Michael was walking through the forest. The sounds of birds singing, insects chirping and the breeze blowing through the trees blended into a sort of natural music.
Suddenly, the wind stopped. The birds chirping ceased and the insects grew silent. An eery calm had descended on the forest.
And then he saw her.
Grace.
He could tell right away that this Grace Dream wasn't like the others. First of all, as soon as he saw Grace, he knew it was a dream. And Grace wasn't flickering like a hologram or bathed in a greyish tint like she had been in all of his other dreams. She seemed to be...glowing. Her soft golden locks emitted a gleam, and the little white dress she was wearing seemed incandescent.
"Grace!" Michael smiled, rushing towards her.
Grace seemed calmer than she had in life, and she smiled lazily when he saw him. "Hi Mikey."
He felt relief flood through him as she used his nickname. It felt so good to hear her voice.
"Grace," He repeated, feeling his eyes tear up. "Grace, I'm so sorry."
"Mikey, it's okay," her voice sounded like it was coming from far, far away, even though she was standing right in front of him. "I can't stay long, but I want you to know. It wasn't..." her voice faded out, replaced by static, like a radio with bad signal.
"What?" Michael felt his heart race. What was she saying?
"Your...not...fault..." Grace's voice kept fading out, and Michael was shocked to realize that he could suddenly see the trees behind Grace through her, as if her midsection had become a fogged glass window. She was disappearing.
"Wasn't..." Grace attempted to speak again. "your...fault."
Michael suddenly snapped awake, his heart racing. Had Grace said..."it wasn't your fault?"
But of course it had just been a dream, like all of the other dreams. A reminder from his subconscious that Grace was dead.
But it had seemed so real.
Michael turned over, facing Ari. Or at least, he faced the spot where Ari had been when they had gone to bed. Now, however, nothing but her Thermarest lay there, looking lonely without it's sleeping bag atop it.
Michael glanced towards the door, and saw that it was ajar. Through the small space he spotted a few strands of familiar, white blonde hair blowing in the soft breeze. He climbed out of his sleeping bag and carried it with him as he walked towards the door.
Ari was sitting to the left of the doorframe, her sleeping bag wrapped around her like a blanket and her eyes fixed on the leafy horizon. When she spotted him, she smiled. "Hey."
"Hey. Couldn't sleep?" Michael sat down next to her, placing his unzipped sleeping bag overtop of his legs.
"No," she swallowed, her smile flickering. "Sometimes I can't."
"Yeah, me too." Michael said empathetically.
He followed Ari's eyes to the sky, where he was amazed to discover several whitish streaks perpendicular to the horizon. It was similar to only one thing Michael could think of.
"The Northern Lights." He sighed, smiling.
"They're beautiful, huh?" Ari smiled too. "Did you know that they're caused by wind from the sun reacting to the earth's magnetic field?"
Her voice sounded strange, and Michael suddenly wondered if she had been crying. It was too dark to tell. Had she been feeling sad about her parents like that night he had spotted her in the park?
He was suddenly overcome with guilt. "Ari...I have to tell you something."
"What?"
He was going to confess what he knew about her parents. He could tell she needed someone to talk to, and since she didn't have Ashton, Michael was going to have to do. He just hoped she wasn't angry with him or her cousin when she found out.
"Um...Ashton...he told me. About your parents."
Ari was quiet for a moment, and then she sighed. "Yeah, I know."
"Y-you know?" Micael stuttered, taken aback.
"Yeah."
"What - how?" Michael asked, confused.
"That day after the carnival, you and Ashton were alone while we were on the roller coaster, and then you acted so weird afterwards," Ari explained, her eyes not leaving the sky. "I thought that maybe he told you. And then when I asked you to come here with me, you just said yes right away. You barely even hesitated. I knew you either got hit on the head with a coconut, or...you knew," She took a deep breath. "You felt sorry for me. You know, 'how can I say no to this poor girl?'. That's what you thought."
"I didn't - "
"Don't try to deny it," Ari interrupted, still staring at the sky. "It's what everyone thinks. It's how everybody acts when they find out."
Michael swallowed, not sure what to say.
Ari was silent for a long time, and then she let out a little sob, barely audible over the rustling of the leaves.
"It was raining that night," Ari said, her voice thick with tears. "It was raining so hard. We were coming here, actually, to visit my aunt - Ashton's mom. I told my dad we shouldn't go. I used to read a lot back then, and I knew driving in a storm is never a good idea. I was only ten, but I was paranoid about crashes and accidents," Ari paused to wipe her eyes, despite the fact that the tears she wiped away were quickly replaced with new ones. "My dad said it would be okay. He was an optimist, and he could never see the dark side. I could tell my mom was a little worried, but she held it in. She was convinced my dad always new best, and she would never argue with him. My parents were both botanists - hence Marigold and Arugula. They were really good parents, and super smart about plants, but when it came to common sense, they...well...didn't have much. I remember my mom used to make me pick my own clothes, even when I was really little. I'd come out of my bedroom in tights with runs in the knees and polka dots on stripes and my mom would be happy.
"We got in the car, and Marigold was just a baby at that time. She doesn't remember any of this. She was asleep in her little car seat, and I was so scared at every turn we made that I took her little hand and I held it the whole drive. She didn't wake up," Ari's face was wet with tears, her voice full of pain. "we weren't even half way there when it happened. A deer or something was standing in the middle of the road. The rain was so thick that it didn't see us and we didn't see it. By the time my dad did spot it, it was too late. He swerved, we went into the ditch and hit a tree head on. My parents died right away, I think. No suffering. I guess that's good.
"Me and my sister were both fine. not a scratch on us. I was only ten, but I just knew that I had to get out of that car. Primal instincts, I guess.
"I grabbed my sister out of her car seat and ran out into the rain. I guess someone driving by called the police, because before I could run back in to try to help my parents, the fire trucks and ambulances arrived. Marigold and I were taken into an ambulance, and I kept asking about my parents, and where they were. Nobody would talk to me. I was so scared.
"I was in the hospital for almost a whole day before a kind nurse told me my parents were dead. She did it in that nice, careful way, like, 'sweetie, I'm so sorry, but your parents didn't make it. They're in a better place now, honey.' It felt like someone had grabbed my lungs and squeezed them. I couldn't breath.
"After I got out of the hospital, I was sent to live with Ashton and his parents - "Ari couldn't continue. She was full-on sobbing now, and Michael could feel tears running down his cheeks too. He slowly wrapped his arms around Ari and pulled her to his chest. She put her hands on his back and squeezed, as if she had to make sure he was really there. Michael's heart clenched. How could something so terrible have happened to such a beautiful, sweet person? Michael could feel Ari shaking a little as she put her head on his shoulder, but her sobbing had quieted down already.
"Sometimes I just have to cry, you know?" She whispered into his ear. "I just have to let it out." He could feel her soft breath on his neck, and he shivered, but it had nothing to do with the chilling night air. Ari sat up and slowly rested her forehead against his, snaking her arms around his neck.
"I'm sorry," She whispered, barely making any noise at all. "I got your shirt all wet."
She looked so sad that Michael felt the need to do something, anything, to cheer her up.
So as an answer, Michael placed four gentle fingers lightly on Ari's jawbone, wiped a tear from her soft cheek with his thumb and slowly pulled her lips to his.
Ari kissed him back instantly, and it was a soft, sweet kiss. She tasted like mint gum and strawberries.
The kiss lasted no more than a couple of seconds, and when they separated, Ari smiled a little. "What was that for?"
"I wanted to cheer you up." Michael gazed at her, smiling hesitantly.
"Well..." Ari bit her lip, her voice no more than a whisper and a shadow of a smile turning up the corners of her lips. "It worked."
WOOT THEY KISSED!!!
Bleh it's the first day of school. I'm super mad because the Catholic board's first day is like next week, so all those Catholic kids get an extra week of vacation. BOOOOOOO.
LOSER_LUKE-ASS
