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Chapter 4

"Oh my God, Kevin!" I shoot up from my seat. "This is delicious." I swallow.

"I try." He flashes me a smile.

"Who taught you how to cook?" He purses his lips before replying.

"You." He simply says.

"Oh." I take another bite. "If it makes you feel better, you can talk more about this whole coma thing."

"What more is there to say?"

"You can talk about us." The word feels weird coming out of my mouth. He clears his throat, probably feeling the weird tension as well.

"Ok. We were best friend since we were six. Our moms knew each other and we always had little playdates." He shrugs.

"Continue."

"Ever since then, we always stuck together. Same schools. We were both in advanced classes, so those classes were the same in high school. We weren't exactly popular, but if someone knew one of us they knew who our best friend was." He smiles a little.

"That's nice." I nod. "Anything else?"

"What do you wanna know?"

"I don't know. Something funny, I guess." He scratches his chin, thinking of something to say.

"One time, we went to this beach party, it was a family thing. We went tubing and flew up in the air. Once we hit the water we flew off." He starts to laugh.

"That wasn't as funny as I expected it to be." I smile a little.

"That's not all. So we're treading in the water and laughing and then all of a sudden you just stop and I ask what's wrong. And then you just say, 'The underwear to my bikini is gone.' And your face is so straight," He laughs again. I only laugh a little. "and then I realized that my trunks were gone." He laughs even harder and so do I.

"Oh my goodness! I assume we never went tubing again."

"Nope. So when Daniel got back around with the boat we told him what happened, so he gave us towels. No one wanted to climb butt naked to get the towel so he tossed them in the water. When we got back on land," He gasps then continues to laugh, and I'm laughing just as hard. "we're just walking in soaking wet towels." After another minute our laughing dies out.

"I can just imagine it like it actually happened." I wipe a tear. He stops smiling and looks down, playing with his food. "Sorry...." Is all I think of saying. He shrugs it off. "Tell another story." I encourage him.

"Can't really even think of any." He replies with monotone laced on his voice. We were just having fun, and then I hit him with the 'I still don't believe you'. For the next minute he was still silent.

"I'll wash the dishes." I take his plate. Now I made him upset. I kinda feel bad. I come back to sit in front of him. "Come on, you know you want to tell another story." He turns his head to the side to avoid looking at me. "You know you want to." I say in a teasing tone. I see the tiniest of smile come on his face. "Come on, Keviekev." I sing-song.

"Where did that nickname come from?" He asks with more knowingness in his voice than curiosity.

"It just came to me." I giggle.

"That's what you used to call me." He raises an eyebrow. I nod. "Fine, I'll tell another story." He gives up his smile.

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We spent the whole time laughing at "our" memories. Even though I don't believe this whole mess, it was entertaining hearing the stories. After an hour drive, due to traffic, we got to Danielle's house.

"What's up Lexi?" She smiles at me then to Kevin.

"Hi Danielle. This is Kevin." She lets us in. "Now be warned, you're gonna hear me talk about some pretty crazy st-"

"No worries, I have the same idea." He puts emphasis on the word to show everyone's doubt.

"Nice to have someone who will believe me the second I start talking." She pats his back. "You guys want some snacks?" She offers.

"I'm fine." I answer.

"I'm good." Kevin answers as well. Danielle joins us on her arm chair.

"Ok, what I'm about to show you, you can not tell anyone else. Have you heard about the missing cases?" I shake my head no, but see Kevin nod yes. She raises her eyebrows and snaps at him approvingly.

"What are the missing cases?" I ask.

"Sometimes, the people that talk about this go missing, but it's usually only the crazy ones. I'm sure you've seen the people who wear those big signs and chant 'wake up', walking around the streets. Days later, poof, nowhere to be found, like they disappeared." She throws her hands up and flicks her fingers.

"I'm pretty sure I won't act all crazy about it." I defend myself.

"But you still can't tell. People like you especially can't. You're known and a trusted source. Some people would actually believe you. There's spies from the real world that follow everything. If someone gets a little too persuasive, *click* *click*, it's the knockout." She clicks her tongue and runs a finger across her neck."

"Ok fine, I won't tell anyone." I shrug and shake my head a little.

"You have to promise. I don't want anything bad to happen to us." She puts out her pinkie.

"Are you kidding me?" I exasperatedly say.

"This is serious." She frowns.

"Yea, and so is a pinkie promise." I sarcastically reply. Kevin watches in amusement. Her face scrunches up in frustration and she stares at me intently. "Ok, ok, I promise." I reach out my pinkie but she pulls back.

"Are you sure you want to make this commitment? Once you do, we're in this together, no backing out.

"Jeez, do you want to scare me out of this? Should I promise or not?" She sticks her pinkie back out with a satisfied grin. I reluctantly wrap my pinkie with hers. I can't believe I'm doing this.