Free The First Touch by Alice Sweet

dreams... and I might be a bit crazy.” The last p art was a little more to her than to him. He looked at her thoughtful, puzzled face and broke into a smile.
    He replied , half teasing, “Yes I think you might be right.” She frowned and he grinned , his stress melting away and his elated sense of joy began creeping up on him , as his hope returned.
    S he retorted stubbornly , “I really thought you might be in trouble Ivan.”
    Repressing his emotions, he asked, “ what did you see?’
    Autumn replied , wincin g, “Something about you bursting in to flames, well I think it’s you…I can’t quite tell… .”
    His eyes widened and he replied tightly , “I see...”
    “It’s not that precise, I must admit, but I keep picturing a k iss. I don’t think I have ever seen one like this before or after it though.... It comes in bursts … ”
    He said nothing for a long moment before asking, “And the hungry eyes?”
    She blushed again and looked away, “That was the first thing I noticed about you...” Then she reached into her pocket of her jacket and pulled out two scraps of paper , one from each pocket . He watched her cautiously , as she handed it to him. He opened it and looked down at the words written on the sheet. His eyebrows shot up as he looked at her for clarification. She continued, “I wrote those a few years ago after I had a dream, the second I wrote today .”
    He looked at her with an inexplicable look on his face, “Tell me more about this dream...” His voice faded away as she stared at him blankly.
    “I dreamt that I was standing in front of a coffee shop, and I walked away from it holding someone’s hand. However, just as the sun was at its highest in the sky, my hand felt hot then , s uddenly he burst into flames. The strangest part was that he asked me to kiss him , like it would put him out or something .”
    Autumn looked at him as if she where trying to remember, just so and closed her eyes tightly to see it more clearly, “He said ....But only if you want to. I knew that he had a look of agony on his face even though I could not see it, which made my heartsick. It hurt for days afterwards as if my body did not want me to forget, it was the strangest feeling. I really wished I had kissed him before I woke up.” She blushed again recalling the dream s intensity .
    Ivan looked at her and replied, “I had a similar dream … but in my dream ,” he said hesitantly, “I had a different outcome.”
    Autumn perked up, “A dream really? Like mine? What did you see?”
    He did not make eye contact as he nodded, replying, “ I did not ca t ch fire.”
    “Weird.” She hesitated, almost afraid to ask, “ What did she look like? This girl I mean, from your dream. ”
    He tightened, “I do not know I only remember her lips.”
    “Well what did they look like?”
    He hesitated, deciding not to reveal the truth just yet, “They were full.”
    Autumn thought for a moment, rubbing her small heart shaped lips absently, “ Well that rules me out, s o maybe I am su ppose d to help you find your ... um ... kiss girl.”
    He looked at her with guarded eyes , replying, “Perhaps... ,” though he was doubtful.
    She frowned, “Or I could be interfering, though I did not get that feeling in my dream. How about your dream? Anyone watching while you two kissed?”
    He shook his head , “No I was alone with her.”
    She rebutted with, “Maybe her kiss will make it seem like the rest of the world melts away.” She giggled a little and then sighed as he looked to her for an explanation. She replied, “Either way I am glad that the pressure is off of my shou lders now. I thought for a minute there that I was suppose d to kiss you to stop you from goin g into the alley or something, but that’s not it. It’s strange usually my dream are warnings, dangers for me not others, and definitely not… she let the words fall off, before adding jokingly, “ Let me tell you if my dream had been for real