Reverie [Bruno Mars - Editing]

Chapter nineteen

Chapter nineteen

The sand underneath my toes was neither warm or cold. The wind swept around me, but I didn't feel its temperature. Next to me, the ocean. The waves were small, the water almost motionless. The sky was nearly white, blending in with the color of the horizon so the boundary that separated the water from the sky was impossible to see. There was no sun.

I turned around and there he was, standing still in front of the water, his hands shoved in his pockets. When I was next to him, I ran my fingers down his arm. He was real. He turned his head towards me. “Adrian?”

I opened my mouth to speak but my words were cut off at the sound of another's. “Girlie!” There was only one person I knew, kind of knew, that ever called me that. Bruno and I whirled around at the same time. “Rev?” I said. 

Bruno looked between me and him. “You know this guy?”

“Yes!” Rev's eyes were grayer than I remembered, but he was still all smiles. “In fact, she does. How are you, girlie?” He took my hand and lightly kissed the back of it, he smiled and I cautiously returned it. He exaggeratedly shook hands with Bruno, who looked more confused than ever. “Bruno, am I right?”

“Yes, sir.” Bruno gave him a tight nod. “Just Bruno.”

“Nice to finally meet you, boy. I've wondered a lot about you.”

Bruno turned to me and whispered, “How the hell do you know this guy again?” 

“The gas station. He was the clerk,” I mused quietly, remembering bits and pieces from what seemed like years ago. What had he told me? You'll be just fine, miss A. See you later, girlie! I narrowed my eyes. “He knew me, he told me—told me about this place.” Rev feigned a guilty look at me. “Who are you and what is this?”

“To commence,” Rev cleared his throat. “this is similar to lucid dreaming. It's like a simulator. I don't know exactly. I'm getting old.” He ran a hand through his all gray hair but he looked ageless to me. “But the thing that matters is that I'm here in Hawaii, I believe this boy was dreaming of.” Bruno's face was impassive as Rev went on. “I was exiled from Grim many years ago because I helped your parents. We were all friends.” He looked sad for a second at the fleeting memory, and that dark moment struck me with familiarity, like I've seen him before. Not at the gas station, but somewhere else. . .

“You didn't leave with them?” It was Bruno who asked this. I was too busy staring at Rev. “I could not,” he answered evenly. “I had a child. Girlie, your mother was a brave soul.”

My voice was flat. “Really? That's not what I've been hearing.” 

“Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.” Rev's gray eyes held an intensity of wisdom. The silliness of him gone. “Your mother fought what she believed in: freedom. The only way she could think to revolt was runaway. Besides, your parents didn't want that kind of life for you. A life of boundaries and walls. They heard stories of the unknown, and with great risk fled to it. They changed your stars.”

I couldn't believe I never saw it that way until this moment. A sharp pain made its way through my chest. “Where is she?” I managed to croak out. “Do you know where she is?”

Rev's eyes shined. “She is not in Grim, nor here.”

“What?” I frowned. “She's—I don't understand.”

“Soon you will,” he replied shortly and I sighed sadly, wondering if I'll ever know. “I have to get this done quickly now, your mother is not important at this moment, girlie. I am here to help you from Grim, as I did your parents. Actually, I would have came here much faster if it weren't for you two's big heads.”

“Please,” Bruno said. “What can you do to help us?”

“What can you do, you mean,” Rev corrected him. “All you have to do is wait for me.”

Bruno shook his head. “We don't have time to wait. I'll be leaving soon.”

Rev looked surprised. “Come again?”

I explained lamely. “They wanted us in Grim for the rest of our lives. We wouldn't agree, but I did, if they took Bruno back home. So he's leaving soon, and I'll be staying.” To my surprise, Rev looked at me admiringly. “Ah, you're just like your father. And mother.”

That made me smile a little. 

A breeze swept through us, making my hair fly into my face. I held it back but Bruno ended up brushing a strand away. “You forgot a piece,” he murmured, then smiled. “You always forget a piece.”

“Adrian,” Rev spoke up suddenly. This is the first time I've ever heard him call me by my name. “can I speak to Bruno man to man for a moment please?”

* * *

Honestly, I was sort of getting used to the strangeness of Grim and all that's been happening around me for the past weeks? Months? I wasn't sure how long I've been here, exactly. I was slowly driving myself insane in that place, but one person kept me from going absolutely crazy. And she was looking between me and Rev, a hesitance between her glances. She softly chewed on her bottom lip, reminding me of last night. 

Her soft skin on mine. Our kisses of warmth, need, and want. The smooth of her stomach. The gentle feel of her touch. Her shivering in pleasure at my mouth on her neck. When I was on top of her and her eyes looked up at me, bestowing me with a look I've never seen someone give me before. Sometimes I would catch her watching me, her gaze curious, then she would smile. As if she knew something I didn't. 

She acted shy sometimes, and I never knew I was the type to go for a timid girl. But once I got to really know her, underneath those layers of uncertainty was an alluring sense of fearlessness. I'm not sure if she knows it. When it comes to the people she loves she would take down a lion if she had to. Fear? Gone.

I found her shyness cute, actually.

I gave her a single nod to tell her that it was okay. Her eyes lingered on mine for a second longer, and she contemplated something before turning around and walking away. I watched her retreat until Rev threw his arm around me as if we knew each other for years. “How's it going, Bruno?”

“It's going, sir,” I said. 

It didn't really seem like we were walking, but we were, the palm trees coming into view in the distance. I've been dreaming about Hawaii a lot. Hawaii and her. She told me that's one of the place she's actually never been. I wanted to show her, one day, the beauty of my home. Rev dropped his arm and his voice. “I see the way you look at her. I see the way she looks at you.”

“Adrian, you mean?”

He seemed to go off topic. “I was appointed to save her by her father. He ran into me at the gas station when he was returning to Grim, and he told me he knew that one day they'll find her—he had to at least try to stop the chase—and when they do, as a best friend, can you help her find her way? That's what he asked me. I was living there at the gas station. Travelers go by on that road, I traded them gas for supplies. But I knew, also, Grim's victims go along there too. I've made a grave promise to Adrian's father.”

I knew enough about the problems with Adrian's parents to get what he was saying, but there was something I didn't understand. “I'm sorry, but what does this have to do with me?”

“She's lost so many, and is af—”

“Not anymore,” I said, knowing what he was about to say. “Not anymore.”

He smiled. “I'm glad you see that.”

Adrian's voice cut through the air from behind us. “It's disappearing!”

It was true. When we turned around the horizon was quickly becoming a white expanse. Rev turned to me hurriedly. “One of you is waking up. You're in love with Adrian, aren't you?”

“Yes,” I answered. “I am.”

“Then I ask you of this, Bruno.” Rev looked me right in the eye as he placed his hand on my shoulder. He spoke clearly, yet low so Adrian couldn't hear. “Do not continue your love for her.”