Last night I dreamt that I lived/worked at a drug store. I was young, probably about 12 or 13, and I had a group of friends. (various ages and genders) One of my female friends heard of this brand new market that was only open after dark, so our group agreed to meet in front ofthe drug store at dusk to go check it out. There were about five of us. I was the eldest. The store was on the other side of town and the night was cool and refreshing. The market had all sorts of food, and as soon as we stepped inside, we all split up to find our favorite and taste the samples. There were also lots of other people in the store, both workers and shoppers that watched us as we enjoyed the food. At first, I thought they watched us because we were the only kids in the store, but as I looked, they seemed hungry, though they did not sample anything or buy anything themselves. Now among us was a boy who was about seven or eight. I think his name is Aidan. And it was Aidan that these people were watching the most. He didn't notice them at all. He was too enraptured by the smells and the tastes of the foods.
I started to walk around the store, telling everyone to gather up. They didn't really want to, but I was the eldest, and I used my do-what-I-say-and-don't-ask-questions voice. When we were all gathered, we reached Aidan in the back corner of the store. "Aidan," I said quietly, but with authority, "it's time to go." He didn't put up a fuss, but thanked the clerk politely and made to join the group, but the clerk grabbed his hand.
"We've had such a good time together, is it okay if Aidan stayed a litle longer?" The clerk asked this is such a nice voice, that everyone in the group nodded and murmered acceptances of this new idea, and even I wanted to let Aidan stay, but I knew something was wrong.
"No," my voice grew in volume and in resolve. "We all came in together. We all leave together." Now when you run with a certain group for a lot, you start to feel and move as one, and the needs and desires of the group often overpower the individual inclinations. The rest of the group finally felt my fear and they stood closer together behind me and stood up taller as we waited for the clerk to let go of Aidan's arm. Aidan, who was starting to understand what was happening, was looking a little afraid, and the clerk's arm seemed to tighten.
"Are you sure?" The clerk asked. He was a short stocky man with a wide face that seemed friendly until this moment. "And what do the rest of you think?" This was the test of my leadership. The group as a whole didn't like Aidan a whole lot. He smelled becase his drunk of a father never made him bathe. He was the youngest, smallest, and slowest and whenever we did something physical, we always had to wait for him to catch up or help him out. He was always hungry and tired, and complained constantly. I'm sure any member of the group would have been happy to let him stay. Here he had food and warmth and he wouldn't hinder us, but there was that something that didn't feel right. Like how the entire market was crowded around us to see what would happen. The eerie silence of twenty to thirty people not making a sound.
The group took a second and said, as if one voice, "We come in together; we leave together."
"Okay, if you're sure" the clerk let go of Aidan, who quickly lost himself among our masses. We walked as one group past the market's clerks and customers who watched us silently with disappointment on their faces. When we were in the street, about a block from the market, the whole group burst in hurried conversation. "I think they were vampires," someone said. "I saw their teeh, they were all pointed," said another. "So that's why it's only open after dark," said still another."
We soon returned to the neon glow of the safety of the drug store. I returned inside to help customers find their needs (this one guy wanted to know about some kind of promotion he heard about and after searching the internet I found that it was only online, and not in the store) and the group went to their respective houses for the night.

The next day Aidan and I went to the beach and went swimming in the ocean. It was nice and peaceful, and he was really happy to have friends like us who got him out of there, but he also talked about how good the food was and how he had never eaten anything like that before in his life. As we were swimming, we got caught in an under current that pulled us underwater and out to see. I held my breath and tucked myself into a ball and waited until I was pushed back to the surface. When I was, I spread myself open and took another deep breath of air. I hear Aidan thrashing and gasping behind me. I saw a rock about twenty feet ahead right before I was taken under again. I curled up, but this time I kept my eyes open trying to keep my sense of direction. As soon as I broke surface again, I reached for the rock which was just to my left and cut my hand as I found a hand hold. I held on, even though the salt water was stinging in my fresh wound and the water was trying to pull me away. With my other hand, I thrust it toward Aidan, who was right behind me and caught ahold of his hand. We scrambled onto the rock, which was connected to another rock, which had caught a play structure from a playground. The play strurcture was half hunder water, but it floated due to the fact that was made out of plastic and we climbed over that into calmer waters. We swam back to the beach and went home.
In the next part of my dream, I went to see my brother performing in a comedy show. Matthew was performing in an insult comic routine with a Jay Leno look-a-like and a Shia LaBeouf (kid from Disney Channel show) look-a-like and they were all making fun of each other. Then the real Jay Leno and the real Shia LaBeouf showed up because they were mad at their misrepresentation and they fought with secruity. After the show, my brother and I walked Aidan home from the drug store. He lived in an abandoned housing project. The houses were still in the framing process with electrical wires hanging from the ceiling. They weren't live, but in the dark, threw scary shadows across the various two by fours that blocked a clear view ot the beach. Aidan crept through them as if he was breaking back into jail and my brother and I started to go home, but just then, Aidan's father woke up.
"Aidan, where are you?"
"I was sleeping, Dad."
"You lazy boy, get up and do your chores."
"It's the middle of the night."
"So what? There's a moon outside. Get out there and do them, boy."
Aidan got out of bed and came back outside. My brother and I offered to help with the chores because we both knew Aidan was really tired. (Almost being drowned in the ocean does that to a seven-year-old.) But Aidan said that we should just go home. He didn't have any chores and his father was just drunk, as always. He always wakes up and tells him to do chores. And if he says that he doesn't have any chores, his father makes him do something stupid like go out and find him some beer. So he just gets up and makes noise outside unntil he hears his father snoring again. then he goes back in and goes to sleep. That's when I woke up.