Rivulet by Jamie Magee Read Free Book Online Page B

mom, her smile, and I felt warmth. I hugged the pillow with one arm as I leaned into Gavin and let the tension float away. With utmost care, he traced my brow with his fingertips. I glanced up to see his pensive stare. He managed to smile slightly when our eyes met. “Better?” he asked.
    “I’m losing it,” I said, shifting my eyes away.
    “Maybe you’re finally gripping it,” he said so quietly that I doubted I heard him right. I glanced up, but he didn’t bother to elaborate his near silent statement.
    “Why can’t I dream right?” I asked, knowing I had not been right since I woke from that night terror.
    “Who says you do it wrong? Maybe you are the only one who does it right,” Gavin said as his hand slowly moved up and down my arm. He’d always admired the visions I saw because of his vivid imagination, the one that allowed him to slip into untold stories. We both seemed to stare into a seemingly empty room for hours at a time.
    “If you have plans to write a horror story, I may have an idea for you,” I teased. Dry humor was one of the many walls I hid behind when I tried to understand who or what I was.
    “Leaning more toward the paranormal side of things,” he said, squeezing my arm. “You want to talk about it?”
    “No, I want to forget it.” I moved my laptop farther away. “I want to be able to send a freaking email without going spastic.”
    “It’s the storm,” Gavin said as he nodded to the window. Even though it was the afternoon, the snow was pelting down and it looked more like dusk.
    “Cadence at class?” I asked, wondering where she was. If they were really on the outs, the last thing she needed to see was him consoling me.
    “She tried to go. She said no one was there. I guess they cancelled. She’s taking a shower.”
    I leaned away from him, knowing that if she saw me near him I would have to live through countless coded conversations that would end up making her mad in the end.
    “What are you up to today?” I asked, daring to look into his eyes. There, I found the same concerned, penetrating stare that I always did in his gaze.
    “You tell me.”
    “Why does Cadence think you guys are on the outs?” I asked as Mason came out from behind the bookcase, looking less than awake.
    “She wants to get inside my head, and I don’t want her in there.”
    “She analyzes me, too. Don’t take it personally.”
    “Not,” he said, squeezing my shoulder. “Just not ready to open all the doors, you know.”
    “Right,” I said under my breath, thinking of his sister, the one he lost, the point in his life that he could not get past. Even after I showed her to him, after I told him that the only way I could see her, show her to him would be if she were at peace and looking for one last goodbye, he couldn’t get past it.
    I understood why he felt that way. So did Mason, which is why we were allowed in and no one else.
    “I need a shower. You guys want to meet at the coffee bar later?”
    “If it even opens. If not, we’ll hang out here, if you’re cool with that,” Gavin said, catching Mason’s agreeing nod as he stood.
    “Works for me.” Storm or no storm, I was not staying in this house all day, and they knew that.
    I knew once I moved through my morning routine, I would be able to shake this night terror. I blushed as I thought of going to the North Wing. When I thought of that voice, those eyes that I knew would be there.

     
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
    After a long, steaming shower, I covered the bruises on my body with a bronzing lotion. I inhaled the sweet cocoa scent, craving a beach, warmth at that moment. I layered on my clothes, ripped skintight jeans that had flower patterns patched here and there, a tight tank top, then a larger one that had a sizeable skull centering it. Short combat boots, laces untied, were the perfect complement to my attire. I smirked when I looked in the mirror. I loved how my style did not match my home, or my life. I loved how