"Maybe dreams do come true after all. Even dreams we chase at midnight hours, Shorts."
At least Ray had dreams to chase because I ran away from mine. My dreams aren't the kinda dreams I could just wake up at midnight and chase 'em.
I have nightm...
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"You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with." — Wayne Dyer
PALM HIGH WAS nothing like the schools I'd been to before.
For one thing, nobody was wearing a coat. In January. There were girls in sundresses and boys in shorts and everyone moved like the weather was normal because for them it was.
The sun was already doing something aggressive to the back of my neck and it wasn't even eight in the morning. The campus was open the way Northern schools never were — buildings spread out, connected by covered walkways, palm trees planted like they'd always been there. A group of girls sat on the grass doing homework. Someone was playing music from a speaker loud enough to hear from the parking lot.
I stood at the entrance for a moment and took it in.
Loud. Warm. Alive.
I hadn't been in a place that felt this alive in a long time.
I found a bench under a large tree near the center of campus, put my headphones on, and got lost in the only place that had never let me down.
Hands on my shoulder and I was somewhere else entirely — heart slamming, body locked, the music still playing in my ears like it hadn't noticed what just happened.
Then I was back.
Just a bench. Just a school. Just someone standing over me with ombré blonde hair and the widest smile I'd ever seen.
I hated that I did that now.
"Are you new?" she questioned, her voice raspy.
"No, I'm just visiting this school until my parents decide they want to move again," I shrugged, shoving my phone in the pocket of my joggers. "I'm Ray."
"Oh my gosh! We also have a Ray here. He's the MVP on the basketball team," she squeaked. "Don't worry. Eventually, you'll meet him. I'm Kat, by the way. Why not make your visit worthwhile? Wanna be friends?"
The last time someone randomly asked me to be friends with them out of the blue was in kindergarten, but we moved the next week and that was more than ten years ago. This was high school, nobody did that anymore.
"You've got to be kidding me," I blurted, gritting my teeth.
Her smile didn't drop dramatically. It just... settled. Like she'd put it somewhere safe for a moment.
"No worries," she said simply, and started walking.
That was somehow worse than anger. Anger I knew how to handle. This was just someone deciding not to push. And for reasons I couldn't explain it made me feel the loss of something I hadn't even had yet.
