by CJ Anaya
I tried not to look shaken by his comments. He seemed to think that any attraction I felt for Tie was inevitable, and I didn’t want the expression on my face to give me away and confirm his suspicions. Tie’s presence had definitely done something to me, but for some reason Victor’s opinion of me was already starting to matter, and if he didn’t like Tie then I wasn’t going to like him either.
Nope.
“Why on earth would Tie ask me out? We don’t even know each other. And no, I did not want to go out with him. I would’ve liked to have grabbed him around the throat and applied some pressure, though.”
The laugh that escaped Victor’s lips was filled with relief.
I may have talked a good game, but I hadn’t stopped thinking about Tie and the deliciously strange effect he’d had on me since the moment he’d sat behind me in Folklore and Mythology and boldly announced his presence. I hadn’t stopped thinking about his conversation with Ms. Mori either. This worried me.
“This is amazing,” he said in disbelief. “It changes everything.”
“You’re not making any sense. And why has it left you feeling so cheerful? You must really hate that guy.”
“You have no idea.” He gave me another warm smile. This time it reached his eyes. It was a shame they weren’t blue like Tie’s.
Stop! You are not the kind of girl to obsess, so stop it already.
I was totally disgusted with myself.
“You still haven’t explained to me how you and Tie know who I am. It’s got me a little weirded out. Then again, with all of the other strange stuff that’s been happening to me lately, I should just embrace the crazy.”
“What strange stuff?”
His brows furrowed in concern. His mood swings were happening so quickly I was beginning to feel a bit unbalanced.
“It’s nothing I need to be boring you about. Besides, if we don’t stop talking, Mr. Mathers is probably going to kick us both out of class.”
Victor tore his gaze away from mine long enough to take note of the evil look Mr. Mathers sent our way.
“To be continued then?” Victor raised his eyebrows as if he was unsure of himself.
Did he really think I would say no?
“Absolutely.”
He relaxed visibly and turned his attention toward Mr. Mathers.
I wasn’t sure if Victor was actually listening to anything the teacher said. I certainly couldn’t wrap my brain around Calculus at this point. Instead, my mind focused on all of the odd things that had been occurring lately. I thought about how unusual it was to have not only one, but two new guys at the high school, and they both knew me. How? Why would they care so much?
As I sat there pondering all of the likely and unlikely reasons for their presence here, one possibility took hold of me and refused to let go. The same possibility that occurred to me after eavesdropping on Ms. Mori and Tie Hart.
What if they knew what I was capable of?
I tried studying Victor subtly from the corner of my eye. I was pretty sure it made me look like I needed new contact lenses. Did he look like a suspicious character? I gave myself a mental eye roll. Did I even know what a suspicious character looked like?
What if they knew that I could heal? What if they weren’t high school students at all, but some big time, undercover agents working for the FBI or the CIA?
I stopped trying to be sneaky and openly studied his profile, deciding that he definitely looked like he was in his early twenties. He was just trying to pass for a high school student. Or maybe he and Tie were independent contractors working for other countries. Someone had discovered I was healing people, and that someone wanted to study me in order to figure out how to cure diseases like cancer or diabetes. I was the target, the new lab rat.
All of my father’s fear and paranoia about what the government would do to me if they knew about my abilities began to take over. I’d always felt like he was being way too overprotective, but now I questioned my own skepticism. Of course, that didn’t explain why Victor would be worried about whether or not I had agreed to date Tie. Did agents date the people they were supposed to kidnap? Did Tie use seduction as his way to get closer to his targets?
Why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? I sat there replaying our intense conversation about gods and cherry blossoms over and over in my head. In all honesty, he’d made some valid points. Angie was exactly the kind of girl who would’ve benefited from a cherry blossom, or at the very least, an ugly guy who loved her and made her feel beautiful.
I could’ve let down my guard a bit and not been quite so confrontational, but it had felt good sparring with him like that. It had made me feel alive. There had been a kind of exciting chemistry building between us, and I realized that pushing his buttons had not only been thoroughly enjoyable, but comfortably familiar.
I was a freak!
I hadn’t realized that I’d begun to hyperventilate from the panic setting in until Victor’s hand closed over mine, reminding me I should try to breathe normally.
“Are you okay, Hope?”
His quiet voice and gentle manner broke the frantic thoughts running through my head. I took one long look at Victor’s face, so full of concern, and figured there was no way this guy was untrustworthy. I was being ridiculous. I squeezed his hand back and gave him a tired smile. Even though I knew he wasn’t some kind of crazy government agent out to exploit my gift for his own evil purposes, I still felt like I needed to go lie down somewhere and hide for the rest of the day. Feeling this weighted down wasn’t normal for me, and as much as I wanted to bask in Victor’s presence for a little while longer, I needed to get out of there, and I needed to stop thinking about Tie.
“It’s been a long morning, and I had a late night. I think maybe I just need to go to the nurse’s station and see if I can grab some Tylenol or something.” I was lying, of course. I’d never taken Tylenol in my life.
“First your dizziness, and now you have a headache?” Victor asked sounding disturbed.
I nodded as I reached for my bag and my Calculus book.
“I didn’t know that kind of thing could happen to you,” he muttered to himself.
“Excuse me?”
My senses prickled at this. How could he know that?
“You are Hope Fairmont, right?” Victor’s confusion mirrored my own as I stood up, getting ready to bolt for the doorway.
“Ms. Fairmont, were you planning on going somewhere?” Mr. Mathers asked.
I looked toward the front of the class and felt my face flush as all of the students in the room turned in their seats and rested their curious stares on me.
I cleared my throat.
“I was hoping I could go to the nurse’s station. Headache.” I pointed to my head in case Mr. Mathers wasn’t aware of where headaches tended to reside.
He nodded in resignation, like a trip to the nurse’s station was an everyday occurrence for me. I did my best to avoid eye contact with Victor since it was obvious he knew more about me than was reasonably safe. I slid past him, feeling his eyes boring holes in my back as I made my way to the front of the classroom and out the door. I walked a bit unsteadily toward the girl’s bathroom, grateful that everyone else was in class and there was no one in the hallway to bump into.
Upon reaching the bathroom, I plopped myself down on the filthy tile floor and tried to decide what my options were. I wondered if Victor was going to give up his high school student act and come looking for me. I wanted to call my dad, but I wasn’t sure if this situation warranted worrying him.
I mean, what did I know for certain? Victor’s remark could have meant a number of different things. He might have been joking. He didn’t ever actually come out and say, “Hey, I think you’re lying. You and I both know you never get headaches, and when you do, your body heals itself so quickly it’s like the headache was never there to begin with.”
I was just overreacting. My imagination had taken over, and I had willingly let it in an attempt to explain away the
interest Victor had shown me. I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of someone being interested in me. I led a double life in my friendship with Angie, and a boyfriend would complicate matters even further.
How did he already know so much about me? I still wanted to talk to somebody, but getting Angie involved was out of the question. Trying to explain my gift to her after all this time wasn’t something I felt I could face. Talking to my father was a disaster in the making. My only other option involved visiting Kirby, but I hated telling him anything that might make him or his condition worse. Still, the thought of being able to have Kirby’s take on things and my need to check up on him ended up making my decision for me. The best course of action would be to get through the rest of the day as smoothly as possible and then high tail my hind end over to the hospital.
My growling stomach reminded me that lunch was still a class away. I figured if I could find Angie she could give me Tie’s schedule, and I’d know whether or not I had any more classes with him.
Hmmm. Tie.
I had to shake myself. I kept picturing his nicely shaped lips forming a smug little smile.
Okay, back to my brainstorming.
As far as Victor was concerned I just didn’t know. Asking Angie to make out with the office aide one last time in order to avoid Victor for the rest of the day seemed a bit much.
Not that Angie wouldn’t be up for it. In fact, I was fairly certain she’d do it if it meant investigating yet another hot new guy. I could just picture the look on Angie’s face once I told her about Victor wandering around the high school without her knowledge. I waited in agony as the minutes slowly ticked by, reviewing over and over again the conversations I’d had with Tie and Victor that day.
The class bell rang, and I hid in one of the stalls while teenage girls with less important things on their minds came in to freshen their makeup and talk about their latest frenemies. Once they all left, there was only one more class to wait through, but the extra time it gave me to think about my predicament only made my worries multiply.
By the time the lunch bell finally rang, my anxiety had thrown me into a panic.
I grabbed my cell phone out of my bag and dialed Angie’s number. I wasn’t about to wander the halls in search of her, only to bump into Tie or Victor, or anyone else for that matter. Not with the way this day had gone.
“Miss me already?” Angie asked in greeting.
I took in a deep breath, feeling a certain sense of comfort in hearing her voice.
“Angie, I need you to meet me in the girl’s bathroom on the second floor.”
“Clandestine meetings, eh? Is this the part where you tell me you’re really a spy and our friendship has been nothing but a cover for some deeper purpose?”
“Let’s just say I’m definitely going to need your sleuthing skills to aid me in my next covert operation.”
“Excellent. What’s the job?”
“How do you feel about getting a hold of another very good looking guy’s class schedule?”
Her laughter carried clearly through the phone, and seemed to buoy my confidence.
“I’m feeling like it’s about time for another make-out session with my most favorite office aide.”
* * *
“You’re telling me the hot guy you want me to investigate is also new?”
Angie’s face was a mixture of excitement and disappointment. I assumed the disappointment had something to do with her total ignorance where Victor was concerned.
“Yep. Your hot guy radar seems to be on the fritz as of late.”
“Most disturbing,” Angie said as she tapped her fingernails on the bathroom sink. “Something equally disturbing is you wanting me to get you Victor’s class schedule in order to avoid him rather than purposely run into him.”
She studied my impassive face. I said nothing, knowing she was on the verge of giving me another lecture about my permanent single status.
“You know, Hope, I’ve thought for years the reason you’ve never had a boyfriend was simply because you were too clueless to notice any of the signals guys sent your way. You’ve all but admitted to me you think Victor is interested in you, and instead of letting him do all the work to sweep you off your feet you want to avoid him by employing the kind of illegal measures that only I am crazy enough to think up.”
I tried to maintain eye contact, but my gaze wavered in the face of her speculative stare. I didn’t want to have this discussion with her right now. She was always so game for anything. Why did she decide at this very moment to have a serious heart-to-heart about my non-existent love life?
“Now I’m wondering if there isn’t a completely different reason for your indifference here. Don’t you think it’s about time you told me the truth?”
I shook my head and decided to try for a joke, anything to make her back off from this line of questioning.
“Angie,” I said impatiently, “I am not a lesbian. Don’t you know me at all?”
She rolled her eyes at me in annoyance.
“Of course you’re not. There’s no way you could have resisted me for all these years if you were.”
The corners of her lips turned up into a flirtatious smile. I tried for a slightly outraged look in response to her cocky attitude.
“You are so full of yourself, Angie. I’m not the least bit attracted to redheads.”
There was a full beat of total silence as I glowered and Angie gave me a seductive smile. Unable to hold it back any longer, we both burst out laughing until tears seeped from the corners of my eyes. The tension I’d been feeling ever since I’d entered the high school began to lift as I continued to laugh.
“All right,” Angie said as she swiped at her eyes with the tips of her dainty fingers. “I’ll let this go for now, but eventually we’re going to have a serious conversation about your single status.”
“Fair enough.” I stood back up and leaned against the bathroom wall. “So you’ll get me Victor’s schedule?”
“You know I will, but I want to know why you need Tie’s schedule too.” She pulled a folded piece of paper from her back pocket and held it out to me. “It was obvious the guy was into you, but is avoiding both Victor and Tie really necessary?”
I reached for Tie’s class schedule. Just as I was about to grab it, Angie pulled the paper back out of my reach and shook her head as if she couldn’t believe she was actually going to humor me.
“This is insane. You have two gorgeous guys who want you. Why are you running from this?”
“Angie, Tie’s behavior around me wasn’t exactly normal. Did we not overhear the same conversation once we left mythology? He behaved as if he already knew me. Why are you pushing this when you’re usually so protective?”
Angie lowered her gaze to the bathroom floor and hesitated before responding.
“I get the feeling that he’s safe.”
“How?”
I studied her, waiting for some real answers.
“I can’t explain it, Hope. I just need you to trust me like you always have.”
“I trust you, but I want you to let this go. I don’t want to deal with either one of them any more than is necessary.” I reached my hand out for Tie’s schedule again, doing my best to hide my frustration. She handed it to me grudgingly and then folded her arms across her chest. “Besides, once Tie and Victor have an opportunity to talk to you they won’t even remember my name,” I added cheerfully.
Angie shook her head at me and narrowed her eyes.
“I know I’ve pretty much chased after anything male and good looking for the entire span of our teenage years, but if I’d thought for even one second you held some interest in any of those guys, I would’ve toned it down a bit and given you the wheel for a while. Not only are both of them showing some interest in you, but you seem to be noticing it. That in itself is huge.”
I knew I should have told her the truth and shared my fears and suspicions with her like any normal best friend would. I should have to
ld her that their interest in me was suspect. My ability to heal was what was really on their agenda. At least that’s what I thought Victor’s agenda was, but Tie’s connection to Victor made his motives look suspicious also.
I should have told her the real reason behind my need to avoid them, but I didn’t. I’d kept her out of the loop for so long, and I wasn’t about to change that any time soon, especially if things got dangerous.
My thoughts went back to the previous night when I’d sensed someone following me. That tree had been torched, the fire meant for me. I knew it didn’t make any sense, but the idea that I’d imagined the whole thing was becoming more and more ludicrous as the day went on. I longed to tell Angie everything, but I was suddenly very scared about what kind of position that would put her in. Would she be a target? Would anyone assume she knew my secret? I couldn’t do that to her. Not to Angie.
“Look, Tie is Victor’s cousin, he’s kind of unpleasant, and I’d rather not run into him if I can help it. That’s all.” I was lying through my teeth, and Angie knew it.
She raised an eyebrow and smirked at me in disbelief. “I saw the way you and Tie looked at each other. You were very affected by his presence. It was refreshing to watch, now that I think about it.” Her smirk became more pronounced. “If lying to yourself is going to help you avoid these feelings you so obviously have, then I will allow it, for now.” She leaned over the bathroom sink and studied her flawless reflection in the mirror. “But for the record, I’m officially handing over the steering wheel to you. Those boys are off limits for me, and I will not make one single move toward either one of them.”
“Angie,” I started in a warning tone.
She held up her finger, effectively cutting me off.
“I’ll let you avoid them for now, but we are going to talk this out, Hope. I won’t let you ruin a great chance for some real happiness just because you’re not willing to talk about what happened to your mother or why you spend so much of your time at the hospital.”
My jaw nearly hit the floor in surprise. Angie and I were never this direct with one another when it came to issues we avoided like the plague. It was understood that my mother and her dark periods were two subjects we never talked about. And for her to call me out on the way I buried myself at the hospital was especially disconcerting. She seemed so lost in her own world most of the time, it surprised me that she had noticed.
