Before the Dawn by Kristal Lim Read Free Book Online Page A

am eternally grateful for by the way, so I’m assuming
you didn’t go overboard and order trucks of champagne for your
friends."
    Aline frowned, trying to remember the events
of last night. "It was fun enough, I guess. The Ballroom really
went all out for us." She tried to rack her brain for more details
she could share with him, but her mind refused to provide her with
more than blurry impressions of a beautiful ballroom, beautiful
people, sad music, and—someone familiar, someone precious. "I
danced the whole night," she said, "with this guy I met." But she
couldn't tell him more than that because she couldn't remember much
of anything clearly. It was worrisome. What had happened to her in
that place last night? Had she gotten incredibly drunk? It was the
only explanation why she was missing large chunks of memory.
    "Trevor something?" he questioned, and she
suddenly didn’t want to correct her father and tell him it had been
another guy. "You told me about him. And, guess what, lover boy
actually dropped by earlier this afternoon to see you. Also, while
you were sleeping, you missed out on all the joy of giving candy to
hyperactive, demanding children and their prissy parents. Does
that chocolate bar have nuts? My baby’s allergic to nuts! "
    But Aline was too stunned by the piece of
news he shared a few minutes earlier to be amused by his
impressions of overprotective parents. "Trevor came to see me?!"
she squeaked. "Well, why didn't you wake me up?"
    "Because you were sleeping like the dead," he
explained patiently. "He seemed like an okay kid, was worried about
you getting home safely because he said you hadn't been answering
your phone."
    "Oh, God! My phone!" She realized she hadn't
even checked it for any missed calls. "I gotta call him back."
    "After you're done eating," her dad decreed,
so she gobbled up as much of the pasta as quickly as she could then
made her excuses to go back to her room. Her feet were still
hurting, but she decided to ignore them the best she could for now.
She grabbed her phone and found Trevor's number in the list of
missed calls. And it was a long list. The poor guy must have kept
trying to call her for most of the morning and the early afternoon.
The phone was almost out of power, so she plugged it into its
charger before she redialed Trevor’s number and, after half a ring,
he immediately picked up.
    "Aline, are you okay?" were the first words
he said.
    "Uhm, yeah," she answered, a bit startled by
his abruptness. "How are you?"
    "Fine enough, I guess," he replied. He
sounded troubled. "Listen, I hope you don't think I'm being pushy
or anything, but can I see you? Now? I'll come over if that's
okay."
    "Yeah, sure," she said, puzzled by the
strange intensity in his tone. "I'll be wai—" She suddenly realized
he had already hung up. "Weird," she mumbled to herself.
    Some minutes later, she opened the front door
to find him standing outside looking quite agitated. His bangs
stuck out on one side like they'd been frozen by a careless breeze
and his clothes were rumpled. But his unkempt appearance wasn't
what alarmed her. He had an expression in his green eyes she had
never seen before. It sort of looked like—and she hoped she was
just imagining things—cold fear.
    "Aline!" He stared at her hard, like he was
trying to cut through some sort of illusion that made him unsure if
it was really her. His hand reached out as if to touch her, then
stopped, and she saw him bite his lower lip in sudden
nervousness.
    "Trevor," she said with some wariness evident
in her tone. The way he was acting was making her nervous, too.
    "Can we talk?" he asked. "Somewhere private,
where your dad can't hear? There are some things," he swallowed,
"about what happened—God, I think I must have been really drunk or
something. Please, just—let's go somewhere and talk." He was
pleading now.
    He was scaring her, but she wanted to hear
what he had to say. Maybe he could explain why she couldn't seem to
clearly