A cross-dimensional love story

I’ve noticed that things have been a little off lately. Hold on, before you even think anything, let me prove it to you. 

Look at this lamp. It’s your standard run-of-the-mill desk lamp right? It has the lamp shade and everything. But that’s the thing, I never bought that lamp. I don’t even own a lamp in a room! It just appeared there today! 

And now, look over here. My bed is right there, looks pretty normal right? Oak wooden frame, my shoe boxes underneath… red comforter and sheets. Now, I probably sound crazy, but here's the thing… My bedsheets were all blue yesterday. 

I feel like I’m losing my mind! It feels like the Mandela effect, but on steroids because this isn’t something that people think happened. It’s actually happening! 

I haven’t told anyone about this just yet, because I need more proof. That’s why recently I’ve been taking lots of photos of the apartment, just in case anything else changes. This way, I have proof and I’m not crazy.

Also, side note, I’ve been really craving seafood lately. I hate seafood.

Anyways, enough about that weird stuff for now, I have school to focus on. Recently I’ve been doing pretty well in my classes and that’s actually a pretty great accomplishment for me. I was new to that whole flipped classroom stuff, so my first year was pretty bad. I didn’t care, I’m getting A’s now and that’s all that matters. You have to put the past behind you. Better late than never when it comes to this sort of stuff.

“Hey Alan, how are you!” A feminine voice said behind me on my way to class. 

I knew that voice anywhere.

“Hey Lia, I’m good! And you?” I turned around and said back.

She was my barrier to putting my past behind me. I’ve liked her since the orientation before freshman year where we met. 

“You walking to class?” She asked, walking up to me. 

“Nah, I just got done. What about you?” I asked.

“Me too… You about to do anything right now, or no?” She asked.

“No… I’m pretty free… and you?” 

“Me too…”

This always happens, we always get so flustered around each other. 

“Um, well-” I got cut off.

“Hey Lia!” A group of girls came by.

“Hey guys!” Lia responded.

She immediately was taken away and they walked off away from my view.

“I was wondering if you wanted to get some noodles with me…” I muttered to myself.  

I sighed. Maybe another friend would want to hang out. I pulled out my phone and looked through my messages to see who I should text. 

Here’s the thing though; something was seriously wrong. 

“Who the hell are all these people?!” I exclaimed.

There were so many names I didn’t recognize. I kept scrolling, looking for a name I knew. No one. 

Suddenly I got a call. 

It read: 

Baby panda 

My heart pounded. I didn’t know if I should answer it or not… Oh what the hell. I swiped and answered.

“Hey cutie patootie! How are you! I love you and hope you’re doing amazing! By the way, did you know that I love you??” Baby panda said.

Wait a minute, that voice…

“You’re coming tonight right? To get ramen with me?” Baby panda asked

“Of course!” I said, not knowing what the hell baby panda was talking about.

“Great! See you then! I love you! Byeeeee!”

I heard a very distant beep on the phone.

I gulped. If I wasn’t mistaken, that was… No, it couldn’t be. I shook my head. What was going on? That couldn’t have been Lia, could it?

I quickly ran to my bike to leave for my apartment. Maybe I should make an appointment with a doctor or something?

I had a heart attack when I got to my door. 

“What the Hell??” I exclaimed.

The door number was now “667”. I lived on the 5th floor. Oh Hell no.

I gulped and unlocked my door with my key and burst in. I looked around my living room and everything appeared to seem normal. The couch was still grey and lumpy, the kitchen was clean, only a couple plates in the sink… Okay normal stuff. I walked over to the door of my room. I sighed as I laid my hand on the doorknob. I waited and waited. I didn’t want to see any weirdness anymore. Suddenly the TV in the living room turned on and static started playing really loudly. 

“What the-!” 

The tv static suddenly started to sound like it was changing channels or something. The static would stop and start and stop and start. Then, someone started talking. 

“Hey- Alan- how- you?” The TV said muffled.

I walked over and looked at the tv screen. I gasped. It was me! And Lia! It looked like we were walking together to a noodle shop. What?? 

I opened my phone and looked at my messages. They were now back to normal and were people I knew. Suddenly the TV shut off and silence followed. Scary silence.

I think I’m going to go lay down... I collapsed onto the couch.

“Alan… Alan… Alan!” 

I opened my eyes to Lia, shaking me awake. 

“Hey- what?” I rubbed my eyes. What the heck was she doing here!

“How’d you get in here?!” I asked.

“Your door was unlocked,” She said with a sly smile. 

“Well, uh, welcome to my home!” I said, sitting up. 

Lia laughed. 

“Even though I broke into your home, you’re still trying to be a good host. You’re so cute,” Lia said. “Oh wait! Uh… I mean…” She started blushing immediately. 

I started blushing too. My chest felt like it was compressing in on itself. 

“Anyways… What are you doing here?” I asked. “Also… How did you know to get here?” 

“Yeah, right! Have you been noticing weird things lately?” Lia asked. “And to answer your question, I just somehow knew to get here. It was weird. I already had the way to your apartment in my head…”

Hell yeah I have noticed things have been weird!

“Yeah, actually I have been noticing weird things. What’s been up with you?” I asked.

“Well it started out at the house I live at. The color of the house suddenly changed to blue! We were living in a white house before! And get this, the craziest thing is that I was the only one to notice!” Lia said. She liked to talk with her hands, so the whole time she was moving them around in circles and waving them. So cute.

“And, earlier today, my phone was all strange! I got a call from a random girl, claiming she knew me and was my best friend or something? I never met her in my life!” She said. 

“Oh snap! That’s so weird!” I said. “For me it’s been similar. Actually let me show you,” I said. I grabbed her hand and walked her over to my room. “It’s all been so weird in my room,” I said. 

Lia was silent. Then I realized why. I quickly let go of her hand and we both looked away from each other. 

“Sorry,” I said.

“You don’t have to apologize,” She said, turning towards me with a smile. 

I blushed and looked up. It was so hard to look her in the eyes now.

“Um, well, here’s my room,” I said as I opened the door. 

“Oh shit,” I said. The room was completely gone and all there was in the room was a black void. 

“Alan. Was your room always so… Bare?” Lia asked.

“I promise I’m a better decorator than this…” I said.

We laughed. But all of a sudden the room started shaking and suddenly expanded. Then a grassy, stone path developed in front of us towards a pond that appeared in the middle of the large room. I looked at Lia and she shrugged.

“Wanna go towards the middle?” She asked.

“Sure, why not?” I said. I didn’t know Lia had an adventurous side. She was so nonchalant right now.

We walked inside the room and behind us the door shut and disappeared. 

“That’s not good,” I said. 

“Ehh, it’ll be alright,” Lia said.

We finally made it to the pond. Suddenly the void disappeared and all around us was a pretty field of red and white flowers. The sun was shining nicely on us

“What is this place?” I asked. 

“It’s a pond near my home town…” Lia said.

There was a willow tree that appeared next to us. It’s leaves loomed right above us now. It was blooming pink and some of its petals were falling down on us. 

“Woah this is pretty,” I said.

Suddenly a red checkered blanket appeared before us with a picnic basket in front of us. Lia was silent the whole time as I bent down to look inside it. When I opened it, I found two subs inside. 

“Woah! I love subs!” I exclaimed.

“Me too…” Lia said quietly.

I sat down on the blanket and patted right next to me, gesturing to her to sit with me.

“What’s wrong Lia?” I asked.

Lia shook her head as she sat down next to me. “Nothing is wrong… It’s just that-,” She looked up at me. “This is something that I’ve always wanted to do with you,” She said softly. 

My heart felt like it would blow up right in my chest. 

“This is literally perfect Lia,” I said. “Wanna just eat and just relax for a bit?” I asked.

Lia lit up and smiled. “I would love to,” She said.

We each unwrapped our subs and started eating. 

“This is really good!” Lia said.

“I know right!” I said.

“We need to actually do this someday,” Lia said.

“Yeah we do! But… Doesn’t this feel pretty real?” I asked.

“Yeah… it does actually,” Lia said.

“So, let’s make it real then. Let’s think of this as a date?” I said.

Lia looked right at me. Her face softened and started to smile big.

“Yeah! This is a date!” She said.

We ended up having the most perfect date ever. I don’t want to ruin the moment, but I will just say, the happiness I felt in that moment was indescribable. 

“Alan. This is perfect,” Lia said. 

We were sitting on the blanket watching the sunset from across the big pond. Her head was laying on my shoulder.

“I know… You know… This is the happiest I’ve ever been Lia,” I said.

“Me too…” Lia said.

She lifted her head off of my shoulder and started looking at me. I know longer felt scared or nervous. 

“Alan…” Lia said.

“Yeah?” 

“Will you-” Lia got cut off.

Suddenly everything started rumbling and we were thrown back into the void again. This time we were falling deep into the darkness.

“Lia! Hold on to my hand!” I yelled.

“Okay!” Lia yelled. She reached for my hand and almost grabbed it. So close! I willed for my hand to extend further and finally we locked hands.

Everything stopped. We were now standing in front of the noodle shop at night. 

“Where are we?” Lia asked. 

“We’re at the noodle shop,” I said.

“Oh cool! I love noodles!” Lia said. “What’s this place called?” She asked.

“The noodle shop. Literally,” I said.

“Shut up!” She laughed.

“No I mean it!” I said, laughing too.

“Wanna go in and eat some noodles?” I asked.

“I would love to eat some noodles at ‘the noodle shop’,” she said, making quotation marks.

“Alright, alight, just you wait. These noodles will change your world,” I said.

“You’ve already done that…” Lia said.

We looked at each other for a moment and then started kissing. My whole body was on fire. 

When we stopped kissing, Lia held my face with her soft hands.

“You know how long I’ve been waiting for that Alan?” She said, “Too damn long!” 

“Better late than never?” I said with a mischievous shrug.

“And all it took was our universes falling apart for it to happen,” Lia said with a nod.

“That’s because my universe is nothing without you Lia!” I said, clutching my heart.

“That was so cheesy and you know it,” Lia laughed.

We both laughed as we walked into the noodle shop. There was a bar counter where we sat next to each other. There were red lanterns hanging above our heads and cute paintings hanging around the restaurant. A server then came and gave us our menus and got us water.

“What do you think that all was though, seriously?” Lia asked.

“I’m not sure?” I said.

“It felt like we were in a different dimension or something,” Lia said.

“You’re right it did!” I said. “Do you think that there was a different dimension crossing over with us or something?” I asked

“Nah… Maybe…” Lia said.

We were interrupted in our discussion by the waiter.

“What would you like to get?” The waiter asked.

“Uh oh, I don’t know what to get!” Lia said.

“Do you trust me?” I asked.

“Yeah, of course I do!” Lia said.

“Okay… I got you,” I said. “Two orders of mung bean noodle soup!” I said.

“We’ll have it right away!” The waiter said.

Lia looked at me. “Alright, these noodles better be good!” 

“Trust me, they will be,” I said.

So we talked and talked and when we got our food, we ate and talked and talked some more. We had two back to back perfect dates. We don’t know how much time passed, nor did we care. We were having too much fun.

“Alright ready to go?” I asked.

“Yeah of course!” Lia said. “That was so nice of the owner to get the check for us!”

“Yeah I know right!” I said. 

We both got up and started walking to the door. As I put my hand on the door, I saw a clear reflection of me and Lia on the glass. I then tried tugging at the door to open. It didn’t budge.

“Oh, maybe it’s a push?” Lia said.

“Let me try,” I said. I then pushed on the door and it opened suddenly and I fell forward.

“Are you okay?” a voice in front of me asked.

My heart dropped. I slowly looked up and saw… Me! 

“What the??” Lia exclaimed. She was staring right at herself.

Right at that moment we were transported back in the void. It swirled strong around us and in the next instant, we were back in my room. The bed sheets were back to being blue and the lamp on my desk was now gone.

Lia looked at me.

“What just happened?” She said.

“No idea…” I said.

“I guess we really were in a different universe or something and we saw ourselves form that universe!?” I said.

Lia shook her head. “So weird,” She said.

“I know right…” 

We both sat on my bed and took off our shoes. 

“I need a nap,” Lia said. “Wanna take a quick nap together?” 

“I would love to,” I said. 

We peacefully slept together, cuddling on my normal, no-longer-red bed. Best, weirdest day ever. I was glad to be back in my universe with my Lia.