Chapter 15

Sweet Dreams

"Jill! Isn't this view amazing?" Claire calls out to me.

"It's so beautiful!" I scream back to her. She laughs and runs over to me.

"Life is so beautiful." She looks me directly in the eye. "Isn't it Jill?" Her smile grows bigger. "I never want to die!" She screams. "I will never die!"

When I wake up, my entire body is paralyzed. Claire's face is burned into my mind. I remember the scene in the dream so clearly. It was a few years ago, and Claire and I had taken a trip to the beach. She was the happiest I'd seen her in a long time that day.

"Claire," I whisper, and I bury my face in a pillow. After a while, the thought of my animals forces me to move my body again, and I get up and do my chores. It's cold now, so I have no crops to tend to. I was barely able to save enough for the winter, so this season would be a hard one. Once I'm finished taking care of my animals, I decide to go gather lumber and material stone. I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone today anyway. I keep my head down all the way to the field near Nina's house, and once I get there I get to work chopping the stumps and reducing the large boulders. The physical exertion feels good, and I begin to increase my speed. I break apart stump after stump and boulder after boulder, and before I knew it, it was already 6 pm.

'Whew' I think. 'Nice job Jill.' I put my ax and my hammer back into my backpack and begin to walk back to my farm. After a few steps, I wobble slightly. 'Must have worked harder than I thought.' I think,

and I take a few more cautious steps. When I start swaying again, I stop walking and sigh. 'I guess I can rest here a bit.' I very cautiously make my way over to a tree and sit down. It was pretty chilly outside, and I wrap my arms around myself. 'I'll just rest for a minute.' I say, and I slowly close my eyes.

"Jill!" Claire's voice screeches. She's spending the night at my house, and I'd just told her about my crush on the town's doctor in training.

"He's too serious for you Jilly." she says.

"I like how intense he is about his work." I say softly. "And he seems really nice."

"My little Jilly has a crush!" Claire screeches, and I throw a pillow at her.

"Shut up! You're the one who has a crush on a certain moody blacksmith in training." Claire stops giggling then.

"How did you know!"

"I'm your best friend. I know everything about you." Claire smiled a little sadly at me.

"Of course you do Jill."

I wake with a start, and find myself in my own bed. I'm confused, until I look up to see Skye glaring at me.

'Hi Skye.' I sign to him, but his dark expression doesn't change.

'Would you mind telling me my darling, why I found you asleep and half frozen to death in the middle of a field?' He looks so angry that I'm shocked into silence. Skye and I hadn't talked for days. After he kissed me that night he left without a goodbye, and I hadn't seen him since. Now he's suddenly pouncing on me?

'Like you care about me.' I dejectedly sign to him. I didn't have the energy to be angry.

'We both know how I feel about you Jill.' Skye clumsily signs to me. He sighs, obviously not in the mood for this argument again.'Tell me what happened.' I look away from him and focus on a spot on the wall. There's no way I can tell him about Claire and that I'm dreaming about her all the time now. His kiss confused me so much, and now I had no idea how to act around him. I feel him take my hand and squeeze it. I hesitantly look at him again, and he has a sincere expression on his face.

'Please don't scare me like that again Jill.' His lips slowly form.

'How did you even find me?' Skye smiles slightly.

'I've been taking that path a lot lately. It seemed like I'd confused you, so I thought I'd give you some time to think.' His usual smirk appears on his face. 'Imagine my surprise when I find my beautiful Jill sound asleep under a tree, looking happier than I'd ever seen her. I guess it's the goddess's will that we'd be together, hmm Jill?' I roll my eyes at him and smile slightly. Skye winks at me. 'What a beautiful smile. The stars will look down upon you with envy tonight Jill.' He leans over and kisses my forehead, and I don't stop him. 'Go to sleep beautiful.' Skye says before standing up and walking away. Before he can go though, I catch his hand.

'Stay,' I sign, and when Skye looks confused, I start to sign again. 'Will you stay until I fall asleep?'

Skye doesn't say anything, but he comes closer to me and sits at the edge of the bed. I don't let go of his hand, and he strokes the back of mine softly.

"Thank you," I whisper sleepily, before I close my eyes and fall asleep.

"He wasn't good enough for you anyway Jill." Claire says while stroking my hair. I'd run to her house crying when I'd found out the doctor liked Elli instead of me.

"What's wrong with me Claire? Why don't guys like me?" I sob, and she hugs me harder. She quietly holds me while a cry for a long time. When my cries finally become softer, Claire whispers something in my ear.

"One day you'll find a guy that will love you for who you are no matter what. He'll see you for who you really are, and he'll love you more than anything. And at your wedding I'll stand right beside you and whisper 'I told you so', and then you'll live happily ever after." I roll my eyes and giggle a little.

"Promise?" I ask.

"I promise."

A.N. I'm back guys! I know it's been awhile since I've uploaded, but it's Spring Break and I finally have time to write again. I hoped you liked this one, and Thanks for reading. This was a little different than the other ones because I wanted yall to start to understand Jill and Claire's relationship. The dream dialogue is in quotations because they're basically flashbacks to a time when Jill could hear. Sorry if that confused anyone, and thanks for much for reading. Please continue to review, and I'll try to update in a few days.

-Goldengirl