***
My eyes are sluggish to open. They can tell it isn’t bright enough to get up yet, no matter how loudly the alarm whines. I groan as I rolled over and tap my cell phone to get rid of the obnoxious noise. The temptation to roll back over and bury myself in my blankets pricks at my tired mind.
I went to bed unnecessarily early last night at my mom’s insistence, but I still feel exhausted. Images of rain and strange reflections dance around in my head, pinpointing the source of my grumpiness. Ever since the summer when a series of terrifying dreams brought to light the gruesome truth of my family’s history, I have despised dreaming. No matter what the focus of the dreams, I have tried everything I can to escape them. A valiant effort, to be sure, but a pointless one. Banishing my ability to dream has proved impossible.
As I drag myself out of bed, I wonder about the bizarre dream of the girl at the window. Or was it two girls? I’m really not sure. It made no sense, and all it seemed to accomplish was ruining my sleep and putting me in a bad mood for my first day of school in Grainer. I was perfectly excited last night.
“Arra,” my mom calls through my door, “are you up?”
“Yes, Mom,” I call back, my voice filled with irritation.
“I’ll have breakfast in twenty minutes, so be quick.”
I roll my eyes instead of answering and trudge to the little bathroom attached to my bedroom. As I go through the motions of showering and getting dressed, I try to recapture my good mood from last night.
It isn’t nerves that have me anxious. Sure, it’s a new school, but I have already been here all summer and know everyone in the junior class. A small town like Grainer makes that fairly easy. I met everyone at the summer bonfire on the beach the first week I was here. Thinking of the bonfire does lift my mood out of the mud just a little. That was one event I never thought I would survive to attend, thanks to my impending death at the hands of an ancient Aztec god.
I am putting on the last of my makeup when my cell phone starts singing. I recognize the ringtone meant for Tanner and hurry over to pick it up. I smile when I see Tanner’s grin staring back at me.
“Hey, Tanner. What’s going on?”
I’m really hoping that he isn’t cancelling his offer to walk me to school. I have no fear of getting lost—Grainer isn’t that big—but I feel better about walking onto the new campus with him there to back me up, just in case. There have been no strange or unusual occurrences since my birthday, but that edgy, get under your skin feeling has been plaguing me since I woke up.
“Just making sure you were up and ready to go. I know you used to start school a lot later in Manhattan, so I just wanted to be sure you weren’t still asleep,” Tanner says mockingly.
I was a few minutes late to our archery practice session last week. Okay, half an hour late. It was an accident, though. It’s hard to pay attention to the time when I start listening to my grandpa’s stories. I have the feeling Tanner isn’t going to stop teasing me about it any time soon.
“Ha, ha. I am perfectly capable of waking up on time without your help.”
“Hmm,” Tanner said, “that’s too bad. I was half tempted to sneak through your window last night just to make sure you got up on time this morning.”
That thought banishes every sour emotion from my mind. “Tanner, don’t joke about that,” I beg. “It’s too tempting to take you up on an offer like that.”
And I mean it.
The first week I was here, when I was struggling to figure out how to break the curse on my family in time to save my life, I was so terrified of going to sleep the night before my birthday that I asked Tanner to stay with me. Even as overwhelmed as I was by everything, lying in Tanner’s arms was a haven of safety and calm. I’ve never felt anything like that before.
“Arra,” Tanner says softly. The ache in his voice cuts right to my heart. He doesn’t continue, but I know what he’s thinking because I’m thinking it too.
“Are you still coming to pick me up?” I ask quietly.
“Of course I am.”
Attempting to distract myself from thoughts of being anywhere near a bed with Tanner, I say, “I you hurry, my mom is making breakfast. Probably strawberry covered pancakes. You know she’ll make twice as many as we need.”
Tanner laughs, knowing that my mom still cooks every meal as if my older brother David were still here with his bottomless stomach instead of away at college. “I’ll be over in five.”
We end the call after a quick goodbye and I hurry to finish getting ready. I am closing my bedroom door when a knock sounds on the front door. I call out that I will get it and open the door happily a few seconds later. I don’t even have time to say hello before Tanner pulls me into his arms and greets me with a kiss that continues his unsaid thoughts from earlier.
I’m not prepared when Tanner pulls back unexpectedly, and I reach up to bring him back. Tanner’s quick step back almost makes me lose my balance. I can’t understand why he would break off so fast until he speaks.
“Good morning, Mr. Malo,” Tanner says politely.
My eyes widen in embarrassment as I turn around to find my dad staring at us with his arms folded across his chest. He does not look pleased. It isn’t hard to read the words behind his expression. We will be having a chat when he gets home from work tonight. My shoulders droop, knowing I am going to be in trouble. Although, not half as much trouble as I would be if he knew Tanner had once slept over. It wouldn’t matter in the least that nothing more than a kiss had happened because I was too scared to even think about taking things further. I would be grounded for life, and Tanner…I don’t like to think about what would happen to Tanner.
Thankfully, my mom bustles out from the kitchen right about then. “Tanner!” she says happily. “Are you hungry? You’re welcome to stay for breakfast. We have plenty of pancakes.”
Even after being caught by my dad, Tanner and I both try and fail to suppress a laugh. Dad’s frown deepens even more, probably thinking we are laughing about being caught. I decide to bail as fast as I can before I get myself into any more trouble. I grab Tanner’s hand and drag him toward the kitchen, mumbling a hasty “good morning” to my dad on the way.
Mom seems a little confused by Dad’s hostility toward Tanner through breakfast, but no one bothers to explain. Tanner and I both eat rather quickly and make an exit before my dad decides to break his silence.
When we are finally outside and headed for the school, I turn a not-so-fierce glare on Tanner. “I am in big trouble because of you.”
“Me?” Tanner says innocently. Then his lips turned up in a devilish smile. “I wasn’t the only one doing the kissing back there. I don’t think I imagined you kissing me back.”
“No,” I say as I edge closer to him, “you didn’t.”
This time I am the one pulling him to me. My lips touch his softly, just brushing his lower lip. I feel his shoulders tense as he tries to stop himself from grabbing me. I kiss him again, this time pulling him closer to meet my lips fully. Tanner’s hands slide down to my hips. His grip makes it clear that he wants to take the lead, but he forces himself to hold back. Lifting up on my tiptoes, I finally give him what he wants, crushing myself against him and deepening the kiss to where we left off before breakfast.
Dropping back to my heels a few minutes later in order to break the kiss, it takes me a moment to regain my breath and remember how to speak again. “From now on,” I say rather breathlessly, “no more kissing me at the door.”
Tanner’s breath brushes against my ear as he exhales. “I’m sorry I kissed you in front of your dad like that.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I say. I’m certainly not.
“I’ll just make sure not to do it in front of your dad anymore, okay?” Tanner pulls back and looks down at me worriedly. “Is he really that mad?”
“Did you see his face?”
Tanner grimaces. I try to soften my words by reaching up and looping
my hands behind his neck. “Just give him a few days to cool off, okay? I’ll talk to him tonight, but it might be best if you meet me at the corner for a while.”
“You mean, no more pancakes?” Tanner pouts.
I roll my eyes and start pulling him down the street. “Let’s not make things worse by being late for school.”
“Fine, fine.”
We only make it one more block before Tanner asks, “Hey, was everything okay when I called this morning? You didn’t sound like yourself.”
I look over at him, surprised he could tell just from my voice that I’d had a rough night. Pulling a little closer to him, I lean my head against his shoulder. “It was just this weird dream. You know how much I dislike dreaming these days. This one was more bizarre than usual and I didn’t sleep well.”
Tanner looks over at me with concern. I can feel his arm tightening protectively around me. He’s very sweet, but I know he’s overreacting.
“It was just a dream,” I say, “no big deal.”
Tanner doesn’t look convinced. “What was it about?”
The desire to blow off his question and not talk about the dream is very tempting. In reality, it was strange, and talking about it might help me get it out of my mind.
“There was this girl sitting at a window, looking at her reflection. It was raining and the reflection looked like it was crying. The girl seemed pretty upset, though, and she started crying, too.” I stop, attempting to shake off the strangeness of the dream. Failing, I continue. “The weird thing was, the girl put her hand up to the window like she was trying to touch the reflection. Then she held her hand over this odd looking rock. She didn’t touch it, just held her hand over it. When she turned away from the window, the reflection didn’t move. It just kept watching her walk away.”
Tanner’s brow knits together as he considers what I’ve told him. He seems to be trying to puzzle it out, but he just shakes his head after a while. “That is pretty weird. I wonder what it meant.”
“Why does it have to mean anything?” The last thing I want is another dream with a hidden agenda.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Tanner says, “I just meant that I wondered what brought it on.”
“Well, at least she didn’t look like me.” That was actually a huge relief. The dreams from the summer all featured a young woman who looked almost identical to me.
Tanner laughs. “No kidding. What did she look like?”
“Blonde hair, green eyes, pale skin, beautiful. Pretty much the exact opposite of me,” I assure him.
“Except the beautiful part,” Tanner says before stealing another kiss.
I smile as we finally cross onto the high school campus. Actually, it’s the junior high and high school campus, since there are so few students here, but no one seems to mind. I see brand new little sixth graders talking with seniors. Everyone seems to be mingling regardless of age. The sight makes me wonder where Tanner’s little sister is. He mentioned she had to be at school earlier for some student council meeting, but I thought she’d be done by now. As I scan through the milling students, my eyes catch on an unfamiliar girl standing alone.
About to ask Tanner who she is, my whole body dives into panic mode the second she turns toward me. I can’t move. I can barely breathe. My eyes refuse to blink, yet my fingers are strangling Tanner’s. I can feel my head getting lighter, about to check out entirely.
Suddenly, Tanner is right in front of me with a completely freaked out expression on his face. “Arra, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Why aren’t you blinking?”
“I…it’s …” My throat seizes up. I know I am seconds away from passing out.
“Arra, breathe,” Tanner commands. “You’re really freaking me out, and your dad is never going to let me see you again if I have to tell him you passed out at school. He’ll be convinced it was my fault. Breathe, please breathe, Arra.”
The possibility of being kept away from Tanner is just barely enough to override my panic. My lungs finally suck in a huge breath of air. My head still feels woozy, but Tanner’s eyes begin to lose their sheen of panic. He pulls me against his chest and holds me until my breathing finally returns to semi-normal.
When it does, he pushes me back and stares at me. “What just happened? Do I need to call your dad?”
I shake my head violently.
“Then what happened?” he demands.
“It’s her,” I squeak, the shock stealing my voice.
“What?”
With trembling hands, I turn Tanner toward the lonely girl. He watches her for a moment before turning back to me with a shrug. “It’s her!” I say again. “The girl from my dream!”
Also by DelSheree Gladden
The Handbook Series
The Crazy Girl’s Handbook
The Oblivious Girl’s Handbook
Eliza Carlisle Mystery Series
Trouble Magnet
The Catalyst
The Arcane Wielder Series
Life & Being
The Ghost Host Series
The Ghost Host: Episode 1
The Ghost Host: Episode 2
Escaping Fate Series
Escaping Fate
Soul Stone
Oracle Lost
(Coming Soon)
Twin Souls Saga
Twin Souls
Shaxoa’s Gift
Qaletaqa
The Destroyer Trilogy
Inquest
Secret of Betrayal
Darkening Chaos
Someone Wicked This Way Comes Series
Wicked Hunger
Wicked Power
Wicked Glory
Wicked Revenge
The Aerling Series
Invisible
Intangible
Invincible
The Date Shark Series
Date Shark
Shark Out Of Water
The Only Shark In The Sea
Shark In Troubled Waters
About the Author
DelSheree Gladden was one of those shy, quiet kids who spent more time reading than talking. Literally. She didn't speak a single word for the first three months of preschool, but she had already taught herself to read. Her fascination with reading led to many hours spent in the library and bookstores, and eventually to writing. She wrote her first novel when she was sixteen years old, but spent ten years rewriting and perfecting it before having it published.
Native to New Mexico, DelSheree and her husband spent several years in Colorado for college and work before moving back home to be near family again. Their two children love having their cousins close by. When not writing, you can find DelSheree reading, painting, sewing and trying not to get bitten by small children in her work as a dental hygienist. DelSheree has several bestselling young adult series, including "Invisible" which was part of the USA Today Bestselling box set, "Pandora." The “Date Shark Series” is her first contemporary romance series, now joined by her first romantic comedy, “The Crazy Girl’s Handbook,” and the comedic “Eliza Carlisle Mystery Series.”
Connect with DelSheree Gladden Online
Newsletter: https://eepurl.com/C35Q5
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDelShereeGladden
https://www.delshereegladden.com/
https://twitter.com/DelSheree
https://www.pinterest.com/delsheree/
https://plus.google.com/+DelShereeGladden/posts?cfem=1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvhRQvJy3KJhllsepnX6ogQ/videos
https://www.linkedin.com/in/delshereegladden
https://delsheree.tumblr.com/
https://writepublishrepeat.libsyn.com/ (podcast)
Thank you for reading
books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends