Watch Me: Teen Paranormal Romance (A Touched Trilogy Book 3)

by Angela Fristoe

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I told you I didn’t sleep well.”

  Her eyes widened and she said, “Chloe, I asked if you wanted to go shopping with me tomorrow after school and you told me to stay home or die.”

  Holy crap. A forced laugh burst out from me. “I guess I’m worse off than I thought. Maybe I should go home. I’ll call you tonight.”

  “I’m hanging out with Owen, but I’ll text you.”

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  She giggled. “Considering you’re saving yourself for Andrew, you’re not leaving me much to do.”

  “I haven’t been saving myself for him.” The words sounded bitter even to my ears.

  It wasn’t a complete lie. For a long time I had waited to be with him, thinking he’d be my first even though I’d never seen that future. Then after Homecoming, I realized it would never happen between us.

  I took off for home, not even bothering to stop in the office and sign out. That would require calling my dad to notify him I was leaving. It was much easier to skip. I’d just have to break down and ask Phoebe to use her well-honed forgery skills to write me a note tomorrow.

  Talking during my visions wasn’t normal for me. It happened once before that I knew of. I had the same kind of double vision of Lily’s future. In one, a car hit her leaving her badly injured while Micah was with his ex-girlfriend. The second set of images showed Micah going after Lily, causing her to turn back from the road in time.

  I’d had no idea I even said anything, but according to Micah, I told him to choose right or the one he loved would die. Luckily, the words made sense to him, because he went after Lily and she’d stopped turned back from the parking lot just as some idiot had torn through and slammed into a car right by Lily.

  I’d thought it had to do with Micah being a buffer, which somehow let him block my gift from working with him. But Nadine didn’t have that ability, so something was seriously effed up with my gift. What else was new?

  The empty house didn’t help me sort things out and after forcing down the salad I’d packed for lunch, I decided to go out. I needed to relax, to organize my thoughts, and hopefully, find my way back to being myself. Thirty minutes later, I found myself at the cemetery.

  Walking along the path to my mom’s grave was actually comforting. It sounds kind of morbid to think of liking such a depressing place, but visiting Mom always made me feel safe. I’d never understood Phoebe’s aversion to coming. When I topped the slight hill, I spotted Nanna sitting on a bench a few yards away from Mom’s grave.

  I sat next to her, loving the comfort of the arm she laid over my shoulder.

  “I knew you’d come here,” she said.

  “Seeing the future now?” I asked.

  She laughed softly. “No, but I know my granddaughters, and of the three of you girls you always loved coming here.”

  “So you came hoping I’d come, too?”

  “I always love spending time with you girls, but no, today is my regular day to visit. Your Uncle Silas is coming by in a bit and he’s taking me shopping.”

  Uncle Silas was my mom’s youngest brother and a healer like Lily. Nanna liked to say he had the gift of miracles; a rare gift and one that carried heavy burdens. Miracles don’t happen every day and while simple healings of cuts and broken bones were easy for him, Uncle Silas never knew when a miracle would happen. As Nanna always says, God has his own plans and those touched by him are simply a vessel of him to act.

  “I never made my weekly visits a secret, so while you may not have planned to see me, I think you wanted to. Tell me about school, or perhaps your boy.”

  “School is good. Andrew’s good.” I took a deep breath, drawing in the Chanel No. 9 perfume she’d worn every day since I could remember. I imaged it was the same one my mother wore. I liked the idea of being able to smell her presence even if I would never feel it.

  “I see. Well, now we cleared that up, would you like you tell me why you really came to see me?” Her fingers drummed against my arm, as I stayed silent. “Something has been bothering you for much longer than a day.”

  “My visions are changing. I mean, they’re like seriously different.”

  “You’re talking about what happened with Dylan.”

  Her face grew somber. I remembered how she had changed towards him after one visit. With her ability to view the events of a person’s past, it had always made me wonder what it was in Dylan’s life that caused her to act differently when she saw him. I wondered if that event had led to his choice to commit suicide.

  “That was a long time ago, dear. No one blames you for not seeing what was coming. You have to forgive yourself.”

  “I didn’t just not see it coming, I told Lily he would be here and they would be together.”

  “You can’t continue to let that effect you.”

  “This isn’t only about Dylan. There have been other things my visions were wrong about. Things that will never happen, that go against every other vision I’ve had for a person, yet I saw them as clearly as any other vision.”

  “You, my dear, are color blind.”

  I gave her a sideways look. “What are you talking about?”

  “I can still remember the day you came and told me about how the future is black and white. Things either will be or they won’t and that you were glad because you were going to get your driver’s license before Phoebe.”

  I didn’t remember the day she spoke of, although it definitely sounded like me, and I didn’t get what point she was trying to make.

  “Maybe the future you see is not as determined as you once thought.”

  I shook my head. “It is. It has to be.”

  “You and your sisters are so alike it always astonishes me.” She chuckled when I gave her another surprised look. “The three of you possess such a craving for control, though each of you shows it in completely different ways.”

  “Yeah, sorry Nanna, I’m not buying that. Lily maybe, but Phoebs and me? No way. She thrives on chaos.”

  “Oh, I assure you, dear. All three of you. Lily must be organized and know where everything fits to make up for the way she was never able to shut anyone else out. Phoebe intentionally antagonizes people into giving her the exact reaction she wants while hiding how she feels.”

  “Okay, but I’m not a control freak. I don’t need to be. I already know what’s going to happen. There’s nothing to control.” I kind of resented her saying I was. That need was based on weakness and fear. I was not weak or afraid.

  “You, my dear, are in denial. Of the three of you, you seek control the most. I pray that one day you will realize what little good you’ve done with your gift. Your visions have become the one path you have chosen. The ability you have to see the future is not what you make it to be.”

  “What does that mean?” My defenses went on high alert.

  “You must be open to possibilities. Your gift is not changing, you simply pushed it into such a tidy little box that it is finally pushing back. I worry that if you keep trying to control it, you’ll end up hurting yourself or others.”

  “I don’t choose anything, Nanna.” Anger seeped through to my words. There was no way I would choose to see some of the horrible things I’d seen. “The future is there and all I do is enter it. It is what it is.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “And there it is, my dear. There is the control you crave, the absolute certainty that you are unwilling to change.”

  “That’s not me wanting control. It’s the future.”

  “If I ask you what I’ll have for dinner, could you see it? Would you tell me? If you did, would I still feel the need to have it? If you don’t tell me, will I perhaps select something different?” She tugged me closer and pressed a kiss to my temple then whispered in my hair. “You see what you want, Chloe. Prophecy can have such a profound effect on the number of paths before you. But you choose to see the path that all
ows you to do nothing and that makes me very sad for you. There are so many things you will miss out on. So many things you have already missed.”

  “It’s not just my future I see. What about all the people I have visions of? I’m not choosing their paths. They are.”

  “Are they? Or are you simply not sharing the choices they have?”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond. I wanted to continue denying there were possibilities to what I see, but a little voice in my head said maybe I was wrong. A voice that wouldn’t have sounded so bad if it weren’t a whispering echo of Phoebe’s.

  Chapter 7

  The next day, Alonna stuck to her new seat, which left me with Sebastian as a table buddy again. The pale gray cloud around him had thinned, but that didn’t stop me from being on guard. I stayed tense most of the class, keeping my attention on Mrs. Booth.

  As I answered the questions on the independent assignment, I felt his eyes on me. The silent drilling forced me to look up. He arched a brow and gave a mocking smile. I’d taken him as more of a nervous dorky type like Owen, prone to self-deprecation more than the mockery of others, so his expression surprised me.

  “Problem?” I asked, giving him back the same attitude.

  “I was wondering if you realized the probability of me actually biting you is statistically lower than the chance of me licking you.”

  “What?!” How do you even begin to respond to that?

  “Well, simply put biting can lead to exposure to a variety of communicable diseases that licking doesn’t, thus the chance of me licking you is more likely, although only slightly. You seem quite concerned with keeping a certain amount of distance between us, so I made the assumption your fear emanated from a fear of biting.”

  He said it so totally deadpan I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. My eyes darted around to see if anyone else heard him and knew what was wrong with him.

  Lifting a hand, he scratched at the short black hair behind his ear. “Of course, if unlike your sister Phoebe you do not have an unnatural obsession with the flesh eating deceased rising from the grave, I’ll need to consider alternative options.” He lifted an arm and sniffed at his shirt. “My clothing appears to have a normal scent associated with laundry detergent and as I showered this morning, thus eliminating any unpleasant body odors, I’ll be able to reduce the possibilities.”

  “Uh, what are you talking about?”

  “Ah, she speaks. I did wonder if perhaps you were mute, albeit selectively as I heard you speak prior to our new seating arrangement.”

  Okay, I was beyond confused. It was like being on some freaky episode of The Big Bang Theory, except the character sitting beside me wasn’t anywhere near as funny.

  “I have no idea what you even said, let alone what you’re talking about.” I shifted in my seat, giving him a partial view of my back while I pretended to get back to work. My attempt failed fairly quickly as I spun back around to glare at him. This time he was doing a good job of ignoring me.

  “Why do you hang out with Phoebe?” Not quite the question I wanted to ask, but ‘are you planning a mass murder?’ seemed a bit abrupt for a first conversation.

  My question seemed to completely throw him.

  “Logically, I socialize with her in my attempts to appear human. Though I suspect from your dubious attitude I have not been nearly as successful as I’d hoped.”

  Was this guy for real? How had I missed this magnitude of weirdness sitting in a number of the same classes with me for over a month?

  “I’m joking. I’m not an alien. Well, technically I am, although I suppose the appropriate term is legal resident. As for Phoebe, she’s cool, I guess.”

  “Nathan and Bianca are cool. Phoebe is…” I let my words trail off. We may not get along, but I’m not into badmouthing my sister.

  “Entirely awesome.” There was that deadpan voice again. I began seeing how he and Phoebe managed to be friends. Both of them were beyond annoying. He cracked a smile. “So, you’re not a fan of your sister. As for me, the jury is still out on her. She’s a little odd, a trait which intensifies when she’s with Bianca and Tonya. And, of course, when she’s randomly calling people a liar. Her distinct lack of tact is intriguing, while also displaying an amazing intuition about the honest of our peers.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” I twisted around to face forward again. I had absolutely no idea how to carry on a conversation with this guy.

  “Did I answer your question?” he asked.

  “What question?” He was still talking to me. Why?

  “About your problem?”

  “I don’t have a problem.” I prayed then. I prayed Alonna would come back to her regular spot and for this torment I was experiencing to come to a swift end, never to occur again.

  “Good, Then I’ll assume I don’t have one either, since I had been pondering your problem when you decided to question mine. Thus, if you have no problem then I have no problem, and we are both problem free.”

  I stared at him, getting the distinct impression that while strange, he was messing with me. Whether in fun or spite, I couldn’t tell and that alone pissed me off.

  “Look, Sebastian-”

  “Bastian. No one calls me Sebastian except Phoebe, and I believe does so because she is determined to be different than everyone else.”

  “Yeah, well, I need to get my work done, so I’d rather not talk.”

  “Which, of course, is why you struck up a conversation with me in the first place.”

  My eyes narrowed. “Which I only did because you were giving me a creepy stalker stare.”

  “Huh, I didn’t realize I appeared stalker-like. I was simply going for creepy. I’ll have to work on that.” He started twitching his eyes, alternately widening and narrowing them together and then one at a time. Finally, he settled on one eye partially closed with the other open wide beneath a raised eyebrow. “How’s this?”

  “Oh, yes. Be still my fluttering heart. What an amazingly creepy, yet not stalker, look.”

  I turned back to my assignment. Phoebe possessed an incredible ability to select the most abnormal friends.

  For the next thirty minutes, I ignored Bastian and even completed my assignment early. I handed it in then sat back down to read a new book on my iPad. Bastian’s future was easier to avoid if I concentrated on something else, still the need to know nagged at me. One drawback of always knowing the future is when I don’t know what will happen it’s all I can think about.

  I gave into temptation right before the bell. It didn’t take much effort; I relaxed and let it in. I prepared myself for the violent scenes I’d glimpsed before. Instead, I saw something different.

  The images drifted in and out quickly. Flashes of Bastian with an older woman and his brother, him laughing at something Phoebe said, smiling as he crossed the stage during graduation while flashing Dr. Spock’s Vulcan salute.

  Leaning to the side, I pulled myself out of the vision. Nothing matched with what I’d seen of his future before and that frustrated me more than anything. When the bell rang, a sigh of relief escaped me.

  At lunch, I found myself sitting with Lily and Micah, but hanging with the two of them wasn’t something I felt super comfortable with. I loved Lily, and Micah was great, but that only made my guilt even worse.

  Only a couple months ago, Micah and Lily had only been friends. When he asked me out, I said yes. What girl wouldn’t? Micah was hot and smart, and I still burned with the vision of Andrew and Nadine. What I hadn’t known was that Lily and Micah’s friendship had been more of a 'friends with benefits' thing.

  The one date we went on still hung like a rotten apple between us. That I contributed, even unknowingly to Lily’s pain put me on constant guard, trying to find ways to assure her I wasn’t interested in Micah.

  Looking at them now, anyone would find hard to believe they almost lost their chance to be together. Micah rested his arm around Lily’s shoulder and she smiled. Not the fake smile she wore for years, but a
soft tilting of her lips that told me everything was all right with her. Something I only recently realized wasn’t real. I doubt I would have even suspected anything was wrong if I hadn’t gone on that date with Micah.

  I glanced away when Micah whispered something in Lily’s ear causing her face to flush a bright pink. Watching the line of people make their way through the lunch line wasn’t as fascinating, but it was way less uncomfortable.

  “Yo, Chloe.”

  I turned to Micah, raising a brow in question.

  “I asked if you wanted the rest of these.” He gestured to the pile of cucumber slices on his tray.

  “Thanks.” I picked up a few and popped one into my mouth.

  “Hey guys,” Phoebe said, sinking onto the bench beside me. She stuck her finger into my salad, digging around.

  “Hey!” I grabbed the container.

  “What? I wanted chicken. Don’t you always say I need protein?”

  “No, what I always say is you need to dump the junk food. Besides, there’s no chicken.”

  “Are you doing the vegan thing again?”

  “No. I ate all of the chicken already.”

  “Good because that tofu crap is totally gross. I’m pretty sure too much of it will kill me.”

  “Don’t worry, I’d tell you in advance so you can say your final goodbyes.”

  She scrunched her face up and stuck her salad dressing coated finger in her mouth. “So, what are you moping about?”

  That brought Lily and Micah’s eyes over to me, and I realized between the three of them, I wasn’t going to be let off the hook.

  “I tried to do it.”

  “Do what?” Lily asked.

  My eyes flickered over to Micah, and for a moment, I hesitated. My ability was a popular rumor around school, but for everyone other than a handful of people, that’s all it was. Micah knew about our abilities, thanks to Phoebe and her loud mouth, but I still felt weird talking about it in front of someone I hadn’t known that long. But this was Micah and he was it for Lily.

  “I tried changing the future.”