“So what happens now?” I asked, after we’d finished with breakfast and put everything away.

“Well, I could keep you here forever,” Jackie admitted. “It would be nice to have someone there whenever I daydreamed…” She sighed happily, closing her eyes. Then she opened them again. “But it would be a really dumb thing to do, ’cuz it would only make you end up hating me.” She paused. “Unless…maybe I could ask you to stay?”

“Part of me wouldn’t mind,” I admitted. “But there are still people who would miss me. Like my parents, when they get back from their vacation. And people would notice me missing school.”

Jackie nodded. “There is that. So maybe you could just come here sometimes?” She looked down. “Assuming you don’t freak out and run far, far away as soon as I let you out.”

I smiled. “I won’t do that.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Oh, Mike!” Then she was hugging me, kissing me, and staring into my eyes. Again I fell into the blue…and when I woke up again, I was lying on my bed in my own room.

Alone.