Zac pulled the curtains away from the window in his parents bedroom and peered across the street. "Hey, who's the hot girl on Nique's porch?" He asked Carter without taking his eyes away.
Carter was laying on his parents floor looking through their closet. "Are you sure they're in here?" She asked, referring to her favorite pair of boots. Zac had hidden them from her a week earlier.
"Positive. And I repeat, who's the hot girl?"
"What's she look like?" Carter pushed aside a box of romance novels and made a face. "Ew, your mom has like... old lady porn."
"Didn't need to know that..." He laughed. "She's blonde and she's really pretty."
"What's she doing?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes."
"Reading a book."
"What book?"
Zac squinted. "Carter, I don't have magical eye powers. I have no idea what book she's reading."
"It sounds like Jade's sister."
"Jade has a sister?"
"Yeah. Go figure. She's moving in with them, I think. To keep Jade out of trouble. Her name is Katie."
"Nice." Zac smiled and opened the window. He threw his upper body out and onto the roof and waved his arms. "HEY!" He yelled, waving at Katie.
Katie looked as if she had been deep into her reading because she dropped her book and looked up at the ceiling of her front porch. Zac laughed and looked back at Carter.
"Wow, she's just like you."
Carter nodded and pulled her boots out of the closet. "FOUND THEM!"
"Cool." Zac waved again. "HEY!"
Katie turned around and looked toward Zac. She looked surprised to see somebody hanging out of the window and waving at her. She smiled cautiously and waved back, looking around her.
Zac grinned and ducked back into the bedroom. He smiled at Carter and ran out of the bedroom, thumping all the way down the hallway. "Whoa, Zac. Where are you going?!" Carter pulled her boots on without tying them and ran after Zac, following him out of the house.
Zac jumped onto the curb and started up the steps to Jade and Nique's house. Katie was sitting on the top step now with her book face down in her lap. She smiled up at him and held out her hand. "You must be Zac. Sorry, it surprised me when you were hanging out of the window.
Carter jumped up the stairs after Zac and sat down next to Katie. "He's always like that. What are you reading?"
"Uhm..." Katie looked down at her book and slowly turned it over, looking almost embarrassed.
"Oh cool! I've read that!" Carter beamed, staring down at the book about tarot cards. Zac looked nervous. He wasn't a big fan of anything that had to do with the supernatural. It scared him.
Zac tried to act natural. "Oh, Tarot. Carter loves this stuff. Are you into it, too?"
Katie shrugged. "Not by choice." She looked a little uneasy sitting next to Carter. Zac noticed her flinch and move away a little.
"Are you ok?" He asked, tilting his head.
She smiled and nodded. "I'm fine." She ran her fingers through her long blonde hair and Carter suddenly rememebred how much Zac hated blondes in the past. Lately he seemed to be flocking toward them. Katie blinked hard and shook her head. "Carter, you're really into tarot?"
"Yeah. All of that stuff. I'm not really good at it. My mom was more into it than I am."
Zac sighed. He remembered when they were younger and Lacey would predict things. It scared the crap out of him. That's why it scared him when Carter became interested.
"Do you just read tarot?" Carter asked Katie, trying to continue the conversation. She knew that Zac was uneasy about it so she didn't want to push it too far.
"No." Katie noticed Zac becoming fidgety.
"Hey, guys. I'm going to head back home." Zac stood up and brushed off the back of his pants. "Don't forget, Car, Taylor wanted you to meet him at the library later."
"I know. I'll be there. I'm gonna stay here for a little while. Is that ok?"
Zac nodded. "I'll see you later." He turned around and headed back to his house. Katie waited until he was inside with the door behind him before she spoke.
"I take it he's not very into metaphysics?"
"Absolutely not. He hates it."
Katie nodded. "You're meeting Taylor at the library?"
"Yeah. He went there earlier. I was going to walk there at 6:00 and then we were going to get something to eat."
Katie took a deep breath. "Does he drive a black car?"
"No. He usually drives his mom's. It's blue."
Katie let out a breath that sounded like a sigh of relief. "That's cool."
Carter made a face. "Uhm... my car is black..."
Katie looked up from the ground and stared into Carter's eyes. "Did Taylor borrow it to go to the library."
Carter looked at the space in front of her house where she usually parked her car. It wasn't there. "He must have. He does it all the time when his mom's car is low on gas." She laughed. "He can be such a sped."
Katie nodded and laughed lightly.
Carter fell silent. "Did you see him leave or something?"
Katie shook her head.
"So..."
Katie took a deep breath. "Ok, I know you're going to think I'm completely insane and that's fine because everybody else does. Nique thinks I'm a total whack job."
"I could tell you guys don't get along."
"Yeah. Look... every once in a while I have these weird dreams that tend to... well... come true."
"Ok. So? I sleepwalk. See, it's not so bad being a freak. We can entertain people. Don't be surprised if you catch me walking into your bedroom at night and stealing all of your socks." Carter joked and nudged Katie.
Katie smiled. "It is cool sometimes. I know when it's going to rain before anybody else." She laughed.
"See."
"Yeah but, sometimes I see bad things."
Carter frowned. "Like what?"
"Jade's car accident."
Carter stayed silent, not sure if she believed her.
"Think about it. I live at least a day away from here by car, yet I was here before everybody else, including Todd, showed up at the hospital. I knew it was going to happen."
"You knew Abby was going to get drunk and drive Jade into a tree?"
"Well, no..." Katie shook her head. "Not specifically. It was more like a dream that Jade was doing something bad and getting into trouble. Then there was a flash of a hospital. So I never really know what's going to happen."
"Oh. And you had a dream that I drive a black car?"
"Yeah. But Taylor was driving it. And something went wrong and then I woke up."
Carter sighed.
"You don't believe me do you?"
"I do." Carter shook her head. "But it's really vague."
"Yeah." Katie frowned and looked down at her watch. "Hey, it's ten of six. You should probably go pick him up."
"Yeah." Carter didn't move.
Katie laughed and gave Carter a light shove. "Go."
Carter stood up and turned to face Katie. She had a sudden sick feeling in her heart. She had a history of losing people she loved and for a moment she panicked. "Is Taylor going to get hurt?"
Katie shook her head. "I'm not a psychic. I mean... I don't think you should worry. I can usually tell if something bad is going to happen. Just because something went wrong doesn't mean he's going to get hurt."
"But." Carter couldn't form the words she wanted to say.
"You worry about him more than you worry about you."
Carter nodded.
"You love him a lot."
Carter didn't move at that comment.
"Go and pick him up and have fun. Just make sure he ilke... wears his seatbelt and puts gas in the tank and I dunno... cut his meat into tiny bites so he doesn't choke on it or something."
Carter laughed. "Alright, I'll give you a call later."
Carter leaned against the passenger seat of the car and wondered if she should be driving instead of Taylor. "Do you feel ok?"
Taylor made a face without taking his eyes off the road and she felt relieved when she remembered how good of a driver he was. "Uhm, yeah. Why?"
"No reason."
It was 8:30 and Carter and Taylor had finished their dinner and were headed back to their house. "Are you sure YOU feel ok? I mean, you practically watched me eat and you've been staring at me all night."
Carter shrugged. "I'm fine. I was just talking to Katie and..." Her eyes widened when Taylor glanced away from the road and down to what she thought was the speedometer. He smacked his hand down on the wheel and growled. "What? What's wrong?"
The car made a funny noise and blue smoke began to come out of the hood. Taylor slowed to a stop and pulled over to the side of the road. Taylor looked around and finally looked out the rear window. "Car..."
"What happened?"
"Well, I think you might need a new car."
"Huh?"
"Something just fell out of it and landed on the road back there."
"You're kidding me!" Carter turned around and started to laugh. That must have been what Katie had seen. She laughed louder and threw her arms around Taylor's neck, kissing him hard on the lips.
"Whoa. What was that for?"
"My car broke!"
"Yeah, I know. Do you have your dad's cell phone with you?"
Carter kissed him again. "Katie was right!"
"Huh?"
"I'll tell you later." She giggled.
Taylor nodded and smiled. "Well, you've definitely gone insane. But... I like it."
Carter smiled and kissed him again, oddly thankful that Katie had only seen her car breaking down.