The Dreamer Part 3 by J.M.Hurley (the reading list book txt) 📕

Chapter 25

My head whipped around fast and all of my muscles tensed. I got up from my perch near the flowers and slowly crept to the center of the garden, where I could get a better view of my surroundings. My sneaking skills could use some work

, I thought to myself as more leafs and stray branches cracked under my feet. My heart continued to thud loudly as I heard more noises around me and at one point, I was positive anyone within 10 feet could hear it.

I was still wearing the bright orange sundress I’d worn to
talk to Zane in, not my best choice of camouflage

, I thought moodily. With my bright orange outfit, high heels in one hand, and spare key in the other, I was beginning to feel like a criminal on the run. Normally, a key wouldn’t have been my first choice of a weapon but it was either that or the spare Kleenex in my pocket, so I went with the metal key.
After what seemed like an eternity of crouching, I finally made it to the center of the garden. Once there, I scoped out my surroundings but didn’t see anything that could’ve made the noises. After several more minutes of searching, feeling foolish and embarrassed, I turned to head back towards my dorm when I came face-to-face to a black hooded figure.

I screamed as loud as my lungs allowed me to until the figure clamped a hand over my mouth. Feeling trapped and suffocated I bit down and didn’t stop until I felt I tasted their blood and they finally released me. As my captor clutched their and cursed loudly their hood fell back and I gasped aloud.

“Kyle? What are you doing here?” I asked and then feeling bad for hurting him, knelt down beside him.

“Damn Summer!” He said and even though he was yelling his voice sounded more playful rather than angry, which was odd since I had

just bit into his hand for no reason.

“I saw you laughing and figured I’d go ask what was so funny but then you went all Nancy Drew on me and started sneaking away, though not very successfully I might add,” he said then gave me a wink as my cheeks turned rosy out of embarrassment. “Then I finally caught up to you and before I can even say anything, you start screaming bloody murder,” he said and seeing me shiver from the cold, offered me his jacket. I took it gratefully and couldn’t help but smile as I inhaled more of his sweet cologne. His scent reminded me of an old childhood memory, familiar and nice, I liked it very much. As we walked back towards the dorms a silence settled between us, it wasn’t awkward though, we spoke more through thoughts than words.

We were almost out of the garden area when he finally spoke. “So which is your favorite?” then seeing my confused expression he explained, “The Flowers. I saw you admiring them, do you have a favorite?” I gave him a smile and motioned for him to follow me as I led him to the patch of Zantedeschia’s. In the moonlight their petals glowed with an orange hue, then thinking of my dress color, I bit my tongue to keep from laughing from this new found similarity.
“That’s Zantedeschia, right?” he asked and I nodded, then catching his smirk asked, “What?” His smile got bigger and seeing his boyish grin made the corners of my mouth turn up also.

“Most girls would’ve led me to roses or maybe lilacs, or even lily’s, but only you would lead me to the only poisonous plant in this entire garden,” he said.

“Sorry to disappoint,” I said frowning slightly at his words and looking down. Catching my reaction he put his fingers underneath my chin and raise my head so I was looking directly at him.

“That’s a good thing, Summer,” he said, a grin spread across my face, “if you were like other girls then guys like me would be hopeless.” He didn’t give me time to wonder what he meant by that because he grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the school.

When we passed the school windows I caught a glimpse of my frazzled reflection and gasped in horror. “I look horrible!” I said and desperately tried to wipe away the black smudges from underneath my eyes, and straighten my frizzy hair.

Kyle’s soft hands gently pulled mine from my face and turned me away from the window so that I was facing him. “Relax Summer, you look gorgeous, like always,” he said and I felt a dizzy rush of joy from his words as he pulled me into the building.

As we walked through the hallways Kyle slipped his hand into mine and though I felt a little guilty I didn’t pull away. Why feel guilty?

I thought silently, You never were with Zane anyways.

When we reached the end of the hall that led to my room he pulled me over and gently pushed me against the wall. He leaned in close to me, close enough that I could get another sweet smelling whiff of his cologne. “I don’t know what Zane did to you, “he began and I felt my heart clench at the sound of his

name. “But I tell that whatever it was, it hurt you,” he continued and then paused to gently brush his fingertips over my cheeks bones, making me shiver.

“But I want to make sure you know that I will never

hurt you. No matter what, okay?” he said and by now stray tears had spilled out from the arising of the memories from earlier. I let out a chocked sob and Kyle pulled me closer and wrapped his arms around me. I tried to pull away, insisting that my tears would ruin his shirt, but he held me tight and assured me it was fine.

As I snuggled closer to him I was hit by a major case of déjà-vu. Yet again Zane had made me cry and yet again, Kyle was here to comfort me. Maybe,

I thought, Just maybe, I’ve been falling for the wrong guy all along.

But my heart ached and my throat closed up whenever I even thought about living with someone other than Zane. He’s a part of me now, he’ll always be, but that doesn’t matter. I need to make new parts too,

I thought silently.

We stood there for awhile, locked in our embrace, until I realized how late it was getting. “It’s after curfew and we have school tomorrow so I’d better get going,” I said and Kyle gave my hand one more squeeze before dropping it to my side. I stood on my toes and gave him a peck on his cheek. “Goodnight Kyle,” I whispered as I bent and fumbled in my pockets for my room key. “Sweet dreams, beautiful,” he said and I flinched at the irony of his words but when I looked up to question him, I found myself staring at a blank wall and Kyle was nowhere to be seen. “Sweet dreams indeed,” I muttered quietly then opened my door and quietly shut it behind me.


Chapter 26

As I flung myself down onto my bed I realized that in order to stop my exhaustion I was going to have to sleep, which in turn meant I was going to have to endure one of my ‘dreams’. I sighed, though I wasn’t sure if it was out of exhaust or frustration, and grabbed my purse. A quick check of the clock on my phone told me that it was going on Midnight which normally isn’t very late for me, but I had to start my new schedule tomorrow and I could use all the rest I could get. I’ll just check my messages and then I’ll go to bed

, I thought silently and as if my body were in protest, I let out a huge yawn.

I slowly got up and sat down the computer desk in the corner of my room. I quietly turned it on and flinched when it let out a loud beeping noise. My head whipped around to see if it had woken up Sierra but she was still sleeping soundly. Soon enough, I had my school e-mail up and was logging on. When my account was loaded I noticed that I had five new messages; Two from Zane, One from Stephanie, One from Kyle, and One from my Parents. Looks like sleep’s going to have to wait.

I sighed as I clicked on the message from my parents.

To:SummerCharard From: Linda and George Charard
Dear Summer,

Your mother and I haven’t heard much from you lately. Naturally, we are very worried. It’s been nearly two whole weeks since your last call and we just want to make sure everything is okay. Hope to hear from you soon.

Love you,
Mom & Dad
I sighed, it’s so like them to worry over this,

I thought as I began to compose my reply.

Dear Mom & Dad,

Please stop worrying! I’m perfectly fine, really, there’s no need to stress. Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve talked to you guys, I’ve just been so busy lately. Talk to you soon! Love you guys!
Summer

I clicked send and silently prayed they wouldn’t ask what I was so busy with. One down, four to go,

I thought silently to myself as I clicked on the next message, Kyle’s.

Summer,

I had a great time with you tonight. If you want to hang again text me, my numbers below.

-Kyle P.S. Looking forward to hearing from you, beautiful.

I smiled silently to myself as I added his number to my phone. Three messages left,

I cursed silently under my breath. God I’m tired!

I thought grumpily. Hesitenly, I moved my mouse over the bold, red button at the top of my inbox that read, DELETE ALL. Sighing, I moved my mouse over the three remaining messages, One from Stephanie, and the others from Zane. A soft, annoying voice in the back of my head whispered warnings like, You really should at least see what they said

and It could be important,

but I brushed them off and quickly clicked the bright red button. The messages disappeared from my inbox as if they never existed, and if it was up to me, they didn’t.

Then, just to be thorough, I erased my recycle bin. I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath until I let out a sigh of relief. The voice was still there, whispering in the back of my head that I was going to regret doing that, so I put my ear-phones in and turned my I-pod up to a deafening level. I kept laying there listening to my music on blast and cleared my mind of all thoughts until I started to drift into a deep sleep.


Chapter 27

When I opened my eyes I saw that I was surrounded by people, many of which were dressed in formal wear from the 1800’s. The women were clothed in huge ball