I clench my teeth. He’s such a jerk. “Maybe if you stopped lying to me, he wouldn’t have such a problem with you.”
He glares at me. “That’s right. Make excuses for him.”
“You’re being a jerk.”
“Whatever. Why don’t you do us both a favor and stop playing Vincent and me. It’s really quite pathetic that you only talk to me when you’re fighting with him.”
He thinks that? I soften. Maybe I do only talk to him when we’re fighting. I feel terrible. I ignore him the rest of the class and meet Cherry at her house after school, still irritated over Casper, but I hide it.
“I’m so excited that you’re here,” Cherry says with a wide smile. “It’s been forever.”
“I know. It feels good to not be at home.”
“I can imagine.” She bites her lip and I know she wants to ask what I want to talk about, but she won’t. She always waits until I’m ready.
“About last night, I’ll tell you. I want to get my mind off things first.”
“Sure. Wanna see my prom dress?” she squeals. It’s hard not to smile from her excitement.
“Yes!”
She tows me to her bedroom and pulls up the plastic cover, revealing a beautiful red ball gown. It’s strapless with a diamond zigzag pattern across the top.
“You’re going to look like a queen, Cherry.”
“I cannot wait, Megan. Can you believe we both have dates for prom? The cosmic gods are on our side this year.”
I give a small smile, thinking that the cosmic gods have seriously warped my mind. I start thinking about Casper again and his stupid allegations. What makes him think I’m playing him and Vincent?
“Come on,” Cherry says. “Let’s go.”
I nod, but I’m letting the anger take over. We get in her car and I accidentally slam the door.
“Hey! Roberto does not appreciate that.”
I sigh. “Sorry.”
“What has you so riled up all of a sudden?”
“Who is he to say Vincent is manipulating me? Why should he care?”
“Who?”
“Casper.”
Cherry lets out a long annoyed groan. “Seriously, when are you going to forget about Casper?”
“It’s kinda hard to when Mr. Burress put us together again.”
“Ugh. I swear that man is a sadistic prick. Why does Casper think Vincent’s manipulative? Because he’s jealous and wants inside your pants?”
I roll my eyes. “I told him Vincent doesn’t want me talking to him.”
Cherry’s eyebrows furrow. “Vincent told you that?”
I shrug. “It’s no big deal. He hates Casper.”
“Well, who doesn’t? But still, he said that?”
“It’s okay.”
“Why don’t you talk to psycho Mr. Burress and ask him to switch partners?”
Not that Mr. Burress would ever do it, but somewhere deep in my sick twisted mind, I don’t want a different partner. “No, it’s okay. We have a couple of weeks.”
“Well, cheer up. We’re going to get you a prom dress.” Cherry flashes a huge smile. “And you and Vincent will be the happy couple.”
I take a deep breath and try pushing Casper from my mind. I want a clear head.
Cherry and I go to the mall and shop at random prom stores, but I can’t find anything. I’m beginning to lose all hope, but she drives to a specialty shop and I know when I see the dress, I’m going to buy it. I grab it and take it with me in the fitting room. I strip down to my underwear and unzip the dress and slide into it. The white chiffon is soft against my skin. It fits perfectly. It’s a slim, strapless, floor length dress. Its tube top is embellished with pleats and rhinestones trail the top and at the waist all around. The back is low, and my long hair covers the tiny scars left on my back. I open the door so Cherry can see, and she gasps.
“It’s like it was made for you.”
“I love it.”
“Match made in heaven.” She smiles.
I pay for the dress and we grab some dinner and some snacks for the movie later. When we return to her house, she pulls up a movie from the screen and I know it’s time for me to start talking.
“Cherry.”
She turns to me. “Yeah?”
I play with her fuzzy pillow, twirling the long strands of fuzz around my finger. “When I tell you something, will you promise not to laugh or judge me or be mean?”
She moves to the couch next to me and squeezes my hand. “Of course.”
“I don’t know how to say it or even begin. Just hear me out through the end before saying a word. I need to get all of this off my chest before I explode.”
“Okay.”
“You know about my dreams. Well. Some of them. The dreams started in October and I’m still having them. It’s like this elaborate story has unfolded inside my head. They started to get more intense in January” I tell her every detail of the dreams from the beginning.
“So, you and dream Vincent were together, and you left to go be with dream Casper, but dream Vincent thought Casper was torturing you?”
“Yes. So, in his mind he was rescuing me and shot Casper dead.”
“Wow. Those are intense.”
“It gets worse. Casper and I share these dreams. We have the same exact dreams, except when they took me away, I started dreaming my own dreams and vice versa.”
Her jaw hangs wide open, but she doesn’t say anything.
I stand from the couch, wringing my hands, trying to loosen them up from gripping the pillow too hard. “That’s why I’ve been acting so weird about Casper. And that’s why he claims he likes me. But there’s more. Every time Vincent and I kiss, we see visions of ourselves from another time apparently. Last night, I saw a
