by Greg Herren
Candy turned to her and smiled. “He was asleep when I stopped by the hospital today, but his mother said he regained consciousness last night for the first time. Thank God, he’s going to be okay.”
Laney gave her an impulsive hug. “That’s great news!” She made up her mind—she’d wanted to go visit him since the accident. “I’m going to go see him tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?”
Candy smiled at her. “I’d like that, Laney. It’s so depressing seeing him lying in that bed, white as a ghost. It scares me, and I’m sure he’d love the company, too.”
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” She took a sip from her Coke. “I mean, look at how injured Tony was, and Glenn got out of it with just a couple of bruises.” She knew she wasn’t being fair to Glenn—ever since the accident he’d been walking around looking like a wraith. She’d wanted to talk to him—not just about the accident, but so many other things—but getting him alone without Sara Sterling around was impossible.
Candy gave her a sharp look. “You never know what’s going to happen in an accident—stranger things have happened.”
The other girls had moved away from them, chattering about something as the band marched off the field.
“A lot of strange things have been happening around here lately.” Laney took another drink.
“Yeah.” Candy ran a hand through her mane of red hair. “If someone would have told me last summer any of this would happen I’d have thought they were crazy.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Yeah.” Candy flashed her a smile.
“Where do you know Sara Sterling from?” Laney looked down at her shoes.
“What?” Candy’s eyebrows came together.
“You were with her that night at Vista before Glenn and Tony showed up. Where do you know her from?” She managed to make her voice sound casual and light, even though her heart was pounding.
“You know, Tony asked me the very same thing.” Candy looked out to the football field, where both teams had come back out and were warming up. The scoreboard clock showed three minutes left before the start of the second half. “Like I told him, I don’t really know her. She’d just gotten here the day before, and her aunt asked my mom if I’d take her to the football game and out afterward, to meet people.” She shrugged. “What could I say?”
“Oh.” Laney scratched her forehead. “I thought you were friends or something.”
“Oh, no.” Candy shuddered. “We are definitely not friends.”
“Why not?” Laney watched her face, curious.
“I don’t like her and let’s leave it at that, okay?” Candy said abruptly. “What time do you want me to pick you up tomorrow?”
“About noon?”
“That would be great.” Candy stood up. “I’m going to run to the bathroom. Talk to you later.”
Laney sat there and stared after her for a moment. Now, why did Candy react that way when she brought up Sara Sterling?
Maybe she’s having the dreams, too.
No, that was impossible. She dismissed that idea immediately. That just wasn’t possible. She had told no one about the dreams, well, nightmares she’d been having since Noah died.
Well, the first one had come the night Noah actually died, before she even knew that Noah was actually dead.
The dream came to her that night as she lay in her bed.
She was in Noah’s truck with him, and he was driving way too fast. He seemed much drunker than he’d been when he’d dropped her off. “Noah, please, slow down. Please let me drive. You’re too drunk!” she begged him. It was pitch-black out there in the country. There was no moon, no light other than the cones of light coming from the truck’s headlights. They were on an unpaved road, which also didn’t make any sense. Where were they, and why?
The truck went around a corner and she knew where they were. They were on the road to Lake Kahola, where they’d gone that first night they were together.
“Slow down,” she pleaded again. “Come on, Noah, take me home, this isn’t funny, okay?”
He ignored her and began to drive faster. Dust was throwing up a huge cloud behind them that the truck’s tail lights turned an eerie red.
It almost looked like blood.
And that was when she heard the laughter.
“Noah, I’m scared! Please! Slow down!”
“She hates, Laney,” Noah said finally. “She hates us all.”
“Slow down!” Her heart was in her throat, and she clutched at the armrest on the door. “Please, Noah, you’re scaring me! Slow down, please!”
“We’re all going to die because she hates,” he went on in a monotonous tone, like he hadn’t heard her. “She hates, Laney, and it burns. Can’t you feel it?”
That’s when she knew, Laney knew they were heading for a curve in the road, but he was speeding up. The headlights showed the curve—it was almost ninety degrees—and Laney felt the scream rising in her throat.
She saw Sara, could hear the laughter growing louder in her ears.
She was standing there, all dressed in a billowy white, and she was laughing in the glare of the headlights, a laugh that Laney could still hear above the roar of the engine and the squealing of the brakes as Noah tried, finally, to slow the truck down, and then the truck was flipping over, and the door on her side of the truck was open and she was floating up in the air, and Laney began to scream in earnest as she could see the truck rolling over and over again, the sound of the crash and crushing metal almost deafening, and through it all she could hear that laughter—
The next morning her mother woke her up to let her know the terrible news that Noah had been killed, that he’d rolled his truck.
And somehow she knew it had happened exactly the way she’d dreamed it.
She shuddered at the memory of the dream. Out on the field, the team finished warming up and ran back to the sidelines. She felt a chill and turned around.
“Hello, Laney,” Sara said. She was wearing a skintight pair of jeans and a black cashmere sweater. Her smile was terrible. “How are you doing? It’s so brave of you to cheer tonight.” She looked back over her shoulders at the bleachers. “Some people think it’s horrible that you’re here, but I think it’s so incredibly brave of you.”
“I’m fine, thank you.” Laney tried to keep her voice from shaking. She looked away from Sara’s bluish silver eyes—there was something about them, something there that shouldn’t be, that—
Scares me, go ahead, admit it, there’s something about her that scares me.
“Glenn was so lucky not to be hurt in that accident.” Sara put her hand on Laney’s arm. It was cold, so cold, it wasn’t normal for anyone to be that cold, and it took all of Laney’s strength not to recoil away from her. “Just like you were lucky you weren’t with Noah.”
Laney wanted to scream, to pull away from her and run as fast as she could. Instead, she forced a smile on her face. “I know. I thank God every day for my luck, and for Glenn’s. Tony, too, for that matter. He’s lucky he wasn’t killed.”
Sara let go of her arm and recoiled a little. “Yes, he was.” Her eyes narrowed. Vaguely, Laney was aware that the other cheerleaders were lining up on the track, getting ready for the second half.
“Come on, Laney!” Candy called.
“Be right there!” she yelled back. The band started playing the school fight song, and the squad started dancing. “I’m sorry, Sara, obviously, I need to cheer.”
“Don’t let me keep you.” Sara smiled, and again Laney felt a chill go down her spine.
“Nice talking to you,” Laney lied, turning to go.
The loudspeakers crackled as the teams lined up on the field for the second half kickoff. Laney knew she should get back to the squad, but something kept her standing there, with Sara.
Everyone in the bleachers stood up.
Sara smiled that horrible smile at her again and she felt her stomach flip over. “How are your dreams, Laney?”
&nb
sp; Laney’s jaw dropped, and she shivered. How could she possibly know—
Sara laughed, and it was the same cold heartless laugh that haunted her dreams. “Sweet dreams, cheerleader. Sweet dreams.”
She walked away, climbing the steps back into the bleachers, never looking back.
“Laney!” Candy yelled.
She turned just as the Paducah kicker sent the ball flying downfield.
She looked back up into the stands.
Sara wasn’t there. She looked, but she was gone.
Laney swallowed and joined the rest of the squad.
Chapter Eight
Laney was ready and waiting on her front porch when Candy’s Mustang pulled into her driveway around noon on Saturday.
Her legs were tired as she walked down the porch steps, and she tried to stifle a yawn. She hadn’t slept well, and wanted nothing more than to just stay in bed all day. The primary reason she hadn’t was out of a fear of having more bad dreams.
The team had bounced back in the second half of the game last night, shaking off whatever sluggishness they’d had in the first half. The final score was 36–0, and it didn’t even seem that close. The crowd had woken up, too—especially after Randy Froelich ran the second half kickoff back for a touchdown. Whatever Coach Roberts said to them in the locker room at halftime certainly worked, Laney thought as the final seconds of the game ticked away. The final gun sounded, and the crowd poured out of the stands and out onto the field. Laney went out onto the field, hugging players and looking for Glenn. She hadn’t seen Sara during the second half, and she’d kept an eye out for her, scanning the stands as she shouted the words to the cheers and did the appropriate arm motions.
There had been some question about whether or not there would be a victory dance, given what had gone on lately, but Mr. Lafferty finally decided it wasn’t fair to the team to not celebrate the win.
Laney thought it was kind of weird, and was a bit surprised by the decision.
“I think we could all stand some cheering up, if you ask me,” Sharon Farmer replied when Laney made a comment to that effect. “The sooner things get back to normal around here, the better.”
“Sharon!” Candy said, glancing over at Laney.
“She’s right,” Laney replied with a weak smile, and in that moment decided to stay for the dance.
She hoped she might get a chance to talk to Glenn alone, but Sara had reappeared and stuck to him like glue for the entire length of the dance. At first, Laney sat by herself, just watching everyone else dance. No one asked her, and she didn’t blame anyone—it was a weird situation. She could tell from some of the looks she got there were people who thought her being at the dance was inappropriate.
Like I’m supposed to spend the rest of my senior year in mourning, she thought with a crooked smile. She felt a pang when she realized that this was the first victory dance of the year, and neither Noah nor Zack nor Tony was there to celebrate and enjoy it. She felt sadness overwhelming her, and she took a couple of deep breaths to try to get control of her emotions again.
Maybe I should just go home, she thought, standing up and starting to walk to the nearest exit from the gym. But out of the corner of her eyes she saw Glenn and Sara dancing together. She stopped and watched them for a few moments. They danced together so fluidly and so attuned to each other’s movements that it was impossible to imagine them dancing with anyone else. It was impossible to imagine they hadn’t danced together before. She couldn’t stop watching them. They danced so well they were far and away the best dancers on the gym floor.
Glenn was wearing a tight pair of jeans and a Trojan Football T-shirt, and as she watched him moving his hips from side to side, she wondered why she had never noticed before how muscular he was getting. That weightlifting was finally paying off for him. When they’d dated, he used to complain all the time about how he wasn’t getting any bigger. But now—he looked amazing. The sleeves of his T-shirt looked so tight on his bulging upper arms that it might be cutting off his circulation. The front of the T-shirt was stretched so tight across his chest that it looked like it might split any minute, and his waist was narrower than she remembered.
She escaped out into the hallway. Once the door shut behind her, she leaned against the wall and took some deep breaths. She made her way down the hallway to the rest room, but once she opened the door she heard voices.
“I can’t believe she’s here, it’s so disrespectful.”
That was Sharon Farmer. She froze.
“You’d think she didn’t care about Noah at all.” The answering voice was Linda Avery’s.
Her initial instinct was to flee, but she set her jaw and walked around the corner as quietly as she could.
“Well, after dating a gay guy all last year—”
She cleared her throat and Sharon cut herself off with a slight gasp.
At least, she thought, they have the decency to look embarrassed.
She didn’t say anything, just smiled politely at them both as they fumbled awkwardly for something to say. She wished she was one of those people—like Glenn—who could always find the perfectly cutting thing to say at the right moment rather than thinking of it several hours later when it wouldn’t do any good. So she just wordlessly glided into a stall, smile plastered on her face until she shut the door behind her.
She stayed there for what seemed like an eternity.
She didn’t go back to the dance when she finally left the bathroom. She could hear a Rihanna song blaring through the speakers, one of her favorites, but she couldn’t face anyone. She walked out to her car and sat there for a few minutes more, trying to get a hold of herself so she could drive home. This isn’t how it was supposed to be, she thought as she gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white. This was supposed to be the best year of my life. I was going to be a Homecoming Queen candidate and we were going to be state champions and I was going to get great grades and—
She started the car with a sob and drove home. The last thing in the world she needed was for kids to come out and see her crying in her car.
She was sick of everyone feeling sorry for her, not knowing what to say to her.
She wished the ground would just open up and swallow her whole.
Her parents hadn’t waited up. The house was dark other than the porch light and one of the lamps in the living room. She was relieved and disappointed at the same time. On the one hand, it would have been nice to be able to sit and talk to her mother, unburden herself, get it all out of her system. On the other hand, she wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. Her parents, while supportive, were only slightly better than her friends since Mrs. Greene had called with the news about Noah.
Her dreams had been terrible. She’d dreamed about Noah, all covered in blood, trying to kiss her, wanting to make love to her, pleading and begging and putting his hands all over her—he was like an octopus, hands everywhere, whenever she pushed one away it grabbed her somewhere else, and all she wanted to do was scream and get away, run away, go anywhere to get away from him. And she kept hearing that horrible laughter in the background, a horrible sound that made her skin crawl and the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Then Noah was gone, and it was Zack trying to kiss her, the rope still around his neck, and she started screaming.
That was when she woke up, shivering and drenched in sweat. She’d sat there in the dark for a very long time, afraid to go back to sleep.
Now, in daylight, she felt a little stupid for being so freaked out over a bad dream.
But you’ve been having these bad dreams for a week.
“You don’t look so hot,” Candy said as she got into the Mustang. “Are you okay?”
“Thanks.” Laney made a face at her. “You sure know how to cheer someone up.”
“I’m sorry—I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.” Candy pulled away from the curb. “Didn’t you sleep well?”
“Nah.” She looked out the car window. “Ever since Noah�
��you know—I’ve been having the worst nightmares. I’m almost afraid to go to sleep.”
Candy opened her mouth to say something, but apparently thought better of it and shut her mouth. They drove in silence for a while, and after about five minutes they were out in the country, driving past rows and rows of corn. Finally she said, “Did you used to go out with Tony?”
I don’t suppose you can really call it “going out.” Laney sighed and leaned her forehead against the window. “It was summer before last, it was only twice, and it was no big deal, okay? It was nothing.”
“Didn’t mean to touch a nerve.” Candy stared straight ahead at the road. “I was just curious. Sharon said something about it the other day, so I thought I’d ask. I didn’t know about it, is all. It’s no big deal.”
“I’m sorry—like I said, I didn’t sleep good last night.” Laney shifted in her seat and forced a smile on her face. “I didn’t mean to snap at you, sorry. We’re just friends now, Candy. We tried it, realized boyfriend and girlfriend for us just wasn’t going to work, so we decided to stay friends and didn’t really tell anyone about it because it was really nothing.” She’d told the lie so many times she almost believed it herself. “Like I said, not a big deal.” She sighed. “Glenn could never let go of it, though.”
Tony was an idiot for telling him about it, she thought as she closed her eyes again. She’d begged him not to, but he didn’t feel right keeping it from him. I slept with him twice. It was a mistake, so we stopped. And should have forgotten about it.
“It must have been a shock when Glenn came out.”
“You think?” Laney snapped, and sighed. “Sorry. It was just a really bad summer.”
“I know,” Candy said gently. “You know, you can always talk to me if you need someone to listen, Laney.”
“I know, and thanks.” Laney took a deep breath. “Right now I don’t really want to talk about anything. My mind is all over the place—I’ve got to figure some things out for myself, you know?” Tell her about breaking up with Noah, a voice urged in her mind.
