“Emma! You’re finally here! Oh my God, guess what?” Julie rushed over and hugged her.
Emma juggled her lunch bag and the books she was holding, trying not to drop her hot coffee. “Julie, careful, I don’t want to sacrifice today’s coffee to the floor. It was bad enough to go through the whole day yesterday caffeine deprived, I don’t want to do it again today.” Julie immediately pulled back, catching the book that slid from the top of the pile before it could hit the ground.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m just so excited! Emma, you won’t believe what happened!” Julie hopped with excitement as she followed Emma into the library office.
Emma smiled. “You found your grandmother’s long lost purple afghan?”
Julie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, no. Try again!”
“Um, your great-uncle Ted died and left you a million dollars,” Emma teased as she walked to her desk. She put the coffee down with a sigh of relief.
“Yeah, I wish.” Julie snorted. “You suck at guessing.”
“Okay, okay. You have a hot date with the new art teacher?” Emma smirked at Julie as she organized her books, carefully stacking them between Julie and her coffee cup. The more protection her precious coffee had from her exuberant friend the better.
“The new art teacher is, like, eighty,” Julie said scornfully, ignoring Emma’s chuckle. “Okay, no more guessing. I won tickets!”
Emma grinned at Julie’s beaming face. “Tickets to what?”
“Tickets to go see Duncan Green in concert! Front row! And you’re coming with me!” Julie looked like she was about to burst with excitement.
Emma blinked, wondering when her life got so weird. “You won tickets to see Duncan Green? And you want me to go with you?”
“What are you, a parrot? Yeah, remember I was trying to win tickets all last week? I texted a zillion times and I won! I’m so excited! And of course I want you to come. I’ve been trying to get you to listen to his music for ages. And he’s hot. You’ll love him. He’s tall, dark, and handsome.” Julie rubbed her hands together.
Emma laughed. “He sounds like the hero from a romance novel. Okay, okay, I’ll come. Sounds like fun.” She took a sip of her coffee, wondering if she was going to regret this. “You know, I had a dream about him last night,” she said. She watched Julie’s face light up.
“Yeah? He’s so gorgeous, and his voice! Wow. I just melt when I hear him sing,” the younger woman rhapsodized.
“Yeah, must be all those songs you forced me to listen to at lunchtime. Now you’ve got me dreaming about him.” She shook her head, trying to make herself believe that what was going on with her was as simple as a dream. At least she hadn’t had any more of the weird hallucination episodes! “Hey, who is the other guy that hangs around Duncan all the time? He doesn’t play in the band but he’s always there. Curly dark hair, green eyes?”
Julie smiled. “Oh, that’s Jake Mackenzie. He’s Duncan’s manager or something. He’s his best friend. He’s been with Duncan almost from the beginning of his career. I think he even helps write the music, but you never see him onstage.”
Emma nodded encouragingly. “Why doesn’t he perform too?”
“Something about how Duncan is the star, the one who wanted to be famous. Jake’s been interviewed with Duncan, and he always says that it’s not his dream to be a rock star.”
Emma frowned, remembering too well how it felt to play the piano when she dreamed she was Jake. “Really? I thought I heard somewhere that he could play piano?”
Julie shrugged. “I don’t get it either. I love when they do interviews together because Jake manages to embarrass Duncan all the time. He’s the only one who can do that because Duncan is pretty much shameless. The last time they were on Oprah, Jake accidentally outed Duncan.”
“What?” Emma was confused. Duncan couldn’t be gay because she specifically remembered him thinking of himself as bisexual from her dreams. She blinked. Am I really thinking I know anything about him just because I dreamed it? I must really be losing my mind, she thought.
“No, he swings both ways,” Julie explained, unaware of Emma’s looming insanity. “Apparently, back when they were in high school, Duncan couldn’t decide whether he should date boys or girls and went to Jake with the dilemma. Jake thought up this funny idea where Duncan had to kiss both a guy and a girl. Jake said he thought that if Duncan tried both out, then the gender he liked better would be obvious. Instead of picking, though, Duncan ended up making out with both the guy and the girl. At the same time.” Julie laughed. “It scandalized their entire high school, and Duncan almost got suspended.”
“Suspended? I don’t understand.” Emma rubbed her forehead. “Why would it matter who he dated? I can see how it might have been frowned on, but still.”
“They were making out under the bleachers. During study hall.” Julie tried unsuccessfully to hold in her laughter so she wouldn’t disturb the students that were filing into the library. Emma chuckled, a smile breaking out on her face. Oh.
“Oprah nearly peed herself on TV when Jake told this story. No one knew that Duncan was bi, and then Jake just blurted it out like it was no big deal. It was awesome. His record sales went through the roof.”
“When was this?” Emma tried to remember if any of her dreams were from when the two men appeared on Oprah. She felt a headache coming on as she struggled to visualize it.
“It was about six months ago, right after he released his second album.”
Emma nodded then grimaced as a sharp pain lanced through her temple. She gasped, suddenly feeling as though someone was watching her. She whirled around, checking the office for stray students.
“Emma? Are you okay?” Julie asked, concerned. She looked around too. “We’re the only ones here.”
Emma struggled to focus. She swore she could feel someone there with her. “Yeah,” she said thickly. “I’m okay, a bit of a headache. I think I just need my coffee.” Julie nodded and Emma sat down, taking a big gulp of her drink. “I didn’t sleep well last night. I need some caffeine to wake me up.”
“I hear ya. Just don’t take too long to wake up, your first class starts in five minutes.” Julie hugged her friend then went off to check on the students out in the library. Emma nodded tiredly as she drank the rest of her coffee, trying to shove thoughts of Duncan and Jake and kissing from her head.
“Well, yet another night with those crazy dreams.” Jake yawned as he entered the kitchen.
Duncan looked up from his laptop. “You too?” He grimaced as Jake poured himself some coffee. Duncan leaned back in his chair, watching as Jake propped a slim hip against their kitchen counter. The other man wore a pair of ratty sweats, and Duncan swore he could see the outline of Jake’s dick through the worn fabric. He snapped his eyes to Jake’s face, hoping the other man hadn’t noticed his wandering eyes.
“Yeah, me too,” Jake sighed, sipping the hot black coffee carefully. He looked at Duncan, green eyes tired. “I wish I knew what was going on.”
“I looked her up on the internet. Look.” Duncan swiveled his laptop around to show Jake. “She’s a high school librarian. That’s her photo. Nothing else about her on the web, but her students seem to like her.”
Jake walked over and leaned close. “You mean she’s real? I mean, I had a feeling, but still. This is really, really weird.”
Duncan nodded. “She’s real.”
Jake put his cup down on the table and clicked through the high school’s website. Duncan watched his friend rub his forehead tiredly. He could tell Jake’s head was still bothering him. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair where the long strands dampened his loose T-shirt. He suddenly realized his head hurt too and rubbed his eyes.