“He’s dead,” She said.

Halting to a sudden stop, Anna, couldn’t comprehend what she just heard. Glancing over her shoulder, she gazed upon her best friend, Cecelia, who stood standing at the end of the sidewalk behind the gym.

“Who is?” Anna asked, frowning. Cecelia walked up the sidewalk and stopped just short of Anna. Cecelia took in a deep breath and stared her friend in the eye, gently, taking her soft hand in hers.

“Dedrick.”

Anna wrinkled her nose and quickly looked away. She drew her hand back and stuffed it into the pocket of her blue hoodie. She brushed her dark brown hair out of her face, her expression calm but somewhat, confused.

“Cecelia, why are you saying that? Dedrick’s right over there.” Anna nodded her head in the direction where Dedrick stood. Cecelia wept suddenly, grabbing Anna by the arm and clinging to her. Anna was taken aback by her friends sudden outburst. She clinched her fist tightly and tried to free her arm away from her tight grasp. She failed as Cecelia dug her nails into her, piercing her skin.

“Cecelia, what is the big deal? Let go of me!” Anna hissed, finally pulling her arm free. She glared at Cecelia, rubbing her arm with her hand and looking at it, “Holy cow, Cecelia, now I have your nails embedded into my arm. Thank you very much.”

Cecelias body shook violently. She stared at Dedrick, her eyes wide and full of shock. She felt like her heart was going to explode right out of her chest.

“Dedrick, come here!” Cecelias’ head shot up right when she heard Anna call Dedrick over. She quickly grabbed her once more, turning Anna to her.

“Are you absolutely insane? Don’t bring him over here, Anna, I beg you.” She cried, tears streaming down her rosy cheeks. Anna sighed and shook her head. She needed to know why Cecelia was acting like this. Why she was saying that Dedrick is dead, when he was standing right in front of them, alive and well. Cecelia’s actions scared Anna to death. She was at a loss of words and the only choice she had was to not believe her.

“You called?” Dedrick joked, portraying his trademark; a goofy sideways grin that gave everyone the giggles.

“Please go away.” Cecelia whimpered, taking several steps back, but only to jump back even further when Dedrick took a step toward her. His eyes widened and his shoulders slumped, “Please. Please just go back to where ever you crawled yourself out of. Stay back, don’t come any closer.”

Dedrick narrowed his eyes to her and scratched his head, “Okay, Cecelia, what did you take this morning to make you fall off your rocker?”

Anna snorted, walking away a couple of paces. Cecelia, who now was sitting on the ground, looked up at him, her eyes blood shot. She didn’t bother moving her red hair out of her face. She slowly stood up and remained planted to her spot.

“You’re dead.” She whispered, starring him down.

“No, I’m not. I’m alive, Cel. Why are you talking crazy?”

“No! You’re dead! I saw you!”

“You must have mistaken me for someone else.” Dedrick said, calmly.

“I didn’t mistake you for anyone. You were hit by a car a couple of days ago. I saw you on that hospital bed. Your body was broken, there was a pool of blood all around you and you stopped breathing. I watched as the doctors tried to revive you but your heart just wouldn’t beat. So the doctors called it……” Cecelia trailed off, as she struggled to catch her breath. Anna stepped forward and gently laid her hand on Cecelia’s shoulder.

“Girl, you really need to pull yourself together. Nothing happened to him.”

“Yes it did. You were there too. Why are you denying it, Anna?”

Anna flinched at the sound of her voice. She swallowed hard and slowly let go of Cecelia. Once again she was at a loss of words. She didn’t know how to grasp this concept. She prayed and prayed that this was just a dream and that she would wake up and Cecelia would be back to normal. She wouldn’t be…..crazy.

The school bell sounded from inside of the building and almost immediately, Cecelia turned on her heal and raced to the gym door, stumbling as she pulled the door open. Anna jogged a couple of paces after her but decided against it. She thought no matter what she told Cecelia, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Anna took a deep breath and shook her head, sadly.

“Oh Dedrick, I’m so sorry about Cecelia.” She began, her back still turned to him.

“Are you------” Her words got wedged in her throat when she turned around. What she saw---she couldn’t believe. Anna absolutely saw nothing. Dedrick wasn’t standing there. She was alone. A cold breeze moved in, causing her to shiver. Zipping up her hoodie, she walked down the sidewalk, looking every which way, but no sign of Dedrick. This crazy ordeal didn’t make no sense what’s so ever.

What if Dedrick was never even there in the first place? What if this was just an illusion to block what was really true? Something no one couldn’t come to terms with and something no one would except? It’s reality with a dream; a dream Anna couldn’t wake up from.