Dreamcatching

Chapter 15

The next morning, Nora arrived at school early enough to catch the breakfast line. When she'd gotten herself a donut and some hot chocolate, she headed outside to the grove of oak trees. There were picnic tables there for student use. When Nora approached her favorite table, she found her two friends, Brooke and Cala, already waiting for her.

"Hey, girl," Brooke stood up and called out as Nora got closer. "What took you so long?"

Nora smiled. "You know how it is in there; everyone's everywhere. Took me forever to get my hot chocolate."

Cala took a bite of her english muffin and smiled. "Did you guys see those two dudes at the back of the cafeteria this morning?"

"Who?" Brooke turned towards her. "The one with the broad shoulders and that tight ass, or the other one with the come-molest-me eyes standing next to him?"

Nora looked at Brooke and held her donut in suspense. "Ah, does the name Benjamin mean anything to you?" Taking a bite, and dropping some crumbs onto her lap, Nora grinned when she saw said hottie approaching from afar.

"Benjamin is the love of my life, Nora dear," Brooke replied sipping her orange juice. "But those two? Mmmmmm, they are a serious dose of delectable. If I was single, which I'm not, uhmmm...let's just say-,"

"Let's just say what, baby?" Benjamin asked, leaning over to kiss her forehead and pinch her ass against the table. "Who's got you all dreamy-eyed this early in the morning?" When Brooke's mouth dropped and nothing fell out he laughed. "It better be me."

Brooke recovered her senses and scooted over on the bench. "Of course it's you, Ben," she said shooting a murderous look at Nora. She knew Nora saw him coming. "You know you're it for me." Then she turned to look at her friends with a wide-eyed "fuck me" face. Nora had to stifle a laugh in her drink. Then Cala moved over to accommodate Rudy who was also joining the party. 

"Hey," he said to Cala as she kissed him on the mouth gently. 

"Hey, yourself," she replied.

"So, I'm in line in there and these two freaks are lingering in the background like a couple of voyeurs looking for their next victim," Benjamin said. "And Rudy and I are talking as we wait for our food when one of them comes up to the girl in front of us and flips her around to face him. He was pretty rough about it, too, so Rudy and I say to the guy, 'Yo, what's your problem, man? Leave her alone,' and we're standing there staring at the guy when he laughs and walks away, his creep friend trailing behind him. I've never seen them before. I think they're new here."

"Do you guys know anything about them, Cala?" Rudy asked her. "'Cause there's something not right about them. If they bother you, I want you to tell me."

Nora listened in. At first, she thought Benjamin started talking about them to put Brooke off. Maybe he'd overheard Brooke's drooling, but then she realized he hadn't heard her completely, and that he was sincere. Nora bit her lip with concern and looked around.

Brooke'd been teasing her lately about Donovan's ever-present hovering, and Nora sort-of wished he was here now. She was feeling uneasy and could've used a guardian angel at this moment, even if she was currently pissed off at him.

As if she'd cast a spell to conjure him, Nora almost choked on her donut when Cala's eyes lit up and she stood to call Donovan over. Nora flipped around on the bench and saw the school door clanging shut behind him as he approached. 

What the what? she thought to herself.

Enjoying the surprise, even if it was a little freaky, Nora grinned as his breakfast tray clapped onto the tabletop. "'Sup, Nora?" He grumbled sleepily.

Apparently, Nora wasn't the only one who didn't sleep well last night.

"Hey, Donovan."

Nora sipped her hot chocolate and sighed. She felt slightly better now that he was here. "Hmmm, I needed this."

"You always did love your hot chocolate, Norie," Donovan laughed out loud. "I remember this one time-"

As he rambled, Nora stopped drinking. She raised an eyebrow and slowly put her insulated cup down on the table. By then, however, he caught himself with a gasp. "Shit, uh," he stuttered.

"You know, I have half a mind to reach over this table and throttle you," Nora said in a forceful whisper. She leaned forward to grab Donovan's hand as she spoke. When Brooke and Benjamin stopped talking mid-stream, and Cala and Rudy unlocked lips to overhear, Nora moved back and let go of Donovan's hand. She picked up her cocoa to sip it again. Cala and Rudy went back to what they were doing but Brooke waited to see what was going on. "But as curious as I am, I'm not going to."

Donovan starred at her.

"Instead, I'm going to pretend I know what you're talking about."

"You are?" he asked.

"I am," she replied. The fact that she had a date with Kaden later that day was her only consolation. "Because if I don't I'm going to cry. I don't know what is going on but clearly it's something big and you all know about it. You won't tell me---" she tried to finish but lost her breath before finding it once more. 

To her utter embarrassment, Nora felt the tell-tale lump of a meltdown beginning to form in the back of her throat. She tried to continue, but her eyes were on the brink of over-flowing and she had an instinctual need to flee before she fell apart in front of everyone.

Nora stood up abruptly, mumbled something intelligible, turned around and ran into the building, leaving the boys alone with their breakfast and hers as Brooke and Cala ran after her.

"Damn," Donovan said. "This is all my fault."

"Your words," Benjamin replied, lifting his girl's orange juice carton up in a mock salute before he drank it.

"Well, this morning just went to hell," Rudy commented. "Whatever you said, you have some serious groveling to do in your future, dude."

"Damn it," he repeated to himself.

Donovan got up from the table to toss his trash into the nearest can before walking off to follow his charge.