Kiss Me

“I didn’t say there were dreams. I said a dream.”

“Oh, sorry. Semantics.”

“Well, I don’t want you to think I sit around and dream about you all day long.”

We get ice cream cones and sit outside eating them.

I take a big lick. “This is good,” I tell him. “Thanks for stopping.”

“Oh, thank you,” he says, apparently mesmerized by my tongue.

Ha. It’s good to know I have a little power of my own. I like it when Aiden seems like a normal boy. Makes him easier for me to deal with.

“Thank me for what?” I say and then slowly move my tongue around the base of the cone.

He blinks. “Uh, um, for helping me get the C.”

“Oh, yeah, that. But I thought our goal was a B? Or don’t you want to come to France with me anymore?”

I get the god-like smile. Then watch as he licks his own lips.

“Oh, I’m definitely going to make a B. Can we go to the Eiffel Tower?”

“Well, sure. Our house is in southern France, but we can go to Paris for a couple of days, why not?”

He raises his eyebrows up and down at me. “It’s go

“Maybe I’ll bring Dawson with us.”

He gets his face in close to mine. “You won’t be bringing Dawson. You’ll be with me.”

“You know, you keep saying stuff like that. It makes no sense.”

“Why doesn’t it make sense?”

“Because I couldn’t have a relationship with you. I always know where I stand with Dawson. Our relationship is very simple.”

A flash of irritation crosses his eye.

“So, are you going to tell me about your dream?” I say, changing the subject.

“No, you’re going to tell me about yours first.”

“Okay, so when it started out I was, like, in this clearing in the woods. It kinda looked like the cave, but there were streamers and ribbons and flowers hanging from all the tree branches. It was gorgeous. Everything was cream-colored, like your car, and golden. I was going to get married there. I had on a white dress with beautiful gold embroidery—it was very Robin-Hood-marries-Maid-Marian feeling. Anyway. I’m getting married, and I don’t know who the person is that I’m marrying because I can’t see him through my veil, but, like, I know in my heart it’s the guy I’m in love with. So, we get married and even when he kisses me, it’s through the veil.” I stop. “This sounds really stupid, I can’t tell you the rest.”

“No, it’s interesting, go on.”

“Fine. Okay, so then I’m in a dorm room. I’m sitting on my husband’s lap, maybe kinda straddling him in his desk chair. He slowly took my dress off. And pretty soon I’m naked on top of him, but I still have the veil on and can’t see his face. So we start, uh, consummating the marriage. But I still have the veil on. And then in the middle of it, he lifts the veil, so I can finally see his face.”

“Wait, go back to the dorm room part. You done something like that lately?”

“Um, sorta?”

Aiden walks to his car, gets in, and starts it. I’m not sure what to do, so I throw what’s left of my cone away and get in too.

He doesn’t even look at me, just slams through the gears, driving.

He squeals into the school parking lot, gets out of his car, slams the door shut, and starts walking away. Doesn’t say a word to me.

I get out of the car. I’m not sure what to say. I mean, I thought he would love the dream. It was him I was with. He was the guy I married. I was going to tease him about how the stuff that he says is, like, affecting my brain.

“Don’t you even want to know who I married?”

“No, not really,” is his response as he marches away from me.

I text Dawson.

Me:  Hey, just got back. 

Dawson:  Come give me a good night kiss.

I follow the marching god to his dorm. When he turns to open and go through the door, he notices me. “Are you following me?”

“Uh, no. I’m going to see Dawson for a few minutes before curfew. And we’re going to be gone this weekend. At that weekend Whitney pla

“Good,” he says and marches up the stairs.

Friday, September 23rd

I wish we didn’t fight.

12:55pm

Garrett calls me as I’m leaving lunch. I tell Dawson that I have to take a quick call and send him off to his next class. I’m freaking out a bit because Garrett never calls me. He always texts me and has me call him back.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did you tell Vanessa where you are?”

“No.”

“Keatyn, it’s important that you tell me the truth. I won’t yell at you if you did. I know this has been hard on you, but if you did, it’s imperative that I know.”

“I swear to you on my sisters’ lives that I’m telling you the truth. What’s going on?”

“Vanessa may be missing.”

“Missing how?”

“She apparently posted something on Facebook about how she talked to you. That you wanted everyone to know you were getting better.”

“She just wants to act like she knows what’s going on.”

“Well, that may be, but she went to a club last night and RiA

“And you think something’s happened to her? But you told me if I kept my friends in the dark they’d be safe. Did you lie to me? Do you think he’s done something to her?”

“We don’t know. We aren’t ru

I’m shocked. “Why not?!”

“I was told to cut back.”

“By who?”

“James.”

“Is it a money thing?”

“I think they were pretty surprised at how much the bill was, yes. But in their defense, it’s been almost a month and we haven’t produced any compelling results. The goal was to gather information that we could use against him. Other than him being at the same places as some of your friends, his going to Oregon, New York, and a few coincidental Facebook things, we have nothing. Nothing we could take to a judge, anyway.”

“Do you think for my safety we should be watching him more?”

“I don’t know that twenty-four-seven is the answer, but, yes, I’d like to have the freedom to do what we think is best. For example, my man followed him to the club, but then went off duty.”

“From now on, you have the freedom to do what you think is best. Just bill me. And you need to give me more details about Vanessa because what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. Vanessa never went to a club alone. She made RiA

“What do you mean, her cover?”

“It’s just not that unusual for her to go off with a guy for the weekend. And when she did that, she always told her dad that she was staying at RiA

“On her own wall, she said that Vanessa is missing, but on your Facebook wall she said, Vanessa is off radar and I’m going to be pissed if you two are having a reunion without me.

“Off radar means RiA

“Like it was just a coincidence that he was in New York at Brooklyn’s tournament? I don’t think so. When she comes home, Keatyn, I’d like her to come home alive. We can’t find Vincent either.”

“What do you mean?”

“We can’t find him. He’s not at home. Didn’t go to his office today. His assistant said she wasn’t sure when he’d be back.”

“Wow,” is all I manage to mutter out. My mind is going in a million directions. Trying to process it all.

“When she went off with guys before, did she go to the same place? Is there somewhere we can look for her?”