For most of the way home, we sat in silence. I had always thought we had the kind of relationship where we could go for long stretches of not talking without it being remotely awkward. I wondered if we were really as comfortable with each other as I thought, or if it was just me that was okay with the silence. It wasn’t like Aiden was stuck with his own thoughts. No, he would be sitting there listening to all my silly inner ramblings. And believe me, superhuman or not, I’ve had my fair share of dumb-ass thoughts.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his lips twitch. I had seen it a million times before and had always thought it was a cute quirk of his. A slight imperfection to his otherwise perfectness.
I turned my body so that my back was leaning against the car door, allowing me to watch his reactions to my thoughts. Why the hell should I pretend my thoughts were for my mind only when he could hear every damn thing I thought?
“You all right there?” Aiden turned his head so that he was completely facing me and not the road. A couple of days ago, that would have freaked the crap out of me, but knowing that I couldn’t die—or even get much more than a cut—kind of changed things.
I kept staring at him, willing myself to be able to hear his thoughts, too. If only it were that easy.
Aiden’s phone rang, interrupting my attempt at what seemed the impossible. He glanced at the screen before answering.
“Hey, Chels, what’s up?” The moment I heard her name, an unsettling feeling that I couldn’t explain swept over me.
Her voice came through the car speakers. “Hey, I just wanted to check to see how Jade’s doing. I know she looked okay before you took her to the hospital this morning. I can’t believe she didn’t even get burnt. I do not know how Ms. Drake put the fire out before it managed to burn through her uniform.”
I glared at Aiden. Is that what he had done to them right before we got in the car? Did he feed them a load of BS? Could he even do something like that? He didn’t admit it with Chelsea listening in, but the little smirk Aiden threw my way made me think I was onto something.
“Anyway, how is she? They didn’t find anything wrong with her, did they? Are you still with her?” God, that girl could talk.
“She’s fine. And yes, I’m still with her.” Aiden put his hand on my knee. I was still facing him, with my back against the door, so my knee was all he could reach without leaning over.
“You okay?” he whispered to me. I knew he wasn’t asking me if I was okay for the same reason Chelsea was. He was asking me about the creepy feeling that kept growing inside of me. I shrugged. Truth be told, it was starting to scare me a little.
“Hi, Chels,” I piped in. “And before you say anything, I am fine.” I knew that she would have asked me even though Aiden had just told her I was okay.
“Good,” she said, letting out a sigh. Knowing her, she wouldn’t have really believed it until she heard it from me herself. “You must be like a saint or something, only instead of performing miracles on others, you’re using them all on yourself.” She laughed.
I thought about what she had just said. Everyone must be thinking something was up with me. I mean, how many times can you come so close to death and live to see another day? I made a mental note to try to be more careful. I didn’t want to bring any more unnecessary attention to myself.
“So, anyway, I have your things you left at school this morning. Do you want to meet up after school? Ben asked me to go to Baxter’s with him, but I can come over to your house instead.” She sounded hopeful.
I didn’t want to intrude on what I thought was some sort of date Ben was planning. But even more so, I didn’t want her coming around my house just yet. There were too many things I knew she would ask, and I didn’t want to answer. So I opted to make it a double date. “We’ll meet you at Baxter’s.” Although I couldn’t see Chelsea, I could tell she had been hoping that I would save her from the whole date thing. “I’ve been stuck in the hospital almost all day, and I really feel like some fresh air.” I lied about the hospital part, not the needing fresh air.
“Okay, then. So I’ll see you guys in an hour?”
An hour! I looked at the clock, and sure enough it was just after two in the afternoon. Where the hell had the day gone? Oh, yeah, I had found out that I was Superwoman, that’s where.
“We’ll be there,” Aiden said, covering for me because I was once again lost in my own thoughts.
“Don’t be late,” Chelsea said before hanging up.
I turned around in my seat so that I was facing the dashboard. The nauseous feeling had started to subside, but it was still creeping the crap out of me.
“What was that about?” I asked Aiden, hoping that he would be able to explain what was going on.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Haven’t a clue.” Aiden looked over and saw the disappointment on my face. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.”
He laced his fingers with mine, and the tension instantly drained from my body. “What did you just do to me?” I asked. I had completely forgotten to ask about what he and Anna could do by just touching me.
“You mean this?” He squeezed my hand, sending an extra wave of calmness coursing through my body.
My eyes widened in surprise. My whole body pulsated as waves of whatever the hell it was seemed to flow through my veins, sending me into a state of calmness I had never felt before. I finally managed to find my voice. “Yes, that.”
He laughed and sent another wave pulsating through my body, making me gasp as I felt ‘it’ enter my body.
“The easiest way to explain it is that we are able to manipulate your endorphins by way of touch,” Aiden explained. “I can also make you angry, too. Want to see?” A mischievous smile spread across his face.
“No,” I said, pulling my hand away from his. If he could make me feel this good, I sure as hell didn’t want to know how angry he could make me feel.
Aiden laughed. “Maybe later, hey?” he joked, which I didn’t find half as amusing as what he seemed to.
“How ’bout never,” I warned.
“Hey?” Aiden said, grabbing my hand, which I reluctantly let him hold.
“What?” I wondered what else he was going to try to do to me. Aiden’s expression was serious, making me even more nervous.
“I will never manipulate your feelings like that,” he promised. I hoped he was just referring to the whole making me angry thing, because the calming endorphin thing he did was definitely okay with me. Aiden sent another wave pulsating through my veins, letting me know that yes, I was still getting some of the good ones from him.
For the remainder of the drive to my place, I tried to get past the calm feeling that consumed my body and tried to make sense of the creepy feeling I had when I heard Chelsea's voice. I knew there was something important I was missing, but for the life of me, I hadn’t a clue what that thing was. By the time we arrived, I was still no closer to figuring it out.
Aiden parked in the driveway. I got out and made a quick dash for the side gate, hoping none of my nosy neighbours were watching me run across my front yard in a T-shirt that barely covered my ass. I half-hoped invisibility was one of my gifts, but by the look on my next-door neighbour, Mrs. Carson’s face, I was in no such luck. She gasped and placed her hand over her heart as if my public display of fleshiness was giving her a heart attack. She was lucky I hadn’t burned a hole through my underwear; otherwise, she would’ve probably ended up in the hospital. A small laugh escaped my lips at the thought of what her doctor's notes would say: “Patient Diagnosis: Minor heart attack, caused by Jade Sommers’ booty.”
Thanks to my abrupt departure from school, I had left my bag with my keys in the science lab. I hoped Mum had returned the spare key to our ‘oh so secret, nobody would ever guess’ hiding place, which was actually in plain sight.
I opened the side gate and barely managed to close it behind me before Tyson came bounding up to greet me with one of his over-the-top kisses. It was really more like a loving mauling of any
body part of mine that he could manage to fit between his massive chompers.
“Hey, boy,” I said as I tried to remove my hand from his mouth. He reluctantly released his loving grip and settled for a rub behind the ears.
I moved my hand down to the front of his neck and was relieved to find that Mum had returned the key. We figured that if any would-be robber could get the house key from the collar of a fifty-kilo Rottweiler, they deserved to get into the house without having to break a window.
With Tyson sniffing where he shouldn’t, I quickly opened the back door, jumped inside, and left a sulking, overgrown puppy outside. I loved my dog, even though he was a handful. We had once sent him away to a doggy training camp that claimed to be the best in the business. Four hundred dollars later and they couldn’t even manage to get him to walk beside them for more than a second. Mum of course made them give her money back, even though they wanted to keep some for boarding and feeding him. We weren’t sending Tyson there so we could go off on a holiday, so Mum kindly told them that if they didn’t refund us in full, she would do a story on how incompetent they really were; they were suddenly more than happy to refund us in full.
I opened the front door and let Aiden inside. He went to grab my hand. “I don’t think you want to do that.” I pulled my hand back and held it to the side. “Dog slobber.” I looked at the glistening goo covering my right hand.
Aiden stood back as if he was going to catch cooties from the drool. “I’ll just wait in the living room while you go wash that shit off.” It was even funnier to watch his reaction to dog saliva, knowing he was practically Superman. Yet something so pathetic could turn him into a little girl.
“You know I’m far from a little girl,” he said, raising his eyebrows.
“Oh, really… Well then, why don’t you come upstairs and show me just how much of a man you really are?” I said, holding out my slobbery hand.
His eyes darted down to my outstretched hand, which I’m sure was a little too close for comfort. “I would, but then we would be late, and Chelsea would kill you if you left her alone with Ben.”
“Your loss,” I said, turning around and walking upstairs. I could feel his eyes on me, wanting so badly to take me up on my offer, but not enough to confront his fear.
After showering to get Tyson’s slobber and the stench of smoke, burnt clothing, and fire-extinguisher fluid out of my hair, I dressed in my new barely-there white swimmers and threw a light blue kaftan on top. I wanted to try to go swimming at the beach before I had to get back home before Mum did; she would probably freak if she knew that I'd been out all day, especially when she had told me to stay home.
I looked at myself in my full length mirror, admiring how damn cute I looked, then grabbed my beach bag and towel and went downstairs.
“I’m ready. Let’s go,” I called out as I headed to the front door.
Aiden was by my side within a blink of an eye.
“Whoa.” I wasn’t used to how quickly he could move. I wondered if I would ever be able to move that fast, too.
“Whoa yourself,” he said, taking a look at me, giving me exactly the reaction I was hoping for. Aiden wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me close. “You know, I think Chelsea wouldn’t mind so much being left alone with Ben,” he whispered in my ear, his hands making their way down to my arse.
“Oh, no, I think you were right before. She would definitely kill me if I didn’t show up on time.” I pushed my hands against his chest, breaking his hold on me.
Aiden puffed out his lips like a little child who had just been told that he couldn’t have the lollipop he wanted so badly. “That’s so not fair,” he complained.
There’s always tonight, I thought.
Evolution (Evolution Series Book 1) Page 5
