“Stop, James, stop,’ she said, biting her lip, barely containing her laughter as he tickled her. This is how they had been for a very long time; always playing silly games. James knew, though, that these little flirtatious gestures would never translate to what he wanted. A relationship.

He rolled over onto his back, and looked up at the ceiling smiling. “You should stop tempting me so much then, Lacey. “ He made a glance over at her, catching the mischievous smile that was now spreading across her face.

“I will do no such thing,” she said jumping up and on top of him, pinning his hands to the bed.

“Lacey, you have got to stop doing this, “he said softly, still pinned.

“What do you mean? What am I doing?”

“Things that make me want to kiss you,” he said as he rolled her off, pinning her in the same fashion she had him.

She pushed her head up, quickly, her lips meeting his, and then pulled back just as fast, “well do it then.”

He looked down at her questioningly before leaning down, and answering her request. Her lips against his felt better than anything he could ever have imagined. Almost like a dream. He pulled away looking at her. Oh crap he thought.

He woke up.

Dreams like these were nothing new to James, who had, basically, been in love with the same girl for the past seven years. Unrequited love, if that’s what you want to call it. It’s a hell of a thing and way past the borderline of cliché. It was how it was though, without any chance of being changed in the foreseeable future. He looked over at this alarm clock, noting he had already missed his classes for the day, before rolling out of bed.

Missing class happened more often than he liked to admit. Another cliché, of the many, that made up the list of his life. He was a senior at a local university whose sports teams sucked. This is important to recognize because it didn’t stop them from jacking up tuition to help fund said teams. Which, in turn, made him question the validity of the higher education learning system. This also ended up with him making exceptionally poor grades; something that never really mattered to James. All he cared about was getting enough credits to graduate so he could leave this town.

He flicked on the shower sending warm water down his head. What he really wanted to do was travel the world. Yet another cliché, but he wanted to see if the world offered anything more than what this crummy little down did. It was just a plus that traveling would also get him away from Lacey, something that was completely necessary if he had ever hoped to get over her one day. This kind of infatuation was unhealthy. At least that is what his friends told him.