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ARI

I haven’t seen Trey in over three weeks. At least not in real life. In my dreams, he’s the star of the show.

It’s been happening a few times a week. One of my dreams was of us at a restaurant together.

Trey and I had just finished our pastas when he asked me to dance with him.

After I refused, he frolicked around the dance area by himself with an invisible woman in his arms. The whole time, I laughed until my belly hurt.

Another one of the dreams I had was of us baking snickerdoodle cookies together. Trey and I were in a kitchen I didn’t recognize, when suddenly, we were throwing flour at each other. It ended with us making out until I was breathless.

My dream last night was a terrifying one. I was getting dressed in my bedroom when I saw a spider. Usually, one spider doesn’t freak me out; I’ll simply grab a shoe and stomp on it. But this spider was huge—so big, I could see the little hairs on its legs.

Suddenly, it wasn’t just one spider anymore.

There were tons of them. Hundreds, maybe thousands, came crawling out from every crevice of my bedroom.

I screamed and jumped onto the bed, but they followed me there.

Then they were crawling on me like they were trying to eat me alive.

I kept wailing and screaming until I was lifted off my feet and rushed out of my apartment. The person who saved me was Trey.

Why am I suddenly having dreams about this man?

And why so frequently? I haven’t told anyone about my dreams. Not Caleb, and especially not Javina.

I already know what my best friend will say.

It’ll be something along the lines of Trey being from an alternate universe and how his presence here is causing my dreams to be snapshots of things that happened in his universe.

Javina hasn’t given up on the alternate-universe theory. She even came up with a name for the alternate version of me: Alterella. “You know,” she said, “because he calls you Arella. Maybe in his universe, you go by your full name.”

Javina’s theory could be right. It would explain why Alterella signed her name as Arella instead of Ari.

I’m storing Trey’s taped-up picture in a book that Caleb would never open. He doesn’t know I have this photo, and I don’t want him to know. He might trash it. I don’t know why I’m so keen on keeping it or why I think to look at it as often as I do, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of it.

Keys jingle outside my apartment door. I peek my head out from the kitchen just as Caleb steps inside and kicks his shoes off.

“Hey, muffin,” he says as he shuts the door and secures the chain lock. I had left it off knowing he’d be home soon. He still has beads of sweat running down his forehead from his workout at the gym.

“Lunch will be ready in ten,” I say.

“Sounds awesome. I’m going to take a quick shower, then I’ll be right out.”

After his shower, Caleb emerges from our bedroom wearing a pastel pink button-up. It’s one of my favorite shirts on him because he always looks so happy in it.

“Smells good,” he says. “What did you make?”

I set two bowls across from each other on our cozy kitchen table. “Quinoa salad.”

Caleb plants himself into his chair, practically drooling. “Thanks. This looks awesome.”

“How was your workout?” I ask as I sit and take my first forkful.

“Good. Rakesh and I worked on our upper body today. He’s a beast. I could barely keep up with him.”

Caleb has been best friends with Rakesh since they roomed together in college.

They go to the gym together almost every day, even on Saturdays, like today.

When they’re not at the gym, they love to explore bookstores and go hiking together.

If Caleb is not with me or at work, there’s a pretty good chance he’s with Rakesh.

“Did Rakesh ever hear back about that personal trainer position?” I ask.

“Yeah. He didn’t get the job, but he applied at a different gym, and he already got an interview.”

“Wonderful. I hope he—” My entire body locks up as my eyes land on a spider on the wall. It’s big, it’s black, and it’s got hairy legs.

Suddenly, I feel it again, all those spiders crawling up my body. I feel their legs on my skin. They’re attacking me! They’re trying to eat me! They’re...

The room tilts as I fall off my chair. When my body hits the floor, the room goes black.