I picked up the call as it was from Xavier. I was afraid if he knows anything. After all, he was a part of my dream all this time. But how could he when it was my dream? Just mine. And that guy?

"Hello?" I said into the call after picking up. "Hey, sleepyhead! Get up from the bed and start getting ready!" He shouted from the other line. How does he know I was getting late? His tone lacked maturity, his playfulness was back. He was the same Xavier I knew, before the dream. I wonder what's his real personality? Ugh, it's getting on my nerves. What is happening?

What can we expect from a sleepyhead like you? Oh yeah, dreams!

I hummed in response and cut the call; groaning in headache. Something was different. Very different. I had to dig my head to find that information out.

What the heavenly hell just happened?
Is this another dream of mine or is this the echt reality I was hoping to wake up on when I slept yesterday?

I remember reading the tragic ending of Bella and Marshall's story a few days back when I was deeply in love with their love story, but how did I daydream or actually fantasized about their love story to be mine? Was it true? Was that guy and I were soulmates?

Who is this Vian? I met him, fell in love with him, separated from him, saw all those dreams which became my precognition, and now this? Those dreams were a part of my dream? I was dreaming within my dream!
Our love was a dream within a dream.

How could this be even possible? I felt every ounce of emotion, I felt every dreading pain of my life, I suffered from the hatred and sadness, and I got the undeserved love. And now you're telling me it was all in my dreams?

I told you to stop romanticizing your own fairy tales. They are taking over your mind.

You are my mind! Duh!

I tried to give signals to you by telling you all these were dreams. You didn't catch on to that. Not my fault!

Vian Marshall was his name. Or just Vian? I don't know. I remember him in my false awakening. My memory was getting erased minute by minute, second by second passed as I thought more about him. I was getting unfamiliar with him, I don't remember how his touch affected me, I don't remember how his eyes looked into mine making me crimson? Did I blush? Were his eyes intimidating or soft? Was he hard to read or an open book? I want to know everything about him.

Our love was written in the stars but why are the stars under hiding now? If we were the missing pieces of each other's puzzles then why can't I find that piece now?

He feels so familiar and close yet who is he? I fell in love with him, but the strange part is why I have such strong feelings for a person who doesn't even exist? I need to stop reading romantic clichés gravely.

That's what I have been saying from the start.

To be sure that this is a dream and the other was real or is this reality, I tried to find some things I thought I had changed the location of. In my dreams, what possible explanations I could remember.

I checked the box which I titled for the flowers, that guy gave me. If it was real, I would have been happy like roses, scented with love like lilies and tulips, and smiled brightly like sunflowers. Sadly, there was no box in my room. My diary. I had written my fairy tale wishlist, but I hadn't struck anything off of it, meaning, I haven't experienced any of it.

Then why am I remembering that Bungee jump so clearly like I have literally experienced all of it? Whatever I was getting memories of were getting erased quickly as the time passed. Everything I experienced was getting erased, except that feeling.

A strange feeling. Was it love? As I have heard that love can't be forgotten like memories because it is alive in the form of those memories. Did I love him? Thinking of that, I want to love him. Because this feeling is enchantingly antithetical.

"Jo?" Kia shouted from outside my door. She startled me all of a sudden and I took a knowing big breath to calm my senses down. Before I could respond, she started to knock on my door continuously.

She just barged in a few minutes before, now she is knocking? Can't blame her, she is your friend.

Seeing her desperate form, I ran towards the door to open it. Just as I was about to twist the doorknob, I realized something. That tune, the tune of knocking, it was the same. I have heard this from my window. Someone was tapping the same tune. It was that guy? We kissed afterward. Oh my, that kiss-

She was continuously knocking on my door and I quickly opened it before she could break it. She started to knock on my head as thinking as she was still knocking on the door which made me flinch my eyes shut.

I didn't agree with this. Ever.

She was leaning against the door frame before and with a sudden jolt, she let her body in and we both met with the force of gravity trying to hold onto each other so as not to fall more harshly.

If this is not clumsiness then smash my head.

We both fell onto the floor, she hit her shoulder and I dropped on my-

Ass?

Back! And suddenly I remembered that you had made fun of me like this before too. But where? Was that another nested dream of mine?

Ughh... my head was confused as I couldn't distinguish reality from dreaming when I hit my back on the ground resulting in a pained groan leaving my lips where Kia got up and rubbed her shoulder to ease the pain.

We looked at each other and fell into a fit of laughter. "You look different today," she stated while glancing at me.

"I don't even know myself, maybe I'll just wake up again and this conversation that we are having now turns out to be a mere dream," I remarked. Truly. Because waking up in a different scenario and facing them again in an unsaid reality that was never supposed to be one confused every single brain cell of mine.

She came closer to me and sniffed around me. "Have you been drinking?" She asked as she was trying to find the smell of alcohol from my clothes or body but didn't get one.

The one who can't even dream properly would drink properly? My disappointment level just grew for you, Jo.

You know what, this is all fake.

Everything is real, you are being an acosmist.

Ugh, shut up.

I tried to recall how he looked but just got some vague flashes of him. Okay, he is tall. But what else, why can't I see him now, why can't I imagine him now? I want to see him, I want to talk to him, I want to fall in love with him but how can I when he is not a real person.

You don't know the value of a moment until it becomes a dream.

Apart from thinking about that guy, I got some sincere flashes of my dad being there with me for quite a time. How I wished it was real and not a dream. I would have hugged him tight and cried in his embrace for a little time and then tell him about everything he missed. I would tell him even my stupid fights with my friends as well. I just wanted to talk to him.

Thinking about this unexpected sorcerers dream, I got ready quickly. I glanced at the wall clock again, and it was moving correctly.

Is this really my first day? I should feel nervous right? But it feels like I have experienced a whole semester in my dream and now that I think about it, I just remember his name... Vian and my feelings toward him and... his eyes. His eyes were fierce, full of questions, and not a single answer that I could read in them, but he let me... he let me read them.

I should stop thinking about him now before I get a concussion from just the banging of thoughts in my head. Getting ready, I hugged Kia lightly and immediately backed off before she could squeeze the life out of me, but she pulled me back and left me breathless as she hugged me with her full force.

Some people's habit doesn't change. Whether you see them in your dream or in your reality.

We agreed to meet after my first class which was just mine. My major. Literary Arts.

I jogged down the staircase of the dormitory and made my way out. It felt familiar yet unfamiliar too. I wasn't used to walking to the university, yet somehow I knew the directions clearly.

I saw him.

I saw Xavier sitting on the hood of the car. I remember saying that I didn't need a ride to the university, I could definitely use a walk. But he never minds what I say or ask. Then why ask what needs to be done?

Formalities.

"Hey!" I tried to exclaim with more enthusiasm, but my resultant voice turned out to be broken than ever.

"Hey, sleepyhead!" He chimed enthusiastically and took a light jump from the hood of the car, he was seated on. He was now standing in front of me trying to control his laugh at my laziness as he thought I was just making ways of skipping my first lecture of the very first day.

"Wait- you seem upset? What's the matter kiddo?" He immediately got into some defensive protective mode and asked me what happened.

"Nothing... actually something is there." I had to tell him. I need to get it all out before my brain gets burst.

"I feel like I haven't slept at all. And I saw this colossal dream nestled in my head even right now. Please, say I'm in reality. Pinch me," I said.

"Though, you are a sleepyhead so that explains that even if you sleep for a whole day, you will still feel tired, so I don't think there is any problem."

"Secondly, if you want me to pinch you, then I'm not leaving this gracious opportunity," he stated.

I groaned loud enough for him to notice. He was not getting it. He was not seeing what I was going through.

"Let me go for your hair!" He exclaimed.

"What? How can you pinch someone's hair?" I asked. This is all messed up. This is all a mess, actually. I'm the mess.

"Who said to pinch, when you can just pull," he said and hold onto a fistful of my hair, and before I could do something he pulled onto my hair harshly leaving me fuming with anger, pain, and frustration.

Take revenge now. Slam his forehead, I don't care. Ughhh!

"You're so dead, Xav," I shouted and ran after him. He was standing in front of a pole now, and I would get satisfaction only after sending a punch directly to his face. That's when my soul will get freed.

I held his one hand and entangled my feet with his so that he couldn't move, well just for quite a moment before I could land a punch on his face.

I made a fist of my hand and used my full force on him, but before I could reach his face, he ducked. Hell, he ducked. He bends down. And moved out of the way.

Now, there's my fist in the air with full force and a steel pole between us. No!

It's my fault. The one who can't even dream peacefully, how would even punch someone properly. Now bear the pain.

It's not the time to play whose fault is what. Xav threw his bag in my way on time and for God's sake, my hand didn't suffer much damage as I was expecting I could get.

The high meter of your clumsiness broke.

"What the hell are you doing? You're gonna hurt yourself," he said now in a very composed form. The playfulness in his tone was nowhere to be found.

"Just keep calm and have a first good impression on your professor. I have heard, she is nice," he said and engulfed me in a light hug.

That's Déjà vu. Definitely. I have heard him say that.

"Will you believe that I fell in love with someone in my dreams and I don't know who he is?" I asked him out of the blue.

"What? Pfft. My soul just evaporated at your question. You know, Aunt Bella and I were talking the other day when you came downstairs just a few hours before our flight to Sweden. Do you know what she told me? She asked me to take care of you because you seem to fell in love with your "book boyfriends" and the shit was getting on your head," he explained.

"You need to take a break," he stated and signaled for me to get in the car. Because his first priority right now was to take me to the university on time.

I reached the university and waved him goodbye. I wanted to forget everything and take a break, just like he said. I don't want to get involved in some other overthinking.

Releasing a heavy breath followed by a sigh, I made my way into the university. There were many familiar faces who were there in my fresher year of university and a smile took over my face automatically as I see the hustle in the university.

I was walking peacefully when I crossed paths with someone. A sudden breeze hit my face, leaving my hair in a rustling mess. My heartbeat quickened all of a sudden, and it was hard to choose whether to breathe normally or walk ahead without falling over.

My eyes caught a glimpse. A glimpse of a small smile on that guy's face. He was smirking? I looked at his hair from the back. They were quite long and curly, dark brownish, bouncing a little as he took steps away from me in the opposite direction.

He was tall.-

Don't do this. You can't be attracted to a guy now when your head is a mess.

This had happened before. I had crossed paths with someone, right here, but this feeling is less ominous. I should not be thinking about him when I haven't even seen his face, not that his face is the only thing that makes me attractive to him, but I just get out of a heartfelt heartless breakup. Even if it was a dream, it felt real.

I made my way to the class, and I was a little relieved that the professor hadn't come until now. I took the second seat in the second row. Nothing intended, but I always liked to sit not just in the front but there.

I see Miles. No way, he is in my class. He waved at me and I waved back. There's nothing to be awkward about. We were in a relationship in high school and everything's over now.

I jerked a little when I heard a sound from his side. He dropped a stapler. No way, he is getting nervous. He tends to drop things when he gets nervous. Why do I remember this?

This is gonna be a long, irritated semester for you.

He dropped a pen next. Then an eraser, then a pen again.

Just take his pencil case and throw it on his face.

Next, he dropped his pencil case, and it took me to another level of frustration. I got up from my seat and went toward him.

"Pick all this up fast, and if I see anything down next, it would be your face under my foot!" I shouted at him.

He quickly picked everything up and cleaned his mess. That made me sigh in relief.

Soon the professor entered and introduced herself. It was getting all normal for me when she said something that brought instant goosebumps all over my body.

"Before starting with the lecture, let's welcome a new student. Come on, you can come in, don't be shy," the professor said to someone who was standing at the door.

It felt like my mouth took its turn and before coordinating with my mind, I spoke out, "Don't tell me his name is Vian Marshall?"

The guy entered the class. I looked at him. He looked at me. Our eyes connected. The professor's and the other classmates' eyes were on me too, as they didn't expect a name from me. When it was the real name of that person.

Gosh, if you could ask or say anything else at that particular point in time. I would have been rich.

He was constantly looking at me. His hair was a little longer with a little curl to them. I liked his bangs were looking so silky that I wanted to sway my hands over them.

His eyes, his eyes, were not brown. But in reality were, because I could see that he had worn lenses. It was a mixture. Sometimes, it looked like they were grey, sometimes they looked green. But not green green, greyish-green to be exact.

If I were being honest, he looked ethereal handsome, and a thousand emotions just went over me. His face. I have seen his face a lot of times that I remember, he is the one. What? He was the guy in my dreams? No way!

"Yes, dear, do you know him?" The professor asked me.

I don't know if I know him or not? But he is definitely the one. I remembered details about him like he was this expressionless guy. But I could see something very clearly on his face. There was something different.

I didn't realize that my mouth was agape. I was shamelessly checking him out. That's not me. That was never me. But why am I feeling a connection toward him?

Because you are made. Excuse me, you are made without an e. Hahaha

The professor asked him to introduce himself. He spoke and with every word he was speaking, I was getting to love his voice more and more. "Hi guys, my name is Vian Marshall, nice to meet you all," he said in his deep voice.

Omg, he is Vian Marshall. How could this be even possible?

The professor asked him to be comfortable and take a seat. This whole time, I was looking at him, but he was looking at me too. Our eyes were trying to find many answers that were causing a fuss in our minds as well as our hearts.

He just nodded at the professor and made his way to move to the last seat. He looked at me again, like he stared at me with his deep intimidating, yes definitely intimidating eyes, and winked at me followed by a small smirk which made me feel shy all of a sudden. He was the one.

THE END

A/N

So this is the last time, I'm gonna ask for your thoughts on the chapter. 🦋

I'm very happy to announce that the journey of this story, "A Dream Within A Dream" has officially come to an end and reached its destination with its last chapter here today.

This story is very close to my heart and I would like to thank all of my precious readers for their love, support, motivation, and encouragement to this story. I never thought that I would reach here without you guys. 🥺

I will miss your comments, and your love for the story because there won't be any next chapter ahead. But don't worry, the epilogue's still left. Hehe. 💕

I love you all so much.❤