“Well, those didn’t turn sad until the last few. He screened the first couple, but after that he gave me free reign on them.”
“Favorite food?” he asked, changing gears.
“Easy, chocolate,” I said with a smile.
“Not favorite sweet, favorite substantial food?”
I laughed. “Chocolate is substantial.”
Mark smiled also. “Okay favorite food after chocolate?’
“Hamburgers and fries,” I said without hesitation.
“Junk food junkie, we’re a match made in heaven.”
“What’s your favorite food?”
“Well, I like burgers and fries too, but I’m actually a pizza man. I love every kind of pizza imaginable. There’s a great pizza place downtown that I’ll take you to sometime.”
I felt my pulse speed up at the thought of going out with him. Sure I was with him now, but the thought of actually going out on a date was exhilarating.
We continued to toss questions back and forth as the path weaved between the trees.
I found out that we both preferred cats over dogs, we liked the same comedies, and we both loved bike riding. He was the easiest person to talk to and we continued to talk as we looped the trail a second time. This time when we reached the shadows of the trees, I did not stop walking. It was obvious that he didn’t want to kiss me. Maybe he was afraid he would be disappointed if he did, or maybe he was waiting for me to make the first move, I just couldn’t tell. Though we didn’t kiss, the conversation between us flowed easily, and we soon discovered that the connection shared between us during our dreams was even more prevalent in reality.
Chapter 6
The next few days passed in a blur. It was a novel thing to suddenly have three people to talk to that I felt so at ease with. My friendship with Sam was blooming, and my mom was amazed at how close we had become.
“You guys act like you’ve known each other your whole lives,” she commented on Friday morning while we ate breakfast.
“She’s just easy to talk to and we have so many things in common,” I replied.
“Have you told her about your dreams?”She asked surprised.
“Um...” I was hoping she wouldn’t ask that question.
The four of us had decided that we were going to keep our dreams between us. The idea that we had the same dreams seemed crazy enough to us, surely anyone else would think we were loony. None of us had any desire to wind up in a padded room.
“No,” I mumbled, finally answering her question.
I hated lying to her, but I was doing what was best for her. I could already see the tension lines that had surrounded her eyes the last couple of weeks beginning to ease up. I knew a large part of this was because I was finally making friends, and of course she thought my bad dreams had gone away.
The dreams were still the same, but each morning when I woke from them, Mark would call me on my cell. We didn’t talk about the dreams; instead, we would discuss other things, like our hopes and dreams. Neither of us were surprised that most of these were the same. It was as if he was the other half of me. By the time we hung up each morning, I was pretty much over the heartbreak of the dream, and when my mom woke, all signs of the dream were gone.
“So have the dreams changed?” my mom asked, as if she had peeked in my head and read my thoughts.
“Yeah, they’re better now,” I lied, finding no loop hole for this one.
“I better get ready for school,” I said as I headed up the stairs. “Need to know,” I chanted the overused words to myself.
Sam was waiting in the usual spot when mom pulled up to the school.
“Hi! Mrs. Miller,” she called as I stepped out of the car adjusting my skirt.
“She’s a sweet girl, you should ask her if she wants to come over for dinner tonight,” she said as she waved at Sam.
“Okay. I’m sure she would like that; her parents are working on a big court case, and they’ve been stuck at the office late every night. I know Sam gets lonely by herself at night.” Lying blatantly for the first time, I knew for a fact that Shawn spent all of his free time with Sam and I’m sure she was far from lonely.