Page 9

Chapter Nine

Remi

How long would it take for them to realize I was awake? Listening to Juno talk to his father and someone else was actually comforting. He cared for me. Called me his mate. I was for sure either in a coma or dreaming, but it was nice. He refused to kidnap me. Green flag right there. Maybe this dream would end with a kiss or something?

“Doesn’t he feel the pull?” his father asked. He was the only one I knew who was since he kept calling Juno “son”.

“It seems like it,” Juno replied. “He found me attractive and told me his feelings were heightened.”

“That’s normal behavior for new mates,” one of the women spoke. “He just needs your touch and for you to mate. No reason to worry about that.”

“That’s not reassuring at all,” Juno said with a forced calmness. “They don’t have mates here. How can I convince him to mate with me when we’ve only just met? How do you think he’ll react to me telling him his feelings will sort themselves out after we mate?”

“Yeah, the kidnapping sounds better than that option,” the other guy in the room muttered.

“Don’t encourage their kidnapping idea!” Juno snapped at the guy.

“Don’t be mad at me! I’m on your side!”

“We’re all on Juno’s side,” his dad assured them. “Have you kissed him?”

“Not yet,” Juno sounded more like a pouting child now, it almost caused me to smile, but I hid it, not ready for them to see I was awake yet.

“It could help,” his dad spoke again.

“Okay,” Juno replied.

After a few seconds of silence his dad became impatient. “Well?”

“I’m not kissing him now!” Juno exclaimed.

“Why not?” one of the women spoke.

“Firstly, he’s asleep! Secondly, my dad is watching!”

“He’s your mate!” one of the women snapped, like that made consent not matter. I honestly liked Juno more and more. I liked him so much I hoped this was real and not a coma slash dream thing. I could totally see this being real, it felt real. The sheets under me. The scents. The voices. My normal dreams weren’t this realistic, so either real or a coma.

“Kiss him when he wakes up,” his dad ordered. “If he’s not willing to kiss you, which he will be, then come back here with him.”

“Fine,” Juno replied. “But not until I’ve tried everything.”

“We understand that,” another man spoke this time. “Just remember the longer you wait to mate, the more anguish you’ll both feel. It’s not normal to wait with mating, and your bodies will punish you for it.”

With those comforting words, Juno hung up and sighed. “I can’t kiss him without his consent, and I can’t just ask him for a kiss.”

“Why not?” I asked, sitting up, laughing when both men jumped in fright. “Sorry I startled you.” I wasn’t really sorry, more eager to see if this was still a dream or not.

Before I could ask if I was, in fact, dreaming, sleepiness came over me in a rush and then the world turned black.

I woke up in my bed, or I rather jumped up, looking around for Juno, hoping he was near. Had it been a dream? Fuck, that had felt so real! I was immensely disappointed. I wanted Juno to kiss me. I’d been so desperate that Dream Me had given away that I wasn’t sleeping anymore. What a wonderful dream, weird, but wonderful. I remembered every detail, like how his father had sounded, about them not being from this world, and then his friend who was with him in the dorm room. I hadn’t seen his friend before, and that wasn’t normal for dreams. Had it truly happened? I would need to ask Juno.

I rushed out of bed and looked at the time. It was six in the morning, giving me plenty of time to get dressed and head to work on time. Had I truly slept the day away? I’d had a date planned with Juno! Had I forgotten? Or was everything that happened real? But what had happened between then and now?

Looking at my phone I found no texts from Juno which was weird, right? We had plans so he would’ve definitely texted me to ask where I was and what we were doing. This seemed like proof enough that last night was real. But why did I then not remember anything else? I needed to find Juno straight after work.

Earl was impressed with yet another early arrival. I preened internally at finally being a good employee as I started my work day, letting everything that had happened move into the back of my mind as I made coffee and greeted our regulars.

I left work, feeling determined and eager to see Juno. Hayley’s laugh reached me from across the street, momentarily taking my mind off him. She was walking with Wren, sending him looks of utter devotion and happiness. It made me smile to see her so happy. She was so into him she didn’t even look my way, and I didn’t bother waving or disturbing them, just continued on my way.

My phone started buzzing in my pocket, so I eagerly pulled it out, only to see my mother was the one calling me. I sighed and answered. I could chat a bit before I found Juno.

“Hi, honey!” she greeted me. “Dinner tonight? And make sure to bring Hayley this time.” Was she here? I looked around the street, waiting to find my mother somewhere watching Hayley with another man. When I knew she wasn’t lurking in the shadows, I sighed out loud.

“Can’t do that Mom.”

“Oh, then tomorrow?”

“Hayley and I broke up.” I figured it would be best just to get it out there, rip the bandage off or whatever.

“Are you yanking my stocking right now?”

Eww. “What does that even mean?!” I exclaimed, already done with the conversation.

“I can’t believe you would let a perfectly nice girl like Hayley get away. Do you know how hard finding a girl like that is nowadays? Oh , she broke up with you. Is that it? I told you those “ ideas ” of yours were a waste of time! And now she dumped you, hon.” Wow , my mom truly thought little of me.

“It was a mutual decision,” I explained as calmly as I could.

“Sure, it was, hon,” she replied with a condescending tone. I rolled my eyes, truly contemplating breaking up with my mother too.

“So, she won’t be joining us for dinner anymore,” I added, moving the conversation along as I neared campus.

“You’re not even gonna fight for her?” My mom sounded like she was clutching her heart dramatically.

“Why would I? We both wanted to break up,” I reminded her.

“Yes, you said that. I just don’t think it’s the best option for you. Sure, Hayley could find another guy easily, but not many good girls would like to date a guy who spends hours in the library, forgetting their partners needs and wastes his time on ‘ ideas ’.” I was furious now. This was my life. Why was she acting like she cared about me? This wasn’t caring, this was about control. She liked Hayley and needed her back in the family, no matter what I wanted. No matter what I said.

“She already has. Great guy by the way,” I sassed, regretting it immediately. Now it would take ages for the phone call to end.

“Did you just sass me?” she asked with deathly calm. I knew now was the time to retreat, to apologize and take my words back, but then I spotted Juno walking out with the guy from yesterday, and how his eyes brightened when he spotted me, his lips pulling into a beaming smile as he made his way over to me.

I found myself hanging up on my mom, no longer caring about being a good son, as I smiled back at Juno.

“Hi,” Juno said, smiling big enough to show just how perfectly white his teeth were.

“Hi,” I sighed dreamily, feeling like I could breathe again.

“Ready for our date tonight?” he asked casually.

What? “Um, wasn’t it yesterday?” I asked confused.

He blinked and then shook his head. “No, I’m sure it was today.” Was he trying to act like yesterday hadn’t happened? I knew it had, I recognized his friend who had sneaked off when Juno spotted me.

“Nope,” I replied. “It was yesterday, I just somehow slept through most of the day and night.”

He gave me a weak smile, his confidence faltering. “What happened before you fell asleep?” Was he for real?

“I asked you to kiss me, but you didn’t and then I fell asleep,” I replied, feeling my stomach sink. Was that why I fell asleep? I couldn’t really rule out magical powers considering everything. But… Did he do it so he wouldn’t have to kiss me? Was everything he told his dad and the others a lie? Maybe he didn’t want me. Maybe his friend helped him out so they could continue to act like I was his mate when I wasn’t. Juno was from another world. Portals existed. And Juno could somehow make me fall asleep. Then there was the whole mate thing. If it wasn’t because I could feel the truth in my own body, I wouldn’t have believed it, but I could, so I knew we were mates or whatever Juno had claimed, but that didn’t mean he wanted me. Maybe he lied because he was waiting for someone else, another mate, a better mate. I had no idea what being mates meant for us, but I felt this pull towards him, like my heart knew him, however corny that sounded even to my own ears. Was I not enough? And then there was the whole thing with Mr. Trent.

“Are you fucking Mr. Trent?” I blurted, stopping Juno from what he was going to say.

“What?”

“Mr. Trent,” I replied, needing to know. “Are you fucking him? Is that why you don’t want me?” Fuck these heightened feelings! Now I had tears gathering in my eyes as Juno stared unblinkingly at me.

“Um, no?” he replied with uncertainty, which only angered me.

“Well, are you or aren’t you!?” I yelled, done with his confusing words. It was bad enough that he saw how huge of a mess I was yesterday, and now he had me doubting my sanity, but this? This was a fucking easy question to answer. Yes, it wasn’t illegal for professors to have a relationship with their students, but it wasn’t allowed if said student was in their classes, and Juno was.

“I’m not!” Juno defended himself, looking slightly offended at this point.

“Then why didn’t you kiss me?!” I demanded, knowing full well I was acting very strange and out of character. I wasn’t an angry person; I was the sort of guy you’d step on and then I would apologize for being in your way. Once again, these strong feelings were messing with me. Hadn’t Juno’s dad mentioned something about it only getting worse? Or was it the other guy? It was hard remembering the details, to be honest. I’d been too busy pretending to sleep to truly pay full attention.

When all Juno did was blink at me, I did what I was getting pretty good at. I ran. I didn’t even care if people were looking, we were outside, I was allowed to yell.

Blindly running back to my dorm room, I felt the tears trail down my face. Then I remembered that Juno knew where my room was, and I didn’t want to see him. If he even wanted to find me after this. I’d just made a huge scene, accusing him of sleeping with Mr. Trent, and then asked why he hadn’t kissed me. If dying of mortification was a possibility, I would’ve been gone by now.

Changing my directions, I headed towards the library instead. My sanctuary. The top floor of the three-story building had huge windows that overlooked the forested area behind the building. There were comfortable chairs you could sit on and look outside while studying, but there were also tables with less comfortable chairs if you needed to study with others.

Whenever I needed to quiet my mind, I sat in the comfy chairs and looked outside. At night you could see the stars, which was my favorite time of day. It was around lunch time now, but the top floor was always deserted, having the least borrowed books and since the librarians didn’t like walking up and down the stairs too much, they’d sorted the books out so that the main floor was where the most popular books were.

I actually preferred this. Peace and quiet. Privacy. I was so in my own head most of the time that having people around was scary to me. Like an instinctual part of me didn’t like being vulnerable around others. I also appreciated that the library was open until two a.m. and only closed between two-six a.m. allowing me to hide away here whenever I needed to. Like now.

As I hurried inside, I breathed easier knowing it was lunchtime and only a few people would see my distraught face as I headed up to my favorite floor. Keeping my head down as I walked up the stairs, I heard no one whispering or conversing, which meant the building truly was deserted. I smiled in relief when my feet reached the top floor. I walked over to the comfy chairs and sat down, admiring the forest as I let myself calm down.

Fuck feelings. I’d never been this… emotional before, not even as a kid, always calm and logical, that was Remi. Not this mentally unstable person, crying in bathrooms and yelling at people. God, I yelled at Juno! Why was I like this?!

Hiding my face in my hands, I tried to erase the haunting memories of our conversation. There was no way he’d want to date me now. And we still had to do the paper together. Fuck my life … Maybe I should just quit school? The only thing I was passionate about were my ideas. I only attended school because of my parents’ insistence that my “ideas” weren’t going to pay the bills.

Letting the comfort of my favorite place wash over me, I started to calm down enough to take out my journal. It was where I wrote every idea down before making a detailed document on my laptop. I then saved the doc on the cloud, ensuring my ideas were protected. Opening my journal, I browsed through it, admiring my old ideas as I reached a blank page. I figured getting lost in my mind was the best solution for now. I needed to hide away, and for today to end already. This was what I needed.

Sitting back in the chair more comfortably, I looked outside again, emptying my mind and allowing ideas to form. I hardly ever tried to force the ideas to come, they just came whenever I went about my normal day, but my mind had been so busy these days that no idea had time to form. This was the best attempt I had at making ideas come to me.

With my pen ready, I closed my eyes and just waited.