Blast from the past.

Another night, another dream. I mean, I assume I dream most nights and can't remember most of them, and even those that I do remember are too dull or uninteresting to report or ponder.

Last night's was not one of them.

I had a friend at school. Well, lots of friends, but there was one in particular, a girl. I'll call her SJ. I don't remember how we got close, but we did... then I developed a huge crush on her, which you will be un-surprised to hear I never acted upon.

But there was something about her - her attitude towards life and our home town. If we were American, she'd have been "Most likely to travel the world" or something in our yearbook. She seemed a lot more worldly-wise than our other friends and while most of my peers were looking at attending local universities, she was looking further afield.

Things got complicated during our final year at school - she ended up dating two close friends of mine, one of whom knew about my crush. When the first of these "relationships" fell apart (he did not know about my crush), it was me she called, not any of her female friends. I never understood why. We were close but not, in my opinion, "the first person to call after a break up" close, especially given my relationship with her now ex.

After school, she left for university and pretty much disappeared. To the best of my knowledge, no one is in contact with her. The last people to see her were myself, AM and FP, separately. FP caught up with her in Belgium when he was passing through while we still at least knew where she was, a few months after leaving school. A year or so later, AM and I bumped into her and her sister at a theatre show in our home town and she seemed really distant and reluctant to chat.

And that was that. I don't think she's on social media - I have looked. I'm pretty certain that she's never returned (permanently) to her hometown.

And that leads me to the dream.

Somehow, after all this time, we managed to make contact with each other. At a reunion of sorts subsequent to contact being made again, our friendship was instantly reignited and we spent hours talking, almost ignoring everyone else in attendance. In the end, we slip off to another place, possibly another bar for privacy, where we continue to catch up on our lives since school. And, yes, that feeling is still there, but now I think she feels it too.

But before anything is done about that, the others find us and the party starts again. Around this time, the dream fades or I wake up.

Back in the real world, I'm feeling nostalgic and maybe a little melancholic?

And despite our last meeting, I want to meet her again.