I gripped the armrest on the car with one hand and wrapped my other arm around my stomach. It felt as though someone were drilling holes inside me. I ground my teeth together against the pain.
Muriel continued her story, maneuvering her car down the street toward an intersection. The light was green, and we inched toward it.
I knew something was going to happen—the same feeling I’d had at the park rolled in the pit of my stomach. Licking my lips, I tipped my head forward so my hair created a curtain between Muriel and me. I didn’t want her to see my eyes darting back and forth and the sweat beading on my upper lip.
A yellow car was on our right. The driver talked on her cell phone, and a baby slept in a car seat behind her, its thumb dangling from its lips. A blue minivan merged into the left turn lane on our left. We all sped closer and closer to the intersection.
A red car. The stoplight.
I saw it. Not with my eyes, but in my mind. I saw what was going to happen. My breath rushed out of my lungs, and time sped up around me.
“Muriel, watch out for the red car!”
“What red car?” Muriel looked to the side.
“It’s gonna run the stoplight.” I pointed to the left.
Just as I said it, the red car came into view. Muriel slammed on the brakes. We lurched forward before the seatbelts snapped us back against our seats. The car whizzed in front of us, narrowly missing the yellow car.
I covered my mouth with a shaky hand and watched the car as it sped out of sight. A shiver ran down my spine.
We could have died! What the hell…?
“Whoa! That was way too close.” Muriel let out a shaky breath and looked at me. “How did you see that car?”
I’d like an answer to that question too. What the freaky hell is going on?
“Where are the police when you need them, huh?” I puffed out my cheeks and blew out a breath.
It was the second time in as many days that I had a vision, or premonition. Whatever they were, they scared the crap outta me.
My fingers squeezed together so tightly that they turned white and began to throb in time to my heartbeat. Sucking in a deep breath through my nose like my mom’s meditation DVD instructed, I forced each finger to relax and straighten. I counted to ten as I let the breath out through slightly parted lips so I didn’t draw Muriel’s attention. I repeated the breathing exercise—deep breath in and deep breath out. My insides that felt as though they’d slid out of place slowly righted themselves, and I stopped shaking.
“Milayna?” Muriel grabbed my arm. “How’d you know that car was going to run the red light?”
Should I tell her and how? I don’t even know what’s happening to me! Oh, by the way, Muriel, I can see the future. That’s how I knew about the car. Yeah, she’d think I was crazy for sure. I already feel like I need a padded cell. I don’t need her to confirm it.
“Um—he was coming too fast to stop.”
Muriel narrowed her eyes at me. “I’m just glad you saw him because I sure didn’t.”
“You were just focused on the road, that’s all.” I bit the inside of my cheek and hoped she’d just drop the subject.
Muriel nodded and turned to look out of the windshield.
****
“What do you know about Chay?” I looked at Muriel across the table in the mall’s food court. Pieces of pretzel dropped to the paper wrapper below as I ripped it apart.
Muriel shoved a bite of pretzel in her mouth, mustard dribbling down her fingers. “Not much. Why?” she asked around the blob.
“He saved me from Joe this afternoon before English class.” I scooted my chair over to make room for a lady pushing a stroller to pass by.
“Poor Joe.” She frowned. I immediately tuned her out and focused on the oldies music piped through the speakers that were spread through the court and hidden behind plants. “He’s such a nice guy, Milayna. You really should—”
With a sigh, I finally interrupted Muriel’s list of reasons I should date Joe. “He is nice, Muriel, but there’s nothing there. About Chay?”
“You like him?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know him. Just curious.”
“Why’d he care about Joe?” Muriel took a sip of her Coke.
“Said he was tired of watching me try to turn him down without hurting his feelings. Then he said something really weird.”
She leaned closer to me. “Yeah? What?”
“He told me to be careful. That they were here for me, or something like that.” I dropped what was left of my pretzel, brushing off my hands.
A strange look crossed Muriel’s face. “Huh. That is weird. Kinda creepy.” She looked away.
Raising my arms over my head, I arched my back and stretched the muscles that were tired from sitting all day. I looked around the food court, and my eyes landed on his blue-and-gold jersey—oh, and his body. Couldn’t leave that out. “Hey, look who’s here!” I flicked my eyes toward Jake, who was standing in line at Little Caesars. My heart did a little tap dance inside my chest, just looking at him.
“Yeah, and look at who’s with him. Too much PDA.” Muriel rolled her eyes.
“Heidi, ugh. She’s so close to him that she looks like she’s been Krazy Glued to his side. Someone needs to explain to her that Jake and I are meant to be together. I mean, she’s dating my future husband.” I never took my eyes off him. “Geez, he’s like a blond-haired, blue-eyed, muscled package of perfection.”
Muriel laughed. “Are you ready? I think we need to leave before you start drooling.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I crumpled up the pretzel wrapping and threw it in the trash. “Let’s go.”
The rest of the afternoon, we combed the mall for deals on the hottest trends. Muriel was good at window-shopping. She would try on all the cute outfits and look at all the cool shoes and accessories, but she rarely bought anything. I hadn’t mastered the art of window-shopping, though, and spent what little money I had on some wicked new boots, a messenger bag to match, and two kinds of lip stain because I was looking for the perfect shade—not too pink, but not too peach. As it turned out, that color was more elusive than the Loch Ness monster.
As we walked along the hall, passing Old Navy and a group of teenagers drinking slushies, I glanced at Muriel and sighed. “I hate that you can do that.”
“What?” Muriel looked over at me, her eyebrows pulled down.
“Look at everything and buy nothing,” I said.
“Eh, I didn’t really see anything I had to have.”
“Me either, but I’m still carrying bags while your hands are empty.” I hefted up the bags I was lugging around and rattled them in the air.
She smiled and arched a brow. “You just need a little more self-control, that’s all.”
“Yeah, easy for you to say. Oh, ma’am,” I called to a lady walking toward us. Her toddler bounced along in front of her in one of those baby harnesses. “Ma’am? The latch on that harness is going to break. You don’t want him to get loose and run into the crowd.”
The mother knelt to look at the clasp. “It’s almost bent in half. Thank you!” She glanced up and smiled at me. “I guess I’ll have to buy a new one.”
“No problem.” I turned to Muriel and pointed down the hall. “Onward to Abercrombie. Where I can’t afford to buy anything, but I’m still going to try on the clothes and pretend.”
“How’d you see that?” Muriel asked as we continued walking.
Crap. How did I know? I didn’t even look at the clasp. The words just blurted out of my mouth. I didn’t even have any weird feelings like before.
I let out a breath to stay calm. “I saw the clasp bending. I didn’t want the kid to start running around getting in the way—hey! Here’s Victoria’s Secret. Want to go in?” Muriel kept walking. I took one last look at the store and jogged a few steps to catch up to her. “Okay, we don’t want to know Victoria’s secrets today,” I muttered.