[ CHAPTER SEVEN ]

HE FELT COLD.

Leo was watching himself as if he was in the third person.  Dipping his fingers into a lake that had a reflection of the pale moonlight rippling through it, a chill traveled up his arm and through his spine.  Tall pine trees were whispering, the winds were shrieking.  His feet were floating above the ground that glowed with brown and yellow and red leaves.   The place felt eerily familiar, but it didn't look like any sort of forest in California.  In his hands there seemed to be a rose, the petals curling over the sides, more of a deep blood red color than anything else – contrasting against his pale, ghoulish skin.

Somehow, even though he was looking at himself from above, he could feel a numbing sensation run through his veins. His fingers cramped up and the rose dropped from his hands, resting against the golden leaves.  His fingertips numbed, and the feeling spread to his elbows, then his shoulders, and soon his neck.  The leaves began to shrivel up below him, blackening to match the night sky above, crinkling into a floor of black dust.  The rose began to disintegrate before him, the petals dislocating themselves, and sinking deep into the ashes of the leaves.

He floated forward, and he noticed a letter resting atop the remaining crumbs of the leaves, familiar cursive eligible from where he watched from above.  He willed his numb hands to reach for it, his voice lodged in the back of his throat, trying to scream to move his hands, and just when he was able to reach out, the letter dissolved into the blackened earth, the pieces of the letter becoming one with the ashes of the leaves.

He fell to his knees when his legs gave out, his feet growing numb.  It spread to his kneecaps, then his thighs, and he couldn't move.  He couldn't form cohesive sentences, it just sounded like gibberish in his mind, a foreign language that he didn't understand.  It was just sounds and words, his tears mixing with the charcoal ashes of the leaves, he wanted to pound himself awake but he couldn't move his limbs, he felt numb, he felt cold, he felt empty.  He saw himself sinking into the ashes and there was nothing he could do to stop it.  Submitting to the leaves, his legs beginning to change into the flaky remains.  There was no pain.  Just emptiness, as his numb limbs disappeared into the dark earth.

His neck struggled to stay above ground, numb and frozen in place, frozen, cold, shivering, numb, empty.

When he woke up, Leo stayed still.

His arms were by his side, and his eyes stared straight at the popcorn ceiling in his room.

In his peripheral view, he could see the faint hues of sunrise begin to fade into the day.  It just reminded him too much of the leaves that had been before the charcoal remains.  Was his grandmother trying to communicate something, or was his paranoia just finally reaching him through his nightmares?

He felt cold.

He had kicked his blankets off of himself in his sleep, so his head groggily left his pillow to gather them once more.

He couldn't sleep.  He didn't want to.

...

"I think I need to tell you about something," Leo murmured to Isaac during their environmental science class.

"Something more intriguing than global warming? I doubt that," Isaac joked, ripping the jagged edge of the paper off.

"Yeah, I – I'll tell you later, alright?" he whispered. Isaac looked at him with a raised eyebrow, nodding.

Leo tapped his pen on the wooden desk, his foot falling asleep. He audibly yelped, the numb feeling rushing back to him, a terror seizing his body and mind like never before.  His breathing became staggered, and he shakily signed out a pass to run to the nurse's office to sit.

He couldn't close his eyes.

Was this relationship a bad idea? Did he really need to look out for roses? Did he really need to be saved?

Leo could only stare straight ahead. The yellow wall, lulling him into a false sense of security.  His eyes almost closed, until he remembered, and then they shot open again.  No more flowers, no more leaves.  He could just be psychoanalyzing the ridiculous, but a bigger part of him believed in the unbelievable.   His dreams were usually hazy and generic.  This dream had been hazy, but it was a different type of hazy.  More hypnotic, more lulling than his usual forgetful, normal dreams.

It had to be an omen.  Some sort of sign; from his grandmother, from his subconscious, from some other sort of magical spirit.  It needed to mean something.  The chill, the rose, the letter, his numb limbs, his speech, the leaves.

In the blink of an eye, he was in his car. Headed down the road, headed to her school. He was sitting in the parking lot, waiting for the bell to ring. He fiddled around with the seatbelt strap, then the radio knobs, and his hand crept closer and closer to the glovebox.

That letter. Maybe it wasn't as fake as his parents once thought.

Leo saw her skipping down the steps, her backpack bouncing on her shoulder.

She slid into the passenger seat. "Mrs. Duncan is giving us another test tomorrow, can you believe it? Apparently yesterday's was a two parter, and no one realized."

"Hey, I need to . . ." he began, and realized how stupid he would be to tell her about the letter. Or even worse, just break up with her because of the bad omen. Could he even break up with her? It didn't truly feel like they were together at some points. Everything was just a blur. "I was wondering if you were going to tonight's game?"

"Yeah, at your school? Of course, I'm bringing Jordan and Michael with me since they don't have marching band during away games."

"Alright," he mumbled, and continued to drive silently.  She must have caught on, because Elle soon fell quiet as well.

He dropped her off at her house, then drove aimlessly around the town. Any wooded area he could find, any sort of lake or river or pond, nothing felt like his dream. But it had felt so real, so vivid.

• • •

It was time to pick up Isaac to bring him to the game.

He made it to Isaac's house on time, which gave Leo a few minutes to prepare for what he was going to tell him. He placed the letter on the passenger seat and took a deep breath.

"You should know by now that you don't have to come on time," Isaac yelled at him from the front door.

"I know, but each time I give you the benefit of the doubt," Leo yelled back, and waited for him to approach the letter.

Opening the car door, he noticed it. "What's that?" he asked, cozying himself into the cushion. "There's no way that's your handwriting."

"It's my grandmothers, from a while ago," Leo replied, reaching for the letter that was in Isaac's hand and spreading it out on the dashboard. "She wrote it for me when I was younger, but just willed it to me this year."

"Oh, cool," Isaac responded, fixing the seat so that his legs fit under the dash. "Y'know, Elle keeps pulling the seat up way high, and I can't fit under it, it's really starting to—"

"My grandmother predicted that something was going to happen to me," Leo blurted out, and he turned off the car.  "She was a psychic, and I believe it now, but my family doesn't. I don't really know what it means, I just know that something bad will happen to me, but someone or something related to roses could save me."

"Wait, slow down," Isaac drawled out. "You have a psychic grandmother?"

"Had, but yeah," Leo answered. "But I've been paranoid the past couple of weeks, and I really just don't know what to do."

"What does that even mean, something related to roses? Does that mean a person, or . . .?"

"I have no clue. And I started talking with Elle right around the time where I was freaking out, and she was sort of a distraction — not trying to make her sound like an excuse or something, but she was just able to bring me some peace of mind, you know? And I think I sort of hoped she was the one that would save me somehow."

He was silent, and they arrived at the game with a different atmosphere surrounding them.

He spotted their little posse and pointed, poking Isaac in the shoulder blade.  They trudged through the shouting fans and rustled up the rickety public school bleachers. Leo nestled in next to Elle.

"Long time no see," he whispered to her, nudging her in the shoulder.

Elle had a thick fleece blanket wrapped around her, cuddled next to Jordan. Michael was on Jordan's other side, his legs propped up on the bleacher in front of him.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Michael," he shouted over the crowd. He stuck out his hand to Leo, reaching behind the ladies. "I know you're Leo . . . And you're Isaac?"

Isaac popped out from behind Leo, scooching in between people's knees to shake his hand as well . "Yeah, hey, what's up? Nice day, isn't it?"

As Isaac shook Michael's hand, Leo tried to smile at Elle, a weak, toothless grin coming out instead. Isaac got comfy next to Leo in the meantime. "How's your day been since I last saw you?"

"It's been good. I just sort of sat in my living room and watched Netflix until Jordan picked me up. I really should be studying for the ACT."

"What do you mean, study for the ACT?" he shouted over the shouts. "You're supposed to study for those?"

"Oh my God," she laughed.

"It was a serious question!" he laughed, shouts from the game disappearing into nothingness.

A couple plays later, and her blanket had somehow spread over his legs as well.  His hands were by his side under the blanket, and he suddenly felt her warmth in his, her fingers so small.  It reached halftime and he was in a daze.  Her warmth was an intoxicating spell; he felt as if nothing could go wrong with her near.

The PHS cheerleaders lined up. After their first routine, the ones being held up were holding signs that spelled out "PROM?". Suddenly, one of his classmates started walking down the bleachers with flowers in hand, and the other cheerleaders pushed one of their teammates forward. The crowd erupted into yells, and the girl nodded, giving him a quick kiss.

"Aw, they're cute," Elle whispered next to him. He was clapping in what felt like slow motion, and he looked down at her grinning face. "Do you know them?"

"Yeah, they're our grade," Leo said, and hesitated for a second. "Are you into that sort of thing?"

"What, prom?" she asked, glancing up at him, her eyelashes brushing her skin. "If it's with the right people, yeah. I went last year."

"Gotcha," he responded, and the pair fell silent in the shouts of the crowd.

The game was coming to an end. Isaac had gotten close to Jordan and Michael, since Elle and Leo were in their own little bubble

As the group started getting up, Leo made a request to them. "Could I drive Elle home?"

"Yeah, fine by me," Jordan responded, throwing away her wrappers from the hot dog she had.

"Same here. I can drive Isaac home, if you want?" Michael added. Isaac waved goodbye to them, and Elle and Leo walked off the field with the blanket wrapped over their shoulders.

He held her hand as he drove, trying to ignore how sweaty his hands were. How was he still nervous by her, he drove her home every day! But for some reason, she still made little pools of lava rumble in his stomach.

There were a few lampposts lit down her street, the orangey light glowing on the darkened path. His car rolled to a stop in front of her apartment, and he begrudgingly put the car in park.

"Thank you," she said, disrupting the silence.

"Anytime, I had a good time tonight," he responded. Her face was so beautiful in the glow of the artificial light, the shadows of her nose dancing on her cheek, her eyes hooded and her smile dream-like.

"No, not just for the rides and everything. I know we haven't been together extraordinarily long, but I haven't been this happy since God-knows-when, and you're to blame for that." He laughed, and she hit him on the shoulder. "I'm serious! You're really something."

"You're really something, too, Elle."

a/n
so uh this is very late. i realize that.

although many have gotten out of school, i have yet another week. i doubt i will be posting this sunday because i have finals all this week, but i hope you enjoyed this chapter! once the summer hits, i will have a surplus of time to write and post! i hope you enjoyed, let me hear your thoughts!

how do you interpret leo's dream? do you feel like their relationship will last? how about isaac with jordan and michael?

thank you for reading! let me hear your comments and critiques, and leave a vote if you liked it! share if you wanna make my say :-)

i changed the cover, but im not sure if im feeling it, might spice it up again later. let's see what happens!

thank you for reading, and so sorry again,
Sophie