Fated Dreams (Book One In The Affinity series) (30 page)

“Hurry up,
Sarah. If you want to keep driving with me, you can’t dawdle like you used to,”
my mom said. She was rushing around, picking up papers and stuffing snacks into
her purse.

“Do I have a
choice?” I asked her, after a swallow of orange juice.

“No. Let’s go,”
she yelled walking out of the house. I shoved the rest of my bagel in my mouth
and put my dish away.

I took the
raincoat I borrowed from Lucas along with my own off the hook, and ran out the
door. It had stopped raining, but it was still overcast and windy. The air was
crisp, which usually meant more rain was coming. “I hate going to school at
this time in the morning. No one was meant to get up as early as I have been,
since you started driving me,” I grumbled, scowling out the window at the
miserable day. The weather seemed to match my mood.

“You could have
waited and driven with Alex and his friends,” she said, sounding annoyed.

“No thanks!”

“Then quit
complaining.”

We pulled up to
the parking lot, where she parked on the teachers’ side.

“I’m getting a
ride with Derrick and Emma after school, so I’ll see you at home later. I
probably won’t be home for supper.”

She was rushing
into the side door, and waved. That was easy.

I arrived at my
locker and jammed the coats and bag inside. Then I slid down onto the floor and
cracked open a book. First bell wasn’t for another twenty minutes.

“Hey. Come on,
I’ll walk you to class,” Derrick said, heading toward me just before the first
bell was about to go off. I traded my novel for my English books then shoved my
locker door shut with a clang.

After school, I met Lucas at his car. When
he walked up, I was hiding behind it, hoping my mother wouldn’t see us. As he
opened the driver’s side door, he glanced at me, shaking his head. I looked all
around to make sure my mother wasn’t around before I snuck inside.

The ride to his
house was quiet; the awkwardness between us was palpable.

“Are your
parents at the restaurant?” I asked as we pulled into his driveway.

“Yes, my mom
works until six, my dad until closing. I can take you home before she gets here
if you don’t want to see her.”

“I think that
would be best.”

He didn’t say
anything, just nodded and got out of the car.

I followed,
handing him the jacket I had borrowed.

“Where are my
clothes?” he asked as he unlocked the front door, holding it open for me.

“Oh, I’m
keeping them,” I said, walking toward his bedroom.

“Okaay,” I
heard him say quietly behind me.

I was sitting
on his bed when he walked through the door. He glanced at me, winced, and then
sat down at his desk.

“So, what’s up
with Andy and Kyle? I haven’t seen much of them lately,” I asked to hopefully
end the weirdness between us.

“Andy is
planning a rematch in paintball. They’re both not happy that Emma beat them.
They’re sure she cheated somehow.” He cracked the first smile of the day.

I laughed.
“They’re so funny; I miss hanging out with them.” As soon as the words came
out, I regretted them. His face hardened and he looked away.

“I hear you’ve
been hitting the heavy bag pretty hard.”

“There’s
nothing else to do,” he mumbled, glancing at the computer as he typed the words
“Tony Garrison - murder.” The article from the other day came up, and he read
it quietly. “His parents are Helen and William Garrison. His brother’s name was
Donald.”

I stood up and
read the article from over his shoulder. “We’d have to look into Donald
Garrison’s family, since he’s the only sibling.”

I leaned over
him; he smelled faintly of soap and aftershave. The smell was familiar and
tempting, but I needed to focus. I typed in “Family of Donald Garrison - Renford, New Hampshire.” A family tree came up, and after clicking on the print button I
pulled away. Our close proximity was causing a stir inside me that I wasn’t
ready to explore. And by the look on his face, I could tell I wasn’t the only
one that our closeness was affecting. I cleared my throat and held the family
tree up so both of us could look it at.

Don Garrison
had four children. Out of those four were eleven grandchildren. From those
eleven, there were fourteen families with twenty-seven children. Unfortunately,
we had no idea of the ages of these kids. We were guessing the guy we were
looking for was seventeen to twenty. Tony was nineteen when he killed David and
Katie, but we didn’t want to miss anyone. We sat in silence, contemplating our
next step.

After a few
minutes, an idea came to me. “What if we find the phone numbers, and say that
we’re doing a survey of the ages of children in the area, and ask what school’s
they go to.”

His eyes lit
up. “That sounds good.” He went back to the computer, pulled up the phone
directory, and wrote down the numbers. The problem was, we could only find
thirteen out of the fourteen families. “Crap, how are we going to find the last
one?” I asked frustrated. It wasn’t going to be as easy as I had hoped.

“Let’s just go
through all of these, and then we’ll worry about that one.”

We split up the
numbers; he went into the kitchen to make his calls while I stayed in his room.

Half an hour
later, we met back in front of his computer to discuss what we had found.
“There are six kids in that age group from my list. How about you?” He sat back
on his chair in front of the computer.

“Four. I have
only two schools to look into, and they are both in Renford. Where are yours?”
I asked.

“Three go to a
school in Renford, two in a nearby town. And the last one goes to NYU. But we
can probably look that up on the Internet.”

“So I guess
we’re going to New Hampshire,” I said grimly. Pulling my teeth out one by one
with a set of pliers held more of an appeal than seven hours of uncomfortable
silence with my maybe ex-boyfriend.

“Looks like it.
Can you get Saturday off?” he asked.

“Yes, but
that’s about seven hours in driving alone, not to mention looking around. We’ll
have to stay the night,” I complained. He didn’t seem to like the idea any more
than I did, but we really didn’t have a choice.

Was it only two
months ago that we were excited for an overnight trip together? How I longed to
go back to that time, when all I worried about was my dad finding out that we
slept in the same bed.

“We can just
tell our parents we’re at our friends’. I’ve got enough money for gas and a
hotel. We’ll be fine,” he said, tossing the notepad he was holding on the desk.

“I’ll pay for
half.”

He sighed in
frustration, as though he was expecting my words. “I’ll pick you up at Emma’s
at nine o’clock Saturday morning. You should probably stay at her place Friday
night.”

“Sounds good,
but I should be getting home. It’s almost six.” I stood up and picked up my
bag.

The drive home
was quiet again. The silence was brutal. Thankfully, it didn’t last long before
we hit my street. He parked at the end of the block and watched me from his
car. I still didn’t want my parents to know what was going on.

The rest of the
week went by without any problems. I had a few dreams of Lucas and Tony. When I
dreamed of Tony, I always woke up shaking. It was as if he was taunting me,
knowing we were searching for him.

Friday rolled
around, and I was nervous that my parents would find out what I was up to. Emma
agreed to lie for me.

“Are you sure
we can’t come?” she asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

We were sitting
on her bedroom floor leaning against her bed, watching my favorite movie. “No,
you can’t come. You work, and it’s going to be boring anyway. All we’re doing
is driving up, looking around, and then we’re coming home. Besides, I need you
as a cover.”

She pouted into
her bag of popcorn.

I shook my head
and turned my attention back to the TV. The two main characters were standing
on the dock in the rain expressing their love for each other. This was my
favorite part, but it always made me cry.

“So what’s
going on with you and Lucas anyway? Are you going to get back together?”

“Not yet. I
think he wants to, but I’m annoyed at him for putting us through this.”

“What do you
mean?” she asked before tilting up the popcorn bag and draining the contents
into her mouth.

I smiled as I
watched little bits of popcorn fall over her face and into her hair. “When he
left me, he said it was to keep me safe. I begged him to change his mind. I
wanted to figure this out together. But no, he made the decision without me, I
had no say. So we both went through hell in the last month. And what are we
doing? Working together to find out who it is, just like I wanted. He wouldn’t
tell me what was going on, I could have helped, but no. So now I’m mad, and I
can’t be with him until I get over it. It’s so awkward around him, he barely
speaks, and when I ask him a question, he gives me a short answer, and he’s
quiet again.” I sighed. “It’s going to be a long weekend.”

She grimaced.
“On second thought I’m glad I can’t go, sounds fun.” She picked up the small
pieces of popcorn that had fallen out of her hair onto the floor, and put them
into the now empty bag.

The next morning I waved goodbye to Emma as
I climbed into Luke’s car. I shoved my backpack with my extra clothes into the
back seat, beside his.

Without
thinking, like this past month hadn’t happened, I leaned in and gave Lucas a
quick kiss on the lips, the way I used to when I said hello. Just as our lips
touched, I realized my mistake and drew away slowly.

His eyes held
humor and surprise.

“I’m sorry, I
forgot. Habit.” I was expecting him to look sullen the way he had all week, but
instead he was smiling. “No problem, anytime.” He looked happier than I had
seen him in awhile.

“What’s with
you? Why are you in such a good mood?” I eyed him suspiciously. His hazel eyes
were shining, and there was a confidence about him that annoyed me.

“I get to spend
a whole weekend alone with you. It doesn’t matter that we’re not together. I’ve
missed you Sarah, I hardly ever see you anymore. I know you’re still mad at me,
and if I could take it back, I would. But I don’t care about all of that. For
these two days, I have you. Why wouldn’t I be happy?”

A warm glow
filled my insides. It was such a sweet thing to say, I was speechless. Once I
could form words I said, “Okay, let’s go.” As he pulled away from Emma’s
driveway, I took my cell out of my pocket and placed it on the dashboard. “I
programmed Renford into the GPS on my phone, so we won't get lost.  “Good
thinking," he said with a nod and a slight grin.

Of course, his
charming words only lasted about an hour before he blurted out, “So are you
ever going to forgive me?”

“What?” I
gasped. What happened to just being happy to be with me? “I don’t want to talk
about it,” I mumbled, leaning over the seat to take out a new novel I had
bought for our trip. I had finished the mystery I was reading, and since I
still wasn’t into anything with romance in it, I chose a horror by Conrad
Green. The last book I read of his kept me up until seven in the morning, so
this time, I was only planning to read it in daylight.

I cracked the
spine and turned the page, but before I could even read a sentence, Lucas
knocked it out of my hand, tossing it into the far corner of the back seat,
where I couldn’t reach it. “Oh no, you don’t,” he said looking back at the
road. “You’ve been avoiding the subject all week.”

“Me? Every time
I try to talk to you, you clam up. I’ve barely heard your voice.”

“Because I want
to get back together, and you won’t talk about it. You just keep changing the
subject,” he said, gripping the steering wheel.

I stared out at
the cars passing us in the other lane. I counted four cars and two trucks
before I answered him. “I don’t want to talk about getting together again. You
broke my heart, and I don’t forgive you. You need to give me some time.” I was
yelling now, but I was tired of explaining myself.

“I apologized
for that over and over. I know we can’t get back the last month, but we can
have now, we can be together. I miss you!” He was trying to keep his voice
calm, but the volume rose on the last few words.

“Do you ever
listen? I’m not ready, stop pushing me!” I hated being rushed into something
before I was ready.

“But why not?
Give me a reason.”

“Because it’s
still too fresh in my mind. Wait until all of this is over.” I crossed my arms
in front of me.

His eyes
narrowed. “I can’t believe you. I’m still mad at you for keeping the fact from
me that some guy was stalking you and threw a rock through your window. But am
I dwelling on that? No!”

I sighed and
rolled my eyes. “It’s not the same thing.”

“You lied to
me!” he yelled, punching the steering wheel.

“Why are you
bringing all this up anyway? At Emma’s, you said all this didn’t matter because
you were just happy to be with me. Remember?”

His voice
softened, and a slight smile appeared. “I was trying to sweet talk you.”

I realized what
he meant. I raised my hands out in front of me. “Are you telling me you were
going to use this trip to try and talk me into forgiving you?”

“Yes.”

After that,
there was a lot more yelling, and a lot of arm gestures, that went on for about
an hour.

After the
yelling ceased, we grew quiet. Lucas focused on the road ahead, and I stared
out my window with my arms folded in front of me.

“Can we stop? I
need to use the bathroom,” I said after what felt like hours.

“Why don’t we
stop and have lunch?” he suggested. I nodded, and we grew silent again.

We drove into a small town. We had passed
so many I wasn’t sure of the name, but it had a burger joint, and that was all
that mattered. We pulled in, went to the bathroom, and picked up lunch to eat
in the car.

“So I’ve been
thinking about our fight. Maybe we needed to get all of that out of our system
so we can move on.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and continued. “Please
understand that I do love you, but I need time. It’s not just about forgiving
you. How can we have a relationship while all this is going on? What if the guy
attacks me again? Are you going to do what’s right, without discussing it with
me?” I paused, waiting for an answer. All I got for a response was a shrug. “I
just think we should wait until everything is settled before we even think
about getting back together. Do you understand?” I kept my voice soft. I didn’t
want a repeat of our blow out earlier.