Dreams Don't Count

By Xarth

Copyright 2014 by Xarth

Smashwords Edition

****

As soon as I found myself in the room, I knew I was
dreaming. It wasn't that the room itself was particularly strange,
other than the slightly ethereal quality it held. It could almost
have been a rather nice bedroom, or something along those lines,
based on the way it was furnished. Mostly it was the fact that I'd
been finding myself there quite a lot in the past few weeks that
tipped me off. As far as I could tell, I'd developed some sort of
recurring dream and I didn't have the slightest clue why.

I turned around, knowing I'd find the same person who
always shared the room with me. There were plenty of people my
unconscious mind could have dreamed up, many of them people I would
have loved to hang out with, even if only for pretend. Instead, I
got my brother.

Not that I didn't like Tyler, it wasn't that. Being
twins and all, we'd grown up closer than most brothers and sisters
I knew in our eighteen years together. The thing was, I could see
him practically any time I wanted. If I was going to dream about a
guy over and over, it could at least have been a cute guy I could
play out sexy scenarios with or something. Relatively speaking,
Tyler wasn't nearly as much fun.

"Why is it always you?" I wondered out loud.

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied.

It could so easily have actually been my brother in
front of me; he looked and sounded exactly the same as in reality.
No doubt we'd spent enough time together that my brain could form a
nearly indistinguishable facsimile.

"This is my dream isn't it?" I said. "Why can't I
change you into someone else?"

No matter how hard I tried, I'd never succeeded in
altering this dream in any significant way.

"How do you know this isn't my dream?" my fake
brother countered.

"If it is then at least change me into someone else,"
I muttered. "Or do something. This is getting a little boring. What
is this, like eight times I've had this dream now? And all we ever
do is argue."

"You're always the starting the arguments. I'm pretty
sure I'm just being punished somehow."

I shot him a dirty look. "Yeah, that's pretty much a
dumb enough thing for you to say. Dream you is a dead ringer for
real you, you know that?"

Tyler just grinned. "Ditto," he said.

I sighed and walked around in a long, slow circle. It
was a funny thing about the room; there seemed to be plenty of
windows as well as a door, but even though they never appeared to
move, I could never reach them no matter how far I walked. Dream
geography at its finest.

"We should really come up with something more fun to
do while we're here," Tyler suggested. "Seeing as how it's been
happening a lot lately."

"Like what? A game of cards? A board game of some
kind? We always used to play Monopoly, maybe we could get a game of
that going. Have you seen it around here at all, because I sure
haven't."

"You don't need to be so sarcastic, I'm just trying
to help."

"Of course you are. I think more to the point, it's
silly to be so sarcastic toward a person who, as near as I can
tell, is all a figment of my imagination."

I walked over to Tyler and tapped him lightly on the
forehead as I finished speaking. He felt real too, as real as
anything in the dream world.

"Again, pretty sure it's the other way around," he
said. "But that's not the point. I'm serious, we should do
something while we're here. We could at least talk about something
more than just how annoying this is."

"Fine. How 'bout... you tell me a secret I don't know
about you. That way you can prove this is your dream and not mine.
Two birds, one stone."

There was a bed off to the side of the room, which
I'd always considered a little too meta for my tastes, but it
offered a nicely visual way of displaying my irritation. I flopped
down onto it and closed my eyes in an ineffective attempt to make
Tyler go away.

"First, I could just make something up and you'd have
no idea if it was a real secret of just some random shit," he said.
"Second, I can totally see your panties when you lie like
that."

I angrily sat back up and pulled my skirt back into
place to cover myself up. I'd been wearing the same skirt earlier
in the day, but somehow I hadn't realized that I was still wearing
it now, nor had I paid much attention at all to any of my clothing.
When I looked at Tyler I noted that he was wearing his outfit from
earlier today too. Weird perhaps, but not terribly important.

"Don't look at my underwear," I said.

"I didn't exactly mean to," he said.

"Well... just don't. That's such a pervy thing to
do."

"Yeah, 'cause that totally matters. I could do
anything right now and no one would ever even know."

As if to prove his point he came right up next to me
and reached out toward my chest. There was no way in hell I was
going to let him grab my boobs, if in fact that was his intent.
Whatever the case, I fended off his attempt and punched him hard in
the shoulder for good measure.

Then I woke up.

I lay in the dark for a moment while my mind went
back over everything I could remember about the dream. It might
just have been a coincidence, but that had been the second time I'd
tried to hit Tyler in the dream, and both times I'd woken up
immediately afterward. If it worked every time, at least I'd have a
way to get out of there when I wanted to, so that was
something.

I couldn't believe I'd dreamed up my brother trying
to get a feel in though, that was just weird.

****

At breakfast the next morning things were pretty much
normal, even if they didn't feel that way to me. I kept glancing at
Tyler who was innocently sitting across from me. It was like I was
expecting him to do something strange for some reason.

Both he and mom failed to pick up on my mood
thankfully, because I didn't want to have to make up a story for
why I was keeping my brother under surveillance. Mostly they
maintained a fairly constant conversation with very limited input
from me at any point. More than usual I appreciated the versatility
of a generic grunt when responding to questions.

Finally, after far too long in my opinion, I finished
eating and left the table. I knew I had some stuff that needed to
be sorted out in my head, but I didn't have the first idea where to
start.

****

"What the hell is wrong with me?" I said out
loud.

I'd gone to sleep hoping desperately I'd wind up in
some random, relatively normal dream, but no such luck. I was stuck
with the dream version of my brother once again.

"Maybe you just like me," he suggested.

"Not this much. And not after what you tried last
time." I sighed heavily. "You know the worst part? This is
basically all something I'm doing to myself when it comes right
down to it."

"Hey, I'm sorry about that, but I'm still pretty sure
this is my dream. At least that means you can blame it all on me,
right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, why don't I just do that.
That's the way to prove to myself I'm not crazy."

I sat down on the bed, noticing idly that the covers
still seemed to be a bit rumpled where I'd been lying last time.
Tyler stepped closer, but was apparently clever enough not to come
within arm's length.

"Whatever you want to think, that's fine," he said.
"But I meant what I said before, it really doesn't matter what we
do while we're here. It's not going to make any difference in the
real world."

"It makes a difference to me if I let my brother feel
me up, even if it's only in my head. Maybe it's worse if it's all
in my head actually, no one to blame but myself."

"Why not just pretend I'm someone else? I'm only
imaginary anyway, according to you."

"Oh, I've been trying to imagine you as someone else,
believe me. Pretending, well, that could work. Maybe. But I'm not
sure what I'd get out of it."

"I'll give you a back rub," he offered. "Then you let
me touch your boobs. Win-win."

It actually was more of an intriguing suggestion than
I was expecting. I did love my back rubs, and real-life Tyler had
used that fact more than once to get something he wanted from me.
The question was whether or not it was worth it in this case. There
were some serious mental scars to be had here if I played it
wrong.

"No talking," I said eventually. "No sounds of any
kind while you're touching me."

"Deal," he said far too quickly.

I settled in so I was comfortable on my stomach and
closed my eyes. As long as I didn't see or hear him, the guy
positioning himself on the bed next to me might as well have been
anyone at all. It was my dream after all, and just because my
imagination didn't want to cooperate shouldn't mean that I couldn't
have any fun.

Tyler gently placed one of his hands on my back and
started running it up and down in a slow, semi-random pattern. It
didn't take me long to feel the relaxation kicking in, which was
kind of weird considering I was technically already asleep. Still,
I did have to admit that over the years my brother had done a good
job of learning exactly what I liked, and his dream version
apparently shared his skill.

For some reason I found it nearly impossible to
imagine anyone else rubbing my back like I'd planned. Maybe Tyler's
technique was just too unique, or maybe my imagination sucked even
more than I thought. The latter seemed more likely considering the
lack of originality in my dreams lately.

Dream chronology always tended to be difficult to pin
down, but this time in particular I had absolutely no idea how much
time was passing. Mostly I just luxuriated in the feeling of
getting an awesome back rub. It was quite disappointing when he
stopped.

"Okay, time's up," he said. "My turn."

I rolled onto my side and pouted at him. "Aw, but I
was having so much fun."

"I know you were, but, like I said, my turn now."

He reached toward my breasts, and I had a sudden urge
just to punch him and see if that would wake me up again. Some part
of me thought that was playing just a little too dirty though and
instead all I did was watch as my brother happily grabbed my tits.
The plan had originally been not to look at him while he did it,
but it didn't really make that much difference anyway. I'd still
know it was him.

Strangely, the experience was not nearly as gross as
I might have expected. Maybe having just received a back rub
helped, both because it helped put me in a good mood and because it
demonstrated that being touched by my brother could be quite nice
at times.

It was, however, a little disconcerting when my body
began reacting to the way Tyler was squeezing and toying with my
breasts. My nipples stiffened noticeably as his fingers brushed
across them repeatedly, and I felt myself flush ever so slightly.
Brother or not, he was getting more of a reaction out of me than I
liked.

"Okay, that's enough," I said.

"Uh uh, it hasn't even been close to as much time as
you got," he said.

"I said that's enough."

Tyler looked completely unready to give up his toys,
so I went back to the plan I'd rejected earlier and took a swing at
him. As soon as my fist connected I woke up in my bed, with only a
slight regret at not getting to see his face when I did.

I was kind of annoyed to find that my nipples were
still as hard as they'd been in my dream, and that I was more than
a little turned on. Obviously I needed to get my mind more firmly
under control and stop these stupid, relentless dreams from taking
over.

****

I gave Tyler a dirty look when I first saw him the
next day. I knew he didn't really deserve it, but it made me feel
better. He just seemed confused and shrugged it off.

However, throughout the day on the few occasions when
we were around each other, I almost got the sense that he was
watching me more than usual. It could have just bee my own
perceptions that were off, considering I'd been watching him more
than usual lately too. Or it might have been because he was still
trying to figure out what he'd done to annoy me. Well, he could go
right on wondering for all I cared. I wasn't about to explain it to
him.