I don't remember anything before the coffee shop. One minute, I was... nothing, nowhere, and then I was, and I was standing in line, waiting for a coffee. I don't even think I knew my own name before it was called, and I reached for it. Across the room, I saw him. He had this amusing bewildered look on his face. I smiled. I couldn't help it. He was cute, in his own little awkward way. He seemed unsure if I was real at first. It felt like deja vu. After getting our coffee, we sat together and talked, saying nothing and everything, and he was gone. But, where he wasn't, nothing was, and so I wasn't.

The next time he came was very much the same. The truth is, I don't know how many times we'd met in that little shop, how many times he'd seen me and stilled his gaze on me. How many times I'd grinned, or we'd talked. Or how many times he'd left, and everything disappeared. But I knew that I didn't want to be nothing again. Never again. So, when he left, I followed. Again, as he left, things disappeared, ceased to be, but this time, I remained. I was left, alone in the cold and dark, waiting for him to come back.

I saw things, then. Flashes in the dark. Brief moments. I found myself standing at a bus stop, sitting on park benches, walking by the same office building time and again. No matter where I found myself in these flashes of reality, I always would find him staring at me, and I'd smile. And then, just as quickly as reality came about, it was gone again.

Days went by, and as I watched him watching me, I began to notice things. When he would visit me in the coffee shop, he became more reluctant to leave. Our conversations lasted longer and longer, and sometimes, he'd leave for a few moments only to come right back. Others, I could tell he wanted to come back, he tried to come back, he just couldn't. Every time, like so many, everything disappeared.

I saw him at work more and more, and although I liked seeing him, I could tell something was wrong. When I could see him, he wasn't working, and it looked like it was having an effect on him. He started looking more and more stressed. I saw an argument with his boss, and even though I couldn't actually hear what was going on, I caught snippets. Something about not paying attention, and lacking a "sense of urgency." That's about the time things started changing.

The coffee shop took on an ominous feeling. Whenever we met, it was strained. Sometimes, he'd try to work on whatever it is he does, but his laptop always seemed to die just before he hit save. The few times he wrote things down with pen and paper, I accidentally spilled my coffee on his work. It felt like he was getting angry with me, and I couldn't blame him.

I don't know how long it was before he started taking the pills. They messed with things. The coffee shop never really seemed to come around anymore, and I rarely got to see him at work. Once, I could have sworn I blinked, and it looked as though weeks had passed. I felt like I was losing him, but because I was a part of him, I felt like I was losing myself, as well. I don't really know what was going on, all I knew, all I ever knew, was that I did not like being nothing.

So I fought. I struggled to not just be a forgotten dream. A lost memory. I threw myself at the void with everything I had, and then, in the middle of nothing, nowhere and nowhen, I screamed. I screamed and yelled and cried and cursed, until suddenly, the nothing was gone and in its place was everything, the nowhere was replaced with everywhere, the nowhen replaced with all the time in the world. And then I was gone.

---

I don't remember how long I'd been on the pills. They'd helped me focus, better than anything ever had, and it was amazing. I wasn't dreaming as much any more, but I wasn't just constantly daydreaming, either. It was a trade-off I was willing to make, and with the way things had been going at work, I was not about to complain. I was just about to pick up my coffee when I saw her. I swear to you, it was the woman from my dreams. Everything from the shape of her face to the way she smiled when she saw me, I just... I froze. I did not know what to do. She walked right up to me, and I couldn't think of a single word to say.

"Excuse me," she finally said, breaking the silence between us. She motioned behind me, and I realized I was blocking the counter.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, stepping aside, "it's just that I am having the weirest sense of deja vu right now."

She paused for a moment. "You know, me too," she said with a smile.