated—

Get on your feet, Melleny. Up with me. I am taking you to my room, and my generous, king-size bed. That is not a request.