Soulbound

2. Dani

"Danika!"

My eyes snap open and I jump in my seat, startled. Standing next to me, the young blonde smirks. "Easy there," Rose says as she grips my shoulder, probably to keep me from falling right out of the chair. "You fell asleep again."

Again? I press the heel of my palms into my eyes and groan. "Please tell me David didn't see." The last thing I need is for my boss to catch me sleeping in the break room . . . again.

Rose chuckles, a light airy sound. "David stepped out right after the mid-morning rush, something about errands to run. I think you were ringing up a customer when he left."

Oh, thank God. "He trusts us with his store that much, huh?"

"Guess so." Rose quirks a brow as her smirk widens. "Late night?"

I can practically taste the implication behind her words and frown. Her suggestive hand motions only deepen my scowl and with a sigh I lean back, affixing her with my best 'go to hell' look as I mumble, "More like bad dreams." Sorry to disappoint you, Rose, but no wild and crazy sex stories here. None worth mentioning for a while now, anyway, not since—

"Please tell me you aren't still dreaming about her," Rose growls, narrowing her bright blue eyes at me. "It's been what, a year since that bitch broke your heart?" She runs a manicured hand through my caramel hair, flipping the ends playfully over my shoulder as her gaze softens. "You're better off, Dani girl. Leaving was her choice."

Actually, it was her parents' choice. They gave Monica an ultimatum: either risk being cut off and ostracized by staying with me to live out this 'gay phase', as they called it, or move halfway across Texas to finish out her nursing degree back home in the Bible Belt and continue to enjoy her financial freedom. I would love to think that it wasn't an easy choice, but then I don't think I've ever seen someone pack up and walk out on an eight-month relationship so fast. It cut a little deeper knowing that we were close friends before we started dating, and her parents had actually liked me—until they found out I was sleeping with their daughter, of course.

Lesson learned, don't confuse a drunken kiss during a night out for mutual feelings and start dating your mostly-straight college roommate. What was the term Rose had used to describe it, heteroflexible? To her credit, though, Monica really did try to make it work in the short time we were together. But even in my wildest fantasies of eloping like two star-crossed lovers in a 'forbidden romance' novel, did I really expect her to choose me over her own family? Or for us to stay friends after the lines we crossed and the pain that followed when our love was finally cut at the seams? Some might say that this type of heartache is the very thing that defines a person's formative years; to that, I say 'fuck you'. Let me wallow in my self-pity. It's a much better plan than putting myself out there again only to have it become someone else's 'mistake', anyway.

"Dani?"

Pulled from my thoughts, I shake my head and offer the blonde a meek smile. "Quit worrying. Monica's been off my mind for a while now." It was mostly true. "These dreams, though . . ."

My words trail off as I tie up my hair and push myself to my feet. It's the same dream I've been having for as long as I can remember: a woman, covered from head to toe in scorching fire. Sometimes she's screaming at me and sometimes she's just staring silently through me, as if she's waiting for something, and although I can never see her face I can always feel the flames of her rage even long after I've woken up. Occasionally I'll dream of other things—recently they've been about Monica and her latest boy toy—but the burning woman always finds her way back. Skin on fire. Howling in eternal agony.