When All is Null and Void

Chapter Thirty-Four

Danielle whirled to look at her friend. "We did notmake out. That's disgusting and you know it."

Caitlyn shrugged. "Everyone knows about you and him, and people have a lot to say."

Danielle guffawed. "Because you're the one who's got a lot to say in the first place."

Cattiness hadn't ever been a staple in their friendship. In fact, Danielle and Caitlyn rarely argued at all. This was strange and foreign to Danielle, and she wanted to stop it in its tracks, because confrontation made her sick. It was always easier to be quiet. "I'm going home. We can talk another time." She got in her car and started driving. Caitlyn would be fine; she had a Shakespeare rehearsal today. And if her friend didn't, Danielle didn't think about it.

The rain was the kind her mom had once called "sky piss." It wasn't heavy, but it tended to soak everything with courage to step out into it. Danielle's windshield wipers slashed furiously to get rid of the water seemingly ready to cover the windshield as soon as it was clear. She was halfway to Caleb's house before waking from some sort of stupor. When she knocked on the front door as a warning and turned the knob to walk in, she found it locked. The front door was never locked. She knocked again, and Alexander met her on the front steps.

"Hey," he said, his voice low. "Caleb's actually sick right now. He's asleep, and I think it'd be better to just let him be for a while."

Danielle didn't say anything for a moment. "O—okay. Will you tell him I came by?"

"For sure! Sorry you drove all the way out," he gave her a quick side-hug and closed the door.

She went back to her car worrying at her lip. Caleb had been completely fine earlier. Now he was suddenly sick? Had she done something wrong?

Driving back home, it struck her. Caleb was a time traveler. Danielle barked out a laugh. She'd been so focused on seeing Caleb she hadn't actually thought of the implications of her best friend being a time traveler. How was she supposed to react to it? Was she allowed to ask Caleb to take her a bunch of places? Obviously he would, if he was willing to tell her in the first place, right?

At home she finished her homework in an hour. She ate dinner, watched the Bachelorettewith her parents, and went to bed early, hoping to catch Caleb at some point after school the next day, since he hadn't been responding to any of her messages.

+++

Since the incident, Caleb's dreams tended to start in this manner. Always, Caleb was met with the gentle, lulling blackness of sleep. Eventually, a tiny pinprick of light, like a train at the end of a tunnel, would bloom, growing and consuming until it was blinding. On the other side of that beam, a destination would rush to meet him until he fell into it, and Caleb would wake in a place he couldn't recognize.

Tonight, Caleb's dreams pulled him somewhere familiar, though it wasn't at all exciting. As if falling from somewhere above, Caleb awoke in front of Rhea James, who was seated at her desk, hair unbound and flowing over shoulders. She seemed to be deep in thought and so didn't notice Caleb until he coughed.

"Caleb!" she said, gripping the egde of her desk in obvious fright. "What are you—how—" she stopped. Collecting herself, Rhea James leaned back in her chair, once more calm.

"What am I doing here?" Caleb asked.

"I could ask you the very same thing." Rhea arranged her features into a winning smile, but Caleb knew the hidden confusion in her eyes; he was too used to it in himself.

"I'm dreaming," he replied. "Well, when I dream I wake up in places I shouldn't be."

"That would explain your lack of clothing."