Aven's Dream Read Free

glorified grilled cheese. I handed him some money, relieved it was his turn to get the food. We almost never ate inside since Ford’s was packed during lunchtime. To avoid the crowds, we either sat in Sean’s car—or, on the occasional dry day, we went to a vacant building a couple of streets from school that offered a nice overhang and bench.
    Looking out the window, I could tell that it was about to begin pouring rain again by how empty the street was. Oregonians had an uncanny ability to tell when the sky was about to open up, a trait I seemed to lack as a native Southern Californian. Watching as an elderly couple hurried by with a Scottish Terrier straining at his leash, I had a vision of my own dog, cooped up in the house between the time my dad left for school and I got home. Groaning, I swore that I would take him for a run when I got home, rain or shine. The shine part, I was discovering, was not a given.
    Before moving, I had run exactly one season on the cross-country team—a concession to my dad’s campaign to get me to rejoin the land of the living . Now, though, with neither a coach nor upcoming races to motivate me, I had skipped so many workouts that I was struggling just to jog for a couple of miles. Plus, I had yet to adjust to the fact that rainy weather didn’t necessarily mean a break from outdoor activity.
    Ten minutes passed, and I swiveled in my seat to look for Sean. A sea of blurry heads bobbed up and down, the condensation on the windows of the restaurant making it difficult to distinguish faces. Assuming that he was stuck in a long line, I turned the key in the ignition and flipped radio stations, stopping when I recognized the song playing—another old one. It was one of my favorites, even if it had probably been released when I was in Kindergarten. The Diamond Sea by Sonic Youth. I almost never heard it on the radio anymore, but I had always loved the lyrics. There was something strange and haunting about them.
    The rain picked up, pelting the roof of Sean’s car, and a chill swept over me as I looked across the parking lot and then scanned the street beyond. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I registered a man standing alone on the empty sidewalk. He was just standing there instead of hurrying toward shelter like every other sane person. I couldn’t make out his features through the rain, but for a second it felt like he was staring at me.
    And then he was gone.
    I was tempted to rub my eyes like a character from the cartoons. I had just seen someone, right? When the driver’s side door popped open, I jumped. Sean grinned and shoved a greasy bag in my direction before setting two milkshakes into the beverage holders between us.
    “It’s really coming down out there,” he said, sounding irritated with the weather he had lived with all his life. “But what do I expect? Why’d your dad move here again?”
    He turned the key in the ignition and then stared at me.
    “Hey, you see a ghost or something? You’re looking pale. I mean paler than usual.”
    “Low blood sugar,” I mumbled.
    Sean nodded solemnly and pulled out of the parking lot. We hadn’t known each other long, but it was long enough for him to know exactly what I was like when I didn’t eat often enough. He liked to joke that I resembled a wild animal ready to tear off his arm when I wasn’t given food at regular intervals. At the stoplight, he pulled a fry out of the bag and dangled it in front of me before pausing with mock solemnity.
    “Just the fry, Casey. Not the fingers.”
    I snatched the fry and rolled my eyes.
     
    After the final bell, I walked to the bus stop since Sean was already running late for his shift at the bookstore. Before moving from Irvine, I had promised my dad that I would finally get my driver’s license. Still, summer had come and gone, and I just kept putting it off. Sean teased me relentlessly, but I didn’t give a rat’s ass if I was the only senior without a