Page 6 of Only You

Washington, D.C.

‘What are you doing?’

Dani jumped at the voice behind her, turning to see her friend and other roommate, Talia, standing behind her with a bowl of popcorn. She pressed her hand to her chest over her racing heart.

‘You know, I really need you to make more noise when you move,’ Dani said.

Talia rolled her eyes as she stepped around her to the couch. ‘I’m sure I make plenty of noise.’

Dani pursed her lips, saying nothing else about the bold-faced lie. Talia may have been 5′10 with broad shoulders but the most intimidating thing about her was that you never heard her coming, like she had been a ninja in a past life. A sour taste filled Dani’s mouth at the thought.

Her mind was still shuffling through her dreams. Lately, they had been stronger than usual, easier to remember, too. She had experienced them enough to know the high points, but the details were starting to filter in. She was living Sabine’s life day by day now. Well, Sabine and Damien’s.

She would say it was like reading a book or experiencing a 3D film, but she felt every aspect of their emotions and it kept jumping back between the two without warning until she was turned around about who she was. Why were her dreams changing now? Almost like…

‘Dani!’

Her attention moved from the spot on the wall she was staring at back to Talia, who was looking at her in concern. ‘You sure you’re okay? You’ve been staring off in the distance for five minutes.’

‘Y–Yeah.’ Dani her waved off. ‘Just… running through my solo for orchestra.’

‘Well, you could at least sit down. You’re creeping me out just lurking like that.’

Dani’s feet shuffled reluctantly to the couch, plopping down on the opposite side. ‘What are you watching?’

‘BBC’s Pride and Prejudice .’ Dani groaned, pushing herself to get up just as Talia grabbed her arm. ‘Wait, wait, you promised we could watch it one day! It’s good I swear!’

‘No, I’m not getting in the middle of yours and Riley’s debate,’ Dani declared as she tried to pry Talia’s hand off her.

She knew the story since she read it in her high school literature class.

But she was wholly unprepared for the film versus mini-series debate that was apparently popular among Jane Austen fans.

Riley, Dani’s best friend from freshman year, was vehemently for the 2005 film, while Talia was a diehard fan of the mini-series.

This difference led to multiple arguments about which was better, often pulling in whoever was around to join their side.

Personally, Dani didn’t care for either, finding the story both boring and overdramatic; Riley and Talia agreed that was the worst opinion of all three.

‘I promise I won’t even tell her you watched it,’ Talia whined while Dani tried to wiggle out of her friend’s vice grip.

‘Fine, fine! Just get off of me.’

‘Yay!’

Talia let her go and Dani took a deep breath. She dug her hand into Talia’s popcorn defiantly and sat back, humming in acknowledgement whenever Talia told her a titbit about the show.

Halfway through the second episode, Dani found that she didn’t mind the show, the acting making it much more engaging than the book.

The antics reminded her of a modern romcom, with just enough going on to keep her intrigued even with the classic setting.

She didn’t dare voice this opinion, already knowing the irony of someone who studied 200-year-old composers saying she wasn’t a fan of historical storytelling.

Dani was munching on popcorn when something about how Elizabeth spoke to Mr Wickham conjured up an uncomfortable feeling.

‘You’re watching this in French?’ Dani asked. Talia raised a brow at her.

‘Yes…’ her friend drawled. ‘This is my way of studying for my French class. That’s why the English subtitles are on for you. You didn’t notice this whole time?’ she quizzed.

‘No,’ Dani said, dazed as she focused on the language.

She suddenly understood the words just as well as she knew English.

How was that possible? She swallowed nervously, racking her brain for an excuse.

She was sure she hadn’t been reading the subtitles.

But perhaps she was just tired. Her dreams were, after all, keeping her up as it is.

‘I obviously wasn’t paying close enough attention,’ Dani stood, shaking her head.

‘But I need to do some work for my composition class.’

‘Okay…’ She felt Talia’s eyes follow her as she stood.

‘I’m fine, Tal,’ Dani said, answering her friend’s unspoken question.

The look in Talia’s eyes told her she didn’t believe her but, luckily, something happened on screen that captured her attention.

Dani took that as her cue to leave, quickly making her way back to her room. She leaned against her door in a daze.

‘ Quand il me prend dans ses bras, qu’il me… pout? Moi? Fuck.’

So, she wasn’t fluent if she was already butchering ‘ La Vie En Rose ’.

The words were awkward, stumbling as they fell off her tongue.

They didn’t come with knowledge of what each word actually meant but rather a memory of hearing the song.

She forced her jaw to unclench as she went to her side table and pulled out her dream journal.

All the details she remembered from the past few nights were there, filling up multiple pages.

What was once a sparse collection of details was now a plethora of stories.

She almost dared to call them diary entries.

She flipped to a fresh page and wrote down:

Don’t know French but understand it now??

What was happening to her mind? Was something wrong?

Did she have a condition she didn’t know about?

She had heard of people with multiple personality disorders having full backstories for each personality – or waking up from a coma, suddenly fluent in a foreign tongue.

Was this a mental breakdown? Had she suffered some trauma she couldn’t recall?

She groaned, dropping the pen to cover her eyes with her hands.

She didn’t have time to have a breakdown.

It was her senior year. She was one step closer to playing with the New York Philharmonic and she could not go crazy now.

Her parents and therapists couldn’t finally be right after all these years.

A lump rose in Dani’s throat as she wondered what could be wrong with her, lying across her bed to stare at the ceiling.

If her mind snapped, she couldn’t play like she wanted to.

Her dream of being a professional cellist, travelling the world to play concerts and maybe even being part of a film soundtrack, would be gone.

Her mind swirled with daunting questions that made her lightheaded, having to remind herself that she needed to breathe.

Maybe the stress would take me out first , she thought.

She placed her hands over her stomach and started to slow down her breathing.

She played elevator music in her head, something mindless.

Before she knew it, it had transformed into a familiar freestyle piece, one that had been stuck in her head for over a week. She sat up suddenly.

Jones. The dreams started when she met him. Maybe he was some kind of trigger. If she could figure out what it was, maybe it would stop. It wasn’t much but it was better than sitting in her room waiting for a panic attack. She scrambled for her laptop and opened her school email.

Hi Dr Allen , she wrote, I have a question…