Melissa grabbed her large burgundy duffle bag and threw it over her shoulder. "You know, I'm only going to be gone for two weeks. Dad shouldn't be so uptight about the whole thing."
Carter fumbled for a while with her wallet, her keys, and Melissa's other two bags before growling and dropping the bags at her feet. "Two weeks and you need three bags. Three bags?! Why not four? Or maybe seven?" She pulled the lanyard that held her carkeys over her head and grabbed the bags again. "And he's not really uptight. At least he let me drive you to the airport."
"Yeah. After hugging me eleven times and making me take an extra cellphone. Why does anybody need two cellphones? What the hell is the point of that?"
Carter smiled. "Be careful, you're starting to sound like me."
"That wouldn't be the worst thing in the world you know."
Carter stopped and turned to stare at her sister. "Huh?"
"Why does it still surprise you that I actually look up to you?" Melissa laughed and fumbled with her bag again, trying desperately to free the strap from her hair.
"Because you're six inches taller than me?"
"Cute."
Carter smiled and dropped one of the bags onto Melissa's free arm. "Why exactly did you decide on Mexico?"
"Because the shopping rules and it's cheap as hell. Besides, I managed to get two years of college into two semesters. I think that deserves a trip."
"Yeah." Carter sighed when she saw Todd and Abbie waving from the front counter. "But couldn't you have at least picked better company?"
"Hey, Abbie has really cleaned up her act and Todd has never been a bad guy. Watch what you say in front of them, please."
Carter nodded and smiled at Todd when they finally got to the counter. "Hey."
Todd smiled and waved at Carter again. "Hey, it's been a while."
Carter nodded and grunted when Melissa elbowed her in the ribs. "How are you?" She smiled unwillingly at Abbie.
"Great. I wish you could come with us though."
Carter seemed to trip over nothing without even moving. The words shocked her. They couldn't have come from Abbie. But they did. "I, uhm, yeah. I have a lot of studying to do. I'm going to school over the summer and I have a bunch of exams coming up. Otherwise, I would." She lied. The only place she wanted to be was at home with Taylor.
"Hey, what's that?" Todd asked, pointing to the small ring on Carter's left hand.
Carter felt her cheeks flush and she shoved her hand into the pocket of her jeans. "Oh nothing. An old ring of my mom's."
Melissa glanced at Carter and then at the hand that was crammed into her pocket, tugging at the inside of her jeans nervously. "So, we're getting a rental car once we get there right? I'm excited about Mexico and all but I really don't want to have to ride a goat or something for transportation."
Todd laughed. "It's all taken care of. No worries."
Carter pulled her hand out of her pocket and looked at her watch. "Ok, I really want to see you off and everything to make sure you get out ok but I have class in about half an hour so I really have to go." She wrapped her arms around her little sister and gave her a huge hug.
"Nice ring." Melissa whispered into her ear. "Congradulations."
Carter pulled back and stared at Melissa who made a "my lips are zipped" sign with her finger. Carter hugged her again. "Thank you."
"I love you." Melissa hugged her back and smiled.
"Love you, too." Carter grinned and waved before pulling her keys over her head and walking away back to her car, outside.
Zac sniffled and grabbed a tissue from the box next to him. He blew his nose hard several times and threw the tissue into the pile in the middle of the living room. He had been battling a sinus infection for a few days and wasn't in a very good mood.
He looked at the clock and sighed when he saw that it was three in the morning. For the past hour it had been raining hard. The wind was blowing so loudly that Carter had freaked out and ran downstairs to hide in the basement. It had been two days since she dropped Melissa off at the airport and she'd been sleeping in Zac's room for company ever since.
"I don't get it," He muttered to himself, "I blow my nose, I expect something to come out. Nothing moves... why the hell am I talking about snot?" He looked around. "Why the hell am I talking to myself?"
He jumped violently and threw his box of tissues when somebody pounded on his front door three times. "Son of a bitch..." He whispered as he clutched his chest and caught his breath. There was more pounding at the door, louder and more urgent this time. He pulled himself off of the couch, wrapped his blanket around his body and stumbled to the door.
He pulled it open and was about to yell at the person on the other side until he saw that it was Katie. Her long hair was dripping, plastered to the side of her face and her clothes were soaking wet. Her eyes were an intense blue and magnified by what looked like a mixture of rain and, since her eyes and cheeks were red and puffy, tears.
He pulled her inside and closed the door behind her. Taking the blanket off of his own shoulders, he wrapped it around hers and pulled her into his arms. She was almost exactly as tall as him and when she wore shoes with any kind of heel, she made him look short. He noticed that this time, however, she wasn't wearing shoes. Her feet were covered by very wet, red socks. He also saw that she was still in her pajamas, pink shorts and a black tanktop.
Katie sat down on the couch and continued to shiver for a few minutes. Zac stood in front of her... staring. He was at a loss for words. He could tell she was very upset about something but at the same time, she didn't seem to walk to talk about it. He'd never had this problem before. The only girl he'd ever really dealt with was Carter and she had a habit of spilling her guts the minute she walked into a room.
Zac finally sat down next to her and put his hand on her knee. After a few more minutes she whispered, staring ahead, "I'm sorry if I woke you up."
Zac smiled. Here was a girl, obviously upset, soaking wet, cold, apologizing for waking him up. "I was already up. I've been really sick for a few days so I haven't slept much."
"I'm sorry."
Zac ran his hand over her hair, pulling it away from her face. "Don't think I'm not happy to see you, because I am... but you look like somebody shot your puppy."
Katie laughed very lightly and turned her head to look at him. "I had a bad dream. I got up and left my house and before I really realized where I was going, I was on your porch."
"You walked?"
Katie whimpered. "I feel so stupid."
Zac smiled and kissed her forehead lightly. "It's ok. I'm glad you came here. It must have been a really bad dream though."
"It was."
Zac stared for a moment. "So, you're not going to tell me, are you?"
Katie sighed. "I don't want to freak you out. I know I freak you out."
"No you don't." He paused. "I mean, you did, when we first met. But only because I didn't understand it. Was it one of those 'seeing the future' dreams?"
"Shit, I hope not. It was just very unsettling. Have you ever had a dream where you wake up crying, only remembering half of the dream?"
"Well, I never cried but yeah." Zac nodded.
"Are you sure you want me to tell you?"
"Of course. I wouldn't ask you if I didn't want you to tell me."
"Everybody was crying. Everybody. There were so many people and I really didn't know very many of them. You were there."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah. I was wearing black. I think it was a funeral."
Zac frowned. This dream didn't sound very good to him at all. "That... is... not a good thing."
"There were so many people though. I remember sitting in the back of the room trying to figure out who was there."
"But you didn't know all of them?"
"No."
"Do you remember who wasn't there? Because that might give you a better idea of whose funeral it was."
Katie's face seemed to turn even whiter. "No. It's all really just a blur of people."
Zac nodded and pulled Katie up from the couch. "Ok, let's go get Carter. She can probably find some dry clothes for you. Melissa's will probably fit you better than Carter's since Carter is so short. You might even fit into Taylor's." He chuckled at that.
Katie forced a smile and followed Zac to the basement to find Carter. She felt like she was lying. She should have told Zac the truth. She knew exactly who wasn't at the funeral in her dream. Out of all the people in that room there was only one key face that was missing. Melissa was definitely nowhere in that room.