Free The Reason by Marley Gibson Page A

automobiles. We just dodged a huge venison-filled bullet.
    "Jesus, Kendall. That was close. Good driving," Celia exclaims. She peels her hand off the sissy bar and takes a deep breath.
    Before I can get my own breathing back to normal, I'm struck blind by a vision. White light flashes in my face like a thousand headlights. Screeches and screams fill my ears. "Jason! No!"
    "Kendall, what's wrong?" Celia shouts, trying to snap me back.
    I throw her arm off me. "I see it, clear as day. Oh God! Not Jason."
    Celia nearly begs. "Stop, Kendall! It's okay."
    It's
not
okay! "Jason's at the wheel of his Jeep. Something's wrong. Something's happened to him. I can't see it clearly, but I know I have to get to him."
    "Whoa, girlfriend." Celia reaches out to me again. "It's just a vision, Kendall. It'll be okay. Shake it off. We had a close call with the deer and nothing else. We both had on our seat belts and you're a damn good driver, so all is well."
    I blink hard, regaining my sight after the vision. Emily materializes in the back seat with a look on her face that I can only describe as
relieved.
I feel almost like her hands had been on the wheel with mine, helping me steer away from trouble.
    I thank her silently in my mind. She smiles and fades away.
    "All right. Let's get going," I say, feeling as composed as I'm going to be.
    "The GPS says we're twelve miles from Radisson."
    "Oh, the hell with your GPS," I say. "I'm following the road signs."
    We enter the city limits fifteen minutes later and pull into the parking lot of Finnian's Restaurant. Instead of a celebratory gathering of RHSers, there seems to be some sort of ruckus, and Jason Tillson's Jeep is the center of everything.
    Holy shit ... did my vision come true?
    I slam the parking brake on and jump out of the car, barely getting the key out of the ignition. Jason's standing outside of the Jeep, doubled over, huffing and puffing and gasping for breath.
    "Jason!"
    "Kendall! Thank God you're okay!"
    Kyle Kadish calls out, "Dude, good thing
you're
okay. That could have been gnarly!"
    I rush to Jason's side and we hug like nobody's business. "I saw something bad happening to you," I say quickly. "Tell me nothing's wrong."
    Jason looks me squarely in the eye, shock covering his handsome face. "No effing way. I almost got plowed by an eighteen-wheeler just now turning into the parking lot. The guy totally ran the red light and almost slammed the Jeep."
    I'm on the verge of tears. This is too much for a seventeen-year-old to take. "I'm so glad you're okay."
    "It wasn't all the trucker's fault," Sean Carmickle chimes in. "Tillson, I was riding with you. Your mind was three counties away. What the hell?"
    On my tiptoes, I glance up at my boyfriend. "Jason?"
    "I couldn't help it, K. I was distracted because something told me that you were in danger. I don't know who it was or where it came from. It was enough to jar my attention away from driving and I almost didn't see that damn truck."
    "Good thing Kadish screamed like a twelve-year-old girl," Sean says with a snicker.
    Kyle reaches over and pops Sean on the shoulder, kiddingly, but I see nothing funny about any of this.
    "Celia and I almost hit a deer," I admit. "Like, it could have been bad."
    "Kendall..." Jason's face reads pure fright. I'm sure mine mirrors his. "What does this mean?"
    I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I suspect that there's a cosmic connection between Jason and me that's deeper than either of us realize.
    I don't have a clue what to do about it, so I just close my eyes and hold on tightly to him for as long as I can.
    Celia doesn't miss a heart beat. "That's some deep shit."
    "You said a mouthful, my friend."

Chapter Eight
    T HE MASS ENDS A LITTLE EARLY S UNDAY MORNING, so I hang behind in the church while Father Massimo talks to the exiting parishioners. His sermon was about total faith in God and not living in fear of the unknown. Geesh—was he preaching directly to me?
    "Hey, Kendall. How's everything