Valerie Lives in Dreams

CHAPTER 7

"So Miller knows magic crap and uh, he learned to turn himself into a spirit and possessed me?" he looked down at the table.
My gaze met his.
"I don't, I'm just kidding?" he giggled.
I raised my eyebrows.
"I'm kidding!" he chuckled, "or am I?"
His face turned serious fast.
What a good actor he is.
I chuckled, "I said, don't mess with me!"
I stood up next to the table, frowning jokingly and suddenly we both burst into laughter and tears until our stomachs started hurting.
I could see his green beady eyes shared a glint with mine.
"Your laugh is contagious," I said.
"And yours is cute," he messed up my hair.
Warmth flowed in behind my face as I realized I was blushing.
Your laugh is cute.
"Thanks."
He smiled and dimples formed in his cheeks again.
Those cute dimples.
He extended his hand towards mine and I shook his hand.
"I don't get a proper introduction?" I laughed.
"Of course, you do! James Scott, turning 18 soon, a high-school dropout, just started my café."
"Mary Grace, 17, high-school failure, but not a dropout, yet."
"Ahaha, I like the sound of that!"
"You do?" I asked in a deep, sarcastic but questioning tone.
"I do," he nodded as reassurance and we both shared another laugh.
"You want another tea?" he looked like he didn't know what else to say.
"Sure!" I giggled.
My third cup of tea today.
I sat down as James started to brew the tea and poured it out into two cups. He sat down in front of me and put the cups down.
Thank God, he doesn’t slurp his tea.
Two seconds ago, we'd been laughing our butts off. Two seconds later, it was quiet. I wanted anything to fill up the void of the deafening silence. Anything. Thankfully, James spoke up.
"So... What are we going to do about- um- Miller?" he whispered.
"Why are you whispering?" I lowered my eyebrows.
"I don't know?" he said, gritting his teeth.
I bit my lower lip, lost in thought.
"You there?" he snapped his finger.
"Yeah, I'm just lost. I don't know where to go from here. That girl didn't help much either."
"Phoebe just says what she thinks is enough to know for the person at the moment. Honestly, I have no idea what to do either. I think we should just drop this plan?"
"No!" I raised my voice a little.
"Okay, sorry! Geez!"
I let out a frustrated sigh.
"Yeah, sorry, I snapped."
He stared at me in silence.
"I think this calls for learning some magic or whatever because if Miller is a spirit, we need to level up our game!" I explained my genius master plan.
"You sure about this?"
"A hundred percent, James! And maybe the psychic, Phoebe, can teach us something?"
"I don't know."
"Come on, just follow my lead! We'll be fine!" I insisted.
"Alright, fine!" he said dryly, agreeing to my plan.
"I'm going tomorrow morning, I'll see what I can do. You just keep my tea ready before I head out to meet the psychic again."
"You really like my tea, huh?"
"No, I don't."
"Yes, you do!" he said in a jokingly ordering tone.
"Nope."
"You sure do gurl," he messed up my hair again.
I just smiled knowingly.
"Now you better get going!"
"Yeah!"
"You sure you don't want me to walk you home? It's getting pretty late! Plus it's really cold outside."
"You're no human heater and I'm no danger magnet but sure!" I squinted my eyes and said it sarcastically.
"Come on?"
"Fine," I gave in.
He pulled the collar of his jacket upwards and put his hands in his pockets as we started to walk out of the café. I saw a dark figure in the distance.
“Sorry, we’re closed," James yelled.
The figure had ignored James and continued to stand there in the distance. It wasn't possible that he didn't hear James. We agreed to pretend that the shady guy in the distance didn't exist and started walking to my home.
Slowly, our breathing and our movement was synced.
I started to rub my hands together and blew on them to warm them. It was freezing cold outside.
"Cold?"
"Yeah!" I gritted my teeth in an attempt to stop my teeth from chattering.
James took his hands out of his pockets, took off his jacket, and handed it to me. I put on his warm jacket. He extended his warm hand out to mine and held onto it.
"Better?" a cloud formed in front of his mouth as he smiled down at me with his eyes that were an electric shade of green.
My gaze shifted to his.
"Oh, I could get used to this," I chuckled.
"Me? Or the princess treatment?" he smiled.
"Definitely the princess treatment," I scrunched my nose and looked up at him with a mischievous smile as I whispered, "And totally those sweet heart-melting dimples too."
And gosh, he’s so tall. Like what?
"What was that- something about my dimples, I heard?" he smiled down at me as he put his hand near his ear pretending to be struggling to listen.
"Noooo, what?" I laughed it off.
"Sure, you didn't say anything about my dimples," he smirked.
"I actually think I wanna tell you something but maybe it's not time…” I said with a nervous smile.
"Whenever you're ready!" he smiled so softly, it felt like a warm hug.
"I actually don't belong here. I'm from another reality and I wake up here in my dreams and the only way I'm getting out is if I solve this mystery and avenge the Stuarts. That's the only reason I'm so stubborn about not giving up."
His eyes widened.
"Um, you okay? James? You haven't said anything? You're kinda frozen, like a robot… but like… walking on autopilot?" I waved my hand in front of his face.
"Yeah, yeah! I'm alright. That's pretty interesting actually."
"So you believe me?" I bit my bottom lip.
"Of course, I do! But that means that if I help you, you'll get out of here and that'll be the last that I hear from you?" his smile faltered.
"Sadly, yeah. But if I figure out how to come here in my dreams on command, I'll definitely come see you!"
"Well, then I really hope you do figure it out!" He gave me a hopeful smile.
"I'll see you tomorrow then! And don't forget our plan, okay? I will type out everything we know so far in a document."
"G'night, Mary Grace!" he smiled.
"Good night!"
He turned around to walk all the way back.