Coma (Paranormal Romance) (23 page)

Now that I was clear on my choice of life, I
needed some help with the way I planned to execute it, so the
moment we sat down, I laid out my plan. Or at least the initial
idea.

“Listen guys,” I said, smoothing my palms
over the table, “I need your gray cells focused on something.”

“Why do you think Ethan has any?” Sophie
smirked, and Ethan gave her the evil eye. Zack chuckled, liking the
way Sophie challenged Ethan.

“I don't want my parents to experience my
death,” I said, feeling my palms getting clammy.

“Not that again,” Sophie huffed, showing her
annoyance.

“No, no, let her speak,” Ethan elbowed
Sophie, “Zack is strangely perky today,” his eyes flashed with
suspicion, “And I think it has something to do with this.”

I smiled, and Zack's cheeks flushed. “It
does,” I said, slightly chuckling, “I'm coming with.”

Sophie jumped up in her seat, clapping her
hands, and squealed, “Finally!”

“What do you have in mind?” Zack asked,
tucking my hair behind my ear.

“I'm thinking about faking going away to
college somewhere far away. Some place where normal communication
would be difficult to maintain, but they wouldn't suspect anything
was wrong,” I looked at them hopefully, because I didn't know any
place like that. “I know I have to be dead to them eventually, but
this would be a transitional thing. At least until they get used to
my absence.”

“How about Antarctica?” Sophie chuckled,
earning a few stern looks from the three of us.

“This is important to me, Soph,” I slouched
back, crossing my arms, “And I have to pull it off perfectly.
There’s no room for error.”

“I know,” Sophie rolled her eyes, “You've
made it more than obvious over the months.”

“Why college?” Zack asked, his mouth forming
a small circle.

“Seems plausible,” I replied, “Why? You have
other ideas?”

“Maybe,” Zack said, narrowing his eyes on a
distant spot, pondering something.

“Don't keep us waiting,” Ethan threw a napkin
at him. Without looking, Zack caught it and sent it flying back at
Ethan.

“What about a job?” Zack's eyes darted back
on me.

“What about it?” I said, searching his face
for a hint. Sophie and Ethan equally confused.

“Maybe we could find you a fake job in some
God forgotten place. That would be even less suspicious,” Zack
sputtered, and our eyes widened in response.

“Oh, that's brilliant,” I said. “Before I
decided to take a break, I was interested in chemistry. Maybe we
could find something that would involve that.”

“If you are a good actor, we can fake
receiving a letter from an institute in Cambodia calling you to
come work for them,” Ethan suggested, playing with the napkin.

“No,” Zack jumped in, a bit too fast,
“Nothing easily verifiable, or with too many people. It needs to be
remote, but has to seem important.”

“Let's not forget,” I said, “My parents are
smart, with good connections. They will most definitely check out
the place before they give me their blessing.”

“Sophie's joke about Antarctica isn't a bad
idea,” Zack spouted, to my surprise. I looked at him, blinking.
“Don't dismiss it right away. Important research goes on down
there, and it's remote enough, with terrible communications.”

“Hmm,” I mumbled, seriously considering
it.

“See,” Sophie was gloating, “Gray cells,” she
pointed to her head. We chuckled.

“So you don't use your head for combing
only?” Ethan glanced at Sophie, semi-innocently, biting his lower
lip to suppress an emerging grin.

Sophie shot him a stern look, “No, Ethan.
Unlike you, the rest of us do something with what's inside,” she
grinned, smoothing one of her locks.

“Game, set, match,” Ethan said, throwing a
napkin in front of her as if forfeiting the game.

“Guys,” I called, “Back to Antarctica.”

“How good are you at chemistry?” Zack
asked.

“Oh, pretty good actually. I got some great
scholarship offers from several colleges, and even some companies,”
I bragged a bit.

“And you chose to wait tables?” Ethan
snorted, shaking his head in disapproval.

“I wanted to think about everything before I
signed any contracts. They don't spit out that much money without
fine print binding your ass till you die,” I sneered.

“Ethan and I will go back in time to see what
Antarctica would find interesting to fund,” Zack skipped right over
to the point, “And then we'll make it happen.”

“But,” Sophie said, “How are you gonna get
your parents to agree to it?”

“I'll start by showing huge interest in that
direction. Make them believe it's my dream,” I smiled, “All I have
to do is show them how badly I want it.”

“And we have to make the offer from
Antarctica seem as a perfect fulfillment of that dream,” Zack
added, completely following my line of thought.

“That should do it,” I clasped my hands
together, “They usually let me follow my dreams,” I smiled thinking
about Mom and Dad, “They're pretty awesome!” My heart sunk thinking
of what I was actually planning on doing. To them. Zack sensed it,
so he put his arm around me, rubbing my shoulder. His eyes
radiating support and understanding.

“That's what makes it so hard,” Zack said,
gazing softly in my eyes. I leaned my head against his
shoulder.

“You will have to defrost me every six
months, though,” I said, gazing up at him, “I will have to keep
some level of communication with them.”

“Sure,” he smiled, smoothing his thumb over
my chin, “That can be easily done. And you can hop to Antarctica
every now and then to send them some letters. You don't have to
defrost to do that.”

“Really?” My eyes widened. Zack's lips tipped
up, and he nodded. “Cool!”

“So...” Sophie said, “We're doin' this?”

“Yeah,” I smiled, squeezing closer to Zack.
“We’re doin’ it!”

~*~

It happened in April. I was the first to move
myself into the new realm, and then Sophie followed. Since we were
trying to do it for months without any substantial progress,
eventually we stopped trying so hard, dedicating our attention to
other things, and that must have done it. My exit was totally
accidental. Zack and I were discussing a paper I was supposed to
write for our fake Antarctica project. He was browsing data on my
computer, while I was resting on the bed. Finally, he found
something useful, so he said:

“Ly, come check this out.”

I stormed over, and glanced at the screen,
“Oh, yeah,” I chuckled, “That's what we were looking for,” I
lowered my glance on him. He was looking at me as if he were gonna
melt at any moment. “What?” I asked with a half smile, wondering
what brought it on. He reached into his pocket, and took out a
small, black patch, then pressed it against my wrist. I felt a
prickling sensation, and then a sharp stabbing pain for a second.
“Ouch!” I grimaced, grabbing his hand.

“No, no, don't move it,” he said, stopping
me. “I have to ground you in this realm. Let it sink under your
skin.”

My eyes widened. I knew what that meant.
Slowly, I turned my head toward the bed in anticipation, and gasped
seeing my body peacefully resting there. As soon as the patch had
sunken in, Zack placed a soft kiss on my wrist, and stood up. His
eyes were gleaming, staring strongly into mine. A smile reached his
eyes, and he cupped my face, then kissed me.

“You did it,” he said, placing his hands on
my shoulders. Pride was written all over him.

“I did!” I said, my voice too high from
excitement. I wrapped myself around him.

He picked me up, and spun us around my room.
“Remember this day,” he said, smiling wide, “This is your new
birthday!”

I couldn't get the grin off of my face. All
those months had finally paid off. I felt ecstatic, alive,
complete, and happy. I looked at my new self, then Zack. He wasn't
hovering anymore, and if I hadn't known where I was, I would have
never thought my body could be invisible to anyone. It felt so
normal to the touch; the overall feel was one of normalcy. Yet, my
body was spread out on the bed, and I was standing in the middle of
my room.

“Go ahead,” Zack said, seeing me staring at
my body. I glanced at him, unsure what to do. “Examine it. Touch
it.” He smiled, urging me to do it.

I edged closer to the bed, fearing what
awaited me. It was strange to look at myself from that perspective.
It was me, but it wasn't. I dared to sit down next to...
to
me
. I reached out, and poked it, snapping my hand back. Zack
chuckled, and I smiled faintly, feeling goose bumps covering my new
body in response.

“It's like rubber,” I said, confused at how
it felt. “Like it's not even me.”

“Uh-huh. It's like coma, you can't feel
physical sensations that happen to that body, because the most of
you is in this new one,” he explained, placing his hand on my
shoulder.

“How do I get back in there?” I felt strange
asking that, as if it were a box, not my body.

“You need to stay here for at least half an
hour for grounding frequencies to do their work. Then I'll send a
signal to the patch, and you'll get snapped back,” he scooped my
hair up, and then playfully let it fall down by back.

“What are we gonna do in that time?” I asked,
moving my gaze from my body onto him.

A mischievous smile tugged his lips upward,
“Oh, I have a couple of ideas,” he said, grinning wide, and running
fingers through his hair.

I blushed, “You mean––”

He chuckled, biting his lip, “As much as I
would like to, that’s not what I meant.”

I triple-blushed, blinking away
embarrassment.

“Let’s go to Sophie’s,” he suggested. “She
made it, as well.”

“She did? Awesome,” I said, “But that will
take us more than half an hour.”

“Not exactly. Remember when I said it’s
different than when I was in a coma?”

“Yes,” I said, making it sound like a
question.

“Let’s just say we don’t have to take the bus
anymore,” he winked, and flashed a smug grin.

“What do we take? A hovercraft?” I
chuckled.

“Come. I’ll show you,” chuckling, he
outstretched his arm, calling me into his embrace. Before I could
ask, he typed something into his bracelet, and a sudden nausea hit
my stomach. I gripped onto him as the room spun, fighting the urge
to throw up.

A few seconds later, we scared the crap out
of Sophie. She screamed, and jumped on Ethan like a cat on a tree,
digging her nails into his back.

“As much as I’m into hard and heavy, would
you mind removing your nails from my vertebrae?” Perfectly calm,
Ethan addressed the small body coiled around his torso. She looked
up at him, distraught, not moving an inch. “Um, you’re kind of
violating my personal space,” his left cheek tugged up, forming a
half smile.

Sophie detached from Ethan's tall figure, and
smoothed her clothes down, then said to us, “What the heck? You
could have let us know you were coming!”

“They did,” Ethan covered his mouth,
preventing a chuckle, but his hazel eyes revealed everything. I
wondered when did
we
let him know. I certainly didn’t.

Sophie darted a glare toward him, then
growled, and threw herself on him, knocking him down on her bed.
She straddled him, banging violently on his chest. Ethan just
laughed, voicing an
ouch
here or there, but mostly enjoying
his position. “You done?” He asked, unable to stop laughing.

“Not even close,” she huffed, rage gushing
out of her nostrils.

Ethan and Zack exchanged a significant
glance, then both typed something into their bracelets. Feeling
nausea again, I knew we were leaving, but Sophie didn’t. Nausea
made her clasp her mouth shut, and goggle her eyes, but rage was
stronger, so she was ready to have another go at Ethan. A moment
later, we were at the beach. Not our beach, though.

“Where are we?” I said, glancing around,
feeling warm air hitting my face. Definitely not the winter weather
we had at home. We were surrounded by palm trees, ocean as far as
eyes could see, and sand under our feet. An empty beach.

“Hawaii,” Ethan answered, gazing softly at
Sophie still on top of him. She wasn’t aware of it because her eyes
were on the ocean. In a blink of an eye, she jumped up, stripped
down in her underwear, and disappeared under the waves. “Don't know
about you, but I'm going in,” Ethan said to us, stripping down as
well.

“We've got other plans,” Zack said, gazing at
me, his eyes shining incredibly bright. “Meet you back here in
twenty minutes,” he said to Ethan, and laced his fingers through
mine.

I searched his eyes for answers, but he just
smiled, so I asked, “What other plans?”

Zack's lashes dropped, fanning his cheeks,
and a beautiful smile covered his face. His eyes snapped back open,
latching onto mine. “Let's go over there,” he pointed out a spot
further down the beach, a giant rock shaded by big palm trees.
Holding hands, we strolled through the sand. All the way to the
rock he kept smiling quizzically, holding his gaze on the sand.
When we reached the spot, he leaned his back against the rock,
spreading his legs just enough for me to fit in, then pulled me
closer. I stared into his eyes, admiring shades of dark green and
gray. He tucked my hair behind my ears, and traced my cheekbones
with both hands, then leaned in, placing a gentle kiss on my
lips.

“I have something for you,” he said, reaching
into his pocket. Before taking that something out, he drew a
breath, and bit his lip, staring intensely into my eyes.
Anticipation was killing me. He took my hand in his, then placed a
crimson coral ring on my finger. I gasped, and looked at him with
eyes wide open, not knowing what to say, or what that meant. Zack
smiled, and smoothed his palm over my cheek, gazing softly into my
eyes. As if he had heard my internal dialogue, he explained,
“That's a symbol of my commitment to you.” He flipped my palm soft
side up, then said, “In your hands, you hold my heart, my soul, my
happiness.” He drew three circles on my palm. “It’s all yours to do
as you wish. Crush it or cherish it, I'm at your mercy,” his gaze
left my palm, and connected to my eyes. I felt weakness shake my
knees.