• I was in the depths of an overwhelming, realistic dream. There was a gorgeous young man, my age, probably twenty-one, right in front of me. I blinked as he held out his flawless hand to me. I hesitated, and then nervously reached forward and shook it. When I touched his skin, my entire view of the picture before me changed somehow. It became brighter, clearer… as if I had put on mood-brightening glasses. Yet I already had 20/20 vision…

    I stared at the beautiful man, and I tried to close my jaw, to no avail. He chuckled and reached for it himself. He caressed my cheek, and I felt as if someone was tickling me with a white, downy feather. He trailed his light fingertips to the tip of my chin and then let his hand drop to his bare side. My face had goose-bumps from his breezy touch, and I wanted to feel his hand again.

    I tried to control my thoughts toward this perfect (very perfect, indeed) stranger. After all, I had never seen him before and all of a sudden I desired to feel the touch of his fingertips on my face? Something must have been wrong there. I looked at him with confusion. There must be a mistake. No one with this amount of pure, natural beauty had ever looked at me, ever. But here was this model-of-a-man, staring straight into my eyes. On purpose.

    I tried looking away. Really, I did. But he didn’t, he just stood there with his muscular, bare chest, staring at me. In silence. And he didn’t even look appalled or disgusted at my lack of beauty. In fact, I saw a lovely little smile playing on his heavenly lips.

    After endless minutes of silent staring and my confused thoughts, I tried to speak. “Um…
    Hi. Uh, who are you?” I wanted to kick myself for being such a loser when it came to talking. I looked down at white ground, extremely embarrassed. I peeked up to see his reaction through my eyelashes. The young man just smiled at me. In his eyes, I could see nothing but a soothing brown, full of love and adoration. He must have had me confused with someone. Yeah. Maybe I just reminded him of someone he knew, and he’ll be on his way soon.

    Instead, he took a step forward and started to explain with the richest, most splendid voice
    I’d ever heard, “Sorry to be so… mysterious. Obviously, you have no idea who I am. I apologize for holding you in such suspense. The thing is, I am your soul mate. God meant for us to be together, but in his Plan, I died before we ever met, and that is what He had planned for us. We weren’t going to be with each other as humans However, I couldn’t wait any longer, so I asked for His permission to come and meet you, so I could introduce myself to you. The Father granted me my request, so here I am, seeing eye-to-eye with the one young lady who I have always dreamed of. You couldn’t be more beautiful.” He politely closed his dazzling eyes and bent his head down for a second.

    When he returned to his normal stature and opened his eyes, he probably saw mine fighting to be free of their sockets. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around what he’d said. “Well, wait… so, you’re saying that you’ve been dreaming about me? That you belong with me? That we were meant to be together? But… but… why would I ever deserve this? Why would I be worthy to have a soul-mate? Especially one as… well, you know… um. As… handsome… and lovely as you.”

    He shook his head. “I don’t think you see yourself clearly. You don’t see yourself as special or worthy of anything good. Let me tell you this. You deserve everything wonderful. God loves you. I will love you. So much! Just… please let me help you to see how beautiful and deserving of love you are.” His eyes were so intense. I couldn’t get over how passion-filled they were. They were overflowing with it.

    It seemed like some of his eyes’ passion did overflow, and it let loose a drowning river of passion which I allowed to overtake me. “Okay.” I whispered, staring in, past his eyes. I believed I could see his pure, honest soul. I could have stood there forever.

    And we did. At least until, all of a sudden, the stunning young man twitched, and pulled us both into the reality (of the dream). Actually, I was starting to question whether it was a dream or not. I could tell he was really there. There was no doubt in my mind. And I never wanted him to leave.

    “My apologies again, my love. I never even revealed to you what my name is!” he looked sincerely sorry. I smiled at him. I hadn’t even realized I didn’t know his name. I already just... seemed to know him. “My name is Thomas. I’m just as old as you, and I lived in a small town with my parents in Arkansas. I joined the military and was deployed to Iraq. I died on the way back, with my two best friends. We didn’t feel a thing, though. Our plane burst into flames, everyone was gone immediately.”

    “Oh! That’s horrible! I’m so sorry!” I couldn’t help but exclaim. “But, thank you. For serving our country. I’ll never forget it. Honestly, I would never be able to risk my life for millions of people I didn’t know. You guys are so brave! By the way, what were your friends’ names?”

    “My best friend was Matthew, and our other friend was a guy we met at our base named Chad. And you’re welcome, Keara. I went there for you, even though I didn’t know who you were yet.”

    I wasn’t even surprised he knew my name. “So, it looks like now you have a pretty good idea of who I am.” I laughed.

    “Yeah, I’ve been looking out for you ever since I died and was tuned in to your existence. I’ve seen the way you feel lonely, even though you have friends. I’ve seen the way you beat yourself up about how you think you look.” He made me stare into his eyes. “I hope you know I think you’re beautiful. I’ve been waiting forever and a day for this moment. I’ve been waiting to finally have you for myself. To just be able to really look at you, to feel you near me. To touch you.” Thomas reached up to touch my face again. I breathed a sigh of relief and comfort. I’d been longing for his touch ever since he first let go.

    I couldn’t let go of his eyes. “I… know. Exactly how you feel. I feel like I actually have known you, and that I have been waiting for you, too.” I shivered as his hand slid to the back of my neck.

    “Are you cold?” he asked me, wrapping a ridiculously strong, but gentle arm around my waist.

    “No…” I responded, surprised to feel like I needed to be completely honest with him.

    Thomas sighed, “I know. But I need an excuse to get close to you.” His arm around me mysteriously, slowly started bringing me in, closer to his chest. I helped the process a little bit, because I craved his touch so badly.

    “You don’t need an excuse to get close to me.” I said, bringing myself even closer, so that his chest pressed against me. All of my skin started to tingle and I melted into him.

    He smiled at me and replied, “So… just to clarify, you’re saying that you want to be with me, too? That we can be in love together and I come back to you whenever you’re asleep? And we can snuggle together and talk about life? Well… your life, that is...”

    I grinned. “That sounds like a plan. Oh, yeah. I have a question for you… Are you an angel?”

    Thomas laughed with a brilliant sound. “No. No, I don’t have any wings. But someday! …Maybe I’ll be an angel, someday.” He tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. It might have seemed cliché to anyone else, but to me… I liked it. It felt so good.

    I smiled and whispered, “Well, you’re already an angel to me, Thomas.”

    He kept his hand at the back of my neck, and his other arm holding me to him, while he leaned his beautiful face down toward mine. I realized he was at least 4 inches taller than me, and I really had to look up, just stay locked in his gaze. I never looked away from his soothing brown eyes. I never blinked, not even when I felt his lips touch my mouth. It was total sensory overload. I didn’t think for a second it was all a dream, especially when he gently pushed me backwards to some kind of wall. When he closed his eyes, all of a sudden mine closed, too. It was weird, but I didn’t care. Why should I?

    In a matter of minutes, he was all over me. I was all over him. I’d never even touched a boy before, and there I was… making out with an angel. I enjoyed the feeling of being kissed… The way his mouth moved, the taste of his tongue, the feel of his lips at my neck… I explored the smooth skin stretched over his strong back and his abs. He ran his feather-fingers through my wavy, dark auburn hair. It usually trailed half way down my back, but Thomas was messing it up so much that all of it was practically on top of my head. Not that I cared. I was enjoying myself. I was enjoying him.

    He was all mine. There was literally no one to steal him away from me. Not a single other girl could even see him, let alone make him jealous. The thought made me shiver in happiness. It was bliss.

    And then, all of a sudden we heard a knock on the door. We immediately stepped apart, after he gave me one last kiss. I straightened my clothes and shook out my hair, running my fingers through it. I sighed and touched my lips for a second.

    There was more knocking, and a voice yelled, “Keara! Come on!” With wide eyes, I looked at the beautiful young man.

    “Don’t worry. You’ll see me tonight. And I’ll be with you all day. I promise. I just won't be visible.” He stared at me with so much passion.

    “Thomas, when I wake up, will I remember? I believe in you right now, but how will I know this wasn’t a dream once I’m awake?” I worried.

    “Um.” He cleared his throat and looked at the floor. Little shadows from the light landed under his eyes and made him look unbearably sexy. “When you awaken, I believe that you may be able to locate a small mark of affection on your neck…” he looked embarrassed.

    I grinned. He gave me hickey. And I didn’t even feel it? That was hard to believe. But maybe not. I was more than a little overwhelmed at the time…

    “Keara! Get your a** out of bed! We’ll fail Journalism if we’re late again!” I recognized my friend Jayden’s voice. I slowly walked toward a white door.

    When I reached it, I turned around and blew a kiss to Thomas. After I saw him catch it and bring it to his closed lips, I turned the handle. As the door eased open, so did my eyelids. They opened to a dorm room ceiling. Right above my face was my Orlando Bloom poster. Embarrassed, I tore it off, and tossed it to the floor. I felt the side of my neck. Who needs celebrities when you have a secret angel who loves you enough that he came back to Earth just to keep his eye on you?

    I think I’m the only one who knew the answer to that…