natalie

I found myself sitting in my room, tidying up everything. I never liked keeping my room a mess for too long as a kid. That's when my door opened, revealing my father, holding a new envelope.

"Is anyone up for a Green Day concert?" He asked, drawing a smile across his face.

I quickly turned to him, my eyes widening. "Dad! How did you get them?" I asked, filled with excitement.

"I have my ways." He smiled at me, but I began to frown.

"Aww dad, you didn't spend too much money, did you?"

"Oh no, not much. Don't worry about that, okay?"

I sighed. "Okay." I returned to my excited stage and ran over to him. "But still, thanks so much dad!" I jumped into his arms and we hugged. I looked around, and everything around my bedroom suddenly began to deteriorate. I watched my dad slowly vanish as well. "Dad? Dad what's going on?" I asked in a panic. He did not respond, he just disappeared, and I fell to the floor.

I was now in a hospital. There was a single bed in this room, a collection of colorful flowers, and many doctors and nurses surrounding the bed. They all looked distressed, and I grew confusion. I stood up and slowly paced over to the bed.

"We're losing him!" one of the doctors shouted. As I neared, I began to hear the beeping machines that you would usually hear in a hospital room. I tried to squeeze my little body through the crowd of people, only to reveal that my father was laying on the bed. I quickly backed away in shock, and that was when he flatlined.

I sat up quickly, gasping for air. I glanced over at my alarm clock. 3:57AM. Tears began to slide down my cheeks. Why was I crying? Why did I dream about that? It didn't make sense. My father passed when I was a kid. I never let it get to me, but suddenly I just have this dream and cry as I wake from it. I wiped the sudden tears from my cheeks and eyes and took out my phone. I wasn't thinking since I was tired, and texted Josh out of nowhere.

Natalie: I just had the worst dream.

Without thinking, I hit the send button. I laid back down and try not to reprocess the dream that I had. I just need sleep. I tossed and turned for what felt like hours. I could move on from the dream that I had, but it's hard for me to fall back asleep after waking up. Regardless though, I eventually closed my eyes and fell asleep once again.

-

"Nat, wake up!" I heard someone's voice shouting.

I slowly opened my eyes to see a blurry figure shaking me awake. "What is it Emily..." I groaned, still half asleep.

"Josh is calling you. Don't you want to answer?"

I rubbed my eyes so I could see clearer, and turned to the side so I faced away from her. "I'll call him later..."

"He texted you, saying it was important."

I slowly sat up. "Fine. Give me my phone."

She handed me my iPhone and smiled. "Tell him I say hello."

I gave her a thumbs-up as she exited the room, and I answered the phone.

"Hey, what's up Josh?" I yawned.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up."

"It's alright. I needed to wake up anyway." I chuckled. "So what did you call me for?"

"We're coming to San Francisco on August 9th."

"Wow, that's far."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. It's the only time we'll be there though."

"No I meant the date is far. I'm totally fine with going to San Francisco. It could be like a little vacation for Em and I. Oh, she says hi by the way."

"Okay, tell her I say hi back. It'll be cool to meet her at the show."

"Yeah. Well thanks for telling me the date and place. You should just text it to me too just in case."

"Alright. Hey, speaking of texts, what was that text that you sent me last night?" He asked, sounding concerned.

"What text?"

"You had a bad dream last night?"

Oh, that text. "Oh yeah. Don't worry about it. I don't even know why I texted you about it." I chuckled awkwardly.

"Well now I'm going to worry about it since you texted me. What was it about?"

"It was just something about my dad, okay? It's nothing big."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

"Don't worry about it, it's no big deal."

"Why were you dreaming about him?"

"I don't know, honestly. But again, it's not important. It's over now."

"Okay, just if you ever want to talk about that, I--"

I cut him off. "Josh, I'm fine. It was just a dream, okay? My dad passed away years ago, and if I dealt with it then, I can deal with it now."

"Okay, I assume you have work?" He asked, changing the subject.

My eyes widened, as I remembered that I had an early shift at JCPenny today. "Oh shoot, yes I do. I have to let you go, Josh. I'm sorry to cut this short."

"Oh it's alright. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"Alright, bye." I hung up the phone and sprung out of bed, searching for my work uniform. "EM! MAKE ME BREAKFAST!" I shouted.

I could hear her groan from her room. "I'm watching T.V., Natalie. I don't feel like it."

"I made you breakfast yesterday! I have to leave for work in half an hour!"

I heard her groan again. "Fine. What do you want?"

"Pancakes please! I love your pancakes!" I grabbed my uniform and rushed into the bathroom.

-

After my shower, I wrapped a towel around my head and got dressed in my uniform. Once I turned the bathroom fan off, I heard a song playing. Emily usually played songs while she was cooking, but it was typically Green Day or Panic! At The Disco. I didn't recognize this song.

I stepped out of the bathroom and watched Emily dance awkwardly to the playing song. She glanced over at me and stopped dancing as I began to giggle.

She glared at me. "What? I like the beat."

"Okay, cool." The instrumentals had stopped and then someone began to sing lyrics. I recognize that voice. "What song is that?"

"It's called Lovely. It's on an older album by Twenty One Pilots."

"Oh, okay."

"Yep," she replied, popping the 'p.' Emily then took her spatula and served me two pancakes. "Syrup's in the fridge."

"Thank you, Emily." I sang, cutting up the pancakes.

"No problem." She smiled, serving herself pancakes. "By the way, I work from 3PM to 3AM today, so you should stay up and wait for me to come home."

"I might, it depends on how tired I am from work."

"Okay, sounds good."

After I finished my pancakes, I let my towel out and Emily braided my hair. I had about ten minutes to spare, but I decided to leave early anyway. I grabbed my keys and left my apartment. Once I got into my car, I decided to listen to the entirety of Lovely on YouTube, since I only heard the second part of the song.

-

josh

"Hey Tyler?" I asked.

"What's up?" He replied while making himself a sandwich.

"You know our show at San Francisco?"

"What about it?"

"Can we do like a tribute to people who lost a loved one?"

He looked over at me. "What's this about?"

"Nothing, I just know that at least one person there probably lost someone that they loved. I think we should talk about it, but if you don't want to do it, then it's cool."

"Sure. I don't see why not. Good idea, Josh."

I patted myself on the back. "Thank you." Natalie was going to love this concert. I could just feel it.