Seafoam //Completed//

Chapter 2

Lulu woke up gasping for air. Her face was covered in a cold sweat and she wiped her forehead as she tried to steady her breathing. The dream had come to her again, like it had been since her mom died two months ago. Her short ash brown hair was matted to the side of her face and she ran a shaking hand through it. The alarm clock on her bedside table read 5:53 a.m. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she turned off the alarm before it could get a chance to screech her ear off, and got up to shower. With a groan, she stretched out her sore muscles and walked to her bathroom.

As the stream of water washed away the sleep, she recalled her dream. It had been the same one she had been having for the last month but today it had been more vivid. When her mother first passed, Lulu had felt prepared, ready almost. Her mother had decided to forego any more chemotherapy treatments six months before she died and that had given Lulu time to adjust. After the initial peace she had felt, the grief had begun to slowly creep its way into her heart, like the cancer that had killed her mother. One night, Lulu found herself walking to the lighthouse she hadn't visited in five years. That was the first night she had the dream.

More than a dream though, it was like her mind was a projector, every night playing bits and pieces of the memory she had of the night she met the boy. It never showed her the complete memory, until last night.

She shampooed her hair, thinking back to the aftermath of that night. She had woken up in the hospital days later, with no idea how she had gotten there. Apparently, the two of them had been found in the morning by construction workers operating on the museum renovations. She had been taken to the city's children's hospital but he had to be helicoptered out of the city to another hospital. No matter how hard she tried to find out his name, no one would give her or her parents information. After being released from the hospital, she had gone back to the small museum to see if anyone had information on him or his grandfather, but to her bewilderment, it had been demolished. Taking this as a sign from God, she decided to quit poking around and just let it be. He obviously didn't want to be found or he would have come looking for her too.

With a loud yawn, she turned off the water and got out of the shower. Today was the first day of senior year and she wasn't quite ready to give up the summer. Her best friend Matty would be picking her up at 7:30 to drive together to school and he was always so punctual. He often had to haul Lulu out of her room when she took too long getting ready because he hated being late so much. That was one of the many gears of the Matty machine that she both loved and hated. They had been best friends since freshman year. His mother was a nurse at the hospital and had become great friends with her mother. Soon both families were having dinner on a weekly basis and Lulu and Matty had grown close. She had had a huge crush on him ever since, but he was completely oblivious.

She let her naturally wavy hair air dry as she applied her makeup which consisted of only foundation, mascara and winged eyeliner on her top lashes. By 7:20 she was deciding what to wear when she heard a knock on her bedroom door. She opened it and there stood Matty in his worn out jeans, white T-shirt and old Vans sneakers. Of course his caramel colored hair looked perfectly messy, she thought rolling her eyes.

"Why do you always look so...ready?" she demanded, barely catching herself before she said something embarrassing.

"Why aren't you ever ready?" he shot back.

She twirled around on her toes and began rummaging through her drawers looking for a top until she found a pretty loose fitted dark green one and ran into her closet where her jeans hung. She changed in there, and when she came out, Matty was by her desk playing with something in his hand. Noticing what it was, Lulu quickly ran to him and snatched it out of his grasp.

"You know not to touch that, Matty!" She reprimanded as she placed the small orange starfish back on her desk.

"It's just a starfish, Lulu, geez," he looked hurt. "You can't hold on to garbage just for sentimental value," he said sulkily.