In my Dreams by Courtney Barnes (each kindness read aloud .txt) 📖

when they have sleepovers,” Derrick said, filling us in.

“They do, I’ve seen it in movies,” Pete said, defending himself.

I laughed. “In the movies maybe, but not in real life. I hate to break it to you, but I wear flannel pants and a tank top to bed. And I have never had a pillow fight.”

He looked stricken. “Are you sure? Maybe it’s just you?”

“Sorry, I don’t know any girl who has.”

He pouted, looking down into his can of Seven Up; the expression on his face resembled a child that had just been told there’s no Santa. The conversation was a little noisy then, Derrick and Cory started giving Pete a hard time.

There was a loud clatter behind us. We turned in the direction of the noise.

There was Logan and his friends laughing at Bobby Thornton, who was holding a tray of food, half on, half off his tray. “Looks like Logan strikes again. Isn’t it hilarious to knock someone’s food on the floor?” Cory asked dryly.

“What a douche bag,” Emma said from beside me. “Oh look Sarah,” she pointed at Lucas who was walking toward Bobby from his table to help him pick up his food. She leaned over to whisper in my ear, “isn’t that sweet.”

I nodded but didn’t say anything. The truth was, the more I saw of Lucas, the more I realized I was wrong about him. It made me feel things that I didn’t want to feel. Of course, the dreams didn’t help either. But I was learning that Lucas was a good guy.

In history class, Lucas stopped at my desk on the way to his. “So how was work Saturday?” He leaned against Wally Marten’s desk, who sat across from me.

“Fine, how was the rest of your shift?”

He chuckled. “You mean after I embarrassed myself in front of Vice Principal Samson? It was okay.”

I laughed at him.

“Oh great, now you’re laughing at me.”

“You’re right, I am.” I picked up my pen and twirled it around on my book; feeling the need to do something with my hands.

Mr. Henderson came in and told everyone to take our seats. Lucas smiled and went to his desk just before Wally sat down.

I peeked at Emma, who sat on the other side, and was not surprised to see her grinning at me from ear to ear.

I had to work after school. It was slow on Mondays, so the clock ticked by at an extremely slow pace. I was ripping tickets today, so I was working alone.

At break time, I was in the small kitchen having a bottle of water and a hot dog. The room consisted of a sink, a microwave, a vending machine, and an old fridge. I was sitting at one of the two tables in the room, it wasn’t exactly pretty, but it did the job. There was a chair I could sit on and rest my feet, and that was all that mattered.

Marcy Becker walked in just as I was taking a bite of my hot dog; juice from the wiener fell onto my pants. I rubbed the spot with a Kleenex thankful that the pants were black.

“Hey Sarah, have you worked with the new guy?” Marcy asked as she plugged change into the vending machine, and chose an Iced Tea. She was a grade lower than me, but we went to the same school. She was tall though, so you couldn’t really tell she was younger. Her long black hair, milky skin and gray eyes, attracted a few boys from our school; they would hang around the theater while she worked. She’d been here about six months.

I swallowed the bite of hot dog that I was chewing, and answered, “You mean Zack, yeah last week on sales.”

She sat down beside me and opened her drink, tossing the lid onto the table. “I worked with him the night he started, he seems nice enough.” She glanced around to make sure we were alone. “Did you know him before he started here?”

“No, why?”

She looked uncomfortable with what she was about to say. “Well the first night he worked with Susan, she was training him.” Susan was our assistant manager. “She introduced us, and told him what school I went to, and that a few of us went there. When she mentioned your name, he looked like he recognized it.”

I didn’t know what she was getting at. “So,” I encouraged her, she seemed reluctant to continue.

Again she looked around the room and tapped the tabletop with her fingers nervously. “Well, we had a break together that night, and he was asking questions about you, I thought it was a little weird, since you hadn’t met yet.”

I had to admit it was a bit strange. “What kind of questions did he ask?”

“Oh, just what grade you were in, how old you were, and this is a bit odd since he’s never met you but… he asked if you were seeing anyone.” She gave me a guilty look and added. “I said no, is that okay? I didn’t know what to say.”

I gave her a small smile. “No it’s fine, what were you supposed to say, but it is kind of strange.”

“I know, right? After that, he seemed okay, I worked with him on the weekend, and he was fine, actually fun to work with.”

I was a little stunned, and didn’t know what to say next. Marcy looked at her watch. “Crap. I’ve kept you in here talking so long, I think your break is up.”

I glanced at the clock. “Yep, I’ll see you later.” Hurrying out the door, I went back to work.

The rest of the night went by faster, since I was in kind of a daze. Why would Zack ask those questions before he even met me? I could see if I was the only name mentioned, but Marcy said Susan had named all the kids that went to Hamilton High from here. She also said he acted like he recognized my name, although we never met until last week.

It became very busy, so I pushed the new guy to the back of my mind and focused on work.

When my shift finally ended, I headed out to my car where I parked it, in the lot, beside the building. As I was walking through the quiet lot, I heard a noise. It sounded like a bottle being kicked. I turned around to see if anyone was there, but all I saw were abandoned cars. Awareness crept over me, and all the hairs on my neck stood on end. I stood still, holding my breath for a couple of seconds, listening. The only sounds I heard were the distant cry from a cat, and cars whizzing by on the highway. “Hello, is anybody there?” I called quietly. No one answered. I took a few deep breaths to try and calm myself.

When that didn’t work, I ran the rest of the way to my car. I started the engine and took off, going faster than I needed to. Man I was freaked. I just wanted to get home. I couldn’t shake the feeling I had when I was in the parking lot, the feeling of being watched.

I pulled in my driveway still a little anxious, so this time I didn’t hesitate, I just ran to the house, and though the door.

“Hey honey, how was work?” my dad asked me from behind. I was standing with my hand on the door handle.

I turned around. “Um, kind of slow, I’m tired though, goodnight.” I started to walk past him, but he held his arm out to block my path.

“What’s wrong, you look upset?”

“Nothing’s wrong, I just had a long night.” When he didn’t look convinced I added, “I swear.”

“Okay, but if you need to talk, let me know.”

“Dad!” Alex called from the living room. “Are you bringing the chips or not?”

Dad looked at me with a guilty expression. “We’re having a guitar hero competition, want to join? It’s been awhile since I whipped your butt at the game.”

I smiled, cheered a little by my father’s childish hobbies. “No thanks, I really am tired, I’m going to bed.” I turned, walking toward the stairs, and then stopped. “Oh, where’s mom?”

“She’s at a staff meeting at school, she’ll be late.”

“Okay, tell her that I said goodnight.”

I turned back and headed up to my room, where I changed into a tank top and pj pants, and then climbed into bed, to restless to do anything else. Of course I couldn’t fall asleep though, simply tossing and turning until I eventually drifted off.

I opened my eyes, and looked around. I stood in the back yard with Lucas again. We were in the moonlight, dancing as usual, but this time I heard something, the squeak of the gate opening. I looked over his shoulder and saw someone running towards him with a butcher knife in his hand. “NOOOO!” I screamed, just as the hooded man thrust the knife into Lucas’ back. It was too late save him; Lucas lay in my arms, staring up at me with dead eyes.


Ch.7 Panic

I woke up screaming, to the feeling of someone rubbing my back. “It’s okay Sarah, it’s only a dream.” It was my mother, speaking to me in gentle tones. She held me until I calmed down. Her warm embrace use to soothe me when I was a child, but this wasn’t a scraped knee or a failed grade. Honestly I wasn’t sure what was going on. I just knew she couldn’t help me.

When the tremors that had overtaken me subsided, I pulled away. “I’m okay, Mom.”

Her narrowed eyes and raised eyebrow told me that she didn’t believe me. “Are you sure? I could hear you screaming from the kitchen, I just got home. What were you dreaming about?”

The idea of repeating the horrible nightmare made my