by M. H. Soars
“Hear me out,” he continued. “You’ll answer all of my questions tonight, and in return I’ll answer all of your questions on our next date. Deal?” He removed his finger from my lips so I could answer him and I immediately missed the contact.
“Are you asking me out on a date?” I tried to suppress my grin but it was kind of hard.
He didn’t answer my question, just gave me a full-of-promises smile and asked me again, “Deal or no deal?”
“Fine! Deal! Ask away!” I waved my free hand in encouragement.
He asked me all kinds of questions, from my favorite TV shows to whether peanut butter was a good pizza topping. Oh yeah, I told him about Sean’s pizza creation. It was much easier to answer his questions than come up with questions of my own, and throughout all that he never let go of my hand. Neither of us wanted to break the connection.
From time to time, people interrupted our conversation to say hello, but like before, they didn’t stay long. I was finally getting to know Ethan, even though I wasn’t allowed to ask him anything. His reactions to my answers told me a lot about him. He was funny, attentive and caring, and in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but acknowledge that he was similar to Thomas in many ways. However, Thomas had never made me feel breathless and elated like I was feeling right now. I could see myself falling in love with Ethan. The evening flew by, and I didn’t want it to end.
CHAPTER 9
Matthew
Alexia had abandoned me as soon as she could. I didn’t need to be a mastermind to know that Gillian had scared her off. She had that effect on everybody. Her looks and personality could really push people away and give them the wrong idea about her. In truth, she was a very nice and intelligent girl. It just proved people shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
She was relatively new to our school, having transferred here about a year ago. We were in the same Advanced Math class, and that was how I got to know her. I wasn’t going to deny that I had thought she was a dumb bimbo at first, and that I had assumed she was in Advanced Math by mistake. But I had quickly found out she was sort of a genius.
“Where did your cousin go?” Gillian asked, looking around.
“I think she went to look for Sam and the others.” I truly hoped so. The thought of Sam spending any time alone with Julian made my blood boil.
She looked at me sadly. “I did it again, didn’t I? I scared her away.”
I patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry about Alexia. Once she gets to know you, she’ll love you.” I smiled, but she didn’t seem convinced.
I felt sorry for Gillian. She was so misunderstood. Nobody knew that the reason she dressed and acted like she did was to keep the memory of her mother alive. Her father was a famous archeologist and had married her mother when he was a grad student. Her mother had been an aspiring actress, and unfortunately she thought that in order to succeed in Hollywood she had to dress and act a certain way.
Not surprisingly, her parents divorced when Gillian was very young. Her mother never recovered from the divorce and ended up getting involved with drugs. She died a year later from an overdose. Gillian had gone to live with her father, but their relationship had never been easy. She blamed him for her mother’s death. She never wanted him to forget her mom, so she’d decided to impersonate her.
“I heard rumors that Julian has fallen head over heels for your cousin Sam.” Gillian was trying to change subject, but she sure picked the wrong one. I didn’t want to think about Julian and Sam together.
“I wouldn’t exactly say that. You know how Julian can’t resist anything in a skirt.”
“He's not that bad. He never treated me like a stupid blonde, even though I play the part pretty well.”
I look at her with surprise. “I didn’t know you two had gone out.”
She started to laugh. “Julian and I? Please! We never went out, and he never asked me, which I found very refreshing. He’s like you in a way. Besides, he's not my type.”
I didn’t think I had anything in common with Julian, but I let the comment slide. “Who is your type?” I was definitely curious. I had never seen Gillian showing any interest in the guys in our school or dating anyone.
“No one in particular.” She avoided my gaze and shifted uncomfortably. “Come on, let’s get something to drink.”
She took my hand and led the way to the nearest tiki bar. She got herself a fruity cocktail, but I needed to keep my head clear so I ordered water.
The party was in full swing now that Sean had stationed himself on the DJ stage. I saw Alexia on the other side of the pool talking to Ethan and wondered who had introduced them. I didn’t expect him to be here, after the accident and all, but I was glad that he was at least coping with it.
“You should try this drink, Matt. It’s delicious.” Gillian offered me a sip, but I shook my head.
“No, thanks. I’m driving tonight. And I hope you aren’t.”
“Of course not, I took a cab. I was hoping you could give me a ride later.” She looked at me pleadingly and batted her fake eyelashes, making me laugh. That was what I liked about Gillian, she never asked too much of me, and she made me forget my problems for a while.
“Sure thing,” I replied but something else had caught my attention.
On the other side of the swimming pool, heading toward Alexia and Ethan’s table, holding hands with Julian, was Sam. The effect was equal to being sucker-punched. I had the sensation that the ground beneath my feet had vanished. I lost my balance, and barely felt Gillian’s hand on my arm, supporting me.
She led me to a chair nearby and made me sit down. I put my elbows on my knees and dropped my head. The shock had been so great that I didn’t even have the energy to get crazy mad and beat Julian to a pulp. Gillian came back with the bottle of water I had ordered and placed it on the table until I was ready to drink it.
Why was I reacting so strongly to seeing Sam with Julian? I didn’t like the guy, but this feeling of helplessness and loss was mind-boggling. As I was taking deep breaths and trying to regain my composure, I was blasted with a sudden feeling of possession and rage. Sam was mine. That was enough to make me regain some control, but I knew it wouldn’t last long. I needed to get the hell out of there.
“Matt, are you feeling okay? You look really pale,” Gillian said with obvious concern in her voice.
Without raising my head I lied to her. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute.”
“Should I go get someone? I see Sam standing on the other side of the pool.”
“No!” I raised my head, startling Gillian. “I don’t want Sam to see me like this.” I took another deep breath and got up. I shouldn’t have singled Sam out like that in front of Gillian, but there was nothing to do about it now. She looked at me, puzzled. I had to get out of there.
I finally saw Zach hanging out near the dance floor, so I took Gillian’s hand and walked toward him. Zach only needed to take one quick look at me to know that something was up. However, he refrained from asking me anything until we were alone. Mercifully, Gillian kept her cool and didn’t go into full Barbie mode. Sean started to play a song that I knew she loved. She looked wistfully at the dance floor, then back at me.
“You can go dance, Gill. I’ll be fine,” I told her. I was hoping that she would leave me alone so I could talk to Zach.
“Are you sure? You looked really bad a moment ago.” That comment made Zach look at me more closely. His eyes narrowed and I could practically hear the gears going full speed in his head.
“I’m sure. Besides, if I pass out, I’m sure Zach will catch me.” I winked at Zach playfully to convince Gillian that I was okay.
As soon as she left, the smile disappeared from my face. Zach turned to me. “Let me guess, the Phoenix?”
“Yup. The Phoenix attacks again, the story of my life.” I tried to be sarcastic, but my comment sounded hollow even to me.
Zach shook his head. “Don’t try to use mockery to make you feel better. It
doesn’t suit you. Tell me exactly what happened.”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest and looked defiantly at Zach. “Why? I’m in control now. It doesn’t matter.”
Zach imitated my stance, and a muscle on his jaw twitched. Frustration seeped from him but he refrained from speaking his mind. Zach was control personified. He always thought carefully before he acted and had a deep sense of duty. Just like Mia.
We had a little staring contest until his gaze traveled past me and something changed in his face. He lowered his head, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was trying to cure a headache. He cursed to himself, but I heard him just the same. I was about to turn around to see what had caused his reaction when I heard Gillian screaming.
“Get your hands off me, asshole!”
“Oh, give me a break. Everyone knows how easy you are. Don’t play coy with me.”
It was Johnny McCallistar’s voice, but it couldn’t be. Zach turned to see where the commotion was coming from. No one near us would have heard anything over the loud music, but enhanced senses were one of our Arcadian traits.
Zach and I headed toward Gillian and Johnny’s voice. People nearby seemed oblivious to the situation. Johnny was trying to grope Gillian against her will, and no one was really paying attention. The whole incident with Sam and Julian had already awakened the Phoenix, so it didn’t take much for me to lose it.
I grabbed Johnny by the collar of his shirt and threw him hard to the ground. That little act of violence finally got people’s notice, and a circle formed around us.
Sean stopped the music just then and everyone could hear me addressing Johnny on the ground. “Didn’t you hear Gillian? She asked you to keep your hands off of her.” It took great effort on my part to utter those words without doing more damage to Johnny.
I felt Zach’s hand on my arm, but I brushed it off and turned to see if Gillian was okay. But before I could utter a word to her, I was tackled to the floor. People started to scream as I felt the impact of a punch on my face. I heard a crack, and I knew that my nose was broken. I tried to get Johnny off of me, but he was strong. Too strong for an average Earthling. He got another good punch in before I managed to push him off me.
His surprise attack disoriented me for a moment, but once I touched my lips and felt the stickiness of blood, I only saw red. The Phoenix wanted blood, his blood. A vile feeling took hold of me, a need for revenge and rage that surpassed everything I had felt until that moment. I got up slowly. I had no idea what I looked like, but it couldn’t have been anything good because I sensed fear around me.
I kept hearing my name, but it sounded very far away. I sensed hands trying to hold me back, but I could barely feel them touching me. I was numb. The only thing I felt was what the Phoenix felt.
Johnny was getting ready to come at me again.
The Phoenix was ecstatic with anticipation. Finally it would be unleashed. All of a sudden, Johnny collapsed and the Phoenix screamed at its denied prize. I was burning alive. I wanted to crawl out of my skin. Then everything went white, and I felt a cooling sensation all over my skin. I heard her voice, her beautiful voice, asking me to come back to her. My heart ached. I wanted to reach her, I needed her. Sam.
When I woke up, it took me a few seconds to realize that I was in my bed. The last thing I remembered was getting into a fight with somebody at the party. I tried to get up, but I hurt all over, like I had been hit by a truck. I heard movement in the room. Zach was sitting at my desk.
“Hey, you're up. How are you feeling, buddy?”
“I feel like crap. What time is it, and more importantly, what happened?” I managed to at least sit up.
“It’s just past three in the morning. Regarding what happened, do you want the long version or the short version?” Zach was trying to be funny. So unusual. I must have messed up royally.
I touched my nose and felt the swelling. I vaguely remembered that it had been broken at some point in the evening. But the details were fuzzy.
“Did I…do anything bad?” All I really wanted to know was if I had killed anybody.
“The short version, then. No, you didn’t do anything bad. But it was quite nasty.” I couldn’t read Zach’s face clearly in the dimly lit room. He really needed to start giving me some answers.
“How nasty? Just give it to me straight. I can handle it.” I looked pointedly at him. He took a deep breath before he answered me.
“After Johnny almost beat you to a pulp, we knew that you wouldn’t be able to suppress the Phoenix. And we were right. You looked possessed, Matt.”
“Were my eyes glowing? Did everyone at the party see that I’m not like them?” I asked. If that had happened, I was done. The Council would remove me from Earth.
“Oddly, no. Thank God for that. Something else happened to you, but it was definitely the awakening of the Phoenix. Nobody could reach you or calm you down. When Mia managed to take Johnny down -”
I raised my hand to interrupt Zach. “Wait a second. Mia took Johnny down? How?”
“She removed his oxygen supply with her power. He collapsed due to the lack of air. It was the safest way to take him down without exposing our abilities.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Fuck, this is messed up.”
“You can say that again,” Zach replied without humor.
“What happened when Mia took Johnny out of the picture? Did the Phoenix just give up?” I asked, knowing it was highly unlikely.
Zach shook his head. “Sam did something to you.”
Hearing Sam’s name brought back a flash of sensations, a soothing touch, a beautiful sound, a deep feeling buried inside of me. My heart skipped a beat and I gasped, surprised.
“Matt, are you okay?”
“What did she do to me?” I asked with my voice strained and eyes closed.
“She didn’t say, but Mia filled us in. Sam wouldn’t talk to any of us after the incident. She locked herself in her room as soon as we got home.”
Sam. I wanted to see her, talk to her. God, I wanted to hold her, but I was too confused about everything. I still didn’t understand what had happened or what I was feeling. I decided then that I didn’t want to hear anything about the incident anymore. It could wait until later. I told Zach I was tired and wanted to go back to sleep. He understood and left me alone with my thoughts.
Samantha
As I lay wide awake in my bed, I couldn’t help but rerun the events of the evening in my head. The fight had only lasted a few minutes, but it had been terrifying. I almost flipped when I saw Johnny hold Matthew down and hit him a couple of times.
Stuff like that shouldn’t happen to us. We were faster and stronger than any Earthling. If Mia hadn’t held me in place, I don't know what I would have done. When Matthew had finally been able to get Johnny off of him, Mia took the opportunity to incapacitate him using her element, Air.
Depleted of oxygen, it had taken only a minute for him to collapse. Everyone assumed he passed out from booze or drugs. We knew there was more to the story than met the eye, but we wouldn’t know everything until Sean returned from the hospital with more information. He had gone with Julian when the ambulance came for Johnny.
The Phoenix had hit Matthew hard. It hadn’t been a surprise considering the circumstances. But for the first time, I was truly afraid that it would break through and Matthew would hurt someone. I hadn’t even cared if our secret came out. My concern had been only for him. If he hurt anyone while out of control, he would never forgive himself.
I’d done the only thing I could think of: I had reached into his mind with my powers. I didn’t know exactly how I had done it before, but I had to try. It had been harder, much harder at the party. First of all, I lacked physical contact. With Mia holding me in place and Matthew going berserk, I had to do it from a distance. When I’d finally gone in, all I saw was fire. All I had been able to sense was rage. Matthew's consciousness had been barely a whisper among all that chaos. B
ut when I’d found his essence, I held on to it and didn't let go until he came back to me.
My plan had been to leave his mind when I was certain the fire of the Phoenix had ceased. But before I had been able to do so, something happened. Matthew’s mind had trapped me for a few seconds, and during that time, I knew him — really knew him. He was completely open to me, and his feelings wrapped around me like a warm blanket. There were so many emotions running free that it was hard to grasp their meaning, but for a split second, it felt like he had really been able to see me.
His mind let go of mine when his body gave in and he fell unconscious. After that, chaos ensued. We had to take Matthew home before the ambulance arrived or they would have wanted to take him to the hospital, too. Zach drove Matthew in his car, and I made sure to go with them. There was nothing that could pry me from Matthew’s side at that moment.
Mia must have called Gary on her way home, because he was waiting for us when we arrived. After he’d checked up on Matthew and guaranteed that he was fine, at least for the time being, I’d gone straight to my room. Gary asked me to stay for a debriefing of the incident, but I just gave him a poor excuse and didn't wait for his reply. I would talk with him later today. We couldn't tell him what had really happened with Alexia around, anyway.
Julian had sent me a text message sometime after I’d gotten home, but I just couldn’t deal with him, so I didn’t reply. It was odd. Our make-out session felt like it had happened a hundred years ago. I tried to bring back the feelings he had instilled in me but came up empty. I didn’t think I would ever feel anything remotely similar to what I had felt when I’d been trapped inside Matthew’s mind, which pretty much screwed up my plans to get over him.
Feeling sick of my helpless mood, I got out of bed and started to pace in my room. I looked at the clock and saw that it was past three in the morning. I wondered if Matthew had regained consciousness yet. Zach had volunteered to stay with him and I hadn’t argued. I needed to know how he felt and what he remembered before I imposed my presence. But this waiting was killing me.
