Dreaming in Digital

Cookie and I were in a classroom held in a floor above a mall. It was the last day of classes so we were having a tamed party. We sat facing each other, on a small square table, with two other students on either side of us; one male and one female. We were eating a glamourous meal of rotisserie chicken and vegetables. Cookie had an idea to go to the dollar store and buy some drinks on the floor below us, so I came along with him. I asked if he was worried about leaving our things with our classmates and he said not to worry because our table mates would look after them.

The floor below looked like the street of the business area of a small town. We arrived at the dollar store, and once we went in, it looked like a thrift store within. We browsed through the merchandise, being loud and having fun, and soon we caught the attention of  a serious employee. When she was near to us, we removed our sweaters - his black, shiny Roca Wear sweater with white trimming and a zipper, and my compact, brown, cropped hoodie - and stuffed them into a shelf of clothes by the glass door entrance. We grabbed two large books, sat down and pretended to read them, covering our faces. When she'd passed, we rushed for the cashier, and bottles and stacks of twenty-four cans of Pepsi suddenly appearing in our hands. The total came to a shocking fourteen dollars, and we asked why. The stacks came to twelve each. We opted to buy a stack of twelve and the bottles instead (I'm aware the math isn't right). We came back to the classroom and remembered we forgot our sweaters in the store. After dropping off the drinks, we returned to find the dollar store a thrift shop during closing time, as the sky was becoming a dark blue and the street lamps were all lit. A Korean girl with long, straight hair opened it for us and let us look for our sweaters, which were now gone from the shelves and possibly bought. Cookie was angry and I was sad to lose our sweaters, but now that they were gone, we couldn't do anything. The shop was run by many Korean women in their twenties, and because it was dark outside, they let us stay the night. Along the bookshelves were mattresses lined up to form one big bed. We all crawled in, the feeling of putting Cookie in a bad mood and losing my sweater weighed heavily in my heart. I curled up beside Cookie, facing away from him, and slowly drifted away to the dream world. Sometime when everyone was asleep, I noticed an arm around my waist; it was Cookie's. It was like an act of forgiveness.