READER'S ROCK LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE VOL 2 ISSUE 4 NOVEMBER 2014 VOL 2 ISSUE 9 JUNE 2015 | Page 27

My nose itched.

Well, it
wasn't exactly an itch, more of a
tickle.
“Leave me alone Matt, I'm
trying to sleep.”
I brushed my hand across
my face. If Matt didn't leave me
alone, I was going to clobber
him.
The tickling continued.
“Matt, I'm warning you!”
I felt the tickle again, which
had now become more than just
a little irritating.
“That's it!” I sat up and
looked around.
I was definitely not in my
room any more.
It took a moment for my
eyes to adjust to the brightness
of the sun, but my other senses
were exploding with sensation.
The combination of salt with
something floral assaulted my
nose. Simultaneously, my ears
were filled with a familiar roar.
The ocean? My eyes finally
caught up with the rest of me,
and my breath came out in a
rush. Josh!
“Hello, beautiful. About
time you woke up.” Josh leaned
back against a rock, a white
flower in his hand.
“Were you tickling me with
that flower?”
“Guilty.”
“You're lucky you stopped
when you did. I thought you
were someone else.”
“Speaking of which,” he
began, “should I be jealous of
this 'Matt' guy?” His eyes
sparkled as if he had some
private joke. He didn't really
seem jealous.
“For your information, Matt

is a friend. A good-butannoying friend. Tickling my
nose while I try to sleep would
be just like him. You, however,
are either just a dream or a
figment of my imagination,
anyway, so why should it
matter?” I shrugged and looked
out at the ocean. I plastered a
pout on my face which I hoped
screamed Hayden Panetierre.
“Ouch. You really know
how to hurt a guy. And after I
brought you to one of my
favorite places, too," said Josh,
holding the flower out as a
peace offering. I pretended to
ignore it.
“Okay, so where are we,
anyway?” I asked as
I took in my
surroundings.
Josh leaned
over to brush a
strand of hair off
my face, his
hand lingered
on my cheek
for a second.
“Hmm,
so
beautiful,”
his eyes
bore into
mine,
“but I
digress
.” He
sprea
d his
arm
s

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wide. “This is paradise, or at
least the nearest thing to it in
this place. It's a replica of one
of the smaller, less known of the
Hawaiian Islands. Welcome to
my world.”
I looked around, and it was
amazingly, achingly beautiful.
The water was the clearest blue
I'd ever seen, not like some of
the Gulf beaches I'd been to.
Part of the beach was shaded by
draping palms. To the left of the
beach area was a steep cliff and
to the right what appeared to be
giant lava rocks.
How could a dream be this
vivid? Maybe there was
something to this other world
stuff after all.