November Dreams (M.C.)

Chapter Seventeen

"Come on, Czara. Pick up the phone."

I tapped my foot impatiently against the kitchen tile. I had been trying to get a hold of her all morning. I had to talk to her about what had happened to me last night, before it was gone from my head. I had already sketched, but I was afraid that this time, it wouldn't be enough to keep this memory in tact.

Finally her voice came over the speaker.

"Hello?" She giggled into the phone; it sounded like she was with someone.

"Czara? What are you doing?"

She said something into the phone, but I couldn't hear her over the loud giggles and shrieks coming from the background. I pinched the bridge of my nose; this was beyond irritating right now. I could already feel the memory becoming fuzzy. All the sounds coming through the phone were muffling my train of thought.

"Czara!" I yelled into the phone.

"Yeah?" She let out a small giggle, the noises finally dying down as well in the background. I heard her shush whoever she was with before she turned her attention back to our conversation. Or lack thereof.

"What's up, Nove?"

"Who are you with?" At this point, I was a bit curious.

"Oh...um...it's just Luke," she rambled off rather quickly, as if she would hope I wouldn't catch what she had said.

Why did that name sound familiar?

Oh my God.

"Luke, as in Michael's friend?" My heart began to beat a bit faster. Was she with Michael right now too? Was he there?

"Yeah..." she let out quietly.

I opened my mouth to say something back, but was unable to force the words to come out. Honestly, I didn't know how I felt about this, especially in the wake of what happened to me last night.

"Czara, can you just come by when you get a chance? I need to talk to you about something."

Just as she was about to answer, I hung up. I knew she would come; I didn't need to hear her say yes. Plus, I was a little irritated at her now. She could have been around Michael. If she was though, I doubt she would admit it to me. She wanted me to just forget him. But I couldn't. Not when things were finally starting to come back to me.

//

"Wow..." She breathed as she stared up at me from my couch.

"I know."

"So now what?" She asked timidly, looking down at her phone which had been going off since she got here.

"I don't know. I don't know if I should try and find him or—"

"Find him?" She cut me off, finally tearing her attention away from her buzzing phone.

"Yeah. I mean, this dream; it means something, right? It's got to. It's like my mind is trying to tell me something, like it's all right here in front of me..."

And that's when it hit me. The boy in the dirt.

My gaze shot back over to Czara, who was already back typing on her phone, a small smile twitching at the corners of her lips.

"Czara..."

She snapped her attention back on me, still clutching at her phone as her fingers hovered over the keys.

"At the party that night...that boy who...who was chasing after me...the boy with the blue hair..."

"Hey, can I use your bathroom?" She blurted out, throwing her phone down on the couch. But before I could answer her, she had already closed the bathroom door.

I knew she would be in there awhile, especially if she was trying to avoid something.

She was hiding something from me, I could feel it. If she wasn't going to help me remember, then I would just have to take things into my own hands.

I glanced back at the bathroom door, making sure she wasn't going to come bursting out. I slid over towards her phone and unlocked it; 1234, she was predictable like that.

I scrolled through her contacts until I found what I was looking for. I stared at the screen for a moment, a wave of hesitation surging through me. But I shook it off as fast as it came, entering the number into my phone and placing her phone back in its spot so she wouldn't get suspicious.

She couldn't know.

If she was hiding things from me, I could hide things from her.

Just then, she came bursting out of the bathroom and scooped up her stuff. She walked backwards towards the door.

"Hey, I have to go. We can finish this tomorrow if you want!" She said as she waved at me and closed the door behind her, not giving me a chance to say anything back.

As I watched the door close, I looked down at my phone, his name staring back up at me.

Michael Clifford.

I had it. He was so close, but so far away.

All that was left now was to close the gap.

I hesitantly pressed his number, my phone dialing instantly.

I felt my stomach twist into a million knots as I listened to the phone ring in my ear. This was torture. Pure torture.

Before I could hang up, I heard the phone click and a voice come over the line.

"Hello?"

I expelled all the air from my lungs as my breath caught in my throat. This was him; this was his voice. It took me a moment to snap back to reality. I wanted to revel in this moment; the moment that I got another piece of him back as I tried to mentally stitch my memory of him back together.

"Hello?"

"Michael?"

He let out a small gasp, then a moment of silence.

"November."