Page 88 of Catching My Dreams

Ella’s eyes flared in understanding. “Who was it?”

“A little boy,” Riley replied, her voice wavering. “He was only eight.”

Ella gulped. “How did he die?”

Riley looked up, and her eyes were shining with tears. “It was his dad. He’d been abusing him for years, but this time…” She shook her head.

“I’m so sorry.” It was all Ella could think to say, but it felt inadequate.

“It’s always hard, you know,” Riley said quietly. “But some of the ghosts who find me—their stories break a part of me.”

“I get it,” Ella replied.

“You might be the only one who really can understand,” Riley agreed with a watery smile.

“How do you deal with them?” Ella asked her. “The really bad cases?”

Riley looked to the side, her lavender braid falling over her shoulder, the bright color so at odds with her somber expression.

“I’m not sure I really do,” she admitted, turning her gaze back to Ella. “My dad used to drink on really bad days, and I’m just hoping it won’t get to a point where that’s how I cope.”

“I try to distract myself with yoga, and self-defense classes, and college, and anything else I can fit into my day,” Ella explained, ending with a sigh. “It doesn’t always work.”

Riley nodded. “Distractions only go so far. Eventually, you have to sit still.”

“Do you ever wish you didn’t have your ability?”

“No,” Riley replied without even a second’s hesitation. “As much as I hate it sometimes, it’s given me a way to help people.” She sent Ella a pointed look. “Like Asher, for example.”

“Right,” Ella said with a chuckle. “Kind of hard to wish away an ability that helped you save him.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Would you wish your ability away?”

Ella did hesitate. Maybe it made her a worse person, but the answer didn’t feel as easy for her. She had helped to find Asher with her ability, but he also never would have needed to be found if she’d never had it.

“No,” she finally answered, thinking about the people she had managed to help since she’d realized her dreams were more than just dreams. “I hate it more often than not, but I suppose I wouldn’t give it up either.”

“So you see.” Riley smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “It’s a gift and a curse. The trick is to remember the good as well, or the bad might just swallow you whole.”

Ella would have wondered if it was already too late for her if not for what Noah had said to her the other night. He seemed to think she still had a lot of good left in her, even if she often felt like the dark had taken over her life.

Riley looked over Ella’s shoulder and grinned. This time it reached her eyes. “And speaking of good, look who’s here.”

Ella turned her head to watch Noah and Asher walk into the café. Noah was saying something to Asher, his hands emphasizing whatever point he was making, but when his gaze met Ella’s, he paused mid-gesticulation, and a smile stretched across his face.

Ella sent him a small wave, her cheeks rounded with her answering grin. He shook his head in the way that told her he thought she was cute, and he and Asher weaved through the other tables to get to them.

“Hey you,” he said when he reached their table. He placed his hand on the back of the empty chair beside her and leaned down to press a quick kiss to her forehead. “How was the class?”

“Good, thanks.”

“What Ella means to say is that it was soul-destroying, and we’re in desperate need of some caffeine,” Riley corrected.

Noah chuckled. “I’ll go order.” He looked down at Ella again. “If they don’t have peppermint syrup, what do you want?”

She grinned because he’d known a peppermint mocha would be her first choice. “Just a plain old boring mocha.”

He nodded. “And you guys?” he asked Riley and Asher.

---