“I can barely breathe without you, Lisa.” She couldn’t get away from me even if she tried.
“I hate when you say things like that.” She complained, tightening her grip. That’s because it made her want me even more.
“Why?” I smiled. It was almost easy to forget her faults when she pouted.
“Don’t play dumb, Alex.”
“Lisa, Lisa, Lisa.” I cradled her in my arms. Rat hissed, wriggling free. He flicked his tail and disappeared from sight.
Lisa was warm and I liked that she still trembled whenever I touched her. She laughed, tossing her head back. “This is the smallest room on campus. It barely holds a bed.”
“I like it like this. Then there’s only one place for you to sit.”
“What, in your lap?” She rolled her eyes, resisting me. “Sometimes you make me mad.”
“Good, I like it when you’re feisty.” I bit her on the neck. She squealed, bending forward. “Why can’t we close the door?” She smelled like Vanilla. I wanted to explore her.
“Because I don’t trust you,” she admitted. “I’m not like the groupies.”
I pulled away.
“Sorry, but I’m not.”
“I never said you were.” Too bad you weren’t though…
“Listen, Alex.” She placed her hand on my heart. Her thoughts invaded my mind. She loved me. I was hers’. “Don’t you understand?” She asked. I hated when she pushed her thoughts into my mind. It was one thing when I wanted to know what she thought—it was another when I didn’t.
I hated to admit it but I made a mistake. My emotions got the better of me when I changed Lisa. Why didn’t I let her go? I imprisoned her here with me. Her life was fragile and any hope for her survival—
“Alex.” My sister, Ally, banged her fist on the open door. “It’s time to go.”
Ally’s hair used to be red but now it was long and blonde, nearly white. Her eyes were about as pale as mine these days too. Rarely did I enjoy being interrupted to help Ally. But, today, I wanted nothing more than to get as far away from Lisa as possible.
“What are you guys going to do?” Lisa questioned, jumping up.
“We’re going to sift through some old boxes.” Ally answered. “Is that the same shirt you wore yesterday?” She rolled her eyes. “That’s gross. There’re a million shirts in our room. You could change your clothes every once in a while.”
“You act like I can stink.” Lisa laughed. She loved the fact that when she was hit by lightning her sweat glands no longer emitted an odor.
“It’s about proper hygiene.” Ally argued. “Do you think Alex wants to see you in the same shirt every day? Do you even change your undergarments?”
“Of course I do!” Lisa frowned. “What’s your problem anyway?”
“I don’t have a problem. Alex, let’s go.”
“Let me get my shoes.” Lisa dug under the bed. “I’ll be ready in just a minute.”
“Please don’t tell me you invited her to help us.”
I shook my head. “Lisa doesn’t want to come with us.” I glanced at my girlfriend. “You told me you were going to hang with Donna today, right?” Maybe she’d get the hint.
“Well, I want to be with you, Alex.” Her hands rested on my hips. “Don’t you want me to come?”
No. I don’t want you to come. Can’t you take a hint?
Lisa jerked back. She’d heard my thoughts. (Another thing the lightning gave her—great.) “Fine, that’s all you had to say.” She brushed past us and stood at the stairwell. “I can’t believe you lately. You’re acting weird.”
“Lisa’s getting annoying—almost worse than Donna.” Ally said under her breath. “If she’s this annoying now what will she be like in ten years—or a hundred?”
“Stop it,” I ordered, motioning for her to leave. “I think I’m going to move back home. I need more space.”
“Does this ‘space’ have a name?” Ally teased, racing ahead. “Why don’t you call it what it is?”
I ignored her. There was nothing I could do now. This was my fault.
“I used to like Lisa too before she started transforming.” Ally led me out the front entrance of the C I N boarding school. We headed around the lake towards our shack. We needed to hide some very crucial evidence of our past from a very meddlesome girl. She never stopped. It was an invasion of Lisa all the time. She was in your thoughts, in your stuff, in your heart, in…
“Stop picking on her,” I said. Ally was right though—she had become annoying.
“Why?” Ally pouted. “Because she’s the only person you can touch without being in excruciating pain?”
I froze. “Don’t make this a bad thing.” That wasn’t the only reason I liked Lisa.
“You don’t really love her, Alex. You should’ve let her and Michael have each other. Why are you doing this to yourself?”
“I do care for her, a lot.”
“But, not the way you did for—”
“Shut up!” I screamed. Why did she have to bring up the past?
“It’s the truth.” Ally shrugged. “Isn’t that why we’re doing this?”
“Doing what?”
Ally and I twirled around. Lisa stood behind us. Tears brimmed in her eyes.
“Who do you really love, Alex?” Lisa’s bottom lip trembled. “I thought you couldn’t touch anyone besides me? I thought you never felt the way you feel about me before? I don’t understand. You said there was never anyone else. Who or what are you hiding from me? You think I’m annoying now?”
“Lisa,” I tried to speak. Words were never my thing. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about her. I knew I desired her but was I in love? Plus, which question did she want me to answer?
“Answer me, Alex.” Lisa wiped away a stray tear. Which question Lisa?
“And say what?” I shouted. “Go back to school and leave us alone!”
Lightning crackled in the sky above. Donna and Big Al sat on a bench by the school’s entrance. They raced inside. From the other side of the lake I could hear the sound of the door slam shut.
Dark clouds covered the skies. Lisa glanced at them. Before she would’ve raced away, frightened at what I could do. Instead, today, she stepped forward, ready to fight. “Why are you threatening me?”
“I want you to go home.”
“This isn’t my home! I’m your stupid prisoner, remember? A girl you thought you liked but now are getting tired of. Besides, that lightning crap won’t work. You can’t tell me to ‘hurry on home’ anymore.”
“Stop acting like a twelve year old,” Ally said. “He’s not tired of you. I’m not tired of you either. Sometimes you’re just a bit clingy and nosy. Give us a break already. We went from having no one to you who happens to be in our face all the time.
“I thought you said you wanted me to know all about you?” Her eyes set on mine.
I stared at the ground. Little red ants climbed over my bare feet. If they were biting me I couldn’t tell. I just wanted her to shut up and leave. Everything she said started to sound like garbled static.
“Alex!” Lisa yelled. Her fingers twitched, sparks generated then electrical currents shot from her fingertips disintegrating the tiny anthill between us. I frowned at the pile of ash.
“That was mean.” I turned my back to her. “Go home before you lose control and kill something else.”
“What’s the big deal if I do?” Lisa wouldn’t budge. This wasn’t normal. Had she already begun transforming? Panic raced through me. It usually took over a hundred years to transform. If she kept changing at this rate there was no telling whether she’d survive.
“Do you want to kill someone?” Ally questioned, invading Lisa’s personal space. That just screamed ‘bad idea’.
“Ally,” I warned.
“No, Lisa wants to see what will happen. I think it’s time she got to see what happens to her when she loses it.”
“Stop, we don’t know how much she can handle yet.”
<
br /> Lisa’s hair rose and so did Ally’s. Sparks flew from their fingertips and the sky rumbled above us. The grass below them blackened turning to smut.
“I can’t control her, Ally.”
Ally’s eyes danced. “So what, I know what will happen in the end to her.”
My feet stood frozen in place. Lisa was more powerful than Ally and I combined. She petrified me. Electrical currents beyond anything Reginald ever measured in Ally or me were alive in Lisa. It was as if she weren’t human anymore. Each day she changed more and more. Her powers were going to overtake her soon. The last person who lost control ended up killing—
“Calm down!” I stood between them. Pig growled, tugging on Ally’s pant leg. Lisa grinned, picking her Boston terrier up. He kissed her face and narrowed his bug eyes at Ally.
“Why didn’t you just let me go away with my mom? Why’d you have to trap me?” Lisa cried. “I thought you guys wanted me around. Now I’ve got to stay here with people who hate me!” She raced through the tall grass around the lake towards C I N. She didn’t look back. My heart pounded and every fiber in my being yearned for her touch.
I kicked the pile of ash (that was once an anthill) and called out, “I hate you!”
“A little dramatic, don’t you think?” Ally grumbled. “She’s not that bad.”
“I don’t hate Lisa.”
Ally’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean—”
I took off, running as fast as I could. I needed to get away from my sister, from Lisa, from everyone. This is why I liked living alone; too much drama, too much talking, too much of everything.
“Alex!” My sister chased after me. Lightning crackled above us. “Don’t push me away again!” Her words stung. “What are you running from? It wasn’t your fault. You’re not the one who is to blame!”
What was I running from? How about the fact that I’d fallen into the same trap again? This time, though, I was falling for someone even worse than Amie. And, what did Ally know? It was my fault; all of it was.
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C I N: Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin. You never come out the way you went in. (The C I N Series) Page 19
