Incarnadine

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

"Lena, wake up!"

I jolted awake and sat up. "What? What's wrong?" Fire, I thought at first, and then I saw Jamie with her hands on her hips. I did a quick check—I was in my own blanket, I hadn't sleepwalked to Jamie's bed and snatched her pillow or the doll dubbed Duckie Nick had given her.

"You have five minutes for shower and dressing," she told me, her arms now folded. My eyes flew to the clock. Shit.

I almost slipped on the slippery shower floor when I zoomed into it. I had barely gotten out of my clothes when I hit the shower on. The water was ice-cold. I jumped back a little. Remembering that I didn't have much time, I forced myself to let the cold beads of water rain on my skin. The shampoo and soap went at the same time, and I thought I must have gotten some of the soap on my scalp, but I didn't have time to fix it, so I just washed the whole thing off, along with my soap-lathered body.

A quick toweling and a random pick of clothes got me a white tee and black jeans.

Jamie squinted at me when I got out. "Where's your bra?"

I slapped my forehead and went to my drawers. I did a quick strip and strap, and was finished in less than one minute. I grabbed my bag.

Jamie nodded.

I peeked at the window to see how Nick was dealing with waiting. He was nowhere to be found. I frowned and pulled the curtains further to look outside. A movement caught my eyes—a figure disappearing into the shadows of trees.

My heart pounded for a panicked second. Had someone been watching our window? I shook the thought away before it turned into a full-blown paranoia. It was probably just random guy passing by.

Downstairs, Nick was leaning against his car. He'd parked it on the side of the restaurant today. "What took you so long, babe?" he asked Jamie, delivering a quick peck on her.

We got into the car. Nick started the car and drove.

"It's Elena," she said when we got on the road, turning to me. "You slept like dead last night. I tried to wake you up just now, but you just went back to sleep with this dopey, loopy smile."

I blushed fiercely. "I...uh..."

"Had a hot dream?"

"Jamie!"

The truth was, I didn't even remember what I'd dreamt about. And that was a first time. All I knew was that I'd never had that kind of a good sleep in awhile. Maybe now that I'd figured out a lot of things, my mind wasn't as tightly wound anymore.

We arrived at school just as the bell rang. We were lucky not to have to get dumped into the counselor's office and a detention for a late pass.

I felt at ease. The lessons came to me like melting honey. Dripping, and sticking. There was a pop quiz at Chem, but I didn't stress over it too much even though I wasn't sure about half of my answers. I could even ignore Trent Wellington's jibes in the group discussion in one of my classes.

I met up with Jamie, Nick, and Ingrid at the hallway.

"Someone has got a heavenly blush this morning," Ingrid teased.

"She had a hot dream just now," Jamie explained to her.

"No, I don't even remember—" I saw Duane walking toward our way. He ducked from bumping into other kids' shoulders, striding fast with a very rare wide smile. "—the dream," I finished.

Duane came over to me and leaned in, hands raised as if to touch me. But he changed his mind, letting them fall to his sides. I remembered the last time he'd confronted us and glanced at Ingrid.