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Enjoy the chapter!
Ch. 2 Dear Holder of My Dreams
(DREW)
"Ahem," the sound of my brother clearing his throat wakes both Clare and I up. I feel her sitting up rapidly and moving away from me a little.
"We just fell asleep, I had a nightmare and Clare woke me up then we were talking and fell asleep," I inform my brother.
"Uh-huh, just be glad I came down and not Mom," Adam replies but he's grinning.
"I should be getting home anyway," Clare says but she sounds a little nervous.
"No you should hang out, I'm not tired now," I tell her.
"Yeah Mom just made lunch, besides there's no one home at your house is there?" Adam asks.
"No Mom's at work," she responds.
"Then you should stick around to have lunch. We can take you home later when your mom gets home," Adam replies.
"Sure I'll at least stay for lunch. I'll help you bring it down," Clare says getting up to help Adam.
When they go upstairs I put my head back and close my eyes, I open them again when I hear the sliding glass door open. Fearing that it's Vince I jump a little but relax when I see that it's Bianca.
"What are you doing here?" I question her through gritted teeth.
"Vince and his boys were bragging about what they did," she says closing the door behind her. "I'm so sorry Drew he promised he'd leave you alone," she tells me with an apologetic tone but it only makes me angrier.
"So you're still with him. You wouldn't have heard all that if you weren't still with him. Get out Bianca, just stay away from me," I bark at her pointing at the door.
"Drew I…"
"GET OUT," I yell cutting her off. Yelling makes my head hurt and I lie down closing my eyes again. I hear the door close and assume she left but I also hear running down the steps.
"Drew are you okay?" Adam asks rushing down.
"Bianca stopped by I told her to get out, she wouldn't listen so I yelled it and she left but now my head hurts."
"I'll tell Mom not to call the cops and lock the basement door," Adam says.
I hear him lock the basement door and return upstairs. After a few minutes I hear them all coming down the stairs so I open my eyes. Mom gives me one of my pain pills with some water and hands me a plate with a sandwich, chips and carrot sticks.
"I'm glad you have nothing to do with Bianca anymore, that girl is nothing but a trouble maker," Mom comments as we begin eating.
"Mom please my head hurts enough as it is," I complain setting my food on the coffee table to wait for the pain pill to take effect before eating. Then I close my eyes and lie my head back on the sofa.
"So Clare any plans for break? Are you going to see your dad at all?" Adam asks her changing the subject.
"No plans and I doubt it I haven't really heard from him. He moved in with his…" Clare pauses and I open my eyes to look at her. She's searching for a word, biting her lip, her eyes shifted to a corner as she carefully chooses the right word. "His new girlfriend rather than share the house and condo with my mom and I hardly hear from him," she tells us with sad eyes.
"Just terrible what happened," Mom says and I close my eyes again.
Mom rambles on a few minutes about divorce while my eyes are closed hoping the pain medication works fast. By the time mom is done the pain pill has taken effect and I sit up to eat. I only eat a little but after yelling at Bianca I'm not feeling all that well. Clare only eats about half of her food too and then volunteers to help Mom clean up. Adam puts on another movie and I lie back with my eyes closed again, at least until I hear Clare returning down the stairs. She sits down and watches the movie with us, we watch in silence, Adam and Clare are both doing things on their phone and I lie back with my eyes closed once again. Only opening them when I hear Mom coming down the stairs.
"I just got a call from D.C. Brooks, Vince and two of his gang members were arrested. They want you both to identify them, I told them Drew wasn't up for coming down to the station so they'll be sending an officer over with pictures for you to view a little later."
"Okay," Clare nods.
"Are they going to stay in jail?" I ask.
"I'm not sure Honey they've been arrested and they're being detained. They'll charge them if they can and then it's up to a judge. You should rest until the cops get here. Do you need anything?" Mom asks and I shake my head.
I close my eyes again but now all I can see when my eyes are closed is Vince and his gang beating me up. My eyes shoot open once more and I jump a little causing Adam and Clare to look at me. I grin at them to reassure them that I'm fine and watch the movie. When I hear the doorbell ring I know the cops are here and I sit up, moving sucks right now and I bite my cheek to keep from groaning in pain in front of Clare. Both Clare and I are relieved to see Officer Turner come down the stairs with D.C. Brooks.
"Clare will you come look at the pictures upstairs with me?" D.C. Brooks asks and Clare nods. They go upstairs and Officer Turner sits down next to me holding a folder.
"Drew I'm going to show you some photos. You may or may not see photos of some of the boys who assaulted you. If you see one of them point out their picture but if you don't recognize anyone then tell me," Officer Turner instructs.
"Okay," I nod. Officer Turner opens the file and I look at nine pictures.
I study them all, none of them are Vince but I'm assuming that's because they know who Vince is. Looking at the faces I have to remember the beating yesterday. I close my eyes and see a clear vision of some of the faces as they surround me. My eyes shoot open again looking at the pictures.
"Him, he was there," I tell Turner pointing to one of the pictures, "but he's the only one I recognize. It was a little hard to see the faces after I was on the ground and hoping they wouldn't kill me. He hit me first though, him I remember."
"You did good Drew. When you feel up to it your parents can bring you down to the station for a recorded identification."
"Vince, and the two that you arrested, they'll stay in jail right?"
"Vince is getting charged with assault and so will the one you identified, if Clare is able to identify him or anyone else that will help too. All three of them do have records but it is ultimately up to the judge," Officer Turner tells me and I nod. I knew that already but I was still hoping someone could tell me that Vince would stay in jail. "I'll let you rest now," Officer Turner says getting up and nodding to Adam before he goes upstairs. A minute later Clare returns downstairs, I want to ask her if she recognized any of them but I don't.
For the rest of the afternoon we watch movies and TV quietly. I'm in and out of sleep all afternoon. Thankfully not falling asleep long enough to dream, I fall asleep for a few moments before waking up again.
"Clare," Mom says coming down the stairs late in the afternoon and we all look at her, "your Mom is on her way to pick you up."
"Thanks," Clare says and Mom goes back upstairs.
I don't want Clare to go, there's a comfort in having her here, an unexplainable comfort I've never felt before, certainly not with Clare. Before now she was Adam's friend, I saw her, said hi to her but never really paid that much attention to her. Now though our lives are linked by one terrible event.
"That's my mom," Clare comments standing up when we hear the doorbell. "See you guys," she waves before walking to the stairs.
"Bye Clare," Adam and I say together.
Not long after she leaves Dad gets home and we all eat dinner downstairs so that I don't have to move. Adam and I watch another movie after dinner and then Mom says I need to get to bed. I get up slowly and it hurts like hell, getting up the stairs and getting ready for bed isn't much better. At least mom brings me another pain pill once I'm in bed. It does help me sleep, at least it helps me fall asleep and I stay asleep for a few hours but then I wake from a nightmare about Vince. My eyes shoot open and I look at the patterns the moon and streetlights are making on my celling. I stare at them for a few minutes before a new light catches my attention, I turn my head and see that my phone has lit up alerting me to a text. I pick up my phone and see that the text is from Clare.
Clare: Are you asleep?
Drew: Not anymore.
Clare: I'm sorry did I wake you?
Drew: No I woke up from a nightmare a little bit ago. Can't sleep either?
Clare: I had a nightmare too. I know Vince has been arrested and charged, and the other guy I recognized was going to be charged but I still had a nightmare about it.
Drew: Yeah me too even under the influence of a pain pill. Looking at those pictures today didn't help, I had to see it all again.
Clare: Yeah me too. I had to try and remember their faces and saw it all again. Seeing them beat you up, trying to get them to stop, Vince's semi-threat. I saw it all again in my mind's eye when I had to look at the pictures and then I dreamt about it all tonight.
Drew: You know maybe you should file a restraining order too. The threat from Vince might be enough to grant you one.
Clare: Yeah maybe, although I don't put much confidence into a piece of paper being able to protect me. Still I'll talk to my mom about it in the morning.
Drew: Couldn't hurt. Anyway hopefully Vince and the others will stay in jail.
Clare: I know but all I can think about is what if they don't?
Drew: I know me too.
I decide that this talk is depressing and isn't going to help us sleep. So I decide to change the subject, only Clare has a lot more in common with my brother and I don't know what to talk to her about. After a moment I text her the only thing I can think of.
Drew: So what do you write about? Adam says you write.
Clare: It used to be vampire fiction but I haven't done that since last year. Now it sort of depends on my mood. Sometimes a short story, sometimes a poem, I'm working on a longer story but no one's seen it yet.
Drew: Why? Adam says you're a great writer.
Clare: It's really personal, I began writing it when my parents started with the divorce proceedings. Recently it began becoming about Eli as well.
Drew: It was a pretty epic breakup I can understand that. So what makes you happy besides writing?
Clare: Reading, watching old movies.
Drew: So things where you escape reality?
Clare: You think it's pathetic don't you?
Drew: I didn't say that. Everyone has their thing they escape into. For me it's video games.
Clare: There is one other thing that makes me happy but no one knows about it, not even Adam.
Her confession has me intrigued, a secret about Clare that not even my brother doesn't know.
Drew: Well now you have to tell me what it is. A secret that even Adam doesn't know about you.
Clare: Dance. I've been in classes since I was three.
Drew: So why doesn't anyone know? Is it like modern interpretive dance or something?
Clare: Lol no! Ballet mostly, some contemporary and tap. It's just a little embarrassing. I love dance but I get stage fright I've never performed before.
Drew: I can't believe you get stage fright. You always seem so confident and sure of yourself.
Clare: Because there aren't usually lights on me and an audience watching my every move. I know you love it though I see you when you play sports, you love having an audience.
Drew: Yeah I admit I do love being the center of attention. Well usually. So now that I know promise me something.
Clare: What?
Drew: You'll dance for me.
It takes several minutes for her to reply, apparently she has to think about it.
Clare: Okay but I don't promise when and we have to be alone.
Drew: Deal.
Clare: I'm getting tired again I'm going to try to get back to sleep. You should do the same.
Drew: Yeah I will. Goodnight Clare.
Clare: Night Drew.
She sends the last text with a moon and a bed emoji. I smile and put down my phone. I do get back to sleep and this time instead of dreaming of Vince and getting beat up I dream about Clare dancing.
(CLARE)
I wake up late Tuesday morning, after texting for almost two hours with Drew I was able to sleep without dreaming of Vince or his gang of creeps. After using the washroom and brushing my hair I go downstairs to get some breakfast and find Mom about to leave.
"Oh good you're awake I just left you a note. I'm going to meet with the contractor I'll be back in an hour or two."
"Uh contractor?" I question.
"Yes after your dad decided to move in with that…woman," Mom pauses before pushing the word woman through her teeth.
"You don't need to censor yourself around me Mom," I tell her as she takes a deep breath and she smiles at me.
"Well anyway he's given us the house and I've decided to renovate the downstairs. Not changing your childhood home just updating it a little. A fresh start in this old place for both of us."
"I guess that would be good. The downstairs is pretty old and dark," I remark looking around.
"That's the right attitude," Mom grins hugging me, "I'll be back in an hour or two. Oh, and you remember Glen and Jake Martin?"
"The Martin's had a cabin near us. Jake used to put frogs down my swimsuit," I comment making a face.
"You were kids I'm sure he's matured by now. Well Glen got divorced last year, he and Jake just moved here and I've hired them to do the renovations."
Mom takes her purse from the table in the entry and leaves before I can comment on this. I go into the kitchen and make myself frozen waffles for breakfast. After eating I get dressed and everything and just begin reading a good book in my room when the doorbell rings. I put my book down and go downstairs to see who's at the door and smile when I see that it's Alli. I unlock the door to let her in and she hugs me tightly.
"I was worried that I hadn't heard from you yet so I thought I'd stop by and see how you were doing after the disastrous Eli break up," Alli says taking my hand and pulling me up to my room. "Tell me you're not spending all week reading? Come out with me tonight Clare, we're young and hot and single let's have some fun, meet some cute guys. I can't drag Jenna out with me she's got baby Tyson," Alli complains sitting on my bed and I sit next to her.
"I was reading for about ten minutes when you came. But I don't really feel like going out tonight."
"Oh come on Clare. We'll go to Above the Dot or something. You broke up with Eli don't tell me you're still hung up on him."
"No it's not that," I shake my head.
"Then come out with me! Sav will drive us, we'll tell my parents he'll chaperone and then he'll go meet Holly J," Alli persists.
"I'm sorry Alli I just don't feel like going out after what happened on Sunday."
"The dance and Eli's Shakespearean drama was on Friday so what happened Sunday?" Alli asks.
"I was walking and found Drew getting beat up by this guy Vince and his gang. I ran over and told them to stop pulling one of them away and he pinned me to a car. I kneed him as hard as I could and then tugged at the one that seemed to be the leader. I told them to stop again and they did, they finally left but Drew had been beaten up really bad. I knelt down by him and watched his eyes roll back into his head. I thought he'd died," I confess as tears fill my eyes. "I called 911 and went with him in the ambulance, he's okay…well he's alive. He was beaten up bad, cracked ribs and a concussion being the worst of it. He spent the night in the hospital and was released yesterday but it was very scary."
"That's terrible, I'm glad Drew's okay, and so are you. No wonder you're not in the mood for going out. Why didn't you call me Sunday or yesterday to tell me this?"
"I wasn't thinking about much of anything else on Sunday, I was just worried about Drew. I didn't sleep well at all and yesterday spent most of the day at Adam's. It just felt better to be near Drew," I reply.
"Normally I'd think you were nuts for wanting to be near Drew but after what happened I can understand why you'd want to be."
"Thanks actually I think I'll go over there and see how he's feeling today," I tell Alli.
"Tell him I say hi and get better soon," Alli says.
"I will," I smile getting my shoes on.
I grab my purse and we walk downstairs together, going out the front door just as Mom pulls up followed by Glen and Jake. I recognize Glen right away but Jake is not the geeky kid I remember. Of course it has been five years since I've seen them. I'm also not the only one to notice that Jake is pretty hot now.
"Who is that? Maybe I should stick around a bit longer," Alli comments.
"Jake Martin, he and his dad are going to renovate the downstairs," I inform her just as Jake gets out of the truck.
"Hi Clare," Jake grins.
"Hi Jake," I nod back and Alli elbows me as her not-so-subtle way of asking to be introduced. "Jake this is my best friend Alli."
"Nice to meet you," he smiles before following his dad inside.
"Mom I'm going to Adam's," I inform her and she nods.
I wave to Alli and start walking to the Torres house. It's not until I've passed The Dot that I begin to feel nervous. Almost like someone is watching me, and then I remember Vince's semi-threat that he'd see me again. I know Vince is in jail but that doesn't mean one of his cronies isn't following me. I may just be paranoid but I run the rest of the way to the Torres house. I stop when I reach their yard and wait a few minutes to catch my breath before going to the basement door. It's unlocked of course and I walk in. Drew and Adam are playing video games.
"Hey Clare," they say in unison.
I say hi before getting a bottle of water from the fridge. I sit down and watch them play video games, it's a racing game but they turn it off after finishing the next race.
"Were you able to get to sleep last night?" Drew asks.
"Yeah after we talked," I reply and Adam gives us a look.
"Me too," Drew says to me before looking at Adam, "we both had nightmares."
"I didn't say anything," Adam shrugs.
"Feeling any better today?" I ask Drew.
"Yeah some, my head still hurts a lot though, and my ribs it kind of hurts to breathe because of the cracked ribs. Actually I think I'm going to lie down for a bit," Drew replies scooting down on the sofa so he can lie down.
"Clare want to help me make some lunch?" Adam requests.
"Yeah sure," I smile getting up. "Oh Alli says hi and to get better soon," I tell Drew and he nods just slightly to let me know he heard me but doesn't otherwise respond. I follow Adam upstairs and we begin making sandwiches for lunch. "Does it bother you that Drew and I were talking last night?" I ask Adam.
"Not at all. It's just kind of funny that's all. Before a couple of days ago you and Drew barely acknowledged each other."
"I know and we talk a lot about what happened but we were the only two there. Somehow it does help to talk to Drew about it."
"I'm just glad you both have someone you can talk to that understands. So when did you see Alli?" Adam questions.
"She came over a little while ago and wanted me to come out with her tonight but I told her I wasn't in the mood. Then I had to tell her why so now she knows what happened."
"Everyone's bound to find out by the time school is back in," Adam replies grabbing some pop from the fridge. We put everything on a couple of trays and take them downstairs. "Drew you need to eat something," Adam says and Drew opens his eyes sitting up a little.
I spend most of the day at the Torres house, Drew spends a lot of the day lying down with his eyes closed while Adam and I watch movies. A little after four my mom calls to tell me Jake will pick me up and we're all having dinner together.
"Jake's on his way to pick me up," I inform the brothers.
"Who's Jake?" Adam inquires and Drew opens his eyes to look at me awaiting the answer.
"His family used to have a cabin near ours. They've moved here and they're renovating our downstairs. Mom says we're all having dinner together."
"Good luck," Adam grins.
"It'll be fine, I mean before today I hadn't seen Jake in five years but before that I'd seen him every summer since I was three. Although I kind of doubt we have anything in common, and I think Mom is using it as an excuse for us to show them around because they just moved here. Still it'll be fine."
"Uh-huh, call me if you need back up I can come up with an excuse to get you out," Adam says and I give him a grateful smile.
After a couple minutes the doorbell rings, I say goodbye to Drew and Adam walks me upstairs. He opens the door to get a look at Jake.
"Jake this is my best friend Adam," I introduce them.
"Nice to meet you," Jake smiles politely.
I say goodbye to Adam and follow Jake out to his father's truck. He tells me we're meeting our parents at Swiss Chalet and I nod. The first few minutes of our ride are silent and awkward, I'm looking out the window searching for something to say.
"So you just moved?" I ask awkwardly but at least it fills the silence.
"Yeah last week."
"Cool, so where are you living now?"
"An apartment on Broadview."
"So you're going to DeGrassi then?"
"Yep, I start on Monday."
"Cool," I reply and then it's awkward silence again but thankfully we've reached the restaurant.
Mom and Glen do most of the talking over dinner which I'm glad about because it saves me from having to talk much. Mostly they talk about the work on the house but they also talk about me and Jake. I drive home with Mom in her car and watch TV for a bit before spending the rest of the night on my laptop, at least until I'm tired enough to fall asleep.
…My steps crush the wet grass beneath my feet making a soft crunching sound. When I hear the sounds of heavier footsteps just behind me my heart begins to race. I look back and I see a dark figure just behind me so I begin running but so does he. He catches my arm and spins me around, still I can't see him he's just shadow. I try to scream but no sound comes out and I'm sure he's about to kill me…
I wake up with a sharp gasp and then a sigh of relief when I look around my room and see that I'm safe. Without even thinking I grab my phone and call Drew.
"Yeah me too," he says when he answers.
"This one was different, it might not even have been about Vince. I understand why you're having nightmares they ganged up on you, beat you up badly but why am I having nightmares?" I sort of rant as tears run down my cheeks and I'm still breathing rapidly.
"Because you saw it Clare and they pinned you down and Vince said he'd see you again. So what was this one about?" Drew asks.
"Getting chased by a shadowy figure and not being able to scream."
"Yeah I've had those too, usually though it's just that they beat me to death in the street."
"We're never going to sleep if we keep talking about this."
"So what do you want to talk about?"
For the next couple of hours we talk about nothing really, music, food, friends, our exes. When we both start yawning we say goodnight and I'm able to sleep. That's how it goes for the rest of the week; every morning Jake and Glen come over to work on the house. They start making lots of noise around nine so I'm usually up by eight and out at half past. Either I spend an hour or so at The Dot having breakfast alone or I hang out with Alli for a couple hours until I figure it's safe to go to The Torres house. I spend a lot of time with Drew and Adam, mostly because I feel better, and hopefully so does Drew. I do help him prepare to go back to school, and I know it helps to have someone to talk to about it, someone who was there, when we feel like talking anyway. I get to sleep easily but have nightmares or disturbing dreams and if I don't Drew does have a nightmare, either way we spend an hour or two talking or texting each night. Usually about Vince and his cronies first and then whatever comes into our heads that isn't scary or depressing. A lot of vacant topics that don't require thought. I never do talk to Mom about getting a restraining order, both because I doubt I'll be granted one and if I was I don't think it would help. I'm home for dinner every night, Jake and Glen are here a lot for dinner since they've been working here all day. I don't mind it but Jake is attractive and he's almost always working without a shirt. If his dad wasn't always here too I would probably kiss him. Saturday night this doesn't become an issue.
"They went to look at tile samples and they're eating dinner out, Dad gave me money for pizza," Jake informs me when I walk in the house.
"Oh, okay," I reply slowly. Dinner alone with Jake could be quite awkward.
"What do you like on your pizza?"
"Anything but mushrooms, ham and sardines. Umm I'm just going to…do…some stuff in my room."
Yeah that wasn't awkward at all! I take the stairs two at a time to get to my room and close the door. Great, time alone with the cute shirtless boy working on my house. Maybe I can hide in my room all evening. I spend about an hour doing stuff on my laptop before Jake knocks on my door.
"Pizza's here," he calls through the door.
"Okay thanks I'll be down in a minute," I call back. I delay for several minutes before finally going downstairs. I take a plate and a couple pieces of the pizza, Jake kept it simple and ordered plain cheese, then I turn and start walking to the stairs.
"Afraid to eat with me?" Jake teases.
"No I just…you're not wearing a shirt," I reply without turning back around.
"So I'll put on a shirt," Jake replies. I don't want to be rude so I sit at the table and he sits right next to me. He even smells good this is just not fair! The first boy to even strike my interest since Eli and he's right next to me, smelling of sweat but it's a good smell. He did put on a shirt but he left it unbuttoned. "It'll take us two or three months to do this job so I'll be here every day after school and some mornings," Jake comments before taking a large bite of pizza.
"Okay," I mumble before I begin eating as well. I look at my food, anything not to look at Jake.
"You really don't like me do you," Jake comments suddenly.
"I never said that," I reply defensively.
"You wanted to eat in your room and you won't even look at me."
"It's not because I don't like you," I mumble back.
"Then what is it? Wait you like me," Jake grins and I bite my lip, "really like me."
"I didn't say that either. It's just that you're here all week with no shirt and now we're alone and all I can think about is kissing you," I blurt out and then feel like an idiot for doing so.
I'm about to just drop my pizza and run when Jake cups my face and captures my lips. A breath hitches in my throat and I stop doing everything for a second and then I start kissing him back. It's a deep kiss, not entirely passionate but it feels good, it's nice to kiss someone so deeply that isn't Eli. After a few minutes we break apart and each take a deep breath.
"You could have just said something. I've been thinking about kissing you since I saw you," Jake comments and I giggle.
We eat without things being awkward but we both laugh when our parents come in and they wonder why. Mom shows us the tile and sink she picked out before Jake and Glen leave.
"Did you have fun with Jake?" Mom asks and I feel my cheeks go red.
"Umm yeah sure," I reply quickly before going upstairs. I don't have a nightmare tonight rather I dream about kissing Jake. I do wake up when my phone rings and I know it's Drew so I answer.
"How bad was it?" I ask with a yawn.
"Same as most nights, they were beating me and they beat me to death."
"I'm sorry Drew. You want to talk about it?"
"Not really. Did I wake you up? No nightmare tonight?"
"No just dreamt about kissing Jake." It's odd how I can tell Drew things I'd never just blurt out to anyone else.
"That's better than a nightmare. So did you dream about that because he's been at your house so much?"
"No probably because we kissed tonight."
"Yeah that would do it. At least you didn't have a nightmare."
"So are you coming back to school Monday with the rest of us?" I ask just to get the subject off of me and Jake kissing.
"Yeah I think so, I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. I have an appointment at eleven and he'll do a thorough follow up, head exam and everything."
"Good. You've been doing better the last few days, physically anyway."
"Yeah feeling better. So about this kiss?"
"It was over pizza, it was more of an icebreaker really. What classes do you have this semester?" I don't really care I just want to change the subject.
We start talking about classes and school and soon Drew is tired enough to go back to sleep. We say goodnight and hang up, I fall back to sleep and have yet another dream about kissing Jake. I wake up late Sunday morning, I know Drew is at the doctors but I still go to the Torres house after I eat breakfast.
"Hey Clare," Adam smiles when I come in.
"Hi Adam," I smile back.
"Ready to get back to school tomorrow?"
"School yes but I'm not so thrilled to see Eli again. Have you talked to him?" I question Adam.
"Not a word, he did text when he got out of the hospital. I'm surprised you haven't been having nightmares about seeing Eli again," Adam remarks and I twist my mouth at him.
"I haven't been but I might tonight," I respond with sarcasm in my tone, "and I didn't have a nightmare at all last night."
"That's good, Drew wakes up yelling almost every night, but I guess you know that since he usually calls you after."
"Yeah he does, I've called or texted him though too. It's nice to have someone to talk to after the dreams."
Adam smiles before turning on the TV. We watch TV for about an hour before Drew and Audra get home from the doctor.
"Doc said I can go to school," Drew tells us with a slight scowl on his face.
"But you have to take it easy, and right now you need to rest. I'm going to make some lunch," Audra says before going up to the kitchen.
"So did you kiss Jake this morning?" Drew teases.
"You kissed Jake?" Adam exclaims.
"Last night, it was just a small kiss, an ice breaker really," I reply.
Adam laughs but we fall silent and watch TV, Audra brings us down lunch and we eat watching TV. After lunch we play Monopoly, it's an easy game that requires little thinking. While we're playing Mom calls to tell me she has an emergency at work and doesn't know when she'll be home, so Adam tells his Mom I'm staying for dinner. Adam wins Monopoly and we all eat together when Omar gets home. After dinner Drew, Adam and I go to the basement to watch a movie. It's an action movie and I soon get bored, and then tired and then I fall asleep.
"Clare, Clare wake up," Drew says shaking me gently. I wake up screaming, torn from the grim and hideous nightmare I was in. "You're okay it was just a dream," Drew assures me as he carefully sits down on the sofa next to me. Now that I've calmed down a bit I realize that the basement is dark and I've been covered with a warm blanket. It's probably been hours since I fell asleep during the movie.
"I didn't wake the whole house did I?" I inquire thinking that my screaming woke the household.
"No I had a bad dream too and came down to check on you. So I guess you weren't dreaming about kissing Jake tonight?"
"No, it was…dark, I was being chased and raped on the hood of a car. You were getting beat repeatedly and Eli was there. Not participating in any of that but he was holding me captive, trying to control me hurting himself when I was away from him."
"Scary. I didn't realize you were so worried about seeing Eli tomorrow."
"I wasn't, that is I hadn't really thought about it until Adam brought it up today."
"Sounds like my brother. Well since we're probably not going to sleep much for the rest of the night do you want to watch a movie? I promise not to but on an action move this time," Drew says and I smile.
"Yeah that sounds good."
Drew puts on The Princess Bride and sits close to me. I get comfortable and concentrate on the movie so that I'm not thinking about Vince or Eli.
Well obviously I didn't get to them going back to school in this chapter but that will begin the next chapter, I think this chapter is on long enough. I'll post the update as soon as I can however, after I post the update for Love Me Back to Life, sometime this weekend, I'm going to take a day or two to plot because that list is growing very very long.