Tiptoeing, I walked up to Chase, who was now sitting on his sleeping bag with his head in his hands. “Chase, what’s wrong?”
He jerked. “Rory! I-I- what makes you think something’s wrong?” he blurted, reddening.
“The fact that you asked Lena about Tale dreams and looked like your dog just died when she said that they always come true,” I answered, putting my hands on my hips. “And that you had a Tale dream last night. Did you see something bad in it?” Suddenly, a knot of dread formed in my stomach. “You yelled my name when you woke up. Did you see something bad about-about me?”
“No!” Chase exclaimed, so loudly that Lena’s head turned toward us on the other side of camp. “Why would you think that? Th-that’s ridiculous!”
“Why are you so bad at lying all of a sudden? You used to be the best liar I knew. Now you’re stuttering and blushing when you lie.”
“I am n-not,” Chase said, turning a deeper shade of crimson when he realized that he’d just proven my point.
“Denial is futile,” I told him, sitting down cross-legged. “Come on. What did you see? Am I going to die or something?” I tried to keep my tone light, but a shiver ran down my spine at the thought.
“No!” Chase yelled vehemently. “You honestly think I’d let that happen? Please!”
“Well, it’s not like it would be your fault,” I said, trying to hide my relief. I was pretty sure he was telling the truth.
“Of course it would be my fault! I’m supposed to protect you!”
“Supposed to protect me? What century is this? I can protect myself just fine, thank y-“ I realized that even though he sounded like he was still telling the truth, he’d changed the subject. “That’s not the point. What did you see?”
“Rory, please don’t make me tell you.” Chase hunched over. “It’s nothing important.”
“Sure seems important to you.”
“Rory, please.”
“Chase, how bad can it be? Am I dead or seriously injured or in mortal peril?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then what in the name of Jehoshaphat is so bad? Come on.”
“If I tell you, will you promise-promise not to hate me?”
Anxiety knotted in my stomach. What could possibly make him ask that? “I could never hate you, you idiot. Now tell me.”
“Okay.” Chase took a deep, shuddering breath. “I-I saw-“
“Guys!” Lena yelled from the other side of camp. “Come quick! I just made a breakthrough!”
Huffing, I got up and began jogging towards Lena. “Once we find out what this is, you are telling me what you saw,” I told Chase, glaring at him.
Chase sighed. “Agreed.”
