Wide Awake - Academy of the Fallen Series (18 page)

“What is the special occasion?” I asked Leah curiously.

She shrugged. “My guess is as good as yours.” I noticed right away that Leah was totally annoyed; one thing about Leah, she hated surprises and secrets. And when she knew of a surprise or secret, even if it is not hers to let it out, she made damn well sure that it did not stay a secret for much longer. Yes, she loved to gossip.

As soon as Leah’s mom announced that dinner was ready, we all went straight to the dining room and took our seats. Leah’s older brother, Logan, was also there; he was home for the summer from College, which made my visits to Leah’s house a little uncomfortable. Logan was nice, but he was just always hovering, trying to get me to go on a date with him, totally annoying. Don’t get me wrong; he was hot! He was not much taller than I, but he was athletic build, tanned, short blonde hair, blue eyes…typical Florida hottie, but besides the fact that I was emotionally ruined, it would have been too weird being that he was my best friend’s brother and all, at least that as my excuse. Truth is, even the thought of dating made my stomach clench, Matt had been the only guy I had ever dated and I had no desire at all of being attached to someone like that ever again.

Leah’s mother prepared an amazing dinner; a fancy looking pasta, but besides the fact that we were actually eating in the dining room, there was nothing unusual about that dinner. We… well… our parents went on and on about Logan’s school, hockey games, and then some more about Logan. Leah and I just stared at each other, bored. As soon as we finished eating Leah gazed at me as if she is giving me a signal to excuse ourselves and go up to her room. We were just about to get up when Leah’s parents stopped us.

Her mother, Janice seemed anxious, as if she was hiding something. “Lexi, Leah, don’t go just yet.”

We relaxed back into our seats.

Janice looked at her husband and at my parents; she seemed so anxious she could barely sit still.

“Well, can I tell the girls?”

All of them laughed at her; she was usually not very good at keeping secrets. Leah clearly had taken after her mom. Janice was so anxious I started to think that it must be something she had been keeping for a while. Finally, they all gave her the go ahead.

“Well girls, we have an early graduation present for the both of you.” Leah and I both stared at each other, both of us confused. I mean… graduation was one year away! We had no idea what it could possibly be.

“We know how hard the both of you have been working, and we all feel that this summer is the ideal time to use this present, and that is why you are getting it early…just in case you are wondering.” She laughed.

Leah and I were both still clueless. I was starting to feel just as annoyed as Leah looked, and it was not that I didn’t like surprises, well, I used to love surprises, but at that point I just wanted to get this over with already. I usually didn’t have to put so much work into putting on a happy face for my parents and this was getting exhausting.

I finally turned to Janice and with a begging tone I asked her to please stop teasing and tell us what it was already.

She just could contain herself any longer, so that worked to our advantage.

“You girls are going to Italy for the summer!” Our mouths dropped, we are speechless.

My dad cleared his throat. “Now, don’t get too excited just yet. You are both enrolled in a summer school program. It will look great on your College applications, so that will make us parents happy as well as you.” 

I honestly didn’t care what the reason behind it was, I didn’t even care that there would be school work involved; I was just extremely excited, to the point that I didn’t even have to fake my excitement, which felt very awkward. This had been the first time in a year that I remembered actually wanting to smile, and not just smiling to pretend that I was fine. I was just ready to get away from everything and everyone, except for Leah of course. I just needed time away.

“Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!” We both yelled in excitement.

“When do we leave? How long will we be there?” I just had so many questions that I just started asking whatever was on my mind without giving them time to answer anything.

My dad finally stepped in to answer those questions; giving me the impression that he had made all of those arrangements.

“Lexi… slow down with the questions, I can barely keep up with them.” He said, laughing at my impatience for details. When dad faced me to answer my questions, I noticed that his eyes were watery, as if he was holding back the tears, and I instantly felt awful by putting him through so much. I could feel that the tears he held back were from happiness to see me truly excited about something. That was when I made a promise to myself to at least try not to be so pathetic all the time.

Dad went on to answer my questions. “You will fly out the day after tomorrow, and you will come back two weeks before school starts. Although the actual school program is just four weeks; we thought you both would enjoy some free time.”

Even better!
“Not that it matters, dad, but where in Italy?”

“Venice. It is actually somewhat close to where our ancestors came from, a city called Treviso.”

My heart started to race, I could barely breathe. “Where are we staying?” Dad was just not answering my questions fast enough.

“That should be decided tomorrow. A friend of mine has a house in Marghera that may be unoccupied during the summer. The house is about half hour away from Venice, but we just thought that may be more accommodating, we don’t really like the idea of you living in a hotel for that many weeks. He has a staff of workers in the house that come in occasionally to stock up food and such, so they would be able to check up on you girls.”

“Well, what is the hold up?” Leah asked impatiently. I knew Leah loved the idea of staying in a house instead of a hotel, just as much as I did.

“He just has to make sure with his wife that no one else in the family will be using the house this summer.”

Leah and I looked at each other; we both certainly had our fingers crossed. I glanced at Logan and he seemed to be the only one in the room who was not talking or smiling, he looked as if he was not too happy about us going to Italy, especially with no supervision. The moment that he saw me looking at him, he mumbled something unintelligible, which I chose to ignore. I would not let that get on the way of my excitement. I saw Leah giving him a look which made it clear that she had also heard the little comment that he made about how we were just getting this trip to try to get me out off as he said it “my Matt induced coma.”

Even hearing the sound of Matt’s name sent chills all over my body. I knew it would be impossible to get over Matt, and I didn’t want to, but I was certainly going to try harder to be happy, which I knew it would be difficult to accomplish, but no impossible. And I knew that because at that moment I was just so overwhelmed with that newfound feeling of happiness that I didn’t even think I would be able to sleep that night.

After cleaning up the dinner table, our parents headed for the picnic table in the back porch, while Leah and I went to her room to started to make plans on what to pack. That didn’t take long, so I went straight to Leah’s laptop and started to Google places to see around the area. Some of those places were very old and dark looking, kind of creepy really. Leah made a few jokes about places like that usually being haunted, so I added them to our list of places to go, just to mess with her.

***

It was already past midnight when I got home and I was still wide awake, but I convinced myself that I had to go to sleep; there was still so much planning and packing to do. I was lying down in bed, thinking of everything that needed to be done, Leah and I would have to quit the jobs that we hadn’t even officially started… and that was the last thing I remembered thinking about before I fell asleep.

It was a little past three in the morning when I woke up from a very strange dream, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. That dream, was too vivid… so detailed… there was a dark, old building, which I remembered from one of the websites that Leah and I had looked at. I had gone inside that building and in that main room, where right by my side, stood a tall, gorgeous guy. By gorgeous, I mean… he looked like he walked straight out of a magazine cover. He didn’t look much older than I. He seemed strong; his skin was pale, like he had not been out in the sun for a very long time. He had the military type haircut, dark brown hair, contrasting surprisingly well with this pale skin. I was so dazed by his presence that it wasn’t until he was about to attack this man who was walking in my direction, that I noticed how dark and angry his eyes were, and that was when I woke up. 

Lying there, in the dark, I started to laugh at how silly that was. I had never had nightmares like that after watching scary movies, but today, after just looking at some silly pictures, I had this crazy nightmare… or dream… I was not even sure what that was. It bothered me that I was still carrying the same feeling I felt in that dream; oddly enough, the feeling was one of security, comfort; and the scent, that was so overwhelming, taking over all of my senses; it was the same exact pleasant scent that I recall from my childhood memories, of this woman, playing with me. That had been one of my oldest childhood memories, I believe I was about three and I was never alone. Whenever my parents weren’t in the room, she was. The visits faded as I got older and overtime I forgot what she looked like, but the scent was imprinted in my memory. Either way, I was not even sure if it was the scent, or the guy, but it was odd that throughout that entire dark dream, I felt safe.

About the author:

DANIELE LANZAROTTA

is the author of the Imprinted Souls Series and Academy of the Fallen.

She enjoys reading and writing young adult novels with just about any sort of paranormal or supernatural bent ... vampires ... ghosts... Daniele currently lives in Virginia Beach, VA with her husband, daughter and two lovable puppies (who are not really quite puppies anymore), Stitch and Gizmo.

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www.DanieleLanzarotta.com

www.AcademyoftheFallen.com

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www.twitter.com/danilanzarotta

You may also purchase this book at Rocket Science Productions’ web site,
www.rsp-llc.com

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