In Dreams (17 page)

The three walked into the kitchen through the back door and were immediately greeted with the smell of Italian spices. The smell reminded her of Dom’s restaurant. “It smells amazing, Mom. Thank you.”

“Of course,” her mom replied with a smile.

Katherine walked toward her room at the back of the house. She tossed her suitcase on the bed without turning on the light and walked back out to help set the table. Her mom placed the manicotti, salad, and homemade garlic bread onto the center of the table.

“How’s school? You look tired,” she commented.

“It’s great. And yeah, it’s been exhausting lately,” Katherine answered.

“How’s Taylor?” Katherine had told her mom all about her roommate during one of their phone conversations.

Katherine’s face dropped a bit at the sound of her name. “She’s awesome.” She made a mental note to text Taylor once she was done with dinner. She’d only been gone a day, but she missed her friend.

“And Cooper? Are you two still seeing each other?” her mom asked.

Katherine’s dad looked up from his plate and whined, “You knew about this guy? No one tells me anything.”

“Awww, Dad,” she got up and gave him a quick squeeze before she sat back in her chair. “Kind of. It’s hard to explain.” The last thing Katherine wanted to do was try to explain Austen to her parents. Mostly, she didn’t want them to worry, but she also knew they wouldn’t understand.

“Well, what happened? Did you two have a fight?” Katherine’s mom always saw things in black and white, as if life wasn’t filled with shades of gray.

“No. It’s nothing like that. I’m just not sure how I feel about him,” Kat said as she shrugged her shoulders.

Her mom stopped eating and looked at her. “You’ve always been extremely picky, Katherine. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t live up to your expectations.”

“It’s not like that, Mom. Jeez.” Katherine was already irritated and she had only been home for five minutes. She felt like her mother could never relate to anything Katherine felt or thought.

“Oh, Kat, I don’t think Mom was trying to upset you,” her dad said as he tried to keep the peace.

“I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just thought you really liked him?”

“I do.” Katherine really wanted to stop talking about Cooper Donovan. She had to deal with Cooper conversations at school and the last thing she wanted was to continue them at home.

Her parents looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They had stopped trying to figure out their only daughter years ago. She often made decisions that didn’t make any sense to them.

Her mother cleaned up the dishes from dinner while Katherine unpacked. Her room looked like something from Coastal Living Magazine. The walls were painted a shade of blue that looked like water, and the crown and base moldings were painted white. Her carpet was the color of sand and she liked the way it felt on her bare feet. The dresser, nightstand, and bed frame all matched in white, weathered wood. A large mirror held movie stubs and pictures of Katherine with her high school friends. Photographs she had taken hung in various frames along her walls.

She sat on her bed and sent Taylor a text.
“I miss you. I’m sorry for everything lately. I’m going to try to get better.”

Less than a minute later, she got a response. “
I miss you too. Come back normal, k? Thanks. lol
” Katherine laughed out loud when she read it and set her phone aside.

The time difference quickly caught up to her and before she knew it, she had nodded off. She told her parents goodnight and headed back up to her room.

****

She sat on the bench and traced a carved heart with her finger. Austen turned around when he sensed her and jogged in her direction, his face full of smiles. He took her by the hands and pulled her off the bench. They hugged and he kissed her passionately. She ran her fingers through his sandy brown hair and then ran her hands across his muscular frame.

“Austen, I’m never going to be able to tell you goodbye if you keep kissing me like that.”

He smiled at her and she couldn’t help but smile back. “I’m sure you’ll find a way. Happy to be home?”

“It’s nice. But it’s also nice not being here, you know?”

“Sure.”

Katherine was aware that—even in her dream state—she needed to get her life in order. There was no way she could go back to school the same way she left.

“What’s the matter?” he sensed her distance.

“I’m just thinking about how we’re supposed to be letting each other go. But the idea of not being with you seems wrong. Why would I want to purposely cause myself that much pain?”

“We don’t have to do it today, or tomorrow.” He leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. “But the time will come.”

“How can you be so calm? How are you totally okay with not being with me?” Whenever she thought about not being with Austen, she could barely function.

“Not being with you is the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do. But I’ll always do what’s best for you, Katherine. Even if it’s not what I want. Even if it hurts me so deeply I’m not sure I’ll ever truly get over it. I’ll do what is best for you and your life, no matter what the consequences are for me.”

“Don’t we have any other options? Isn’t there anything else we can do? Why is it all or nothing?” Katherine longed for a compromise.

“Saying goodbye is the only option. It’s the only way,” Austen was firm.

Her eyes filled with sorrow as he tilted her mouth gently up to his to kiss her.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“And I love you,” Austen smiled at her and…

****

…she opened her eyes. She sat up in bed and held on to her covers tightly.

There was a quick knock on Katherine’s front door and then she heard it open and slam shut. “I’m here! Where are you?”

“Soph? I’m in my room.” Katherine’s best friend and neighbor since childhood ran to the back of the house.

“Still in bed? It’s eleven o’clock, ya sack! Get up!” Sophia jumped in Katherine’s bed and gave her a hug. Sophia was a petite brunette with blonde highlights. She had brown eyes and full lips.

Katherine laughed at her hyper best friend before she said, “Hi to you too! You look so good! How’s Arizona?”

“It’s awesome. I love. What about you and the E.C.? Isn’t it freezing there?” Sophia scrunched her nose at the thought.

Katherine thought for a minute and quickly realized that the “E.C.” stood for the “East Coast.” Sophia often made up her own language. “It is freezing. But I love it.”

“For real? I’ll never understand why you wanted to get so far away from here,” Sophia said, with a look of confusion.

“I just wanted something different. You know that.”

“Katherine Johns, the girl who has everything, but still wants something else.”

“Shut up.” Katherine rolled her eyes.

“So where do you want to go? What do you want to do?” Sophia asked.

“I really want to walk around Venice. I miss the beach and the weirdos.”

“Awesome! I need some new sunglasses so that’s perf.”

The girls walked along the sandy pathway in Venice. Sophia stopped to look at sunglasses and tried on at least fifty different pairs before deciding on one. She spotted the row of tarot card readers ahead of them.

“Oh, Kat, let’s get our cards read. Like old times! Come on,” Sophia pleaded.

“Why not?” Katherine smiled and then wondered, “Which lady should we go to this time?”

“Um,” Sophia looked around, “How about her? I’ve never seen her before.”

Katherine looked at the woman. She wore large turquoise gemstone jewelry around her neck, ears and wrists. Her curly gray hair hung at her shoulders and a baby blue bandana fit snug against the top of her head. Katherine noted that the woman’s lipstick was an awful shade of pink and that she wore glasses which were rimmed in gold.

The woman’s table was covered with a multi-colored sheer cloth. Various sizes of dark blue candles burned and she glanced up as Katherine watched her.

“Come here, child,” the woman spoke in Katherine’s direction.

Katherine smiled nervously and walked toward the woman. “Shuffle the cards. Make sure you don’t let them touch anything but your hands. The cards need your energy.”

Katherine did as she was told. The cards felt stiff in her hands and she wasn’t sure if she should shuffle them like a regular card deck, or some other way. She decided to gently insert half the deck into the other half, never letting the cards touch anything but her hands and the air around them.

“When you feel like you have shuffled enough, place the cards down in front of me. Then cut the deck once, any way you’d like.”

Katherine glanced back at Sophia who watched the tarot lady with intense curiosity. Kat placed the cards in front of the woman and cut them into two uneven stacks.

The reader took a deep breath and closed her eyes before placing the split cards on top of one another. She turned over the first card. The dreamer. The woman took a deep breath and then answered someone only she could hear, with a nod of her head.

The woman looked at Katherine with concern. “You are being haunted in your dreams by a great love. Oh yes, he loves you very much. And you love him as well.”

Katherine’s heart leapt. Not wanting to give anything away, she maintained her composure.

The woman continued to speak slowly and with caution. “There is much confusion around this person and...I see that you can’t be with him, or he can’t be with you?” The woman glanced up at Katherine with unease.

She turned over another card and said, “Oh, but there is another boy who is fighting for your affections. He is handsome and strong and cares for you, too.”

Katherine freaked out. Never in her life had a reader come so close to her actual reality. “There is much sadness and confusion surrounding you lately.” The woman took a breath. “And a decision will have to be made between these two boys.”

The woman didn’t look up from the table as she spoke. She focused on the cards before her and the information she seemed to receive. “Your hand will be forced.”

Katherine hung on to every word that spilled out of the stranger’s mouth. “Yes, unfortunate events will occur, I’m sorry to say. The decision must be made or it will be made for you.”

“Unfortunate events? What do you mean?” Katherine interrupted, as her voice shook nervously.

“I’m sorry, child, the cards don’t tell me everything. But I see there will be no other choice.”

“What do you mean?”

“When certain events occur, you will have to make a decision. There will be no other way. You will have to choose one.”

The gray-haired woman shook her head and looked into Katherine’s eyes before saying, “I’m sorry, that’s all the information I’m getting.” She took Katherine’s hand in hers and looked steadily at her palm. “You’ve lived many lives. You’re a very old soul.”

She peered into Katherine’s eyes. “But you already know this,” the woman smiled warmly.

Katherine was rattled as she handed the woman a twenty dollar bill, smiled slightly and said, “Thanks.”

“Did you want a reading as well, dear?” the woman asked Sophia with a smile.

“I think I’ll pass,” Sophia waved her off, noticing the look on Katherine’s face.

“Hungry?” Sophia asked.

Katherine snapped back into reality and looked at her friend’s face before muttering, “Kind of.”

“Well I’m starved, so you’re coming with.” The girls walked the path toward a small café with outdoor seating. They sat down at a table that faced the water. Katherine stared at the ocean and silently replayed what the woman had told her.

“What the hell was that? Who are the guys she was talking about? And what about the haunting dreams? That was weird,” Sophia wanted information.

Katherine couldn’t hide the fact that she was freaked out. She tried her best to play it off. “Well, she was definitely talking about Cooper. He’s the hockey player I told you about.”

“And the other guy?” Sophia wondered.

“I don’t know. I think she meant my roommate’s brother. I sort of have a crush on him.” Katherine figured a few white lies wouldn’t hurt. Plus, she had no idea how to explain Austen to Sophia.

“When she said unfortunate events, that kinda freaked me out.”

“Me too.”

“You don’t think you’re going to die or something, do you?” Sophia asked semi seriously.

“Well…I didn’t.” Katherine was even more worried than before.

“I’m just saying. She was freaky. Don’t die, k?”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Wonder who you’re going to choose?” Sophia smiled and Katherine shrugged her shoulders.

“Guess we’ll see.” Katherine tried desperately to change the subject. “Tell me all about Arizona.”

Sophia’s face changed as she talked a mile a minute. She would talk her own shadow’s ear off if she could. The rest of their lunch and walk home were filled with talk of Arizona, fraternities, guys, and parties. They stopped on the corner of their street and hugged goodbye.

“I’ll call you later,” Sophia said as she walked in the opposite direction.

“K. Thanks for lunch.”

Katherine’s house was empty and she was thankful for the quiet. Her phone beeped with the sound of a text message. It was Cooper again.
“Hope everything is good. Just thinking about you.”

“
It is. Thanks. Hope you’re well. Tell your parents hello for me
.” She longed to tell him so much more, but stopped herself.

Katherine couldn’t stop thinking about what the tarot reader had said. She sat in her new back yard as the words replayed in her mind.

****

She must have dozed off because Austen suddenly appeared next to her.

“That was some tarot card reading today,” he said as he nuzzled into her.

She was surprised to see him there, in her back yard, instead of their usual meeting place. “What did she mean, Austen? Do you know? Is something bad going to happen?”

He hushed her gently to comfort her. “It’s going to be okay. Don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry? Austen, she said ‘unfortunate events’…those aren’t fun and happy words. Something bad is going to happen.”