I am Cazmere *incomplete*

Chapter 3

Half an hour to get miles away

Better leave soon. I press a few letters on my phone, confirming with Alex that I may be a few minutes late.

"Alrighty, let's get this over with."

Just a few things to do before I can leave. First, I should probably grab a jacket in case the weather changes. Easy enough, I walk over to the huge closet and pull out one of the various hoodies that I've never worn. "Okay, check."

Next, I gotta let Valerie and Mason know where I'm headed. It's not like they'll even notice or care that I'm gone, but better safe than sorry. Remembering the note I received when I got to the house, I decide to follow their example and grab a pen, carrying it with my downstairs. There it is, the stupid swan sits right where I left it.

"Reduce, reuse, recycle I guess," I mumble as I unfold the paper and flip it onto it's crinkled back.

Carelessly scribbling, I write on the note as fast as I can: Going to hang out with Alex, I'll be back before dark.

With a shrug, I sign my name and toss the paper back to the counter where I found it. "Looks good enough. Now I can leave."

Pulling on the jacket I grabbed earlier, I head out the front door and begin the trip. Now like I said before, I'm a track and field kind of guy, so running a couple miles is easy. My endurance is best of my class. The trick is running the miles quickly.

I check my phone again. My reply was sent... five minutes ago. Not bad, that leaves twenty-five more minutes to jog it to Alex's house. And according to my GPS... five miles. Well crap.

35 minutes later~

"Shoot man, you okay?" Alex rushes up the driveway to meet me.

I give a half-hearted laugh. "Yeah I'm absolutely hatchet after running here because of my best friend's super vague text."

"You mean wonderful," he translated for me.

As if I don't know my own words. "Yeah, same thing."

"Besides being all sweaty and nasty," Alex hands me a water bottle that he apparently prepared for my arrival. "I'm sort of worried about you Caz."

I guess my tilted head gave away my confusion, since Alex went on to explain without any further prompting.

"It's just that, I always knew you had trouble sleeping. Or maybe that's not the way to put it. I know you have trouble with dreams." He emphasized the word, as if to make a point. "But especially lately. I didn't wanna bring it up because I know it's a tough topic, but is there something you need to talk about man?"

I was hoping he'd keep talking. Guess the luck isn't turned my way today, because he paused and looked into my eyes intently.

What do I say what do I say what do I say

"How could you tell?"

Keep your voice steady keep your voice steady

Alex led me up the porch and into the house as he spoke. "Huh? Oh it was easy. There were lots of little signs and things, like for one whenever you get nervous you always speak using those Scottish words mixed up in your sentences."

"Irish... and is it that obvious?"

Ignoring my question and correction, he continued.

"Not to mention how you've been totally spacing out during class. Even during games I can see you're not into it."

Well great. I'm an open book.

"Okay so, is this what you wanted me here for?" I hope my voice didn't give away my frustration. Alex is still my best friend, I'd hate for him to think I was angry at him.

"Huh? Oh well not quite." By now we're in his room, and Alex is digging around in a drawer while we talk. "Caz, what I asked you to come here for was something I found..." He moves to a different drawer, and I roll my eyes at the typical Alex to lose, or misplace, something important. "Here it is!"

I stretch my neck, leaning to look over Alex's shoulder. He's holding some sort of a bag in his hand, but I can't quite make out the shape of the object inside.

As he pulls it out of the holder, Alex puts an end to my curiosity by explaining what the mystery is. "See, I thought this might help you sleep. It's a dreamcatcher!"

My first reaction is to yell for dragging me here for such a stupid thing, but before I get a chance I stop myself.

What's standing before me isn't some kid holding up a piece of trash. It's my best friend with a huge proud grin on his face, holding something that he went out of his way to get. Just for me.

I take a closer look at the weird thing Alex was now swinging in his hand. It's not as ugly as I thought. The outer circle was a dark brown color, which blended well with the inner strings of various greens and more brown. A few gray feathers hung down with a thin emerald yarn. The entire thing was about the length from my to fingertips to my elbow. I guess it wouldn't look too bad hanging somewhere on my wall... but what's the purpose?