I haven’t told Cherry about the war or us messing around. Are we actually sharing dreams? This can’t happen. It isn’t possible for two people to have the same dream. My heart starts vibrating against my chest. I can’t seem to catch my breath. This is insane. It’s not possible.
Chapter Fifteen
“These are my dreams,” Casper continues but the ringing in my ears muffles his voice. “Every night, it’s like a strange story. We’re running from something or someone. I can’t explain it, but in the dream, I’m in love with you.” His voice lowers at the last part. “I knew something was up that day you came to my house. Why did you come to check on me? Of all days? How could you have known what I was dreaming?”
My body trembles and my stomach clenches. “Pull over.” My breaths are short and shallow.
“What’s wrong?” He pulls the car into an abandoned parking lot.
“Unlock the door.” The walls are closing in and I can’t catch my breath.
“Please don’t run,” he says softly.
“I can’t breathe. Open the door.”
He unlocks it and I tumble out onto the pavement. The rush of cold air hits my face, stinging a little, but I welcome it. He runs to my side, kneeling beside me, but I scramble away from him.
“What are you? How are you inside my head?” I try to stand, but my legs deceive me and won’t hold my weight. Casper catches me before I hit the ground. Everything is dizzy.
“What are you talking about?” He steadies me against the car.
“You swear you aren’t lying? You didn’t overhear Cherry and me? No one told you?”
“I’m telling you about my dreams. Why would you and Cherry be talking about them?”
“Because those are my dreams,” I whisper.
“What?”
“I have been dreaming about you every night for months now. Exactly the same dreams you described. There’s a man trying to kill me. One time he pushed me off a cliff, but I held on, until you saved me. You always kill the man, but he always comes back. Except the past couple of nights. The day I came to your house, he shot you and I held you in my arms. When I came to school that day, you didn’t show, so I worried.”
“You swear this isn’t some witch thing?”
I narrow my eyes at him.
“Sorry. I’m trying to figure this out. I’m so lost.”
“That makes two of us.”
“How is this possible?” He wonders out loud, letting me go, even though my body seems to miss his touch.
“I don’t know. But this is why you think you like me, Casper. They’re dreams. They don’t mean anything.”
“You don’t think it means something when two people dream the same dream? That alone should tell you there’s some inexplicable link between us.”
I can’t deny that. But that doesn’t mean I want to fully accept it either. “I don’t feel that way about you. Besides, you think you wouldn’t get a lot of crap if you told your friends you liked me?” I shiver.
“Again, I don’t care what they think. If they can’t accept you as my girlfriend, then I can’t accept them as my friends.”
“We aren’t together.”
“Sorry. I know. I meant…” He shakes his head. “Can we get back inside the car?”
I nod and climb in.
He puts the car in gear and drives off. “Why don’t we go to my house? You really need to put more ice on your cheek.”
“Is it bad?” I pull down the visor and open the mirror. I gasp. My cheek is swollen and black. I sigh and close back the visor. It looks terrible and I really don’t know how I’m going to hide it from my parents.
“My mom can help. She’s a nurse.”
“What? I’m not going to your house.”
“Why?”
Why? Because a girl like me does not belong in a house like that. Because this is Casper Truitt and I’m in no position to meet his parents. I look terrible. My hair is a messy frizz ball. My makeup came off in the rain. I’m not the type of girl someone like Casper brings home.
“My parents will be there if you’re worried—”
“I’m not a charity case. If that’s why you’re doing all this.”
“I wish you would believe me. What are you worried about?”
“Casper, I don’t belong. I’m not like you. I can’t have my parents find out about my black eye. It’s just…” Pointless since he pulls up the driveway to his drug-lord mansion.
“They won’t bite,” he says and gets out of the car. I stay put.
He opens the door and when I don’t get out, he closes the distance, resting his arms on the top of the car. Again, a little too close for comfort, but my heart seems to like it.
“Megan,” he says softly. “What’s wrong?”
My hair hides my face, which is a good thing since tears well in my eyes. I don’t know why I’m crying. Emotional day to the extreme and it’s all finally crashing on me, I guess. I have disliked Casper for so long and yet, one night with him seems to change it all. I want to dislike him, but what if he really meant what he said? I would still never go out with him, but right now, it seems like he genuinely cares. And we share dreams. That doesn’t absolve my insecurities of meeting his parents, who are a nurse and a doctor. And who could tell my parents.
My curtain of hair is brushed behind my shoulder and my body tingles at
