“Really? You have some dream that makes you cry and I’m the weird one?” Taylor teased.
“No, really, what do you mean?”
Taylor paused. “Let’s just say for the sake of exploring all our options that your dream guy is real. We need to write down what he looks like and everything else you remember about him so we can find him.”
“Real?” The concept of her dream guy existing hadn’t even occurred to Katherine.
Taylor’s voice rose as her excitement grew. “Yeah! I mean, what if? What if he came to you in your dream and you’re going to find him in class or something? What if he goes to our school? You never know. Why else would you dream about this guy and have all these crazy feelings if he wasn’t real?”
Taylor’s question sparked curiosity and hope in Katherine. She felt her shoulders relax as she pondered the possibilities. “Maybe he is real. Can you imagine?” Katherine smiled for the first time that morning. “I mean, why else would I have had that dream? There has to be a reason, right? There has to be a point to all of this madness.”
“That’s what I’m saying!” Taylor said excitedly.
“I should probably do something with myself before we leave for class. I mean, what if my dream guy is there?” She hopped up and headed toward the bathroom, smiling.
“You can start by brushing that hair of yours!” Taylor called out to her.
“What would I ever do without you?” Katherine piped back.
Taylor’s voice drifted in from the other room. “Clearly, you’d walk around with nappy hair all day.”
Katherine brushed her long brown hair as Taylor had instructed her to. “Wouldn’t want to disappoint,” she mumbled at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She coated her eyelashes with dark mascara to accent her hazel eyes, and tried to cover up the light dusting of freckles across her nose with some powder foundation.
He could totally be real, she repeated in her head until she found herself saying it out loud by accident.
“That’s what I keep telling you,” Taylor said as she appeared in the bathroom doorway. “He has to be. Oh, Kat, this is so exciting! We have a mission.” Her face lit up with excitement before a cloud settled over it. “It’s too bad you didn’t get his name or something. Because I could search online for him if you had a name.”
“Sorry, Tay, he was too busy getting killed to tell me his name. But if I see him again, I’ll ask.” Katherine smiled at her roommate, happy that she was slowly starting to feel like herself again.
The two girls headed out of the old brick dormitory and walked through the tree-lined campus toward their class. With fall fast approaching, the leaves were turning magnificent shades of gold and crimson, and some leaves had already fallen, pushed along the sidewalk by a light breeze. Katherine looked around at the stone and brick buildings that surrounded her and smiled. She thought about her home and how no buildings looked the way these did. Southern California was great and she loved it, but had wanted to experience something different for college.
She could have chosen a local college, but knew it would just be more of the same—gorgeous people consumed by celebrity, fame, reality TV, and their future careers. As she sifted through her college choices, she had realized that what she really wanted was a big change.
And what could be more different from the constant sunny days of Los Angeles than the four distinct seasons of the East Coast? When she’d first arrived here, summer was winding down, the days hot and sometimes muggy. Now that fall was near, more often not the days started with a cool bright blue sky that amazed her.
Katherine remembered how she’d felt when the information packet arrived from a school in New Jersey she had only vaguely considered at first. But something about this particular college called to her. She wasn’t sure if it was the old ivy-covered buildings or the gorgeous campus liberally dotted with huge, ancient trees, but she knew immediately that she wanted to be there. So when her acceptance letter arrived in the mail, she had been thrilled.
Taylor’s voice interrupted her memories. “Is that him? What about that guy?” Taylor scanned the students around them, pointing out boys who fit the description of her dream guy. “Oh, what about him? If he’s not your dream guy, I’ll take him to be mine. He’s nothing but hotness on a stick.”
Katherine chuckled. “You’re going to make me crazy. How about if I see him, I’ll let you know? And really, hotness on a stick? Where do you get this stuff?
”
“We could put an ad up on the school’s website. Or in the newspaper. We can totally do this.” Taylor’s eyes twinkled with excitement.
“How about we just go to class first? For all we know, he could be dead. He did die in my dream, after all.” The memory of the end of the dream nagged at her from the back of her mind. The possibility of him being dead wasn’t something she wanted to accept, so she forced those thoughts aside.
They walked into the large classroom and Taylor motioned toward the last row. “Can we sit in the back? I hate having people sit behind me. It’s like I can feel them staring down the back of my neck.” Taylor shivered dramatically.
“Wherever’s fine. I don’t care.” Katherine shrugged and followed Taylor’s lead.
When they sat down, she noticed Taylor scanning the room and watched with amusement as Taylor quickly jotted things down in her notepad. The sight made her laugh out loud.
The guy seated in front of her turned around in his chair when he heard her laugh. Katherine struggled to breathe as she fixated on the mesmerizing green eyes that focused on hers. His face was handsome, his features so perfectly balanced, that she couldn’t help but feel a little inadequate in comparison. Katherine felt herself flush at the unexpected attention, but couldn’t bring herself to look away. She knew one of them had to turn away, but he was the one who ultimately broke the connection, not her. When he finally turned back around to face the front of the classroom, Taylor kicked Katherine under the table.
“What . . . was . . . that?” Taylor whispered toward her.
“I don’t know, but he’s really cute, isn’t he? Did you see his eyes? Good Lord.” Katherine’s cheeks burned.