FALL (DIMENSION Series #1)

CHAPTER 25

Outside it was twilight—my favorite time of day. My favorite time to drive around as well. And normally I'd be taking it all in. The setting sun, the wide sky changing its color. The Rockies in the distance, draped now by shadows.

     But I was too distracted to see the world outside my window. Instead, my time with Derek milled around in my mind. There were images of the green river and his green eyes. And the way he'd leaned into me. His breath on my neck. Some of the sentences he'd spoken. And the things he'd known about me. How he'd understood my premonition and seemed to grasp it even before I'd spoken any sentences about it.

     And I was acutely aware that he wasn't with me now. I was alone in the car. He had bailed on me. Had stayed next to the river as I'd taken off. But I wasn't upset that he couldn't find his way into my car. I had the sense that he really wanted to, but that something had prevented him. Some kind of force that I could see reflected in his eyes and his clenched fists. But not something that was visible to me otherwise.

      What the hell?, I thought to myself. I was momentarily scared by the strangeness of my own thoughts. I had made all kinds of allowances for Derek in my mind. I made excuses for him when he didn't text. I accepted that he had some kind of connection with Isabelle Bree. A kind of kinship he couldn't even explain to me. And on some level I knew he and I would never be a couple in the traditional sense of the word. That wasn't an easy thought. But I'd already found a way to process it. And now it seemed I even found it in myself to excuse his absence in my car by finding some sort of supernatural explanation for it.

      I placed both my hands on the steering wheel and took a couple of deep breaths. Again I saw him in my mind's eye, standing next to my car, telling me to take off without him. And again I knew what I knew. That it hadn't been solely his decision. That there had been something else at play.

      Before I knew it I was back in our quiet neighborhood with its many trees. As I pulled into our driveway it dawned on me that I hadn't yet concocted a story for my mother. I wanted to stay in my car to think up something to stay, but my mother had stepped out of the house. She was in our driveway now, looking at me with an expression that seemed to reflect her concern and displeasure in equal measure.

      "Eleanor," my mother said as I got out of the car, and I could hear relief as well as irritation in her voice.

      "I'm sorry, Mom," I said, before reaching back into the car to pull out my backpack. "I'm really sorry," I said again. "I know I should have texted."

      "You should have," my mother said, but her face softened. "Where were you?"

      "I was just driving around," I said. "And I lost track of time."

     That was the partial-truth, far from the whole story of course. And I felt flash of guilt. But there was no way I could ever tell my mother the essence of the afternoon. And how the boy of my dreams had left his imprint all over me. With his nearness and his sentences and the way he'd looked at me. And his actual imprints too. The ones he left on my skin. Just the thought of his hand touching mine brought the heat back to my hand, and I could feel it racing up my arm too.

     "You look flushed," my mother said, as if she could sense the sudden feeling in my arm. She stepped closer to me and placed her hand on my forehead.

     "You seem to have a fever."

      I shook my head. The heat trapped in my body wasn't a fever. It was some kind of energy leftover from my time with Derek. His touch had set my body on fire.

     "I feel fine," I said. "But I'll lie down for a while." I wanted to pacify my mother, to stop her from worrying. Or worse than that: hovering.

      My mother looked at my closely before slowly nodding.

      "I'll call you for dinner," she said.

      I nodded and started making my way into the house.

      "You're moving well," my mother said, sounding surprised. "It's amazing," she continued. "You don't look like you're injured at all."

      I briefly stopped and looked back at her. I realized she was right. The hobbling had left my legs. I didn't know when exactly it had happened. But I knew why. It had been because of Derek's presence. And the way in which he seemed to heal me.

      "I feel much better," I said.

      Then I was inside our house, scooping up Estella and making my way up the stairs.

     I did find my way to my bed. I suddenly felt the need to sit on the edge of it. To regain my bearings in my familiar room. I looked at the hardwood floors, the yellow curtains, my bookshelf. It seemed necessary to confirm the presence of the things I knew well after the very unusual afternoon I'd had.

     And of course there were other things to do as well. I wanted to remember everything. Everything he had said and done. How he had touched me. How we'd been together in my car and next to the river. How the rushing water of the river had found its way into his eyes. How he'd asked the right questions and known the answers to most of them before I'd even told him.

      You and I circle in the same sky, he'd said to me. That sentence would now forever be with me. It was etched into my mind. I knew I'd keep returning to it throughout my life.

      My phone pinged and I pulled it out. And there it was. The thing I'd been waiting for. A text from Derek. Or more precisely: my first text from Derek. There were a myriad of unread texts waiting below his text with the still unfamiliar number attached to it. But his was the only text I was concerned with.

      Hey Ellie. Hope you got home okay. Now you have my number. So, no need for smoke signals. Write whenever you're moved to do so. See you soon, D.

      Wow, I thought. And then I realized that I'd not just thought the word, I'd actually said it out loud as well. It was because I'd just received the perfect text from the perfect boy. Had anyone ever received a better text in the history of texting? I didn't think so.

      I was too happy to sit still. I got up and found a song on my playlist and played it through the speakers. It was a song about living in a private universe. An old song by Crowded House that I knew well. But it had taken on a new meaning now.

      We'll be in our own private universe, I thought. One filled with strangeness and unexplainable things. And in my mind's eye I saw Derek walking next to me and I thought my heart would burst.

      "Let's dance," I said to Estella.

     And the two of us proceeded to do just that. Our shadows moving across the walls.

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NEXT NEW CHAPTER—WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25

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