In Your Dreams (In Your Dreams #1)

Chapter 4

"So he just, like, falls asleep without warning?"

"Yes, Bill."

"Even after a good night's sleep?"

"A good night's sleep doesn't have much to do with it," I tell Bill Burcheron, co-captain of the football team, as he sits across from me at lunch, piles of cellophane wrappers and paper containers littering his tray. "He can't help it. He has an easier time staying awake if he catches a nap during the day and sticks to a regular sleep schedule, but mostly, it's out of his control."

Over the past few weeks, I've become Titusville Junior/Senior High School's designated Narcolepsy Expert, a title Kieran or Kayla would probably earn if anyone would bother to talk to them long enough. After The Incident, most people seem to be treating the Laniers like zoo animals, observing them from a safe distance and talking about them as they stare.

"Does coffee help?" Lauren Pipher, Bill's girlfriend and my teammate, asks me, the girth of Bill's letterman coat around her so overwhelming, her head seems comically small. "I'm too hyper to go to bed if I drink coffee at night."

"Caffeine can mess with his sleep cycles and make everything worse, so he tries to avoid it."

"Sucks for him," Lauren says, pouting.

A sigh escapes me in spite of myself. I'd been looking forward to a lunch period of ignoring everyone and reviewing my reading assignment on the Reconstruction for American history class, but instead, I'm enduring another round of "Let's Learn about Narcolepsy," courtesy of Lauren and Bill. Tomorrow, I'll probably suffer through this again, thanks to somebody else. And the day after...

"So what happens when you two...you know." Bill shrugs. "Like, does he fall asleep when..." His voice trails off and he puts his hands out in front of him, palms up, as if the gesture is an appropriate substitute for what he wants to say.

"When what, Bill?" I sit back and fold my arms across my stomach. Of course, I know exactly what he's getting at, but watching him squirm is too much fun.

"You know," he insists, which provokes a gasp from Lauren, whose brain apparently just decided to clue her in.

"Bill! Oh, my God."

"Well, I was just curious," he says, as if inquiring about the sex lives of his girlfriend's teammates is no big thing.

"Sooo rude," Lauren continues. "I mean, it's not like people go around asking us about the stuff we do in private."

Ewww, I think, although I'm guessing that most guys in the cafeteria right now-and probably more than a few girls, too-know exactly what Lauren and Bill do in private thanks to Bill's gigantic ego.

"It's okay," I assure her, before turning my attention back to Bill. "To answer your question, we're just friends, so what happens to him in those...situations isn't any of my business."

"Sorry," Bill mumbles. "I mean, everybody thinks you're a couple-just so you know."

If Kieran and I are a couple, then we're having the most boring, chaste relationship this school has ever seen. Besides English and history, Kieran and I pretty much only see each other in the hall on our way to classes we don't have together. Since I have basketball practice every day after school, we've never had the chance to hang out at each other's houses or around town like most people would when school gets out. We text a lot and talk on the phone about class assignments and books we like to read when we're not reading stuff for school, but neither of us has suggested driving to Sumner to catch a movie or to go to the mall or anything else that might resemble something that passes for dating activity around here. So we're not even remotely together, but considering Bill's about the eighth person to ask without asking if Kieran falls asleep on me when we get physical, I'm guessing the truth doesn't really matter because as far as everyone's concerned, Kieran and I have been hot and heavy since he went face down on my desk in Advanced English.