I smiled, filled in the rest of the letters, and said, “Yay, you won.”
He stared at me in disbelief. “Those were the two least productive minutes of my entire life.”
“Yeah, well, it’s supposed to be fun.” I was already wishing I hadn’t shown him the game. He was spoiling everything lately.
“You guys played this for forty-five minutes?”
“We had some good phrases,” I said, feeling suddenly tired. “Trish started with ‘jellybeans must die’ and then I had ‘silver socks sing sadly’ and then she came up with ‘Polly Pocket picked Peter Piper’s peppers,’ and then I had ‘cliff-hanger kisses carabiner,’ and then she ended with ‘denim stole my soul’ because the bell rang. It kind of turned into Hangmen of Alliteration, but that’s okay.”
“Lady loves Lucian,” a voice said from somewhere behind me. Lucian slipped over the edge of the couch and slid beside me with a smile. I gave him a hug and said, “Yes, lady loves Lucian.” I sighed. “Unfortunately, lady also has homework that lady must do before shopping with other ladies tomorrow.”
“Should I go?” Lucian asked. I knew a few months ago he would’ve just sat there staring blankly. Slowly, he seemed to be adjusting and picking up on social cues. I was so proud of him.
“You can stay as long as you’re quiet,” I said. Then I looked up at Adrian. “That is, if your brother doesn’t mind.”
Adrian shrugged. “He can stay.”
Lucian looked happy, which made me happy, which gave me the energy to start the essay that was due Monday for Mr. Warren. We worked for a few hours, together but separate, as the fire cracked and popped. When we went to dinner, Mariana had cooked steaks, and I filled up on the Japanese “Wagyu” beef that was, Mariana explained, the most elite of steaks. I didn’t even know it was possible for meat to be elite, but whatever, it tasted good, so I ate it.
It was still early when dinner was finished, but I knew I’d actually have to wake up in the morning, so I took my (now) customary soak in the tub, a hot shower, and snuggled into the monstrous four-poster bed in my favorite pajamas; content that I’d gotten a first draft of the essay pounded out, I had food in my stomach, and as soon as my nightmare was over, I’d sleep like a baby.
I floated slowly down into the dream, and when the nightmare hit, it literally hit. I staggered back from a punch to the jaw and fell hard against the ice. Blinking to get the black dots out of my eyes, I realized I was sprawled out over the frozen pond Adrian had taken me ice-skating on back before Thanksgiving. I looked up just as someone pounded down on my stomach with what felt like a steel-toed boot. My body convulsed in and then snapped back sharp enough for me to know that bones had broken. Not only that, but the kick had driven all the air out of my lungs and I couldn’t breathe.
I stared up at the bright blue sky listening to my attacker circle me as I lay gagging. He grabbed my hair and pulled me up so my toes just barely scraped the ice. I finally sucked in enough oxygen to scream before I was thrown to the center of the pond. It cracked instantly and I fell down into the dark, freezing water. The current sucked me away from the hole in the ice and scraped me along the underside of the frozen lake until my face was raw and bleeding. When I opened my eyes the water pierced them, it was so cold. I hadn’t gotten enough air before and now the pain of the subfreezing water shocked what little air I did have right out of my lungs. I choked, sucking in water. I couldn’t move my fingers, couldn’t feel my feet; my eyelashes were crusted shut with ice and I was going to die.
I jerked awake, arching off the bed without an ounce of air; eyes wide in the darkness as my lungs stayed shriveled like popped balloons. I twitched, trying to loosen something so I could breathe, but every muscle was contracted, locked firmly in place. White dots were beginning to swim in front of my eyes when I felt two hands run quickly down my throat. One hand cupped the back of my neck and the other circled around my waist and lowered me back down against the bed, but I still couldn’t breathe. Adrian was pushing on my stomach, my rib cage and sternum, my throat again, tilting my head back to let air in; and then there were lips on mine, breathing air into me, forcing it down into my lungs, and everything unlocked at once. I turned away and coughed, sucking in huge, wracking breaths.