Coral woke before the sun.
For a long moment, he lay still, staring at the pale ceiling while the memory of the dream pulsed softly inside him. Not like something imagined, not like something fading, but like something alive that had settled in his chest and refused to let go.
The room was silent. The world had not yet begun its morning noise. It felt like even the air was waiting.
Coral pushed himself up slowly, his heart beating with a strange mix of fear and hope. The dream returned in fragments. The light. The warmth. The voice that felt like truth. The face he somehow knew without ever seeing before. The presence that had wrapped around him with a love no human being had ever offered him.
And he knew.
This was not just a dream.
It was a calling.
He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, feet touching the cold floor. His hands trembled as he pressed them together. Not out of habit. Not because someone taught him. But because something inside him already knew this posture, as if it had been waiting for this moment for years.
He closed his eyes.
At first, there were no words. His throat tightened, his mind overflowing. For a moment, he wondered if he was doing it wrong, if God might turn away. But then he remembered the way Jesus had looked at him in the dream. Gentle. Certain. Steady. Like leaving had never once crossed His mind.
Coral took a shaky breath.
"Jesus," he whispered. "I do not know how to do this. I do not know what to say. But I want you."
The moment the words left his lips, something loosened inside him. A knot he had carried for so long he forgot it was there began to unravel. Warmth rose slowly through his chest like new sunlight.
"I want to belong to You. I want to be Yours. Take my life. Please take all of it. I give it to You."
His voice broke on the last word. Tears slipped down his cheeks before he could stop them. He wiped them away quickly, then let more fall because there was no point pretending anymore. Not here. Not now.
"I have been hurt. I have been scared. I have been angry. I have been running. I keep trying to fill something in me that no one can fill. Not friends. Not even Charlie. I need you."
He pressed his palm to his chest, feeling the ache and the relief crashing into each other.
"Please come into my life. I do not want to walk alone anymore."
The stillness in the room deepened. The silence felt holy.
A warm presence filled the space around him, gentle as a hand resting on his shoulder. He did not open his eyes, but he felt it. The same presence from the dream. The same love. The same peace. It washed over him until it felt like something inside him had been rebuilt.
For the first time in as long as he could remember, Coral did not feel empty.
He felt held.
He felt seen.
He felt forgiven.
A breath escaped him, long and shaking. The kind of breath that comes after years of holding in everything.
"Thank You," he whispered. "Thank You for loving me."
And as the sun began to rise outside the window, Coral knew something with absolute certainty.
His life had just changed.
Not because he tried harder.
Not because he fixed himself.
But because he surrendered.
And God answered.
Coral showered, dressed, and moved through the house with a quiet stillness that felt almost unfamiliar. The peace inside him was not loud. It did not rush. It simply rested in him, steady and certain.
His mother looked up from the kitchen table as he walked in.
"You are up early," she said, surprised.
Coral nodded and poured a glass of water. "I just… woke up feeling different."
Something in his voice made her pause. She studied him for a moment, her expression softening.
"You look different," she said. "In a good way."
Coral smiled, small but genuine.
On the walk to school, everything seemed brighter. The cool air. The morning light. Even the usual noise felt distant, as if it no longer had permission to weigh him down.
At the gates, students rushed past him in waves: voices, footsteps, laughter, chaos. But Coral walked through it with a steady peace anchored deep inside him.
He was not alone anymore.
That truth followed him like sunlight.
He walked toward the courtyard. The place that had felt heavy for days. Today it felt open, lighter somehow.
Across the courtyard, Charlie stood with a couple of friends. Coral saw him first. And for a moment, he simply watched.
Charlie looked tired. His shoulders tense. His smile was forced. His laughter was hollow.
Then Charlie's gaze drifted and found Coral.
The change was instant.
Charlie froze.
His smile faded.
His friends kept talking, but he didn't hear a word.
He stared at Coral like he was seeing someone familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
Coral hesitated. Part of him wanted to go over. Another part knew he wasn't ready yet. He needed to learn how to stand firm in his new peace before he tested it against old wounds.
So he kept walking.
Not away from Charlie.
But forward.
Charlie watched every step.
Confusion twisted his chest. Then fear. Then something that felt almost like awe.
Coral looked… different.
Not broken.
Not guarded.
Not lost.
He looked whole.
And it terrified Charlie.
He took a small step toward Coral without realizing it.
"Is he okay?" one of his friends asked.
Charlie swallowed hard. I… I don't know.
Coral reached the building entrance and paused, turning slightly toward the light streaming through the trees. He breathed quietly, peacefully.
Charlie could not look away.
A sharp ache pulled at his chest.
For the first time, he felt something he didn't want to name.
Coral was changing.
And if Charlie didn't move, he might lose him. Not to another person. But to something deeper. Coral disappeared into the building.
Charlie stood frozen in the courtyard, the morning air suddenly too heavy around him. He finally understood the truth he had been avoiding. Coral was no longer his to anchor or break. And if he did not fight for him soon, he might not be part of Coral's new life at all.