Alive | Jasper Hale | Book 1

6. Seattle

                                               6. Seattle 

 The past week and a half had been a lot easier than I thought. It seemed as the days moved forward, it became easier to feel normal. Less and less, I thought about the coffin and being buried alive. Even though I knew it was real, it started to seem like a distant memory—something I could almost forget altogether.

With Greyson tutoring me nearly everyday with the exception of Tuesdays—the day I see the therapist every week—my Spanish became better. I still butchered the words and stumbled over my sentences, but my memory increased and as did my pronunciation of over half the words we were learning. Mrs. Goff even noticed the improvement and was very pleased.

Saturday, I had learned exactly what Cole meant about Alice and the Mad Hatter. Not only that, but she introduced me to a new show—Doctor Who. Although it was a little toosci-fi for my tastes, I still watched it for Cole, whose reactions were priceless. She shook her arms and hands uncontrollably, high pitched noises escaping her mouth every now and again. Needless to say, she fangirled hard—a term Greyson told me  that explained Cole's reactions.

By midnight Saturday, I understood exactly who the Eleventh Doctor was. The last Time Lord in existence and the twelfth regeneration—same man, different face, as Cole put it.

My friendship seemed to grow with both Cole and Greyson. During one of the weekdays, she tagged along with Greyson and I to help study Spanish. It was a little less unproductive than it normally was because sometimes, Cole got all three of us off track multiple times.

Sunday, the fifteenth, was our designated date to go shopping in Seattle. It seemed excessive that we were going to a city three hours away, but Cole kept waving it off. She said it was better that we did. Better clothing and costume choices were in Seattle. Cole also added that we were likely to be wearing original costumes than the seven hundred classmates going to the Halloween bash.

Until the night before the fifteenth, the date crept up on me and jumped out last minute. It was when I was laying down, staring at the untouched and unread diaries that I realized the date and my plans tomorrow. I would have to wake up at a reasonable time to get ready and call Cole to come over whenever she able to.

Turning over on my back, I stared at the ceiling.

Thoughts whirled inside me, wondering how long would I be gone tomorrow. Until sun down or maybe eight? Six hours would be the total time I would be in a car with Cole. Six, long dragging hours.

Sighing loudly, I turned over in my bed and curled the blankets towards my chest as I coiled up into a ball. My eyelids became heavy and before I knew it, I'd fallen asleep.

A noise startled me from my dreamless sleep, a whirring and obnoxious noise loud enough to sit me straight up in bed, looking around dazed and confused. Seconds passed before I glanced at my nightstand next to me to see the alarm clock screaming at me to shut it off.

I scoffed as my hand slammed down on the button, and I pushed it over the edge of the nightstand. It clattered to the ground with an audible thud and a crack. I cringed, knowing fully well that I’d broken it.

Running a hand through my disheveled, raven locks, I glanced out the window. From where I was sitting, I could see the sky painted orange, pink and purple. Even without looking at my now-broken alarm clock, I knew I had an hour—two at most—to get ready. Sighing loudly, I rubbed my face until I knew I was awake enough to get up and make some coffee.

Kicking the sheets off my bed, I padded over to my door and slowly opened it, unsure if Grace was awake yet. Just as I was feet away from the door, a floorboard underneath my foot creaked. I paused and stepped back, the board creaking again. Sighing, I remembered Greyson stepping on the same floorboard on his way out the first day we hung out.