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

what he deserves.”

“But won’t it look like I told my mommy on him? I’d rather just let it go.”

He grinned. “Or you could stay out of it; let things be, see what happens.”

“But since my mother is the vice principal, it will look like I told her, even if I didn’t.”

He thought about it. “I would love my parents to find out, and I can’t tell them.”

I didn’t know what to do. “I’ll wait and see if she say’s anything.” My phone beeped, I looked down, and read what Emma wrote out loud. “I heard that Lucas defended you and beat up Logan. Is this true?”

“Tell her that I gave him a black eye.”

“Okay. How about, you pulled him off me and threw him across the hall.” We both laughed. I glanced up and saw that we were now sitting in a driveway; I didn’t even realize we had stopped moving. When I was with him the world could go on without me, and I wouldn’t know it.

“Hey I’m a hero, I like it,” he said with a mischievous smile.

I sent Emma the message and then shoved my phone back into my bag. “So whose house is this?”

“Mine, but that’s not where we’re going.”

The house was a large red brick bungalow with an attached garage. A basketball net hung above of the garage door.

We got out of the car, and I followed him past his house into his back yard. On the edge of the yard, was a forest. He led me there and onto a path. The leaves had turned color, and were starting to fall. They made a crinkling sound as I stepped on them. “Are you taking me somewhere, where no one will find the body?” I asked as we moved further through the trees.

“I would never hurt you Sarah,” he said, his voice so heavy with emotion, my heart skipped a beat.

We walked a few more minutes until we came to a clearing.

I followed him up a small hill, where he stopped at the top. I stood beside him, and when I saw where we were, I gasped. We stood on the edge of a rock cliff, up about twenty feet. “Holy crap!” I said, backing away from the edge.

He laughed. “Don’t worry, you won’t fall.” He took his black leather jacket off and laid it on the cold ground. He sat on of the jacket with his feet dangling over the edge. Taking my hand, he pulled me down beside him. “Look,” he said, pushing my face forward.

Wow. Below where we sat, was a cascading waterfall with large boulders, and a variety of oak, maple and pine trees on either side. The leaves on the maple trees had changed color; they were a pretty red, orange and yellow. The rocks followed the edge of the stream of water as it flowed all the way down. The water crashed up against the side of the boulders, which caused the water to spray over the side. The scene was breathtaking.

“It’s beautiful,” I said softly, mesmerized by the view. I couldn’t look away. We sat silently on the edge of the small cliff, with our legs dangling. The only sounds were the roar of the water flowing down the rocks, and a couple of finches chirping in the tree branches above us. I felt like if we spoke, we would ruin the moment.

I turned my head to look at Lucas, he was staring at me, his face held a thoughtful expression. “I’m sorry about the other day. I know I hurt you, no matter how much you deny it.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine!” His words were filled with frustration.

“Um… what do you want me to say?”

He softened his tone. “The truth.”

I thought about it, and decided to go for it. “Yes, I was mad, and hurt that you didn’t show up. But I was more upset about your lame excuse. Playing basketball? I didn’t buy it, and it doesn’t explain why you didn’t talk to me for the rest of the day. It was your idea to have lunch with us anyway.”

His lips turned upwards into a half smile. “Now, there’s the Sarah I’ve been getting to know, the girl who would throw a book at me, when I was being rude, the girl who would tell my brother off, when he was being a jerk, twice.” I raised my eyebrows at him. “I was in the cafeteria when he cut in front of you.” He lay back on the grass and looked up at the sky. “I could tell you why I really didn’t show up, but I’m afraid it will freak you out.”

We sat for a while thinking to ourselves, he was lying on his back. I was sitting up watching the waterfall. “I’m afraid to ask. Is it that bad?” I ask wearily.

He sighed. “I wouldn’t say its bad, just embarrassing.”

“Tell me.” I held my breath waiting for his explanation.

He hesitated for a moment, and then started speaking so quietly I had to strain to hear him. “I had a dream of you the night we had lunch together. In it, you were killed. I saw your lifeless face, and it felt so real. I know you’re going to say it was just a dream, but it was as real as you, and I are sitting here right now. The dream was so intense that I felt that if I had stayed away from you. You would have lived.” He was quiet for a moment then slowly began again. “I rushed to school to make sure you were okay. On the way there though, I decided not to see you again, then nothing bad would happen to you.

I saw you in the hall, and I was so relieved that you were okay. But you looked so beautiful I couldn’t resist. In class when I was away from you, I could see your dead face every time I blinked. I had to try. I don’t know why, but I have this feeling that if we continue to see each other, something bad will happen to you.”

I was stunned; he was having the same dream I was. Why was this happening, and what did it mean? I opened my mouth to tell him that I shared his dream, but something stopped me. I suddenly felt the need to keep it to myself.

“Did I scare you away?” He sounded worried, so I turned to look at him.

“No, you didn’t scare me away. But are you saying you don’t want to see me?” And why did just the thought of that leave me feeling empty?

He took a few seconds to consider. “I should say yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. But I can’t, I’m drawn to you.” He smiled, and grabbed my arm to pull me down beside him.

Relieved by his words, I stared at the sky, watching birds fly overhead, and clouds morph into sheep, and one that looked oddly like the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters. I took a deep breath in and could smell the grass, dirt and the faint smell of pine from the trees near the waterfall.

I felt his fingers touch my face; I turned my head to look into his eyes. His fingers moving softly against my skin creating a spark that surprised, and excited me. He pulled my face towards him, and leaned up until he was just inches above me. “You sure you’re not scared?” he whispered.

“No, I’m not,” I meant my voice to be strong, convincing, but the words came out in a whisper. He grinned then leaned in touching his lips to mine. At first it felt wonderful, and familiar. Then he opened his mouth to deepened the kiss, and it became so much more.

When he finally drew away from me, I realized that I had never felt anything like that in my life. When he kissed me, I felt a buzz of awareness that told me, I had finally found the one thing, I didn’t know was missing

“Wow,” he whispered. “We’re going to have to do that again.”

I smiled and touched his cheek. “How about right now?”

He gave me a lazy grin. “That can be arranged.” He pulled me up, so I was sitting on his lap facing him, and tugged me forward for another kiss. I would have been happy to stay like this forever. He moved away from my lips, and gently kissed my cheek, my jaw and down my neck, it felt so good.

He took a deep breath. “Mmm, you smell like cinnamon.” He was about to start back up to my lips when my phone beeped. “Leave it,” he whispered, his breath tickled my neck as he spoke. He returned to his slow journey upwards.

I moaned. “What if it’s my mom?” My voice was so low I wasn’t sure he heard me.

He pulled back slowly. “Okay, we probably should get back to reality anyway.”

I looked down at my phone, it was from my mom. “Where are you!!!” It read. “She’s worried. I should call her. What time is it?”

He glanced at his watch. “Three o’clock. Would you stay with me for a while, we can order pizza? No one will be home until later, my parents work late, and Logan never comes home before midnight on Friday nights.”

I liked the idea of staying with him; I didn’t want to leave yet. “Sure, I’d love to.”

He smiled so beautifully it took my breath away. I climbed off of his lap and sat down on his jacket that was still spread out on the ground, and dialed my mom’s cell.

“Hello Sarah, where are you?” she answered on the first ring, she sounded worried.

“I’m fine mom, something happened at school, but I don’t want to talk about it. I was a little shaken up, so Lucas brought me to his house to calm me down. I’m going to hang out here for awhile, okay?”

“Do you mean when Logan harassed you? I heard about it, and he is in so much

trouble-”

I cut her off. “No mom, you’ll only make it worse. Can we talk about it later?”

She sighed. “Okay, but I won’t forget, and his parents will hear about this.”

“No, I don’t want that either, we’ll talk later.”

“Fine. So you’re with Lucas? What are you doing?”

I blushed, thank god she couldn’t see. “We’re just hanging out watching a movie,” I lied. I heard Lucas laugh softly.