Reid drove back to his studio apartment in silence. It felt too empty as he unlocked the door. The smallest amount of furniture possible was scattered across the room. A cheap black futon sat in one corner serving as both bed and sitting space, while a TV tray, folded and leaning against the wall near it, was his dining table. In the kitchen space was a dorm fridge and a small microwave, his one set of dishes neatly stacked on top of it. The sound of the door closing echoed slightly in the near bare space. Throwing his school stuff by the door, he plopped onto the futon which squeaked loudly in protest.
What did I just do? Did I really just ask Cordy on a date? He had no experience with the whole trainer-trainee relationship but he was pretty sure it didn’t include dating. Michael’s gonna be furious if he finds out. Thinking of Michael brought a whole other problem to the surface. Michael had been very clear that Cordy needed to be brought to headquarters for the rest of her training. Reid was good, amazing for his age, but his experience was limited compared to other members. Truly the only reason he’d gotten this assignment was due to his initial contact with Cordy. Reid had managed to stall the official command, knowing how Cordy would react to it, but he knew he was cutting it close. He closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he thought.
This just might be the perfect opportunity to take her for a visit. If she could meet Michael and see headquarters maybe she wouldn’t be quite so anxious about moving there for a while or working with some of the other members. It crossed his mind that this was probably not the sort of evening she would be anticipating and if she mentioned the word date to anyone while there were there he would be in for it. Though Michael had told him to use any means necessary, he had been very specific about not getting involved and no matter how Reid felt, if Cordy grew attached that way it would bring the same trouble. He had seen the way she looked at him, especially when she thought he wasn’t paying attention, how distracted she was when they were at the playground where he’d kissed her.
He knew he should never have done and had immediately regretted it. Not the kiss itself, that had been amazing, but the fact that nothing could come of it. He had managed to keep from doing it again and hoped that would be enough to discourage Cordy from thinking it went any deeper. Of course, telling her he was taking her on a date wasn’t doing anyone any favors either.
As he wandered into the tiny bathroom he tried to ignore the nagging voice in the back of his mind. The one repeating over and over the real reason he didn’t want Cordy going to headquarters. The more they practiced her dream walking the more obvious it became that her powers were far stronger than anyone they’d ever encountered before. That should have been a good thing but what worried him was that she was becoming clearer to him. The fact that she could see others perfectly had been an exciting possibility. No one had ever been able to identify the obscures because they all looked like nondescript shadows. They could be anyone, anywhere. Dream walkers even appeared blurry to one another in the dream world, but since they all knew each other it was fairly easy to identify who one was interacting with. Unfortunately during the last several training sessions Reid had noticed her features were becoming more distinct. He’d hoped it was just his familiarity but by the last one it was quite apparent that she was definitely growing more defined. That was, however, not the reason for his reluctance to go to Michael. If anything he wanted to tell the man who was his father in all but name, that this girl he cared about might be in serious danger; if he could see her, so could the obscures.
No, it was the fact that during her last practice, the one where she’d finally managed to change their location, she had manipulated her surroundings. Not in the sense that she concentrated and changed how she remembered a certain location, but she had actually moved an object with her hands. The dream world was composed of people’s imagination, it was insubstantial and if anyone tried to pick something up their hand would just slide through it, unless it was an item brought from the real world. This made it difficult to find things if one didn’t know exactly where to look. Though their founder had hidden the amulet pieces in the dream world, if you didn’t know where to look you would have to just blunder through the entire world, methodically and hope you stumbled across it by luck. It was kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack filled with a million random objects without knowing what a needle looked like, all while being blindfolded.
Knowing she had this ability should have been exciting, instead he dreaded the thought of telling Michael anything about it. Reid’s reaction didn’t make sense. The only reason he could think of would be that when the council found out about it they would take over her training for sure and he probably wouldn’t see her much. That had to be it, selfish as it was.
Reid pulled his shirt off, tossing it in the corner with the rest of his laundry and jumped in the shower. After getting dressed he pulled out his phone and toyed with it, flipping it open and closed as he debated texting her and asking if they could leave earlier since it was a two hour drive to headquarters, or even cancelling all together. He considered just taking her to dinner and miniature golf or something. There would be other evenings to take her to see Michael, especially if this first one turned out well.
The thought of going on a real date was electrifying. He’d never even kissed a girl before her, there had hardly been any chance, seeing as he and Bridget were the only walkers under 30. He didn’t have time to meet anyone anywhere else and he was not interested in Bridget. No, his life was a strictly monitored schedule thanks to his mother. Surely one date, one more week wouldn’t hurt anything, would it?
He glanced at his phone. It was only 5:30, finally deciding he couldn’t stand it anymore, he sent Cordy a text. “Is it ok to pick u up at 6?”
“sure,” came the reply a minute later. He forced himself to walk to his car slowly, trying to kill time. As he started the engine he still hadn’t decided what he was going to do.
YOU ARE READING
Let Her Sleep (Dream Walker Chronicles #1)
Teen Fiction(Formerly known as Dream Walkers!) Coming out November, 2014! Cordelia Jameson has met the boy of her dreams...too bad he's only in her dreams! In modern New York, seventeen year old Cordy learns she can enter and manipulate dreams, triggering two...
