by Kelly Oram
A knock at the door pulled me from my angst and my fourth cup of tea. Becky answered it, and I knew from her gasp who it was.
Ryan stepped into the room, crushing my best friend to his chest in a fierce hug. My heart took a giant breath of relief at the sight of him.
Of course Ryan’s gorgeous—the epitome of American high school quarterbacks everywhere with his blond hair, blue eyes, and baby face smile—but it wasn’t his looks that made him the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in that moment. It was the simple fact that he was there. Judging from the sweat and mud stains he’d come straight from the football field to be with us.
I wanted to tackle him for a bear hug of my own, but I forced myself to wait. He and Becky had been best friends forever and she needed him right now too. I would have him all to myself later, so I gave them this moment.
“Ryan, it was awful,” Becky whispered.
“The cheerleader and the football player?” a dry voice muttered beside me. “That’s a little cliché isn’t it?”
I jumped. I’d forgotten we had company. Ryan does tend to make me forget about everything else around me…to my everlasting annoyance. “It would be cliché if they were together,” I said.
Ryan’s eyes flashed up at the sound of my voice. There was the blue I’d been waiting for.
“You mean he’s not The Boyfriend?”
I couldn’t be bothered to take my eyes off of Ryan as I answered our new friend with a nod. “Oh, no, he’s definitely The Boyfriend.”
Becky managed to let go of Ryan and step back.
I had to concentrate on keeping my speed at a normal human pace as I threw myself at Ryan. I didn’t bother with a hug or hello. I crushed my lips to his, needing to drink him in.
Ryan and I are somewhat known for our, shall I say, explosive relationship, and in that moment we did not disappoint. It was like our first kiss all over again. The second we connected we lost all control of ourselves. It’s sort of what happens when I lose control of my power and give him what I call a superkiss.
That’s right. I, Jamie Baker, the world’s only superpowered girl, come complete with supersenses, deadly lightning bolts, and, you guessed it, the ability to superkiss someone.
Evildoers of the world beware.
You see, I have all this crazy, mutant electricity inside my body and before I learned how to control it I would pass that energy along to Ryan when I kissed him.
The energy sucks us together like we’re a couple of supercharged electromagnets. It amps up the experience in a way that puts fireworks to shame. Actually, as far as superpowers go, it’s pretty awesome.
“Whoa. Are they always like that?”
The words pulled me out of the moment just before I accidentally caused a building-wide power outage.
I heard Becky sigh. “Only since the very first time they met.”
I heard the conversation but I couldn’t look away from Ryan. His entire body was shaking from all the energy I’d accidentally pumped into him.
He rested his forehead against mine, working hard to catch his breath, same as me, but despite the epic-ness of our kiss, he was watching me with a worried expression.
Ryan knew how upset I was because as amazing as the superkisses are, I never give them out. Ryan complains about that regularly, but I’m not sure that pumping him full of freaky mutant electricity is really good for his health, so I always stick to the regular old non-electric human kisses.
Unfortunately, my emotions seem to be a trigger for my superpowers. The fact that I’d lost control of myself—something I haven’t done since I learned how to rein it in in the first place—meant that I was way, way upset.
I shook my head and Ryan frowned at me. He’s pretty hard to resist, but I couldn’t explain myself with other people in the room. I wasn’t really ready to talk about it anyway.
I ignored his concern and dragged him over to our guest. “Sorry,” I said with a sheepish smile. “This is my boyfriend Ryan. Ryan, this is…” Yeah, I was on a roll with this guy’s name. “Is…”
The guy cocked an eyebrow at me, but smiled good-naturedly. “Teodoro Vivenzio.”
He stood and shook Ryan’s hand.
“Right,” I said, “Tedro.”
“Tai-oh-d-OH r-oh,” he corrected when I butchered the pronunciation.
“Teodoro,” I said again and got a smile of approval. “Teodoro was there when…” My voice caught and I took a deep breath. “He was there this afternoon and offered to walk Becky and me back because we were so upset.”
Ryan shuddered and tucked Becky and me into his sides. We both hung on tight. “I owe you a thank you then,” he said to Teodoro. “I appreciate you taking care of my two most special girls in the world until I could get to them.”
That reminded me. “It’s early,” I said. “Did you ditch out on the game?”
Ryan nodded. “When I didn’t see Becky with her team I asked her coach what happened. She told me about the accident and I couldn’t get it together after that so coach pulled me. Don’t worry, he said I could leave.”
“Let me guess, you’re the quarterback?” Teodoro asked. I could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t all that impressed. Of course not. He probably liked things like Comic-con and indie rock.
Becky must have missed his disdain because she said, “He’s the star quarterback!” boasting like a proud sister. “The dork actually turned down a spot on UCLA’s team in order to stay closer to us.”
“And it was completely worth it,” Ryan said stubbornly.
Becky and I had both tried to talk him into taking the Bruins’ offer but even knowing that I could have visited him anytime I wanted he wouldn’t hear of it.
I was glad when Becky rolled her eyes. We both thought it was ridiculous that he’d given up so much for us.
“UCLA?” Teodoro asked. This time he was a little more impressed, or maybe the right word was intimidated.
Ryan shrugged. For some reason his football skills are the only thing he’s ever been modest about in his life. “I would have been like third string,” he said, “I wouldn’t have seen any game time until I was a junior or senior.”
“Still,” Teodoro said, “that’s pretty impressive. And with all your boy-band looks, you must have to beat the girls off with a stick, huh?”
Ryan smirked and I groaned. “Please do not encourage the Ryan Miller Ego. I beg you!”
Ryan laughed and pulled me tighter against him. “I’ve got the only girl I need.”
“Wise answer,” I told him, but that only made him laugh more.
“You must be tired after your game,” Teodoro said, eying Ryan and me curiously. “Why don’t the four of us go find a café and relax for a little while? I, for one, won’t be able to sleep much tonight, and it seems we’ve already consumed all of Jamie’s Magic Tea.”
Ryan smiled at that. He was the one who’d introduced me to the tea. I’d made fun of him for it, and now he teases me relentlessly for my addiction to it.
“Actually, that sounds nice,” Becky said, surprising me. I glanced at her and she was smiling—albeit hesitantly—at Teodoro.
I couldn’t believe she was showing interest in a guy. I really wanted some alone time with Ryan, but I couldn’t refuse Teodoro’s invitation when Becky was taking such a huge step.
I was about to say yes when Ryan let out a long tired sigh. “That sounds great,” he started, “but I’m not really feeling up to it.” He squeezed me and said, “I was kind of hoping to go see Mike.”
I hated the look on Ryan’s face. I tend to forget how close Ryan and Mike are because of what happened with Becky. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that one of Ryan’s best friends was fighting for his life right now.
“Of course,” I said.
“Thanks. Do you know anything? I called his parents, but they didn’t answer their phones.”
“You know the guy who got hit?” Teodoro asked.
Ryan nodded. “He’s been on
e of my best friends for years.”
“But isn’t he the guy who—”
“Becky and I aren’t exactly friends with Mike,” I said quickly. “But we do a good job at not letting it interfere with Ryan.”
I shot Teodoro my best DROP IT look. Thankfully, he seemed to get the hint.
Ryan has no idea what really happened between Becky and Mike. Becky never told anyone the truth besides me, and that was only because I’d guessed. As many times as I’d tried to talk her into it, she never went to the police. She was embarrassed about what happened and since there was no proof, she didn’t want to go through some awful he said/she said trial and become “that girl.” She was afraid people would treat her differently if they knew what happened, and she just wanted to forget everything.
She had especially never said anything to Ryan about what happened. He just assumed that Mike had dumped her and she was more than willing to let him keep on believing that. Ryan would be destroyed by the truth. He’d probably also tear Mike apart with his bare hands. If Mike wasn’t dead already, that is.
I swallowed a lump in my throat. “He was alive when they took him to the hospital,” I said gently. “But it was really bad. We can go over to there right now if you want.”
Ryan nodded and looked at Becky. “You want to come?”
Becky forced a smile and shook her head. “It’s okay. You and Jamie go ahead. You guys probably want the alone time and I’ve got some homework to do anyway.”
I felt awful, torn between my two hurting friends and yet dealing with my own selfish needs too. I hated to leave Becky alone tonight, but Ryan needed this and I needed Ryan.
Teodoro cleared his throat and smiled at Becky. “I’m still up for going out if you are.”
“Oh!” Becky started to panic. “Oh, um…”
“She’d love to,” I said. I ignored Becky’s glare and pulled her close to me. “It’s not really a date,” I whispered, “just coffee in a public setting. He’s really nice and super cute.”
“But Jamie—”
“You can do this,” I promised. “I have absolute faith in you. Keep your cell on and call if you need me.”
Becky took a deep breath and then nodded. “Okay,” she said quietly. “Sure Teodoro, for a little while.”
While Becky gave Ryan another hug I walked Teodoro to the door. “That was nice of you.”
“It’s my pleasure.” And there were those dimples.
We both glanced back at Becky, who was still soaking up Ryan’s comfort.
“Look,” I said in a low voice. “I’m not going to pretend you don’t know what she’s been through. You heard what she said earlier.”
That accidentally came out sounding dangerous. Teodoro looked startled. “Yes,” he said, the surprise was evident in his voice. “You don’t need to worry. I would never hurt her.”
“She needs this,” I said, “but she needs you to keep your distance too. Do not touch her. At all. Just being out with you alone will be hard enough.”
“No problem,” Teodoro promised.
My eyes narrowed on the guy in front of me. While he didn’t seem intimidating at all, he did strike me as the type of person who knew how to get what he wanted. I was sure there were a lot of brains underneath all that hair.
I tried not to say anything, but I couldn’t help myself. “If you do anything to upset her, and I mean anything—intentional or not—you won’t just regret meeting her. You will regret ever being born.”
His eyebrows flew up at my threat, disappearing beneath his dark shaggy bangs, but his mouth twitched with amusement. “You’re awfully protective.”
“There aren’t many people in this world I really care about,” I said. Then my eyes narrowed again and I added, “The list of people I trust is even shorter.”
Teodoro raised his hands up in surrender, flashing his dimples as if he knew they softened people’s defenses. “Hopefully, you’ll be able to add my name to that list soon.” His eyes glinted with humor. “If you can remember it, that is.”
He sobered up suddenly and gave me a very sincere smile. “I’ll take every caution with your friend tonight, and I’ll get her back safely. You have my word.”
It was enough. I believed him. “Thank you.”
Ryan gave me a suspicious look once he and Becky finally joined us. He pulled me against him and smiled at Teodoro. “So, did she threaten to end your life if you hurt Becky yet?”
Teodoro threw his head back and released a loud bellowing laugh.
“Am I really so predictable?” I grumbled.
“Only when it comes to your temper babe,” Ryan promised, kissing the frown off my face. He looked to Teodoro and said, “Word of advice? Don’t disappoint Jamie. It can be hazardous to your health.”
Teodoro raised a curious brow. “Speaking from experience?”
“Hardly,” Ryan laughed. “Jamie’s way too smitten to ever be disappointed in anything I do.”
“Smitten?” I asked dryly.
“Yeah, you know, besotted? Infatuated? Obsessed? Head-over-heels in love with me?”
“Like you are with yourself?” I deadpanned, but I laughed despite myself.
Ryan grinned. “There’s the smile I’ve been waiting for. I knew you had one in you somewhere.”
I gave up and wrapped my arms around Ryan’s waist like the smitten girlfriend that I was. “I love you.”
CHAPTER 3
“D-R-I-S-C-O-L-L,” Ryan spelled for the hospital receptionist. “Mike Driscoll. He was brought in this afternoon after a car accident.”
The woman behind the desk sighed as if having to type in a patient’s name was the world’s biggest inconvenience. I wanted to throttle her. My boyfriend’s best friend could be dead and this lady was giving him attitude because he’d interrupted her study of Us Weekly.
I cleared my throat and glared at the woman. She didn’t seem impressed, but she did answer Ryan. “Driscoll, Mike. Yeah, he’s here. He’s in the ICU.”
Ryan took a deep breath. I squeezed his hand in mine. “At least that means he’s not dead.”
“You’re right.” Ryan forced a smile at the miserable nurse. “How is he? Do you know if he’s going to be okay?”
The woman sighed and removed her glasses from her face. “I can only give that information to immediate family.”
“I’m his sister,” I said quickly.
Nazi Nurse didn’t miss a beat. “Sure you are.” She picked up her magazine again and mindlessly waved us off. “Have a good day you two.”
I seriously wanted to kill the woman. I was so mad that I lost control of my power for the second time that night. A burst of energy surged from my body causing all the lights in the building to flicker.
Ryan shot me a sharp look that I ignored.
The receptionist looked up at the lights curiously, and then realized Ryan and I were still standing there. When she raised her brow I said, “Where’s the ICU?”
“Third floor,” she answered. “But again, only immediate family is allowed to visit.”
I glanced at the woman’s nametag and smiled sweetly. “Joy. Such a nice name. A bit ironic, but pretty.”
The woman sighed again. “Watch out, we’ve got a live one here folks!” she droned in a flat voice.
The lights flickered again and Ryan grabbed my hand. “Come on, Jamie,” he whispered. “I’ll just keep trying his parents.” He forced a polite smile to the receptionist and said, “Thank you.”
If you ask me the woman didn’t deserve Ryan’s gratitude.
As Ryan tugged me toward the exit, the phone on the troll’s desk began to ring so I sent a wave of electricity its way. When the woman picked up the receiver she yelped and dropped it.
Ryan looked at me but I just shrugged and dragged him out of the building. We got about ten paces before Ryan stopped me. “Jamie, what’s going on with you?”
“What?” I snapped. “She was awful!”
“But zapping her?”
&n
bsp; “It’s not like it hurt,” I grumbled. “Much.”
“What’s wrong? This isn’t like you.”
I laughed harshly. “Hello, I’m the Ice Queen. Or have you forgotten?”
“Fine.” Ryan sighed and let go of my hand. “If that’s how you’re going to be then I’m going home.”
“What? Why? You just got here.”
“I can’t handle the Ice Queen, right now, all right? My best friend almost died today. I really, really need my girlfriend right now. Would you please call me if you see her?”
In that moment I realized exactly how much I didn’t deserve Ryan Miller.
Ryan is the equivalent of rainbows and sunshine and all things fluffy wrapped up in an extremely gorgeous package. If he were a superhero he’d be Happy Go Lucky Man and his power would be the ability to kill you with kindness.
Ryan never gets mad. Like ever. Especially not at me. But he was definitely angry right then.
If I was the ice queen, then Ryan was officially the guilt king. I felt so bad that he didn’t even get a step away from me before there were tears in my eyes.
“Ryan, wait. I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m not dealing with this very well.”
Ryan wrapped his arms around me and sighed heavily. “No more Ice Queen?”
“No more Ice Queen.” I buried my head in his shoulder. “I promise. From now on I’m Jamie Baker, loving, supportive, supergirlfriend.”
“Oh? Does Supergirlfriend come with a costume?”
I groaned. Ever since Ryan learned about my powers he’s had sick fantasies about dressing me up like Wonder Woman.
So not happening.
“Nice try.”
Ryan’s answering sigh started out playful but ended up as heavy as his heart felt.
I hated seeing him so upset and suddenly I knew exactly how to cheer him up. “Do you want to go see Mike?” I asked.
“Of course I do, but you heard what the lady said. We aren’t immediate family.”
I shrugged. “She can’t stop us if she can’t catch us. You got your running shoes on?”
