The Waking (The Upturned Hourglass) Read Online Free Page A

summer tourist trade—a town of quaint artsy shops and bed-and-breakfast establishments for the tourists driving up the California coast. But summer was over and the town was quiet as she turned north, heading for the highway overpass. In ten minutes, she was on Sixth Street to pick up Luci for school. The cool, October morning had most people scrambling for heavier jackets, but Valie had donned only her usual school sweatshirt. She loved Autumn, especially the shorter days; colder weather was her element.
    “Vaaaal-ie!” Luci called, waving as she walked up the street to meet her friend part way.
    “Hey, Luc.” Valie glanced at the nearby brick townhouse her friend had exited. Luci had lived there since she was born. In fact, she’d been born in that house (which Valie found slightly gross, but, hey, to each their own.) Give her blood, vials, needles, medications, cold stethoscopes, the works; Valie did not mind hospitals—if they were nice, big, open ones.
    “Good morning!” Luci greeted a broad smile across her angular, but youthful face. Her skin looked more mocha colored in the gray of the morning. In the sunlight it almost glowed golden with her Native American heritage. It was a brilliant contrast to her short, blue-black hair that curled strangely around her features. Her parents never had figured out how she’d gotten the spiraling curls. No one in the history of their families had ever had anything but iron straight hair. Though, once she’d grown up, no one was surprised. Luci was just an oddity.
    The short, bronze-skinned girl pushed her purple glasses higher on the bridge of her nose.
    “Jonathan is going to be late today. He texted me.”
    “He did, did he?” Valie replied with an obvious insinuative tone. Luci blushed.
    “Shut up.”
    “You should ask him to the Halloween party at the Wallash’s place! You know you want to.”
    Luci shook her head.
    “We’re seniors now, Luc. It’s time to take a chance!”
    “What if he really doesn’t like me that way? It would totally screw up the whole Three Musketeers thing we have going.”
    “I never did finish that book…”
    “Valie…you know what I mean. We have never been as close as we are now!”
    “It doesn’t mean you two can’t get closer. It’s not like we’ll stop being friends, even if it doesn’t work out.”
    “I don’t know…”
    “It’s worth a shot,” Valie asserted, looking empathetically at her friend.
    Luci rolled her eyes. “I’m getting dating advice from a girl who’s never been on a date. How sad.”
    “What’s sad?” interjected an unexpected voice. Luci and Valie both jumped. The third musketeer had sneaked up behind them.
    “Jonathan! I thought…I thought you were going to be late,” Luci stuttered. Valie tried not to smile as Luci flushed at Jonathan’s closeness. They had known Jonathan almost as long as they had known each other, but it was just in the last year or so that Luci had developed what she believed was a hopeless crush on the guy. Personally, Valie could not see the attraction. Jonathan was a great guy friend, but it was impossible for Valie to see him romantically. Though, to the eye, he was nice enough; a little lanky, a little awkward, but cute. She could easily see the two of them together. Besides, wouldn’t it just be a bonus to have one of your best friends as your boyfriend?
    “I skipped breakfast and jogged a little,” he admitted, still a little out of breath.
    Valie made a face. “I can tell. Your arm is sweaty.” She made a show of dislodging his arm from around her shoulder. Luci left the boy’s other arm in place.
    Jonathan laughed his dorky laugh, which made Luci giggle. Valie remembered when the boy’s voice finally changed. It’d been a total shock to hear the squeaky unsurety change to almost guttural attractiveness—except for the slight wheezing in between. Jonathan had always had asthma. But Valie knew that his voice simply melted Luci.
    Valie tried to