“What did you just say?”

I stared directly into his eyes and him into mine. I knew what I’d just said, but I couldn’t fathom why I said it. He loosened his grip mistakenly, and the spoon fell upon the table.

“You had a dream… about me?”He drooled stupefied with an unrelenting stare. His eyes twitched back and forth and his mouth refused to swallow.

To end the moment of silence and awkwardness, I made an attempt to control the situation.

“It’s not that big a deal,” I expelled my breath in a whole. Then strictly shut my eyes and exhaled again, this time quite loudly.

“Follow me,” I lead on.

“Huh?” His confused demeanor dripped words in a mumble.

“Follow me,” I said taking his hands and lifting them before him to create a certain inhalation posture, “Breath in,” I guided,

“And breathe out.”

We repeated this action for a few minutes or so, and then he finally calmed down.

“As I was saying,” I started up again, “It’s not that big a deal.”

He looked up at me, thoroughly confused and awaiting a plausible explanation.

“You and I, we’ve been bonded together by an inextricable fate that is beyond our doing. To put it simply, at this moment, we have only each other that we can trust. And given the circumstances of where we are and the fact that we spend practically every moment that we can together, my dream is not unfounded.”I explained.

“Besides, it’s only a dream and more so one had about a friend. It’s not like it was about some creepy stranger inmate. Now that would warrant some serious thinking!”

“What did you say?” He interjected, “Could you repeat that last sentence?”

I jolted at his request then retraced my words a few steps to restate. “At least it wasn’t about some creepy inmate.” I rephrased.

“No, not that…” He lashed out panting heavily, “the one before that!”

The one before that…

I puzzled, and then came to the realization of his point.

“We’re friends?” He asked calmly.

“Well, aren’t we?” I innocently inquired. “I mean, after everything that we’ve been through in such a short space of time. I guess you couldn’t really call it friendship, but it is something.”

“No,” he paused and started reflecting, “I agree.”

He faintly smiled, sinking himself within his seat and running his eyes about in a frenzy of thought.

“You’re right. You’ve been there for me since the moment I got in here, you even saved me.”Dropping his head and biting his lips, he continued his moment of recollection.” Dropping his head and biting his lips, he continued his moment of recollection.

“Thank you, Nick, for everything.”

My heart brimmed at the sight of him and I lost bladder control, muscles control and perhaps even my sanity. I opened my mouth but words would not come.

“I…” My attempts to let out a peep were futile.

With his head still strung downward, I became emotionally compelled as I involuntarily hurled myself across the table, grabbed him by the face and aggressively forced my lips up against his. I felt the shock and withdrawal in his muscles as I deeply but momentarily seized his lips between mine, sucking the pair. The struggling for release had eventually stopped. But by that time, I had let go and had fallen back onto the seat.

What have I done?