3 by Shera Eitel-Casey Read Free Book Online

coming
in the doors; I caught a glimpse of a coffin in front of the church
and I instantly got nervous. Excitedly I blathered softly “Why are
we at a funeral and whose is it? Do you know that person? I am so
sorry Storm, are you okay?” I could hear Nic mumbling a
couple of questions too.
    He half laughed and smiled
at us “Could you two be a little patient, let’s just wait until
everything settles down a bit.” There were rows upon rows of pews
that spanned the length of the church. Right then he took our hands
and swooped us in the last row of seats and sat between us.
Students got settled in and almost simultaneously everyone sat. You
could see the minister at the lectern trying to get the microphone
to work, everyone got really quiet, the sounds were down to a
murmur. Storm brought us in closer to him, so close I felt
like I was sitting on top of him and sure enough more students
scooted in our pew. There was standing room only. I couldn’t help
notice some of the students were crying and the mood was very
somber.
    I felt the warmth and the
aura of the room envelop me immediately and then a slight breeze
from the doors propped open behind us. It smelled of wood and
candles; none of the beautiful stained glass windows looked like
they opened. I noticed sunlight shining in the front behind the
Reverend and casket, coming from what looked like another door
around the corner. I could only hope the breeze would continue.
Storm began to tell us the girls name in the coffin was Jewel. She
was supposed to be a senior this year and that both his brothers
knew her. “The investigation isn’t over but there was definitely
foul play and they’re saying she was murdered. They aren’t letting
out any details on what happened, but my brothers said she was
dating some guy but nobody knew who. After dating him for a couple
of months she was looking very ashen and had circles under her eyes like she was starving herself. Her
parents were really worried about her and rightly so. The boyfriend
can’t be found, it looks like he took off, they think out of
state.”
    As soon as I heard the word
murder everything Storm said started to sound further and further
away, like I was in a tunnel, I felt my face get even hotter and I
flashed on “ his” face, my heart began to race and I pictured myself in the
coffin. I told myself, think of something else something positive –
I looked right into Storm’s eyes and he looked at me quizzically
scrunching his eyebrows together. Why was he looking at me that
way? Probably because my face was red and hot, my eyes were welling
up, but it was hot in here and it was a wake. But realized I had a
death grip on his hand. I tried to relax and tried getting Logan
out of my head.
    He leaned over, although he
didn’t have very far to lean because we were sitting so close. I
tried to focus everything I had on Storm, but that
“ guy” that “leach” was there on top of me again. Storm whispered
“Breathe” and I took a deep breath. Storm was looking straight
ahead and I just stared at him, I thought of our long conversations
on the phone the year before when we had sort of dated briefly,
well we had one sort of date. I didn’t appreciate him then, but I
was appreciating him now. I was remembering how he kept checking up
on me at the roller rink, which at the time I found annoying, I
thought he was being intrusive but now I could see it was just
because he cared for me. The last day of school last year was the
last time I talked to him and told him “I guess the next time we'll
see each other we'll be freshman.” He just agreed with me and we
went on our separate ways. I was right, our paths never crossed and
he never called, I didn't call him either.
    Storm was on the wrestling
team back then and Nic and I were wrestling managers. He was
very skinny and gawky looking then but he didn't look that way
anymore.
    I was breathing more
normally and I was having visions of Storm holding me