Tingle - a love story of the supernatural kind.

Chapter 2

Natalie

I rubbed my eyes as the sound of the alarm went off , grabbed my phone and looked at it. 6:00 am sharp. My eyes felt swollen from the night before, but my mind drifted back to the dream I'd had. I hit the snooze button and plugged the phone into the charger. I only had about 5% battery left.

Seven minutes left to just lie there and not think about real life. About how Dan wasn't lying here beside me. I pushed that thought away. Where did he go? Dammit, Nat. I closed my eyes and forced the dream back to my mind. I was in a car...driving along a bridge, and the sky was a brilliant blue. Except I had been in the backseat. The car was not being steered, and I was afraid it was going to crash and veer off the bridge and into the water below. I shuffled to the front into the driver's side, easily, as though I wasn't an oversized person and it hadn't taken a lot of effort to crawl over and reach my foot onto the pedals. Finally, my foot pressed lightly on the brake as my hands got a grip on the steering wheel and straightened it between the lines on the road. I breathed with relief as I steered the car with ease now, but as I looked into the rearview mirror, I spotted Dan, who was fading further and further away with every mile that I drove. He had been running after me, but I kept my eyes forward and continued to drive.

Interesting dream. I'd left him behind. I got up, feeling a degree of empowerment. He wasn't here, and when I peeked at my phone he hadn't called. Should I look for him on Find My Friends?

I debated this as I rose, yawning and stretching. I headed to the closet with a strange ease. Like he wasn't here, and I didn't have to feel the stress of an argument where there was no such thing as a compromise. Smiling, I grabbed a forest green oversized sweater from the closet. I always got compliments at school that it matched the color of my eyes and paired with some black jeggings. The easy wear of teachers - oversized blouses that covered the butt. They needed to be really long. As good as I felt this second, I grabbed my size 14's that were more forgiving than most of my 16's. After my shower, I tugged the stretchy denim over the thickness of my legs and tried to hold onto the free feeling I'd had from my dream. No judgement. No criticism, no feeling bad about myself. I needed to lose weight. Yes. It was another thing about me that I hated. I tried not to cringe when people would give me a compliment like "Oh, you have such a pretty face," and then they would stop, as though they didn't want to finish the sentence out loud. I knew what they were thinking because I thought it myself. "You have such a pretty face...if only you weren't so chunky..."

Nope, not today. I wasn't going there. Instead of 2 cinnamon rolls, I grabbed a protein bar and an apple and even packed a chicken salad for lunch. Yes. Today was going to be my day. No matter what happened. Screw Dan. He had no idea how good he had it. How I spent hours after school, photocopying lessons, sending emails, contacting parents, entering grades, then coming home and making time to prepare him his favorite chicken enchiladas with those blasted bell peppers saturating the meat. Vacuuming the floor and picking up after his constant dishes he left on the coffee table, on his nightstand, in his office. Ugh. It was like picking up after a child. His clothes never made it into the hamper, no matter how close I set the basket alongside the bed.

I worked hard. I cared about him and my job. I tried harder than any wife I knew. Marie had divorced her husband because she thought he'd been cheating, but she hadn't had any proof. That should have showed him, I thought as I poured coffee into my thermos and added a long slosh of hazelnut creamer.

He didn't appreciate it or me. I couldn't recall the last time he said he'd loved me. Maybe on our fifth anniversary when we'd taken the boat to Catalina and had spent a magical weekend there. Seemed like we didn't have any troubles then. What had changed?

My weight. Me? My attitude. My desire for a baby.

No, I told myself. I deserved better. I was worth his time. And I was worth the love. The car came to life and the song that came on the radio breathed new air into my heart. A song from the 90's. You are beautiful, she sang. Words can't bring you down.