Page 12 of Wicked Dreams

The bell rang, and the hallways cleared out, leaving me alone—and late. I rushed across the hallway and picked up my book, then ran to my first class: history with Mr. Puglisi.

When I walked into the room, everyone was already in their seats, and Mr. Puglisi was at the blackboard with chalk in his hand. Everybody looked at me when the door closed loudly behind me from my rushed attempt at not being too late.

My face lit with fire, but I forced my eyes to the floor as I walked through the aisles to my desk in the back.

Mr. Puglisi’s eyes locked on mine. “Everything okay, Olivia? You’re not usually late.” Concern was laced in his words and etched on his face. He knew what the other students thought of me, and he was almost always around to stop the bullying. Not every time though.

“I’m fine. Sorry I’m late,” I mumbled, not wanting to give everyone a reason to turn and look back at me. It’s why I chose the seat in the back. They had no reason to notice me.

He didn’t look like he bought my line, but he nodded and turned back around to write something on the board. I silently thanked God that I got away without giving more detail as to why I was late.

“Pst,” Anita whispered from her desk next to me.

I quickly glanced over at her to see her holding out a note.

I grabbed it and held it in my lap to unfold it.

I’m sorry about Saturday night, Liv. I was drunk. I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. Can you please forgive me, even though I don’t deserve it?

I looked over at her, and she was sticking out her bottom lip. I couldn’t hold back my silent laugh. I quickly grabbed my pen off the desk and wrote back:

Fine, but you owe me a raspberry, cream-cheese Danish at lunch.

Without being seen, I passed it back and watched as she opened and read it.

She stuffed the paper into the back of her book, then held up her index finger and drew an X over her heart with a smile on her face.

With that out of the way, I sank back in my seat and tried to force myself to pay attention.

It felt like I’d been sitting in that plastic, blue seat for at least two hours, but a look at the clock revealed I’d only been there for fifteen minutes. It was hard to pay attention when I’d spent the day before reading ahead. At least I knew I could daydream about my favorite new hero and wouldn’t be caught off guard if I was called on to answer a question.

In the blink of an eye, everyone in the classroom was gone—I was alone. I looked around me, confused.Where did everyone go? And how had I blacked out so much that I didn’t even notice them leave?

Then the door opened, and Donovan walked into the room. I couldn’t pull my eyes from his body which was covered in a long-sleeved, black shirt and loose jeans that accented his hips perfectly. A sliver of his gray boxers peeked out over the waistband of his jeans. He slowly strode over to me and took a seat at the empty desk beside mine, leaning back with cockiness and swagger rolling off his strong frame.

“Hi, beautiful,” he said with a smile toying with the corners of his perfect lips.

“What happened?” I questioned, looking around at the classroom that minutes ago was full but now was suddenly empty.

“You fell asleep.” He shrugged. “You must have been missing me.” His dark eyes burned with fire, and I was dying to feel the singe of the flame against my flesh.

It was all very confusing for me though. I’d never had these urges before he showed up in my dreams — awake or asleep.

I shook my head. “I don’t understand. Where did you come from?”

“I told you, I’m your subconscious. I’m nothing more than what your mind created, something you’ve been longing for.”

I thought that over. “So, if this is my dream, we could beanywhereI want? Do anything I want?” I smiled with that thought.

“We can do anything, anywhere, beautiful.”

I closed my eyes and thought really hard. When I opened them, I was no longer in my classroom but lost deep in the forest. Massive trees surrounded us, and the scent of the wet earth making up the forest floor surrounded me. Birds whistled, and small forest animals scurried around us. It was practically magical.

“Wherearewe?” he asked, glancing around in wonder.

I spun in circles, looking up at the canopy of treetops that hung overhead. “I don’t know. I just wanted to be far away, where nobody could ever find me.” A smile pulled at my lips as I came to a stop and looked up at him.

“You wanted to be lost,” he said, but it wasn’t a question. He held out his hand. “Come on, lost girl. Let’s explore.”

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