Read Online Dreamology by Lucy Keating - Free Book Online

heavily.
    â€œPoor cookie,” is all I can think to say. Because I mean it, it does look so sad there all alone, and also because I have to fill the silence.
    â€œIt’s made with almond flour,” Max finally replies, lowering his voice back to normal and not taking his eyes off the trash. “He brought them in last year, too.” There’s another pause before Max asks, a little quietly, “Are you okay?”
    â€œYeah,” I manage to say, still not daring to meet his eyes. “Thanks.”
    â€œDon’t mention it,” he says, running a hand through his hair. Then he clears his throat and strides out of the room, as though leaving the scene of the crime will erase it from ever having happened.
    â€œThat was rude!” Leilani Mimoun says as she walks up next to me. “Are you guys even friends?”
    But I can’t manage a response, because my mind is far, far away, standing at a street cart in Bangkok.
    He remembered my nut allergy.
    Because he remembers everything.
    Because he was there.
    Because he is the Max from my dreams after all.

8
Crew Is a Sport, Rowing Is a Movement
    WHILE I’VE BEEN trying to puzzle everything out the past two weeks, he’s been there all along. My Max. It’s really him. Through all my second-guessing and anxiety, he’s just been there the whole time, literally within my reach. One desk up and to the left. I’m walking down the hall in a haze, trying to grasp exactly what that means, when I catch sight of Oliver’s curls through a doorway in the science building and pause to catch his eye.
    â€œJeremiah,” Oliver is saying heatedly to a chubby kid with a World of Warcraft T-shirt on. “I don’t know any other way to explain this. The existence of dinosaurs does not in any way prove that dragons once walked among us.”
    â€œI’m merely asking you to admit that just because we haveyet to uncover any bones does not mean they are a purely mythical creation!” Jeremiah wrings his undoubtedly sweaty hands. “How else do you explain the burned ruins in Romania I showed you last week?”
    â€œShow me a wing bone and we’ll talk,” Oliver says dismissively. That’s when he notices me. “Speaking of medieval maidens.” He grins.
    I smile. “Don’t stop on my behalf, this sounds interesting.”
    â€œWe’re just finishing up anyway,” Oliver says. “This is our weekly Game of Thrones Fan Club.” He points to Jeremiah, who I now see is the only other person in the room. “Jeremiah, meet Alice. It’s a little too soon to tell, but I’m pretty sure she is going to be my first wife.”
    Jeremiah crosses his arms. “No girls allowed.”
    â€œWe do allow girls to join, Jeremiah,” Oliver says. “It’s just that none of them want to join us .”
    â€œI’m having a party Friday,” Oliver tells me as we walk to our two-wheeled vehicles. “My parents are out of town . . . again.”
    â€œAnd you didn’t want to invite Jeremiah?” I say with mock incredulity. “But he seems so friendly!”
    â€œOh, I invited Jeremiah,” Oliver says. “Everyone is welcome at my parties. I don’t buy into that high school exclusivity crap. Unlike some people . . .”
    He looks to where Max is standing by Frank, acting equal parts awkward and annoyed. My heartbeat picks up as I lookat him for the first time with the understanding that everything has been real. All of this is real. Then he meets my eyes and I look immediately down at the path again.
    â€œWolfe,” Oliver says, taking out his keychain and unlocking his Segway with a beep-beep like it’s a Porsche. He’s either oblivious to the tension or he’s just being polite, and since it’s Oliver, it’s most likely the latter. “I was just telling Alice that I’m having a party, and because I’m not