A Cousin's Visit

“Holy shit! H-how did you get here?” Keyli desperately attempted to control her terror, trying to remain sane for the moment.

“Hey, hey. I never said I wanted to kill you. Calm down.”

He smiled innocently, advancing on her, and Keyli gasped and ran, crashing through the window.. falling… falling…

“Keyli, Keyli! Wake up!!”

Keyli opened her eyes and looked up at Risi’s worried face.

“Jec, he’s here, look out! He’s gonna…” then she paused and looked around. It was morning, and the smell of bacon and pancakes was wafting up from the kitchen down-stairs.

“It was just a bad dream, silly. I was just about to start eating when I heard you screaming, and I ran up-stairs to see what was wrong. What happened?”

Keyli told Risi of her dream in full detail, and they both wondered if it meant anything.

“It was really weird. You were just telling me how mad you were that you’d wasted your first kiss on… what did you say again? Oh yeah, ‘that guy’.” She laughed before she continued, “And then you just fell asleep. So I turned off the light and uh… followed suit.” Keyli was puzzled yet again. What if the vision had set this up to tell her something?

“Mmm, let’s talk about this later. Those pancakes smell wonderful!” Risi frowned at her friend, sticking her tongue out.

“Yeah, I was about to enjoy one when you starting screaming.” Keyli shoved her friend playfully, smiling.

“Well sorry for having a nightmare.” They both laughed and raced down-stairs, leaving troubling thoughts in the dust.

Keyli sat at the dinner table, eating slowly as she thought.

What did the dream have to do with anything?

Why was Jec following her around, and why would she have such a short, random dream about him?

“He’s… he’s going to…” a look of confusion rested for a split second on Risi’s face, and then she realized what her friend meant.

“No… that can’t be it. He-he wouldn’t do that, would he?” Keyli turned her tear-stained face to her best friend.

“Yes, I- I think he would. Didn’t he sound kind of like that to you? I don’t think he has a friend here named Adam at all. I bet he’s done this same thing before. It won’t take too long for him to find me, if he managed so quickly last time. It just takes one dunce who he gives twenty dollars to…” Risi laughed shakily, trying to brush away the horror of Keyli’s realization.

“Oh, calm down girl! Nobody knows you came here, except… oh no.” Keyli turned, worry clear on her face.

“W-what? What h-happened?” Risi tried to look nonchalant, but failed, her voice teetering on the edge of despair.

“Oh, I… I told Jennifer, on the phone. She likes walking around town and flirting with guys. It would only take a look, if Jec is as hot as you say he is…” Keyli gasped, tears suddenly gone.

“You told her? She’d tell anyone anything just to get attention!”

“I-isn’t there something we can do? Anything?” Risi looked like she was about cry.

Keyli took a deep breath, sniffing quietly as she brushed a wisp of red-blonde hair out of her eyes.

“Don’t cry, Risi. It’s isn’t your fault. If you wouldn’t have, someone else would have...” she stared out the window, the setting sun coloring her face.

“Wait a second. Are we giving up? We can’t! I won’t let this just happen. Jec is gonna have a nice problem ahead of him if he thinks this’ll be easy.” Chrisi’s eyes glittered mischievously as she said it, watching a watery smile begin on Keyli’s face.

“Y-you’re right. But how are we going to trick him?” Risi already had an idea.

“Well first, we don’t know for sure if Jen told, or even saw Jec. We should call her first.” Keyli watched jealously as Risi picked up her cell phone and dialed Jennifer Ashton’s number.

“Hey, Jen? Yeah, I just have a quick, random question. Have you seen a guy, about nineteen or twenty, brown-haired, with blonde streaks, maybe six feet tall?” Keyli stared hopefully at her friend’s face, her heart racing.

“He what? … You told him that she was… yeah… okay… he told you that? Ha! No way…C’mon Jen… Alright, alright. See ya… Bye.”

Risi looked at her friend, her smile wavering.

“K-Keyli? Uh, Jen says Jec walked up to her, and, naturally, she started flirting with him. ‘He seemed really sweet,’ she said, ‘he told me you were his cousin, he didn’t see you at home, and he was wondering if you girls were ‘mates’.’ She immediately spilled the beans, and…” Risi swallowed and looked at her friend.

“And that was about twenty minutes ago. She said as soon as she told him where you were he sprinted off… laughing.”

Keyli coughed, shaking her head.

“Shit. Shit with lots of cherries on top. He was laughing? Twenty minutes…. He’s probably at the door right now! Oh… wait…”

They looked up at each other as they heard voices down-stairs.

“Yes, she’s here. Why? … You’re cousins? Well, I’m sure she’d like to see you… Yes, right this way.”

Keyli’s voice was barely audible as she asked her friend, “My dad didn’t give your parents his description, did he?”

All Risi could do was slowly shake her head as footsteps began echoing up the stairway.