Consume (The Devoured Series) (5 page)

I smoothed my hand over his chest, my fingers catching on the buttons. "Well, you fooled me."

"Mission accomplished." He smiled before taking my hand again. "Come on."

He took me to the end of the dock to an oversized lounge chair with a blanket over the back, and two cans of soda. He helped me into the lounger before climbing in himself and throwing the blanket over us. Then he popped the can open for me and handed it to me. It was still cold.

"Am I really drinking this Dr. Pepper?" I asked as I felt the cold, smooth drink go down my throat. "I mean this is a reverie."

"Reveries are as real as I make them. It's kind of like your real body pauses and waits for you to return, but anything that happens to you in the reverie is real. If you get hurt in one, you'll be hurt in the real world."

"So if I sleep here?"

He looked surprised. "You know, I've never thought about that before." He smiled. "If you sleep in the reverie, your body should be reenergized by it."

"So this whole time you've taken me home in a hurry and we could have just fallen asleep and it would have been the same thing?"

"I guess so. It never crossed my mind before."

"Hmm. The possibilities…" I crooned and set my drink down before snuggling into him. "So this is the plan for tonight?"

His warm fingers played with the strap of my camisole and caressed my shoulder. "Yep. I thought we'd just sit here together," he said softly.

The dock swayed a bit with the gentle waves of the lake under us. There were no waves on a lake at night with no boaters to make them. He must have generated them. Like he generated the moon that was so close and so bright and beautiful, casting a spell over the night all its own.

"This is really beautiful," I whispered.

He pulled my chin up and looked at my face for a few seconds. "Yeah," he breathed, "it is."

He leaned down to kiss me and then pressed my face into his neck. I wiggled my leg in between his and sighed at the comfort I felt. And I fell asleep.

~ ~ ~

"CB, you've got to get up, love," I heard in my ear.

"Mmm, no," I groaned in annoyance.

"Mmm, yes," I heard, followed by a chuckle. "Ariel will be up soon and you need to get back."

Back?

I peeked and saw that it was now daylight in our reverie. And we'd slept - well, I'd slept - on the dock in the chair. Eli had held me all night. I felt the same. I didn't feel tired, but I guessed we'd have to test the sleeping theory when I was in the real world again.

Math was seriously going to suck if I had to go with my body running on no sleep.

"Come on, CB," he coaxed again.

I realized I closed my eyes again and opened them. Eli looked content and I wondered what he did all night. I just lay there like a lump and my leg was still wedged between his, so I know he didn't get up.

"What did you do all night?"

He smiled and ran is hand through my hair. "Watched you," he admitted in a low voice.

"Boring much?" I scoffed.

"Not for me." He had made another sweep through my locks and I fought not to shiver. "It was a new experience. I've never slept with anyone."

"But you don't sleep."

"And I didn't last night either, but I stayed right here while you did. You make all these little noises and sighs…" He smiled again. "You dream, your eyelids move and jump. You…"

"What?" I said, suddenly enraptured with what he was going to say about me when he stopped.

"You said my name," he said with a growly, joyful voice. "A lot."

He covered the blush on my cheeks with his hand and smiled. "I'm sorry," I muttered. "My subconscious is apparently obsessed with you."

He laughed. "I'm totally fine with it, love." He kissed my forehead. "I'm not sure I could be anymore blissful than I am right now."

"Is that something you foreigners say? Love?"

"You foreigners?" he scoffed and laughed. "I've been reduced to a foreigner now?"

"You know what I mean."

"Yes, people overseas say 'love' when they talk to people sometimes. It's a nickname or endearment. But for me, it means something else entirely when I say it to you." He looked at me pointedly. He was asking me silently if I was ready to have the 'I love you' conversation.

I wasn't sure if I was ready to have that conversation or not, but I remembered Ariel waiting for me. "Ariel," I said.

He frowned. "Um…oh, yeah." He cleared his throat. "That girl is causing me problems lately."

"I'm, uh… Thank you for last night. It was a really sweet gesture."

He leaned in and whispered against my mouth, "You're welcome, love."

And then I was on my bed. I opened my eyes to find a freaking-out version of Ariel. She was yelling and then pushing buttons on her phone. I sat up and she screamed like she'd seen a ghost. Then Mrs. Ruth burst through the door yelling for Pastor. She stopped and stared at us.

"What in…the world," she said harshly.

"Sorry," Ariel was saying and hung the phone up and grimaced. "I…she wouldn't…I thought that she was…she wouldn't wake up!"

"I'm awake," I said and smiled. "What's going on?" I tried to play off.

"I've been trying to get you up for like five minutes!" she yelled. "I shook you, I said your name. You were barely breathing!"

"Sleep breathing," I justified. "It slows down when you sleep."

"I slapped you in the face! I thought you died!"

I felt it then, like it was waiting for an explanation to make an appearance. It stung and I groaned as I grabbed my angry cheek. "What the…Ariel!"

"I thought you were in a coma! I called 911!"

"Well, I'm ok," I reasoned and looked at Mrs. Ruth. "I'm ok."

"Are you sure?" she asked and eyed me.

"Yep." I winced at my cheek and glowered at Ariel. "Except my cheek frigging hurts. Thanks, friend."

"You're welcome!" she huffed. "You were about to get mouth to mouth as well. That would have been awesome to wake up to."

I burst out laughing at the scene she created with her words. She followed me and Mrs. Ruth shook her head. I'm sure there was even an eye roll as she turned away.

Once our laughing stopped, she looked at me closely. "I really thought something was wrong with you."

"Sorry. I'm a sound sleeper."

"Apparently. Sorry I slapped you, but it was in the interest of saving lives."

"Forgiven," I said and tried not to wince more. "You shower first."

"Alrighty."

She bounced away with a spring in her step and shut the door. I heard her humming behind the door as she turned on the water. My door opened and Mrs. Ruth came in with a cold Pepsi Max can in hand. "Here, honey."

"Thanks." I started to pop the top, but she stopped me.

"Put that on your cheek first, then you can drink it."

"Ooh, yeah," I grumbled. "Thanks."

After she was gone, it was then that I realized, as I pressed the cold can to my pounding cheek, that I was fully rested. We were right. Sleep in the reverie was just as good as the real thing. I smiled.

When Ariel got out of the bathroom, she had a towel wrapped around her midsection and one around her head. She looked so…normal, for lack of a better word. Without the dark makeup and the piercing and the shaved head, she looked like everyone else.

"I have a favor," she said and chewed on her thumbnail.

"Sure. What's up?"

"Um…" She went to her book bag and pulled out her wallet. "It might be vain to keep this on me, but the day I got the salon to cut off all of my hair, I took a picture." She handed it to me. She was standing in front of the mirror, the reflection of the person taking the picture staring back at her from the side. Ariel looked like someone who was devastated, but trying to be brave.

And holy heart failure, Batman! She was wearing pink.

Her shirt was a pink tank with a yellow one layered underneath. Her long black hair pulled over her shoulder so you could see its length and impressiveness. I remembered her…I never talked to her before, but I remembered this girl.

I looked back up at Ariel. "I'm sorry that I wasn't your friend before."

She shrugged. "It's cool."

"What do you need from me?"

"I want to…be me again." She looked up at the ceiling, like it was hard to talk about. "Like I said, I only went all anti-social and rebel to piss off my parents. They wanted me to work extra hard at being perfect since I was sick. Don't get me wrong," she shook her head, "they're great. But they thought if they just bought me wigs, dressed me in extra expensive clothes, made me feel so super normal," her voice all high and pitchy when she said it, "that I'd forget I had cancer or something. I wanted to brood a little. I wanted to be pissed off a little and I don't think it was asking too much. So I rebelled. What I want is to…wear pink again." Her eyes looked glossy when she said it.

And I understood. Pink didn't mean pink. Pink meant everything that she felt was taken from her when she got cancer. I nodded and grabbed her hand as I made a beeline for my closet. I opened it and dragged her inside.

"Are we going full on or easing into it?"

"Easing," she said as she looked around.

"I'm thinking…these," I said and pulled a pair of black ballet flats from the rack. "No socks or stockings, Ariel. None."

"Ok," she said and gulped.

"And this," I told her as I grabbed a little silver heart necklace from my jewelry box. "And this!" I said excitedly as I reached for a black scarf that had little bits of color to match our uniforms.

"Ok," she repeated.

"Ok," I agreed. "Now my turn."

"What?"

"I want to be more edgy. I've always been this and I want to be something different."

She smiled in tolerance. "You don't have to do this to make me feel better. I made my own decisions. People always stare at me, now they can stare for another reason." She poked at the scarf. "Me in a freaking scarf."

"No, I want to, really. My parents were kind of like yours, I guess. Always wanting me to be perfect, like that solved all high school problems."

"Oh," she blanched, "Clara, I'm so sorry! Here I've been going on about my parents and yours…at least I still have mine. I'm sorry."

"No, it's ok. I need to talk about them. I miss them. Gah, I miss them so much, but they weren't perfect. It makes it easier for me every single time I say their names."

"This'll be a good start," she told me, gripping the items I gave her. "Thank you."

"Not a problem."

We finished getting ready in comfortable, contemplative silence. We both did our makeup in the bathroom at the same time and she didn't put on a smidge of eyeliner, or the nose ring. I on the other hand, put on a bit too much for my usual self, and no lip-gloss or lipstick. We painted each other's fingernails, mine black of course, and hers a pale pink. I was such a poser, but I hoped she understood what I was offering her. As lame as it was, I was hoping that by my causing attention to myself, she wouldn't get so many stares and could make up her mind about what she really wanted to represent.

I slid on her boots. Ah, they weighed a ton each. My socks were up to my calves! She giggled as she slid on the flats I'd given her. She twirled and joked about feeling ten pounds lighter.

"Ha. Try twenty," I groaned as we lugged down the hall.