Hidden Gates

by D T Dyllin

  “Oh, why don’t you just do it with Bryn and get it over with?” Jenna asked, breaking into my thoughts of self-pity.

  “What? You can’t be serious!”

  “I never kid about sex and . . . well, sex. Sure he’s not long-term material with him being a Guardian and all—yours to be specific—but why not at least do it for the first time with someone you trust? And you do trust him, don’t you?” She eyed me speculatively, as if trying to decode something in my face.

  I flushed under her scrutiny. Sure Bryn was hot, but he was my best friend, and one simply didn’t do those kinds of things with their best friend. Besides, there could be no future between us, so what would be the point really? “Umm . . . I can’t sleep with him, especially because he’s going to be my Guardian. I won’t even bother ticking off the rest of the reasons because there’s only one that’s really important: he’s my best friend, and even if I wanted to—which I don’t—he’s not interested in me like that.”

  “Sure he’s not,” Jenna said dryly. “I’m sure, since he’s a guy, if you offered him sex, he’d turn it down.”

  “I’m not doing that, and he wouldn’t be interested anyways. Don’t be ridiculous,” I snapped. First Tammie and now Jenna, when were people going to get it through their thick heads that nothing had or would happen between me and Bryn?

  “Speaking of Bryn,” Jenna murmured.

  I turned just in time to see Bryn enter the cafeteria. His dark blue eyes scanned the room and lit up when they landed on me. As he began to head our way, I couldn’t help but notice again how much he’d grown recently. Since coming into his powers, he’d sprung up to almost 6'4", and instead of being long and lanky like most boys his age, he had already filled out quite nicely. I smiled up at him as he pulled out a chair beside me and curled gracefully into it. He ran his hand through his thick black hair and gave me his lopsided grin complete with dimples.

  I smiled back at him. “Hey. I thought you had some work to do or something.”

  “Yeah. I guess I got stuff mixed up, because as it turns out, we didn’t have a math assignment.” Huh. Maybe I was reading too much into things, as usual, and Bryn had simply gotten confused; it happens to the best of us sometimes. “So what were you guys talking about?”

  “You,” Jenna said.

  “Nothing,” I said at the same time. I gave her a dirty look before turning back to Bryn. “Well—“

  “What about me?” Bryn’s blue eyes glittered with curiosity, and I knew I had to work fast. If I didn’t change the subject soon, Jenna would tell him exactly what our topic of discussion had been about.

  “So Jenna actually thinks she has a shot with Evan Thompson,” I blurted out in a Hail Mary effort.

  Bryn tilted his head at me, giving me a look that said he knew I was changing the subject, but then he turned to Jenna and grinned. “What, you just gonna walk over and offer to do him?”

  “How’d you guess?” Jenna laughed.

  “Gee, I don’t know,” Bryn chuckled into his sandwich. “Because maybe that’s what you always do.”

  Jenna pretended to turn pensive, twirling a purple piece of hair around her finger again. “Huh. Well, I guess you’re right, I do always do that.”

  Whew. Crisis averted. No need to put any ideas about Bryn and I having sex into his head. I was fully confident that he didn’t think about me in that way, but he was still a guy; Jenna was right about that part. Then again, better safe than sorry; time to bring up a new topic completely off boys and sex. “So how’s your bad ass in training stuff coming along?” I directed my question at Bryn.

  “Fine, I guess.”

  “What about you?” Jenna interjected. “Any premonitions”—from the corner of my eye I could see Bryn furiously waving his hand at her in a slashing motion—“. . . yet?” Jenna finished up hesitantly.

  I scowled. Damn it. Just when I’d gotten my mind off of one problem, I had to be reminded of another. “Nothing. I’ve got nothing. So maybe I won’t have to worry about you dipping into my shallow pool after all because maybe I can date whoever, too.” Most Seers my age had at least gotten some small premonitions. Me—not even a blip on my premonition radar. Maybe I was some weird Seer anomaly that was born without powers. If that were the case . . . well, at least my dating worries would be over. Hooray?

  Bryn sighed loudly. “Some Speaker you are. Do you not know what this means?” He waved his hand in front of his neck in a slashing motion again.

  Jenna scrunched up her face at him. “Obviously not.”

  I placed my hand on top of Bryn’s. “It’s okay. I might as well face the truth. Something went wrong with me, and I’m never going to actually see anything.”

  Bryn interlaced his fingers with mine and gave my hand a squeeze in an effort to comfort me. “Maybe the problem is you’re putting too much pressure on yourself. Just relax.”

  “And you know what’s a great thing for relaxation? Sex,” Jenna added.

  I groaned. “Come on, Jenna—seriously—enough already.”

  “Fine. Oh, hey, you gonna go to Ryan’s party tonight? It’s going to be awe-some,” Jenna asked, finally changing the subject. Thank God.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Our birthday celebration isn’t until tomorrow night, but I’m just not sure if I feel like dealing with another of Ryan’s parties.” I slumped back into my seat, withdrawing my hand from Bryn’s, causing him to frown slightly. Normally I’d be all gung ho about going to one of Ryan’s parties and scoping out the place for any eligible males who I could maybe actually date, but at the moment, the thought was just depressing. Who am I kidding anyways? I wouldn’t find anyone but the usual drunk fools interested only in sex and nothing more. “You going, Bryn?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I am if you are. Could be fun.”

  “Pleeeaase,” Jenna pleaded while clasping her hands in front of her. “You can get ready at my place, and we can go together.”

  I sighed. “I don’t know why you always beg me to come to these things since you ditch me for some guy practically before we’re even in the door.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be there,” Bryn chimed in.

  “Fine,” I agreed, knowing I was sure to regret my decision, but at least I’d get to hang out with Bryn and have a few beers.

  Jenna gathered up her things and smiled at me. “Good. Just come over to my house after dinner, and we can get ready.” And with that, she headed off in Evan’s direction, but not before pausing to adjust her v-neck T-shirt to better show her cleavage—which I admitted with envy, was much more impressive than mine probably ever would be.

  “So, should I just meet you guys there?” Bryn asked, causing me to drag my eyes away from Jenna and her soon to be spectacle with Evan.

  “Yeah, I guess. By the way, you ever going to tell me what happened with you and Tammie?”

  Bryn’s jaw ticked with sudden tension, and he ran his hand through his hair. “Why won’t you just let it go, Peej?”

  I smiled to myself. Despite Bryn changing so much on the outside lately, most of the time he still said my name so it sounded like one syllable, something he’d been doing since we were kids.

  “You know I can’t do that. It’s just not possible. So you might as well just get it over with and tell me now so you can save us both all the trouble.”

  Bryn stood abruptly, pushing his chair back with enough force to hit into the wall behind us. “Let. It. Go. There are just some things that I can’t talk to you about. You better get used to it now.” He then turned and stalked out of the cafeteria without finishing his lunch.

  Huh. Then again, maybe I wasn’t reading too much into things; Bryn was definitely acting weird.

  3

  “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” I hissed at Jenna as I tried to pull down the
hem on my dress, which was much too short. Of course, when I managed to do that, I then had too much cleavage showing, and I had to try and pull the dress back up. Either way, I had way too much skin showing. Little black dress, my ass . . . how about too little black dress.

  “Oh hush. I would kill for your legs. Instead, I have to make do with these stubby little things.” She motioned briefly to her legs. “And it’s too late now. We’re almost there.”

  I gulped as Ryan’s house came into view, framed in the window of Jenna’s bright yellow Volkswagen bug. She pulled up and parked at the curb, turning to me with a serious face. “So . . . what do you think of the new hair color? Too much?”

  She had gone from a dark purple color to a shade of red that matched most fire trucks. It would definitely turn heads; I just wasn’t sure it would be in the way that she wanted. I tried to remain tactful though. “If attention is what you crave, then you definitely chose the right color.”

  She frowned. “You don’t like it, do you?”

  “It’s not that I don’t like it—it’s just—well, I liked the purple better.” And that was very true. I liked the purple a whole lot better.

  “But now we both get to be redheads.” Her peach glossed lips turned up in a smile. She really didn’t care that much that I didn’t like her new shade of hair. Besides, it would probably change by next week. It was a wonder all of her hair hadn’t fallen out yet.

  “Yeah, but only my shade of red can be found in nature,” I said dryly. Why anyone would purposely dye their hair red was beyond me. My natural color was a bright strawberry blonde, which I had managed to darken to a nice auburn shade through the use of frequent Rainbow Henna applications. I was still stuck as a redhead, but at least I liked its current darker hue. As we exited her car and headed up Ryan’s walkway, I began fidgeting with my borrowed dress again. I felt like an adult trying to squeeze into little kids’ clothes, and I suddenly wanted to go home very badly. “I don’t think I should be wearing this in public,” I grumbled more to myself than Jenna.

  She turned a very annoyed face towards me. “Okay. I’m done. You look super hot, so stop complaining. I don’t wanna hear another word about it.” She reached up and turned the knob on Ryan’s front door. We were greeted by loud music and even louder voices. Jenna smiled up at me, took my arm, and pulled me over the threshold. We’d barely made it two steps before she spotted Evan. “It looks like I have a date with destiny,” she said, dropping my arm and heading towards Evan with a huge grin on her face. When he saw her approach, he let his gaze travel over her from head to toe, a grin of his own spreading across his face. I guess he liked what he saw and was going to take her up on her offer from earlier. I turned away abruptly, not wanting to see any more.

  “Hey.” I looked up to see Bryn standing nearby, his blue eyes taking in my teeny tiny dress. “Did you let Jenna dress you?”

  I laughed. “Is it that obvious?”

  A slight smile tipped up the corners of his full lips. “To me it is.” He reached forward and took my hand in his. “Let’s get you a beer. It’ll help.”

  “What would really help is a pair of jeans because this dress is so small it could be a shirt. I really don’t know how she talks me into these things sometimes.” I grimaced self consciously as we passed by a group of guys who I didn’t know, all of them eyeing my bare flesh. Thanks, Jenna.

  I stood by and attempted to adjust my dress again while Bryn filled up two plastic cups with beer from the keg for us. He handed me one and I took a sip, crinkling my nose in disdain. “Natty Lite? Ugh. At least get a decent light beer, if there is such a thing.”

  Bryn took a swig of his beer and chuckled at my still scrunched up face. “Underage beggars can’t be choosers.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled, chugging down the rest of the cup. I had decided I would make up for in volume what was lacking in quality, with my beer option. Bryn quirked one dark eyebrow at me as he raised his cup to his lips again. I glared in response. “Don’t you give me that eyebrow, Mr. O’Bannon,” I said as I began pumping the keg for a refill.

  Bryn’s blue eyes met mine over the rim of his cup. “What? I didn’t say a word.” His lips curled up, showing his dimples.

  “You didn’t have to, your eyebrow said it all.” It was then I thought about what Jenna had said earlier about Bryn and I having our own language. Maybe I could see her point. “It’s a party. I’m just trying to have fun.” Bryn still didn’t say anything but simply looked at me with his way too expressive eyes. They currently were asking me if I thought getting completely smashed was the answer to my problems. I narrowed my eyes and scrunched up my nose. Yes, yes, it is.

  As I polished off beer number two within five minutes, Bryn decided I was temporarily cut off. I knew he was worried that I would get too chatty like I sometimes did when I was drunk, and start complaining to the wrong person about my lack of premonitions or something. I had one little incident in the girls’ room at one little mixed party like this one, and Bryn has been paranoid ever since. It wasn’t like any of the Regs believed me anyways; they just thought I was really, really drunk. He reached over and snagged my empty cup, set it down near the keg, then took my hand again and tugged me back into the other room. I giggled, lookout—lightweight coming through, and scanned the room for any signs of Jenna and Evan. Just as I had suspected—they were both conspicuously absent. “It looks like Evan took Jenna up on her offer,” I called to Bryn over the much too loud music.

  Ignoring me, Bryn almost pushed me down on the couch. “Sit,” he ordered. “I’m gonna get you some water. Don’t go anywhere.” He met my eyes with meaning. “And it’s probably best if you don’t talk to anyone until I get back either.” Bossy much? I giggled again as he walked away, really starting to feel the effects of those two beers. But hey, at least I hadn’t thought about my dress or boyfriendless situation for a couple of minutes. Sometimes it was nice having the super low tolerance to alcohol that all Seers shared. I couldn’t imagine being like Bryn or Jenna, or, well, anyone else of my kind who didn’t really seem to get drunk. The best they were able to do was get buzzed. That was the reason my kind watched Seers like me so closely at parties like this one.

  “Hey, pretty girl. How are you doing tonight?” A guy with longish sandy blond hair and bright crystal blue eyes sat down next to me. He was one of the guys who had been eyeing me when Bryn and I had gone in to get our beers just a few minutes ago. He was kind of cute, and I could sense some power coming off of him. It was very faint, though, and felt like tiny fingers running up and down my exposed skin, causing goosebumps to erupt all over me. I tilted my head to study him for a moment, like called to like, and I just knew. Seer. I mean, he wasn’t—obviously—but I was picking up on the dormant power in his blood. Maybe he was exactly what I’d been looking for.

  “Hey, yourself.” I grinned at him feeling very relaxed. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

  “It looks like you’re wasting that dress sitting all alone on the couch.” His eyes slid down over my body, but instead of feeling self-conscious like I did before, I felt empowered.

  “Well, what do you suggest?” I said with a giggle.

  “Come with me.” He grinned, pulling me up from the couch. Normally going off in a party with some strange guy would seem like a bad idea, but this guy seemed harmless, and maybe he was even future boyfriend material. So why not go with him? What will it hurt? I smiled back at him and allowed him to lead me out the back door and farther off onto the edge of Ryan’s property where there was a small patch of woods. He pulled a small flask out of his pocket, took a swig, and then offered it to me. “It’s Southern Comfort mixed with some lime.”

  I took it from his hand and eyed it suspiciously, as if it would jump up and bite me. “Yeah, I don’t know, I’m already feeling kinda buzzed.”

  He gave me an easy grin. �
�It’s just Southern Comfort, it’s not that strong; give it a go.”

  Well, I didn’t want the happy buzz I had going to wear off, so what would one little taste do to me? I brought the flask up to my nose for a quick sniff before taking a shot’s worth into my mouth. “Blak. That stuff is horrible.” I winced at the slight burn it left in its wake.

  He took the flask from my hand and drank again before screwing the top back on and replacing it in his pocket. I was still reeling from the horrible taste of the Southern Comfort when he pushed me up against a tree and shoved his tongue down my throat.

  Now I was already feeling buzzed from the two beers I had chugged; add in the Southern Comfort and toss in this guy throwing me up against a tree, and my whole world started to spin. “Hey.” My protest came out in a slur as he started to slobber all over my neck. “Hey, wait a second. Stop.” I tried to push him off of me, but he was a lot stronger than he looked. His hands were roaming all over my body, and when he reached down to hike up my dress, stark panic began to take over. “Stop,” I squeaked.

  “Awe, come on, baby, it’ll be good. Just relax.”

  That’s when it hit me. I didn’t even know this guy’s name, and I had wandered off into the woods with him when I was already halfway toasted. How stupid could I get? “Please. Stop,” I pleaded, my words sounding more slurred than I would have liked. “I’m a virgin.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, I don’t believe that for a second.” He fumbled with the zipper on the side of my dress, and I heard a rip. I was kicking and fighting the best that I could, but I was no match for this guy in my current state. He had me pretty firmly pinned. I thought about screaming but realized that probably no one would hear me over the loud music inside the house. Why, oh why, had I gone off with this guy? It looked like the price I was going to pay for my stupidity was losing my virginity to a guy I didn’t even know. I thought of Bryn at that moment for some reason, not because I was wishing he’d come to my rescue, even though I was, but because his face appeared in my mind’s eye, completely unbidden.