The Dream Crashers ✓

03 - Danger Zone

At lunch I could feel myself falling asleep. I had my arms propped up on the table and my chin resting in my hands. As I mindlessly nodded along to whatever Luke was saying, I realized I had no idea what we were talking about.

"Rory, are you asleep?"

Nod twice. Yawn.

"You're not even listening, are you?"

Nod.

"I dare you to nod one more time.I'm going to plant a big, slobbery kiss on you if you do."

Nod.

Wait, what?

I wrinkled my nose at him. "Don't be disgusting, Luke."

"Just seeing if you were paying attention," he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He speared a piece of broccoli from his lunch tray and asked, "Why are you so tired? Late night studying for chemistry?"

"No. I'm not sure. I don't think I slept that well," I admitted, rubbing my eyes.

The blade I found was hidden in my desk drawer at home. I had come up with a dozen theories for how it came into my possession, and I decided it must've been Connor pulling a stupid prank on me. He probably snuck into my room in the middle of the night and planted it, trying to scare me.

And it worked.

At that moment, several boys walked by our table, including the new guy from our history class, Seth. We made eye contact for a brief second as he passed. There was a tugging sensation in the back of my mind, like I had forgotten something. And I could have sworn a flicker of recognition passed across his face.

"Why don't you just take a nap now? I'll wake you up once lunch is over," Luke offered.

I pointed my finger at him accusingly. "Nice try. You just want to eat my lunch while I'm asleep, you pig. But hey, does that guy seem familiar to you?"

Luke followed my gaze "Seth? Not that I know of. Why?"

"I have no idea. I feel like I know him, but I can't remember from where. Maybe he lived around here before and moved away or something," I said.

He shrugged. "No clue. Hey, are you gonna finish that?"

I pushed my whole tray towards him. "Fatass."

"You can have my food too, Luke," Sheila Cortez offered. She had been talking to Mary something-or-other about Junior Prom, which was still two months away, when she saw me surrendering my food.

"Oh thanks, Sheila! You're awesome," Luke said, his face immediately brightening. He happily examined his newly acquired meals.

She smiled at him eagerly. "You're welcome." Then she went back to her conversation about how it's never too early to start getting ready for prom.

I tried to catch Luke's attention as I gestured in Sheila's direction.

He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

I think she likes you, I mouthed.

Luke rolled his eyes. "You say that about anyone who'll give me the time of day."

"That's not true," I whispered, moving closer to him. "You should ask her to prom. She'll say yes for sure!"

He shrugged. "It's okay. We'll just go together like usual. Plus, you already know who I actually wanna ask, so what's the point of asking anyone else?"

"You're not seriously still crushing on Lucy Pennington?" I asked, sighing dramatically. "Luke Bennett, can you be so cliché? You only like her because she's the prettiest and most popular girl in school."