Fated Dreams (Book One In The Affinity series) (26 page)

The rest of the week involved more
wallowing. My new thing was listening to a song that helped me stay in the
mood. It was on repeat, so I could listen to it over and over. Pathetic, I
know.

Sometimes when
I listened to the song, I would forget about the empty, painful ache in my
chest. I avoided Lucas as much as I could. I saw him a few times, but he no
longer tried to talk to me. History was now bearable since we had finished our
project and handed it in.

At work on Wednesday,
Zack bugged me to let him take me out. I finally agreed so I could get rid of
him. He told me that he’d rather go out Friday if that was okay. That was fine
with me as long as it was just a quick bite to eat, making it clear to him that
it wasn’t a date. He said he understood that I wasn’t ready yet; it would just
be a friendly dinner. I didn’t bother to tell him that I would never be ready;
he’d find out sooner or later.

The evening promised to be a disaster when
he pulled into the back lot at the mall. It was the entrance to Sabour’s,
Lucas’ family’s restaurant. Fridays were usually his night off, but I still had
a bad feeling as we were led to a table by a hostess I didn’t recognize. I took
my menu from her and held it in front of my face, knowing it wouldn’t help hide
my identity.

“Welcome to
Sabour’s,” Lucas said, approaching our table. He froze when he saw me. Three
emotions crossed his face—happiness at seeing me, shock at seeing me with Zack,
then fury when he saw Zack touching my leg, which I was trying to shake off.
“Get your hand off of her,” Lucas said through gritted teeth.

Zack lifted his
hand slowly. “I don’t think that’s up to you anymore.” There was cold laughter
in his eyes.

Lucas stood
glaring at him, literally shaking with anger. It looked like he was struggling
with himself not to lunge at Zack. “Sarah, can I see you for a moment?” His
voice was filled with venom.

“You don’t have
to go, Sarah, he is not your boyfriend any longer, remember?” Zack seemed to be
enjoying himself.

Lucas didn’t
give me a chance to answer. He grabbed my arm, yanking me out of the booth.

Zack stood up
to face him. They were standing inches apart, staring daggers at one another.
“Get your hand off of her.” His voice was low, but I was sure I heard it shake
slightly.

People were
starting to notice. I saw an older woman in a loud floral dress turn her head
around so she could get a better view.

“Its okay,
Zack, I’ll be right back,” I said, pulling Lucas away. I let go of him when we
were out of Zack’s sight.

Lucas took my
arm and pulled me into the back room.

“What are you
doing? I told you that I don’t trust him!” His voice was filled with
frustration and anger. We were in the pantry, where no one could hear. “Are you
trying to get yourself hurt?”

“What are you
talking about?” I snapped.

“I told you
that I had a bad feeling about him. I’m staying away from you to keep you safe.
The least you could do is watch who you spend your time with.”

“You listen to
me. I’m not your problem anymore, you ended it, remember?” I stabbed him in the
chest; my finger tingled through his white dress shirt.

He gave me a
low chuckle. “How could I forget, you keep reminding me.”

“If that’s all
you wanted, I’ll go out and tell him that I want to leave. I had no idea he
would bring me here, and I didn’t think you’d be working.” I turned to go.

He tugged my
arm, swinging me around to face him. “That’s not all. I want to know why you’re
with him.” He narrowed his eyes and sneered. “Are you dating? That’s just
great, Sarah. You accuse me of not caring about you because I ended it. And now
after only a couple of weeks, you’re dating him?” He was pacing the pantry and
waving his arms.

I punched him
in the chest, unable to control my anger. “Not that it’s any of your business,
but he’s been bugging me all week to take me out to cheer me up, so I told him
yes just to shut him up.”

He smiled.
“Does he know that?”

“Why do you
care? You lost your say about my life. You can’t tell me what to do, I won’t
stand for it.” I started to walk out.

“Be careful,”
he said quietly. I stood in front of the door, holding the doorknob for a few
seconds, then without saying a word I opened it, almost smacking into his
parents and the wait staff who had been listening at the door. Shaking my head
at them, I ran out of the kitchen.

Zack was
waiting impatiently at the booth.

“Let’s go, I
don’t want to be here,” I said as he stood up. I stormed out of the restaurant
with him following behind me.

“Did you know
he worked there?” I asked accusingly once we were in his car driving away.

“No, how could
I? My parents come here, and they recommended it.”

“I’m not very
hungry, can you take me home?”

He didn’t look
happy, but he did what I asked.

Two weeks went by, and I really couldn’t
say what happened. I lived in a daze. The longer I was away from Lucas, the
more I was swallowed up by grief. He was my missing puzzle piece, together we
were complete. Without him, I felt like I’d lost a piece of myself. The dreams
were no help to forgetting him. They seem to come full force. Now every night
when I closed my eyes, I shared an evening in some capacity in Lucas’ arms. And
every morning I woke up, lost to him all over again.

One Saturday
morning in early December, I lay on my bed listening to my now favorite song, and
stared up at my ceiling.

The door flew
open, and Emma stalked in. She stood at the foot of the bed, staring down at me
with angry squinty eyes.

“What?” I
asked, confused. Did I do something to make her mad? I might have, I just
didn’t remember.

“Sarah, this is
getting ridiculous, all you do is lie on your bed and listen to this song. What
the hell is it anyway?”

“It’s
“Dead-Beat,” by Monster Ball. Don’t you like it?”

“I’m a
Dead-Beat anyway just shove me six feet under?” She recited the lyrics with mock
horror. It was their latest song, and I had to admit it was very depressing.
But what could I say, this was the new me. “You’ve been listening to this for
weeks. Most people listen to love songs when they break up.”

My eyes flicked
away from the ceiling for an instant, and I shrugged. “My breakup, my song.”

She stared at
me in disbelief. “Oh, come on, Sarah you’ve got to snap out of it.” She whipped
the blankets off of me. “That’s it, we’re going out.”

I lifted my
head up and smiled at her. “You know what? You’re right.”

“I am?” she
asked, surprised.

“You are, let’s
go.” I stood up and started changing out of the clothes I’d worn all week when
I was at home, yoga pants and a tank top. I dressed in jeans and a T-shirt,
then put my hair in a ponytail.

Emma watched me
with her mouth wide open; obviously, she thought that I’d put up more of a
fight. “Where are we going?”

“To break into
Lucas’ house, of course,” I said, smiling as I took my dad’s old college ball
cap and shoved it on my head, slipping my tail through the hole in the back. I
gave her a pat on the shoulder before walking out the door.

She ran up to
me in the hallway and pulled me back to my room. “What are you talking about?”

“Lucas is
hiding something. So I’m going to look in his room and find out what it is.”

“You can’t
break into someone’s house, that’s illegal.” She whispered the last word.

“We are not
going to break in. I know where the spare key is, and he told me anytime I
wanted to sneak in and crawl in bed with him, I could. It’s not my fault he
won’t be there.”

She stared at
me in amazement with her olive-green eyes, not sure if I had lost my mind or
not. I probably had. “You’re nuts. I am not going to break into their house!”
she whispered, shaking her finger at me.

I pulled up to Emma’s house an hour later,
giving her time to drive her car back. She came out of her front door and ran
to my car, glancing all around her.

“Good God,
woman. What the hell are you wearing?” I asked, staring at her once she was
seated beside me in the car. “Why are you all in black? Are you going to a
funeral after?” She had on a black turtleneck, black winter jacket, and black
jeans. “And where did you get a turtleneck? What is this, 1986?”

“It’s my mom’s
and you’re supposed to wear black when you break into a house, so you can blend
in.”

“At night. It’s
morning, and it’s sunny out.”

“Well, how am I
supposed to know that, it’s my first break-in,” she whispered, her eyes
scanning the neighborhood, making sure no one could hear. The windows were closed,
and the sidewalks were empty, but that didn’t soothe her. She sat slumped in
the seat throwing on a pair of oversized black sunglasses. I chuckled, shaking
my head as I drove off.

On the way to
Lucas’ house, she asked me, “Are you sure they won’t be home?”

“Yes, everyone
is working at the restaurant. Logan has band practice with Jim, Saturday
mornings, then after that, he goes to work. We’ll park down the road and walk
through the woods to their backyard, no one will see us.”            

About half a
mile from their house, there was a driveway. His dad sometimes used it if he
was going to the woods with his truck. I parked there, under some trees, so no
one would see my car.

We got out and
had barely started on the path before Emma started to whine. “This is far; you
didn’t say anything about hiking.”

“It’s not that
far, I promise.”

It took us
about ten minutes to get to their backyard. As we cleared the trees, I heard
Emma grumble. “Not far, my ass.”

I smiled to
myself; an outdoors girl she was not.

We walked
though the spacious yard and up to the deck. “Wait,” I said, going back down
the steps. I crept slowly to the front of the house to make sure there were no
cars in the driveway. All clear.

I returned to
the deck beside Emma and leaned over the railing where the key was hidden,
pulling it off the hook. I slid the key in the lock and started to turn it.
“Wait!” Emma yelled from beside me.

“What?” Panic
ran cold inside me at the thought of someone catching us.

“Are you sure
you don’t want to back out? There’s still time.”

I shook my
head, breathing a sigh of relief as I turned the key and opened the door.

The house was
quiet and empty. The only sound was the clock ticking on the wall in the
kitchen. The air smelled of bacon. I looked at the stove and saw a dirty pan on
the stove. Logan must have forgotten to clean up after he cooked himself
breakfast.

Emma followed
me to Lucas’ room. I opened his door and stepped inside.

“So what are we
looking for, all I see is a messy teenage boy’s room…and a lot of pictures of
you. He’s obviously still smitten.”

The picture he
took of us at the waterfall was sitting on his nightstand. And the one of me in
the cafeteria was out now, on a shelf.

I picked up the
picture of us and stared at it. We were so happy then. Lucas sat beside me with
his arm wrapped around my waist. My head was leaning on his shoulder. Our eyes
were sparkling with happiness. Our smiles were both wide and gleaming. The
waterfall in the background was frozen, the white spray coming up and over the hill.
The two of us looked so happy, oblivious to the fact that some freak was
waiting in the shadows to steal our joy.

“Hello, Sarah,
break and entering here. Hurry up.” Emma said as she rummaged through Lucas’
clothes on his dresser, not knowing what she was looking for.

I put the
picture back on the nightstand and glanced around, picking up his discarded
clothing that was lying on the bed and floor, and moving books that had been
haphazardly dropped on the floor beside his bed. But nothing stood out that
would tell me what I wanted to know.

“Sarah, come
on, I don’t want to get caught,” Emma whined, now standing by the door, ready
to leave.

I remembered
something—the book he took out when he showed me his pictures. I opened the
drawer and there it was, right on top. On the front of the book, written in his
handwriting, were the words Dream Journal.

I tucked the
book inside my coat. “Jackpot, let’s go.”

We straightened
up what we had moved and started to leave. “Wait.” I rushed back in and grabbed
the framed picture of us. He was supposed to give me a copy anyway.

Once we were
outside, I locked the door and put the key back on the hook.

We were halfway
down their lawn when I heard the motor of a car pull in the driveway.