Page 2 of Catching My Dreams

They were her saving grace, her escape from the brutalities that had seared themselves into her mind.

They were the only reason she hadn’t gone mad.

“That sounds like a plan,” she told Brett, some of the tension in her body dissipating at the thought of exploring the art museum.

She didn’t mention that she wanted to see it because she’d overheard Noah talking to Asher and Chris about wanting to see it himself. She was smart enough not to bring up the boy Brett probably saw as his competition now.

“Just give me a second.”

Her friend closed his eyes, and before Ella could rethink her decision, his form joined hers on the only other plane they shared besides the physical one.

He didn’t leave his physical body behind. He didn’t have to. His body moved between planes in the same way people moved between rooms. She could feel him filling the space in front of her, his presence making itself known in a way that had her swallowing even though her mouth was bone dry.

The inch or two he had over her felt suddenly like several feet, and she instinctively took a step back.

Brett’s eyebrows pulled together in a frown. “Is everything okay?”

She nodded more aggressively than needed. “Mhm. Everything’s fine.”

He sighed and closed the gap between them, sending her heartbeat soaring. She could feel the blood pounding through her veins, and she wondered if her real body had stopped breathing along with her spiritual one.

“You’re obviously not fine,” he disagreed, the muscles in his jaw twitching in displeasure. “If this is about me kissing you, I’m sorry.”

Ella grimaced. “Can we please not talk about it?”

She’d said everything she needed to say the previous week. She’d told him she didn’t feel that way about him, and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings any more than she already had. Things were awkward enough between them without them going over it all again.

The irony was that she knew how hard it was to like someone who didn’t want you back. She hated herself for being that person for Brett, but she also cared too much about their friendship to lose it over this.

He was the one who’d comforted her after she overheard Noah teasing Asher about how she followed him around like a stray puppy. He was the one who shared her love of reading and who never got tired of listening to her talk about her latest book. He was the one who hugged her after every anonymous tip she gave to the police.

Asher had been her friend for longer, but Brett knew her better than Asher ever would. He understood her like no one else would ever be able to.

Brett’s eyes searched her face, narrowing with every tense second that passed. “Fine,” he eventually relented. “We don’t have to talk about it.”

Ella let out a quiet sigh of relief. “Thank you.” She took another step back, but Brett’s hand shot out before she could get far, his fingers curling around her wrist.

“We don’t need to talk, but I need to try something.”

It took too many seconds for his words to register in her shock-addled brain, and before she could process what he meant, he had already pressed his mouth to hers. Ella froze, her body locking up as his lips moved against her unresponsive ones.

It was his tongue pushing against the seam of her lips that finally pushed her out of her daze. Her hands moved to his chest, and she shoved with all the strength her body possessed. It wasn’t enough. Brett barely moved. And when she twisted her face to the side, his hands grabbed her cheeks and forced her head back to center.

“Brett, let me go,” she pleaded, the words coming out strangled and quieter than she wanted them to. She’d wanted to scream them, but her shaking body didn’t seem capable of creating such a loud sound.

“Just give it a chance,” he whispered. The words weren’t rough or demanding. They sounded caring. Gentle. They were a lie. How could they be anything else when his fingers were pressing into her cheeks with unrelenting force?

“I said no,” Ella managed to get out before he was covering her mouth with his again.

She kept her lips pressed together, but Brett didn’t seem to notice or care. His tongue prodded at her mouth again, and if she were in her real body, Ella would have probably thrown up right then and there. Instead, she felt the sting of tears in her eyes. Nothing rolled down her cheeks, but she knew that they would be damp with tears back in her bedroom.

She tried to twist her head away from him again, but his grip was too strong. She tried to bring her knee up between his legs, but he was crushing her too close to his body for her to do that. She needed him to stop, but when she shoved at his chest again, he only let out a grunt of frustration. When his lips left hers, she felt only a moment of relief before he grabbed her wrists and pulled her toward his bed.

“Don’t you see?” he asked as he pressed her down into the mattress and covered her body with his own. “We belong together, Ella. I’m the only one who will always choose you and be there for you. I love you.” He punctuated his words by placing an open-mouthed kiss on her neck.

“Stop,” Ella choked out when his fingers began working at the button of her jeans. She repeated the word when he pulled the zip down, but it floated away as uselessly as her punches to his arms and chest.

This can’t be happening. He’s my friend. The words repeated on an endless loop in Ella’s mind.

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