Little Sweet Dreamer

Chapter 8

The rest of the day, I tried my best to stay out of dodge, even going as far as eating lunch in my car. I was afraid Sasha would have something else in store for me if I stayed in the cafeteria. Ana and Mindy sat in the car with me and talked trash about Sasha and Grey as we ate together. They made me feel better about everything and reminded me that it wasn't the world's end.

I felt like I was finally getting a grip until Grey was leaning against my car, arms folded, after school. We stared at each other for a long moment, and the silence stretched between us. Then, finally, I took a deep breath in and, in false confidence, strode up to him. "Can I help you?" I signed. His very presence intimidated me, especially after his girlfriend's promise, but I tried not to let that show. Did my fingers shake when I signed to him? Oh, dear God.

"I've come to warn you, Hazel," he said, and his eyes narrowed. "Sasha gets what she wants. And she wants to ruin your life. Apologize, and you won't have to deal with her anymore."

Blood rushed into my ears. "For what?!"

"For pushing her!"

"Do you recall all she did to me up until I pushed her? And to top it off, she spat on me!"

Grey let out a heavy sigh and mumbled something under his breath before finally saying, "She spit on you?"

"Yes, so I shoved her. Now, move! I need to get home."

He hesitantly got off the car and stepped out of my way. I opened my car door and sat down. Before I could shut the door, he held it open and bent down to meet me eye to eye. "...get home safe, I guess." How dare he act like he even slightly cared about me? If he did, he wouldn't be helping her make my life miserable. The audacity of this man!

"Stay away from me," I signed and then slammed the door shut.

***

When I got home, I tried not to seem upset around Mom. I didn't want her to worry about me, especially when she appeared to be on cloud nine. I haven't seen her this happy in a while. When I got home, she was dancing by herself as she mopped the floors. She was ecstatic. Apart from being hurt to see her that way and knowing it was because of Jared, another part of me wanted her to be happy, no matter the reason.

I wrapped my arms around her torso from behind, and she let out a surprised scream. I laughed as she spun around. "Baby, you scared me!" She kissed my cheek. "How was school today?"

"It was all right," I signed. "Boring, as usual." Classes were, at least. "How was your day?"

"I took the day off from work to clean this house up a little bit," she said and let out a satisfied sigh. "I made some pretty good progress. I'm going to finish the rest this weekend, though. Want some Chinese food for dinner? I'm too pooped to cook."

"I'm always down for Chinese food."

My mom and I watched a movie together that night since I'd gotten a decent chunk of my homework done during study hall. I spent the rest of the night on assignments and then had a slight bit of downtime (I would've had more if I stopped getting distracted by Instagram) before falling asleep. Grey didn't take long to join me in the dream world.

"You make things so difficult!" he snapped. I hazily phased into his dream that night, chains wrapped around my wrist. I was in a dark dungeon room, Grey wearing armor, as if he was in medieval times, ready for battle. I looked down at myself and saw I had on a raggedy-looking dress with dull gray and white colors.

"Are you listening?" I looked up at his frustrated face.

"No," I said.

"Damn it, Hazel." He ran his hand through his hair, clearly upset. "She wants to kill you, and you still don't even care?!"