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I pause the show that's quietly playing on my tv and pick up my phone beside me on my bed, I check the time on my phone realising it's later than I thought. I quickly turn off my tv and set an alarm for early the next morning before I roll over and tuck myself snug into my bed under my light purple blanket. I close my eyes and try to drift off to sleep without worrying too much about my birthday tomorrow. I toss and turn for a bit before finally getting comfortable and floating off to sleep.
I wake up grudgingly still very tired but not to the sound of my alarm or the brightness of the sun coming in through my windows but to the cold tile floor beneath me. I sit up frightened, my eyes still a bit blurry but I can tell I’m not in my room anymore , instead I'm in a pitch black room that's about the size of my own but without anything in it at all as far as I can see (which isn't much). Then one of the walls that I can now see is actually a tv screen turns bright white blinding me for a minute. On the screen are numbers counting down from 5 like an old movie. I watch the screen closely as the numbers get to 0 , then the screen goes black for a second before playing a somewhat familiar tune that I just can't put my finger on. The sound is soft and sweet but also a bit sad. Then the video starts playing, It shows a little girl about 5 riding her little pink bike. I recognize the bike,it takes me a minute to get it but I figure out It was mine and that's me. This was the first time I rode my bike. Then it switched to another video of me graduating elementary school. I was singing a happy tune that my whole class learned for the graduation. It keeps switching back and forth to different memory’s some I had forgotten and others only ever vividly enter my mind. I see happy memories and some sad ones. I see myself make new friends and lose some , I see my family adopting my first pet James who was just a small kitten back then his foot no bigger than my finger, then it shows us at the vet many years later having to put him down. I see past vacations and field trips and the best days I had with my friends. I watch as it plays many first days of school, tears always in my parents eyes as they said goodbye. I watch myself fall down and get hurt and get back up like nothing happened.I watch every holiday whether it was a bad or a good one. I watch with pride as it shows all the game’s I won and was proud of every game I lost with a smile still on my face. I watch myself grow up year after year as if I were my own parent. I watched every award I got and every day I spent in a tree with my friends.I watched birthday after birthday each with a different theme. I watched my clothes change ,I watched my personality change, I watched everything about me change. I watched amazed at how far I had come but also wishing to go back to relive those amazing times in my life. I started to cry realizing how much stronger I’ve become threw each year that plays on the screen. Threw every loss and every hardship I got back up and kept going. The song is still playing, becoming more familiar each second but I still can’t put my finger on it. I watched as it showed my school dances, most of the time I was chasing my friends around or sitting on the bleachers. I watch the first time I got my hair dyed, and I watch with a heavy heart as most of my memories from my older years where those of me sitting in my dark room much later in the night than I should of been up either on my phone or just sitting there staring into the darkness as tears fall down my cheeks and onto my lap, I can still taste the saltiness in my mouth now. I watch the first time I sneak out and the first time I get caught. I watched the time I had to move and I lost all my friends . I watch when my parents went on business trips and I felt more alone than ever .I see my friends who are always there for me every time we would talk to each other about the bad things that happened . I saw everything about me as if my life was a movie being played in a theater. Some memories passed by so quickly that I could feel myself longing to go back to them and relive them one more time. The music gets softer and it starts to slow down crawling to an end as one last memory flashes by then the screen goes black. Words start to appear on screen each one being typed out to make it look and sound like an old typewriter. When the words are done being typed I read them out loud in a whispery tone,” IT’S TIME TO GROW UP.” I reread it again and again in my mind while tears stream down my face leaving me feeling like I grew up too quickly. I fell to my knees wishing I could go back and relive the memories again. I lay on the dark tile ground for a minute before letting the cold silence consume me .
Beep Beep Beep, Beep Beep Beep. I toss and turn before quickly sitting up realising I'm back in my bed. Beep Beep Beep. I realize the beeping is my alarm and it's been going off for a while. I find my phone tucked under my pillow and quickly turn off my annoying alarm. I pinch myself making sure that I'm not dreaming this time. My eyes are still a bit blurry from just waking up but I'm more stunned by what I think was a dream that I had before waking up. I sit on the edge of my bed putting on my slippers before getting up and quickly sitting back down on the chair by my desk. I look at my desk realizing there's a present on it that wasn’t there the night before. It was a small gift box held together with a ribbon and a tag that said, To Flare From Mom. I gently untie the elegant bow and open the box taking the first layer of gift paper off to reveal a beautiful necklace with a star on it. I stare at it for a minute before grabbing my jewelry box that was on the small table next to my bed and taking the necklace out of its gift box. I'm about to put the necklace in when The small box starts playing a familiar tune that stops me in my tracks. I quickly realize that it's the same tune that was playing in my dream last night. I grab a photo off of the top of the pile of jewelry in my music box, switching it for the necklace that was still in my hand. I look at the picture and then look at myself in the mirror on the wall. The picture was one of me on my 5th birthday out to eat with my family. I start to cry ,my eyes already a pinkish red from rubbing them awake. I realise how much I’ve grown so quickly and how much I’ve changed , but I can also see that in a way I'm still the same Flare I was when I was 5. I put the photo back down and just let the music play for a minute humming along to it with a smile now on my face accepting the fact that it's time for me to grow up and make some new memories. The end.
The song from the music box and dream is I hear a symphony .