Pulled
This is based on a dream I had one night.
It had only happened once before, that feeling of being pulled. I would have never been able to tell you what it was called before it happened, but afterwards, without a doubt, it was like being pulled outside of an hour. It was like being ripped from your spot in time and thrust into another spot in time, rooted to the spot, unable to move and barely able to talk to anyone at all. Every sense was dulled or dimmed, almost as if you both existed and didn't exist. At least not yet.
The first time it happened I was left in such a state of shock that I think I forgot the entire experience other than the fact that it happened. I just knew that I had been pulled outside of an hour, and for some reason I knew what it was called, but I could never have told you what it felt like, because the shock was that bad. It didn't hurt, so far as I knew, but the experience was just...
Then the party happened. A night of drunken revelry, on a night that I finally had free. I had invited some friends over, and there was plenty of alcohol, although I'm not much of a drinker so I wasn't really drinking that night. We had music going, and I had the Xbox up with a dance game so that I could watch the other partiers make fools of themselves. Drunk people were always fun to torture, because they thought it was all a joke too, and it was something you could laugh about afterwards.
A friend of mine, Clay, showed up unexpectedly. It wasn't that I didn't want him to come, it was that I had no way to get a hold of him to invite him, otherwise I would have. He knew this too, so there was no hard feelings when he showed up. It was a good surprise.
And with him came a couple friends he'd made while beginning his music career. I didn't tell you? Clay's famous. Working his way into the music industry on his own skill rather than karaoke-ing his way in like so many other people. He's gonna be a worldwide hit some day, and it'll be because he earned it himself, on his own talent, rather than riding on the shoulders of other giants. I'm proud of him.
So of these friends he's brought, one is someone I never thought I'd see face to face. I knew Arin from a chatroom online, and in a space of about eight months the two of us had become very good friends. I had a bad habit of avoiding her recently, though, because she's one of the most beautiful girls I've ever known, and she's always dating someone else. Not that I ever thought I'd be good enough for her, but I never want to be the reason for a girl I'm friends with to get yelled at because their boyfriend is jealous. She was a gorgeous brunette, with wonderful brown, puppy dog eyes, a smile that could light up the darkest room on a starless night, and when she's sad you can't help but either be sad with her or try your damnedest to get her to smile again. Selfless, always trying to make the people around her happy, and always being stepped on by friends but taking it because she doesn't like to lose friends; that was Arin.
So much like me.
We met eyes as she was coming into the house, and her jaw dropped. I blushed and immediately stared at the ground. I could hear her quiet giggle above even the loudest music, and my ears burned harder. Too busy was I memorizing my feet that I didn't realize Clay had come up behind me. His hand on my shoulder made me nearly have a heart attack! I jumped, he laughed, she laughed, I tried my hardest not to go hide in a dark corner. I felt so dumb, so unworthy of being in her presence... hell, in the presence of anyone at all. I felt like a stranger in my own house.
"You two look like you've met," I vaguely heard Clay say.
"Yeah, we know each other from that chatroom you don't like," I heard her reply. "He promotes you in there, so that's why people know who you are."
His laugh was jovial, but mocking all the same. I felt like I was going to burn my face off my skull. "Thanks buddy! I owe you," he said, then it sounded like he hit himself in the forehead. "I left that beer in the trunk, pardon me while I go get it." I managed to lift my head enough to see him walk back out the front door.
I caught her eyes again. She was smiling so much I think her cheeks were hurting. I still felt like I couldn't look her in the eye, but I did it anyway.
"You're wrong, you know," she said, and I looked at her puzzledly. "You're the one who's cute when they blush."
I would have blushed harder had it not been for the fact that the lights went out that instant. Well... they did, but they didn't. In my senses, the room was dark, but I could still see the people that were over, and they were still participating in the party that I could no longer see. There was a crowd of people on my couch watching two people battle it out on Halo 3, I guess they must have changed the game. But for me, the TV was off, even though the guys were still watching intensely, and the ones playing were still focused on their controllers and their battles.
There was still a crowd of about four people gathered around what must have been the table in the dining room. They each had their hands cupped, as in gripping their drinks, but I could see no drinks. In fact, it looked like all the cans and bottles that had been brought were now empty and piled in and around the trash can, even though I watched as the guys around the table continued to drink, and one even opened a new drink! A drink that wasn't there!
This entire feeling felt familiar, but I couldn't place it. That was before it felt like my body was being forcibly lifted, carried to another room, and then held there. I could barely move. I wasn't so concentrated on being embarrassed, so I looked towards Arin. The look on her face told it all: she'd been through this before, too.
The room I was in was facing the outside, and the window was open. I put myself to the screen and tried desperately to call for help, but nobody could hear me. One of the girls that had shown up for the party was trying to tell me something about pizza, but I could barely make out the words, and the room around me was beginning to grow fuzzy. Giving up, I turned back towards Arin and tried my hardest to walk towards her. I actually made it a few step towards her before I had to stop and rest, and I felt myself sliding backwards. I could see Arin struggling my way, but I focused on that less and put every ounce of strength I had into getting to her.
It was agonizing. I didn't want to go through this experience alone, and I don't think she did either. We finally got to each other, and before either of us could say anything, I wrapped my arms around her and held on tightly. She mirrored me, and though we could still feel whatever force that was pulling strongly on both of us, in opposite directions, we were able to outlast it.
"I don't want to let go. I don't want to do this alone," I kept repeating.
"I don't either. Please don't let go," I could hear her answer.
I don't know how long the feeling lasted, but when the pull on the both of us stopped, we still held on. I was the first to lift my head and look around.
The house was deserted. There was a layer of dust on everything, as if it had been left alone for a while. It was dark both inside and outside, which meant that it was obviously still nighttime outside. The both of us had dust on us too, as if we had been standing in the same spot for ages, unmoving.
I felt her grip loosen on me, and I immediately looked her in the eyes. She looked back at me, trusting, and let go of me, stepping back. I stepped back as well, at the same time, and the both of us noticed a very shocking fact that immediately made the both of us blush and turn from each other: our clothes were gone.
They weren't on the floor, or anywhere near us, on any furniture. It was as if the two of us had been stripped without our noticing. All but our socks and shoes were gone. Neither of us screamed, because doing so would have been pretty unwise seeing as how we had no idea really where we were, but I immediately felt the need to apologize.
"I-I'm sorr-" I got out, but she interrupted me with a quiet hush.
"Don't ap-pologize, it's n-not your fault," she got out between embarrassed whimpers.
I don't know what possessed me that instant, but I turned back towards her and placed my hand on her shoulder. She visibly calmed, and turned enough to look up at me. I knelt and carefully wrapped my arms around her, making sure not to touch where I shouldn't have been touching.
The both of us stood, and I whispered something about checking the rooms for clothing, and possibly a hint of where we were. She didn't say anything, just kept her arms on mine, as if she wanted me to walk with her in front, my arms still around her. So we did, and it was an odd walk.
The house we were in was shaped exactly as mine had been, so we traipsed towards what should have been my room. The door was closed, so she reached out and turned the doorknob, opening the door. As the door opened, I gasped.
It was my room. Everything was lying the way I had left it before the party had started. I'd closed the door as the first few people had begun to arrive, so it had remained off limits. But the most surprising thing about the room was that there was no dust to be found. It still looked as if I hadn't left it more than an hour or so before.
We went into my room and I closed the door on habit, without thinking. She looked at me and I realized what I'd done, and made to open the door again, opening my mouth to apologize.
Next thing I knew, we were both on my bed, making out. My door was still shut, and she was on top of me, her lips against mine and her tongue wrestling with my tongue. Her body was pressed against mine, my arms were wrapped around her, and her eyes were closed; mine were still open because I was still shocked by the action, but I soon couldn't help but close mine too.
I... will keep what happened between us with me forever. Later, while we snuggled, she told me that she had never felt such a feeling of arousal. It was as if she had been forced into heat, like a cat, but a heat that had been building for a hundred years. She told me it wasn't gone, but it wasn't nearly as strong as it had been.
That's when we heard the noises. It sounded like a party was going on outside the bedroom. There was no jolt or bump or sudden loss of sense like before, other than going from near complete silence to a loud, rowdy party. We were suddenly redressed in the clothes we both thought we had lost, and the two of us were still snuggling in my bed. The pull was over.
My immediate reaction was to apologize for my behavior, but as I looked into her eyes I saw that I didn't need to. She was still smiling.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?" I asked.
"For not letting go. For making an effort to stay," she said. "Even now, I still trust you."
She left that morning, after spending the night in my arms. We still talk, and what happened between the two of us is still planted firmly in our minds. I'll never tell her boyfriend, but for some reason, I believe that the two of us will be together some day. It'll be more permanent than a chance pull.