He’s right behind her. “It’s six years old, Janie. Come on.”
Janie’s eyebrow is permanently raised as he tries to keep up with her on the way in to school. She loses him when he slips and flips on the icy sidewalk.
Janie finds Carrie by the doorway to English class. “What’s the scoop on the pimpster wheels out there?”
Janie asks her.
“I don’t know, chica. He must be makin’ some big cake. I can’t believe he hasn’t been expelled yet.”
“Has he actually been arrested?”
“No. Shay’s daddy worked it out with the cops. Cabel was at all the parties this weekend with her.”
“And now he’s driving that.”
“It’s a friggin’ 323Ci convertible. Stu says seventeen grand at least for one of those, used.”
Janie’s blood boils. “This is just…just…” The anger swells, and she can’t come up with a word. Carrie is giving her the evil eye.
“Unbefuckinglievable?” comes a voice from behind her.
She takes a quick breath, watching Carrie’s eyes grow wide. “Shit.” She turns around and there’s Cabel.
“S’cuse me, please,” he says politely, and squeezes past them into the classroom. Janie catches a whiff of the cologne he’s wearing. Her stomach flips against her will. Carrie’s eyes sparkle. She giggles. “Oops.”
Janie rolls her eyes and laughs reluctantly. “Yeah.”
12:45 p.m.
For days, Janie’s been in other people’s dreams during study hall, with minimal success in helping them change the dreams. She is still puzzled by one thing.
Make that two things.
First, how did Miss Stubin get Mr. McVicker to ask her for help? And second, what was she saying to him to get him to change his dream?
Sorry. Make that three. Three things.
How the hell can Miss Stubin see in the dreams, when she’s blind? And how can she be there when she’s dead? Okay, that’s four. Janie knows. There are probably more than that, even.
This is so frustrating.
She knows she needs to work harder.
And she’s losing weight. Rapidly.
She was already thin enough.
Now her cheeks look caved in, like her mother’s. And she has dark circles under her eyes, from getting up so often in the night, working on her own dreams.
She finds Snickers bars in the strangest places.
(She knows they’re from him.)
(She wonders if they’re laced with pot.)
Cabel has been sitting in his old spot again the past few weeks. But he doesn’t sleep. He reads.
Janie sort of wishes he would fall asleep. But she also worries what she might see.
Exams are coming. She opens her math book and studies it. Every now and then, she glances at Cabel, whose back is to her. From what Carrie said, he was at the Hill parties again all weekend. With Shay. And a lot of drugs. Janie sighs. Pulls herself out of the threatening misery and focuses on the math book again. Refuses to go there.
1:01 p.m.
Cabel’s head nods, and jerks back up. He shakes his head swiftly and glances over his shoulder at Janie. Janie looks down. Then he slouches in his chair and puts his chin in his hand. His hair falls softly around his shoulders and over his eyes. Janie reluctantly admires his profile as he turns a page in the book. His head nods.
The book slips from his fingers.
It doesn’t wake him when it thumps on the table.
Janie feels his energy.
She concentrates, and slips into his dream slowly. Another positive step—she’s learning to control the speed of her arrivals and departures. It’s much easier than—
1:03 p.m.
He’s sitting in a dark jail cell. Alone. Above his head is a sign that says, “Drug Pusher.”
Janie watches from outside the cell.
His head is down.
The scene changes abruptly.
He’s in Janie’s room, sitting on the floor, writing something on a pad of paper. Alone. He looks up at her, beckoning her with his eyes. She takes a few steps forward.
He holds up the notepad.
It’s not what you think.
That’s what it says.
He tears off that sheet of paper. Below it is another sheet in his handwriting. I think I’m in love with you.
Janie’s stomach lurches.
He looks at the tablet for a long moment. Then he turns to Janie and rips off one more sheet. He watches her face as she reads it.
How do you like my new trick?
He grins at her, and fades.
The scene changes again. Back in the jail cell. The sign above his head is gone. He is alone. She watches from outside. His head is down. Then he looks up at her. A ring of keys floats in front of her.
“Let me out,” he says. “Help me.”
Janie is startled. She moves automatically and unlocks the cell. He walks to her, takes her in his arms. He looks into her eyes. He sinks his fingers into her hair and kisses her. Janie steps out of herself as she’s kissing Cabel. She walks away into a dark hallway and eases herself back to awareness in the library.
She blinks.
Sits up.
Looks at him.
He’s still asleep at his table.
She rubs her eyes and wonders:
How the hell did he do that?
And.
Now what?
1:30 p.m.
He slides into the seat across the table from Janie. His eyes are moist with sleep and mischief. “Well?”
“Well what,” she mutters.
“It worked, right?”