Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,136

Now that wasn’t going to happen either.

“Tay?” Clara asked again. “What’s wrong?”

Taylor sighed hard, thinking through it all. “I have a paper due Wednesday in cinema class. I was going to work on it tonight and tomorrow, but now my laptop is…”

“You could probably borrow Greg’s,” Clara said. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

“Yeah, but he won’t be home until at least eight.”

“You could text him…”

Sorry to be a bother. The text came in from Taylor, and Greg ducked into the little enclave knowing he could get into serious trouble for texting during his work time. Can I possibly borrow your laptop to do my cinema paper? It’s okay if the answer’s no.

Worry pummeled him. He was planning to use the laptop to do his paper tonight.

Sure, he texted back quickly, adding the codes to get into it.

Awesome. Thanks.

He fought not to smile. She shouldn’t be able to do that to him with two words. Stuffing his phone, he pushed the empty wheelchair back out into the thoroughfare. Only three more hours and then he could get something productive done.

Taylor had just gotten settled on Greg’s bed with the laptop when her phone rang. Frustrated, she picked it up, deciding to just call whoever it was back later; however, one look, and she answered it. “Hey.”

“Oh, my gosh, Tay. Are you okay?” The panic in Yoli’s voice made Taylor glad she hadn’t let it go to voice mail.

“Yeah? I’m fine. Why?” However, she looked around at her current circumstances, and she almost laughed at her answer. Her definition of fine was getting wider all the time.

“Oh, thank goodness.” Yoli let out a hard breath.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“Well, I was, but I came home from class and fell asleep on the couch. I had that dream, the one about you from before, except you left where you were getting married and you barely got there, and you were going back home on that same trail except then it was up high on this rock ledge thing, and the ledge was crumbling out from under you…”

“Yoli. Yoli. Slow down, girl. Take a breath.”

“I just knew you were about to fall to your death.”

“I didn’t fall. I’m fine.” The thought of telling Yoli what had happened to her dorm room went by in a fleeting pass through her mind.

“Oh, good. I was hoping they got there in time,” Yoli said, still quite shaken and breathless.

“Got…? Who got there in time?”

“The three guys.”

“Three guys?” Taylor wasn’t sure who Yoli was talking about.

“Yeah. You know, the three guys that always come to save you.”

Taylor’s gaze fell to the laptop before coming up and sweeping around the room. She folded her arms and drilled down into what Yoli was saying. “They always come and save me? You never told me that.”

“I didn’t?”

“No.” Taylor swallowed, feeling like one more step would have her thinking she knew who the three guys were.

“Huh. Well, the dream is always the same,” Yoli said. “We’re in a little house that’s white, and my mom is saying it’s time to go or we’re going to be late for the wedding. Then we walk on this flat dirt-covered road that overlooks this town that’s just covered in golden light but it’s way out in the distance. When we get to the hall thing where you’re getting married, you freak out and run first to a big room that’s wooden and filled with this beautiful sunlight. Then you decide to go back home, but on the way, instead of taking the lower road, somehow you get on this cliff thing that’s way up high, and everything’s fine until there’s no road forward. It’s just rocks, and the trail gets smaller and smaller. All of a sudden, you can’t go forward and when you turn back around, you can’t go back either. The rocks are all falling out from under your feet, and you start screaming for help.

“The three guys come out of the hall with all of these ladders and stuff but none of them are tall enough alone to get you, so they start stacking them and strapping them together to climb up and get you.”

“Three guys?” Taylor asked, looking around and shaking her head.

“Yeah. It’s always three guys and it’s like they know it’s impossible to get you down, but they’re going to do…”

“Whatever they have to do to come and save me,” Taylor finished. She nodded and laughed without making a sound.

“It’s just… the rocks today, they were crumbling so