Disclaimer- The fabulous characters of my story, with the exclusion of a few, belong to the wonderful Stephenie Meyer and come from her Twilight series.
A/N- So, I had this chapter written out, and then, to make a long story short, saw a bug on my leg, jumped up screaming, my laptop fell to the floor, turned off, and all of my hard work vanished. I am absurdly frightened of insects. So I had to do it all over again. I'm pretty sure the lost version was better, but, I hope you still enjoy. Thanks to everyone for reading! Leave me some reviews, tell me what you think.
"This is a terrible way to spend the day…are you trying to torture us for some reason?" Seth groaned as he, Leah, and Sue joined us.
"We want to spend the day together…this is a good way to pass the time," Rachel argued for the fourth or fifth time.
"Don't worry Seth, you'll spend the whole day checking out girls anyway…if we were stuck inside, who would you look at?" Leah rolled her eyes dramatically.
Seth mulled this over while Emily finished getting the baby situated in his stroller. The girls had decided today would be spent walking around the mall. Of course we, as in all of the males, had immediately suggested we be left behind; but Rachel wouldn't hear it. She insisted we should all be together, and no amount of complaining had swayed her.
I hadn't complained quite as much as the others. Not because I had any desire to be here shopping with a bunch of girls; the idea was just as mind numbing to me as it was to the rest of the guys. No, my mind was just otherwise occupied.
Last night, like so many nights for so long that I couldn't remember it having ever been any different, I had dreamt of her.
The dream started the same as all the others. I walked to the line of trees. She stood in the clearing, looking up at the sky. Eventually I walked over to her. After a few minutes of standing motionless, she looked at me and smiled.
Then we started walking through the forest, side by side. We often did this too. She looked forward, while my gaze alternated from the forest floor to her, then back. There was a soft mist in the air, most of the rain trapped up above in the canopy of trees. And then she stopped. I halted just a few steps from her.
This was where the dream changed. She folded herself gracefully to the ground, sitting Indian style. I looked at her curiously, but she never met my gaze. She picked up a twig and began doodling in the dirt.
Finally I sat down next to her, looking down. She didn't draw anything specific, just lines, squiggles, random shapes. I looked at her face. She was frowning; not as if she were sad, but like she was concentrating very hard. Her eyes never left the ground in front of her.
Then the scene changed. Not the way it would in real time, but very abruptly, as if the dream had suddenly been put in fast forward. The hazy gray light that surrounded us turned to a dazzling jade, and the forest looked as it did on the rare occasions the bright sun made an appearance. I looked up and, through the few spaces I could find, saw brilliant yellow. I cocked my head to the side, wondering how the weather had changed so fast.
The rest happened very, very quickly. I looked at her, expecting that she would be surveying the quick change too. But she was still looking down, drawing. I looked back down at the ground. But instead of random squiggles there were letters, carved deep into the soil.
Not much further
And then I felt her hand rest lightly on my cheek. Electricity jolted through me. It burned shockingly where she touched. I gasped as I looked up. But I never even saw her expression.
That was when I woke up. A loud thud reverberated as I hit the ground. My breath came in gasps, sweat rolling down my forehead.
My first thought was, how did I fall out of bed. But it didn't take long for me to remember where I was. I had a lot less room to work with on Embry's couch.
Quil's snoring pulled me from that thought, and I laughed to myself, unsurprised that my loud tumble hadn't interrupted his absurdly deep sleep. Then my brain quickly brought the dream to the forefront. It replayed in my head as I caught my breath and untangled the blanket from my legs. And I had been analyzing it…or attempting to, at least…ever since.
We walked toward the entrance, Rachel, Rebecca, and Leah up ahead, Sue and Billy talking animatedly behind them, with Embry, Quil, Seth, Sam and I bringing up the rear.
As soon as we walked in Emily and Rachel made a beeline for the first clothing store they saw. I was pulled briefly from my current thoughts, recalling dismal memories of being forced to tag along with Rachel as a kid; I groaned. I had forgotten how she could shop.
"Just wait," Embry warned in a low voice. "She's got this entire place memorized."
Rebecca, Billy, and Sue followed them in, while the rest of us loitered outside.
"Em never makes me come shopping with her…I hope this isn't going to be a routine thing," Sam complained.
"Lucky you," Embry muttered.
This became a pattern; the girls would go into the stores, while we lingered outside. Billy went in the first few, then joined us, saying he couldn't stand to watch them compare over and over things that looked just the same, to him at least.
And I continued trying to figure out what this new dream meant. I had gone over it so many times. But it made no sense whatsoever. 'Not much further'…not much further where? What about the end, when she touched me. Not once had we ever touched in any way. After endless hours of trying to figure it out, and coming up with nothing, I was beginning to chalk it up to the fact that I was in an unfamiliar place; slowly I was convincing myself that that made some kind of sense.
At one point everyone entered one of the stores but me, Quil, and Sam and Seth.
"What's up Jake?" Sam asked quietly. I had been expecting him to say something; one of them to say something. I had been almost completely silent the whole time.
I cleared my throat. "Nothing. I just…had a weird dream."
Quil's eyes narrowed suspiciously. He knew that I had the same dream every single night.
"What kinda dream?" Seth probed.
I did not want to try to explain something that even I didn't understand. And I didn't want them trying to analyze it too.
"Well Seth, I dreamt that you got all your cars done on time. But then I looked up at the sky and saw pigs flying…and I understood. That's when I woke up." Seth and I joked about this all the time; I knew it wouldn't hurt his feelings.
Quil and Sam snorted with laughter, while Seth scowled, muttering 'shut up' under his breath and punching me hard on the arm.
But the laughter didn't last long, and soon Quil was eying me skeptically. I saw him open his mouth to speak.
Luckily everyone poured out of the store then, chattering loudly. I walked up and started a conversation with Rebecca, vowing to pay more attention to the group, hoping that would keep him off my back.
We continued through the many stores, the girls accumulating a staggering amount of bags. Seth, true to Leah's word, checked out most of the female population that passed us by. A few of them smiled back at him, and he usually winked. When he did, Embry, Quil, and I would make loud woo-hooing noises, which usually elicited a blush from the girl, and a scowl from Seth.
After a couple hours of this, we started complaining about getting some lunch. The girls agreed, and we began making our way to the food court. Quil, Embry and I started talking about a game we wanted to see. Quil luckily seemed to have forgotten our earlier subject.
That's when I first felt it. Not exactly a pain, but a sort of uncomfortable fluttering in my stomach. It felt almost as if I were going to be sick. I stopped walking, and cocked my head to the side as the strange feeling hit again, trying to figure out what exactly it was.
"You ok?" Sam asked, stopping next to me, putting his hand on my shoulder.
"Uh…" I shook my head to clear it a little. The strange feeling didn't let up. "Yeah…I'm ok. Stomach just feels kinda weird. I'm probably just hungry." I shook my head one more time, then resumed walking.
"You hear that girls…your shopping is making Jake sick. Maybe we ought to stop," Seth said with mock concern.
Rebecca turned to look at me. She raised her eyebrows, but I just shook my head. Everyone else continued walking.
We all ordered our food and sat down at a grouping of tables, quiet discussions going on throughout. I remained silent, eating my food slowly. The feeling came and went, and I was still trying to place what exactly it was.
It didn't really feel like I was sick. The feeling was only slightly sharp, but it couldn't be described as pain, exactly. It felt fluttery, like I was really nervous maybe. But more gripping, like if I actually were in pain. It wasn't a continuous thing throughout the meal, but every now and then it would hit again.
"Feel better?" Rachel asked when we had finished and were making our way to the upper level.
I smiled at her. "Yeah," I lied. "Must have just needed to eat."
We stopped at another store. Sam, Quil, Embry and I stood over to the side of the entrance.
"You're gonna have to sell that new house to cover Rachel's shopping," Quil chuckled, shaking his head.
Embry rolled his eyes. "How many pairs of shoes can one person own? Do you know that girls will buy a pair of shoes just to go with one outfit? Just the one! And of course Rach has millions of outfits, and then there's…"
His voice stopped suddenly. He probably didn't stop speaking. But my brain registered nothing else. Because the pain came again, and this time it was so, so much worse.
It wasn't just a fluttering anymore. It felt like a knot in the pit of my stomach, but it was as if it were pulling and tearing at my insides. The pain was sharp, searing. I doubled over, gasping. I closed my eyes. My head started spinning like crazy, making me feel like I would throw up.
"Jake?" I don't know which one of them it was. I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I opened my eyes, but the floor in front of me spun sickeningly, and I quickly closed them again. My chest burned, and I realized I wasn't breathing. I took a deep gulp of air, bracing myself against my knees.
My stomach was aching, sharp pain mixed with the fluttering mixed with burning. I was sure every bad feeling you could have was now occurring on the inside of me.
Another hand on my back. "Jake, what is it? What's wrong?"
More burning. Another deep breath. I felt beads of sweat forming rapidly across my brow. My hands gripped my knees so tight that I was sure it should be painful, but there was nothing that could overshadow whatever this was. My heart was beating so fast, the sound so loud in my ears.
"Are you ok?" Not one of the guys. This voice was female.