UNHEEDED: Undone Realms Book 2

Ch. 10 - A Third Option

If Marcella is suspicious about Avie's Dual Realm activity, she doesn't show it.  Avie does her best to be nonchalant around her stepmom, as though nothing has changed, when in fact, nothing has remained the same. 

Oliver has changed everything.  He's nothing like the other guys she knows.  He has no context for most things in Avie's life, for one, yet when she tells him something, he seems to grasp it better than she does herself.  Amazingly enough, his lack of knowledge works as an asset because he has no preconceived notions and the prejudices that accompany them.  His naïveté is almost as appealing as his thick mop of wavy black hair.  Almost.  She can barely resist running her hand through those tangled strands. 

Avie fears she's already been too forward.  His people are very reserved.  She watches a few pickers while waiting for Oliver to finish his work.  While they laugh occasionally, there's something mechanical to it.  Their faces are drawn and their expressions are tense.  They rarely touch.  A perpetual state of worry permeates the orchard.  

It occurs to Avie that the life of a picker may not have many perks.  She pains her to think that Oliver is unhappy, but there it is—she's noticed that same dark look in his eyes as well.  It falls away when he sees her, but still, it doesn't leave completely.  Maybe it never goes away.  This is a stark contrast from how Avie feels when she's in the Orchard.  She has many concerns in her everyday life, but her mind can't seem to keep track of them here.  Even the fear of being discovered by Marcella or the authorities doesn't carry the same gravity while she's in the Dual Realm.

Avie meets Oliver every day, or rather, every day for him.  Occasionally, she lets a day go by without opening the Fold so she can attend to other things in her own realm, or simply catch up on sleep.  She spends three or four hours with Oliver but returns to her own realm almost the same moment she left.  This has made for some very long days.

When she realizes he's forgoing dinner in order to spend time with her, Avie packs sandwiches, which he happily wolfs down.  Food from the other realm doesn't seem to have any ill effects.  Each night they sit in the stillness as the stars appear one by one.  They talk about their perspective lives and each day she finds it harder to leave him.  Marcella's right—she does feel that magnetic tug, but it isn't the repulsion Marcella had described.  Far from it.

Avie has this nagging feeling: the more she comes and the longer she stays, the less likely it is that she will ever want to leave Oliver's realm.  This scares her more than Marcella's untested claims of other realm sickness, that she feels more alive in another's world than in her own.  But it's true.  Here in this realm, her parents haven't died.  She hasn't been crippled by grief or had her only remaining family falsely accused of abuse.  She hasn't had to run, create a new identity, and live in a crappy hotel that, charmingly, Oliver seems to think must be a slice of paradise.

Here there is only Oliver and the field and the trees and the setting sun. 

Avie breathes in the scent of ripe apples.  She could lose sight of her life—the life perpetually waiting for her on the other side of the Fold.  Avie doesn't know if she wants that or not.  That life, miserable or not, is hers.  That she could be so easily persuaded to give it up doesn't sit right with her. 

One day, Avie miscalculates and ends up returning home four hours after she's left.  She freezes when she sees the clock on her nightstand blinking the time in its blocky red numbers. 

Marcella could easily have noticed her absence, but she's been busy in the lobby all morning.  Avie is relieved, then disappointed, then feels guilty that she's disappointed.  She doesn't want anything to keep her from Oliver but at the same time, she is able to think more clearly about the Dual Realm when she's not in it.  It's an intoxication.  She likes it far more than she should.

A week passes, then another.  Oliver is a magnet.  He draws her into the Dual Realm and holds her there until the sun goes down.  Maybe she doesn't want to give up her own realm, but she certainly doesn't want to give up Oliver either.  And why would she?  He's so eager to meet her here each night when the picking is done for the day. 

The picking.  Avie bolts forward from her spot next to Oliver.  He jumps at her sudden movement. 

"Oliver, what do pickers do when there's nothing left to pick?"  She can't keep the concern out of her voice.

Oliver smiles sadly.  If she were the swearing sort, she'd swear he'd been waiting for her to ask this question.  "There's always something left to pick.  We move on until we find it."

"You move on." She mulls over his words.  "You'll move on.  Away from here.  When?"

"In another week.  Maybe ten days." He takes a strand of her hair and twists it in her fingers.  "We've got options, you know."

"Options?"

"Well, yeah, I know you said you can't stay here, but maybe you could find me, wherever I go next."

"Do you even know where that'll be?"

"Not yet.  I probably will before we leave."

Avie shakes her head.  "Even if you do, I'm not...I'm just not that advanced at this.  Marcella chose to voyage to this orchard because it's parallel to where we live in our realm.  It's a spot where the Fold is easiest to unfold—that's the best way I can describe it.  I don't know if it will be the same wherever you go next."

Oliver takes a moment to consider this.  "Well then, you said you can choose a time to come back.  So choose it for next fall when I'll be here again.  Won't be more than a night before you'll see me."  His words are meant to reassure her, but even so, they are said through gritted teeth.

"A day for me, a year for you."  She sighs and brings hear head to his so that their foreheads touch. "Anything could happen to you between now and then.  I can't bear thinking that you might get sick or fall off a ladder and break your leg or...or meet some girl, some girl who's a picker just like you and you'll fall in love with her and you won't care if I ever come back and—"

Oliver grabs the sides of her head with his palms and pulls her away just enough so that he can look her in the eyes.  "That ain't ever going to happen, Avie.  No matter how long you're gone, the only thing I'll be thinking about is you, just like I did for the past four years."

Avie closes her eyes.  She can't lock up the tears that insist on making their way down her cheeks.  There is no need to cry, yet she can't help it.  Again, she breathes in the scent of apples.  It's his scent, she realizes.  He smells of the orchard, a place that is more home than home.  Before she can open her eyes again, his lips are on hers.  One of his hands cups the back of her head, holding her to him, while the other slides down her back. 

Avie thinks of magnets and the lives both of them have rejected in favor of the life they are living in that moment.  She kisses him back, the Fold between their realms pulled apart completely.

The sun has set and they have failed to notice.

Avie lays with her back pressed to stone, a pile of dried grasses twined into a makeshift pillow.  Oliver is turned on his side, his lips brushing her neck.  His breath tickles her flesh, rekindling a stir of emotions within her.  There are still some secrets from her realm she'd like to reveal to him. 

Lost in her own fantasy, his words only register a beat after he's said them.

"There is another option.  Take me back with you, Avie.  Take me away from here."

A/N:  Avie's having misgivings about all of the time she's spending n the Dual Realm.  Do you think her judgment is compromised, either when she's in the Dual Realm or at home?  And how do you believe she'll deal with Oliver's request for her to take him back with her?

We're leading up to some big moments, as well as more of those subtle/not-so-subtle references to Unseen.  Thank you for taking the time to read, vote, and comment!

Today's dedication is for one of my first Wattpad friends, @AutumnJewel. I've read all of her Wattpad work, including her current piece, Drawn To Troubled Waters. I've mentioned this story before, but it's well worth mentioning again because it is better than a devil's food cupcake eaten under an old oak tree while on a picnic with Mississippi's most handsome man.  Which is to say that it's amazing!