COLTON SEEMS TO BE THE one doing the avoiding this time. The only time I see him is when we are training or if we ever watch a movie. That seems to be our group thing. It reminds me of Friends. Instead of Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey and Ross meeting in the Central Perk for coffee, we all meet in the entertainment room for a movie. During these times, I sit with Liam, while Colton sits brooding on the couch, on the farthest end from me.
While watching The Princess Bride, David calls from his seat across from me, “Ryanne, I look nothing like André the Giant.”
“Oh my gosh. I totally forgot that I called you that! How did you remember that? That feels like forever ago.” During one of my first conversations with David, I called him André the Giant right before he showed me the library at their home.
Tapping on his head, he says, “I have an excellent memory, oh little one.” I laugh and lean back against Liam. He has become my comfort zone. He doesn’t talk much, but he always seems to know what I am thinking, and what I need to hear. I feel my eyes drift toward Colton; just looking at him makes my heart race. I don’t understand why he is ignoring me. I hope that he comes to his senses soon. Liam squeezes my shoulder, and I bring my attention back to the movie.
I always loved this movie, so it isn’t hard for me to become glued to the screen, unlike a lot of the movies we usually watch. I laugh every time Wesley says, “You warthog-faced buffoon.” This time my laugh is accompanied by another. I instantly tense, recognizing the voice standing in the doorway.
“Hey guys, did you miss me?” Natasha sweetly coos. Walking in the room, she sits incredibly close to Colton. He doesn’t look at her though; he keeps his attention on the screen. It sickens me how good they look together. She keeps reaching over and touching his arm, trying to get his attention. It gives me great pleasure to see that he isn’t paying any attention to her, but I’m still angry with her for what she did to our room. My magic is bubbling to the surface, screaming at me to unleash it.
“I need to go...do…something.” No longer able to stand being in the same room as her anymore, I get up and walk out. Colton isn’t encouraging her, but he’s not telling her to stop it either. Soon, I hear footsteps behind me, and find Emma trying to catch up with me.
“I couldn’t stay in there with her. I’m still mad at her for what she did to our room. I keep imagining myself hitting her.” We walk back to our room, and change into our training outfits. After a movie, we always go outside and train. The sessions are becoming more vigorous lately, considering that Dravin could attack any day now. We have to be prepared for the worst.
“Training time already?” Claire asks, while stirring pasta in a boiling pan.
“We’re a little early. Natasha walked in while we were watching a movie. We still aren’t on friendly terms with her at this moment,” Emma responds as she takes a seat at the table.
“Ahh, I understand what that’s like.”
“Shoot. I forgot a hair tie again. I’m going to go grab one.” I turn around and walk out of the kitchen.
Once in my room, I walk over to the nightstand beside my bed, and grab one of the random ones that I have lying around. I walk back to the entertainment room to see if anyone is still in there, but the room is empty. I notice that Colton’s door is open across the hall though. I can probably catch him before he joins everyone else for training, and find out what’s been wrong lately. I need to know.
I stop in his doorway. The sight in front of me threatens to bring tears to my eyes. I feel like my heart has plummeted, and crash-landed in my stomach. Colton is standing in the middle of his room, his hands on Natasha’s hips, kissing her.
I start to move away, trying not to make any noise, when an arm wraps around my waist. Liam pulls me toward him, and wraps me in a hug, while simultaneously walking down the hallway. I come back to my senses when we reach the stairs and am able to walk down on my own. “I’m sorry you saw that.”
“Saw what?” asks Emma, standing up when she sees me.
“Nothing,” I say. At the same time, Liam replies, “Colton kissing Natasha.”
Emma gasped. “No! He wouldn’t. Not after…”
“It’s fine, guys. I knew that I wasn’t good enough anyway…not compared to someone like her.”
“Ryanne, that’s—” Liam starts to reply when Colton walks into the room, Natasha trailing behind him, smiling at me.
“You!” Emma says, and points angrily at Colton. I grab her extended hand, and silently demand that she stop. He can’t know.
“Me?” Colton is clearly confused, but there is no way I am going to inform him of what is going on.
“Would you train with me today, Liam? I could really use a good beating right now,” I ask. I really do want to fight someone who won’t hold back.
“I’ll train with you, but I’m not going to hit you,” Liam says.
“Ugh, Fine. I’ll just go attack some dead trees. Making things explode works all the same,” I mumble while walking outside.
“What’s wrong with her?” asks Colton.
Emma snaps at him, “Wouldn’t you like to know!” and storms after me.
“Actually, I would…”
Once outside, I walk to the edge of the yard, and start searching for all the fallen tree limbs. Extending some magic, I bring all the logs into one giant pile. I can hear the sound of metal clanging in the background, signaling that the others have already started training. Colton is working with Logan today, while Emma and David are sparring. Liam is standing behind me a bit, not training like the others. He’s most likely keeping an eye on me to make sure I don’t do anything too rash. Natasha is standing on the stairs, eyes fixated on Colton. That spurs on my anger even more.
When my woodpile is about waist high, I step back a couple of feet, and narrow my eyes. Concentrating, I gather more energy than I usually do. The magic inside me is bubbling to the surface, waiting for my command to be released. I look around to make sure no one is really close to me. Imagining the pile of wood as Natasha, I thrust out all the magic, taking out my anger and hurt on it. The magic floats through the air before it hits the target.
The force of the magic causes the pile to explode, and the energy flies back toward me. When the expelled magic hits my body, I am sent flying backwards, similar to what happened when I hit the rock with lightning. I free fall through the air before landing a couple feet from my original destination. Once on the ground, I roll a few times before finally coming to a stop.
“That felt nice,” I mumble to myself.
I actually mean it too. It did feel good. The landing could have been a little softer, but besides that, I am fine, and feel a little better now that I have taken some anger out on an inanimate object, but I still want to hit something. This new me surprises me. I’ve never wanted to take my anger out on a person before. Liam runs over to me, and tries to help me up. Yanking my arm away, I thank him, but politely tell him that I can manage on my own. “Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
Logan and Colton rush over to us. “Ryanne, are you okay?” Colton asks.
“Just peachy.” My words are laced with sarcasm. He flinches at my tone, and takes a step back.
Logan reaches out and touches my cheek. “Here, let me help you.”
I move away from his hand. “Leave it.” I turn back to Liam. “Will you please beat me up now? That wasn’t nearly as satisfying as I wanted it to be,” I say, indicating to the destroyed pile of wood.
“I told you already. I’ll spar with you, but I won’t just attack you.” I give him my most menacing stare, which he gladly returns.
When I realize that he isn’t going to relent, I exhale. “Fine, I’ll take what I can get.”
An hour later, I am lying on my back on the ground, panting. Liam wouldn’t hit me just because, but he was able to get a few kicks in. I, however, got more in on him. I know that he took it slightly easier on me, but he’s still a very good sparring partner. I’m surprisingly not as angry as I was when I came ou
tside. I am still upset, but I don’t want to make Natasha explode like the pile of wood earlier anymore.
Accepting Liam’s offered hand, I let him pull me up. When I am standing up, he pulls me close. “How are you feeling?” he whispers in my ear.
“I’ll be fine.” A broken heart does heal. It just takes time, I think…I don’t have a whole lot of experience in this field for comparison.
Liam looks at something over my head as Claire opens the backdoor and yells, “Dinner’s ready.”
I walk with Liam into the kitchen. When I see Natasha sitting at the table beside Colton, I lose my appetite. Turning toward Claire, I said, “Thank you for making dinner, but I’m not really that hungry right now. I’m just going to go take a shower.”
I take longer than usual in the shower, hoping that by the time I get out, dinner will be over. I even blow-dry my hair afterwards, trying to waste more time. I grab a pair of yoga shorts, and layer Emma’s white zipped sweatshirt over a black cami. Besides a couple of scratches on my face from the wood, I am actually pleased with my reflection. I’ve kept my curves, but my muscles are becoming more toned. All this training is actually doing something. I’m not as self-conscious about my body as I used to be.
Walking down the stairs, I realize how sore my feet are. I feel like I have just run a marathon. Looking over the stairs banister, I see into the living room. Emma is standing beside the couch, talking to Logan, laughing at something he said, while David and Liam talk on the couch. Colton is sitting alone in one of the chairs. Natasha doesn’t seem to be here.
I walk up beside Liam, closer to Colton than I would have liked. David starts smiling and nods. He thanks Liam and jumps up. Walking briskly across the room, he interrupts Emma and Logan’s conversation. Emma is staring at him, a puzzled expression on her face. Seeing something that the rest of us can’t, Logan starts backing away. David pauses briefly in front of Emma, before pulling her toward him. She smiles up at him right as he bends down and kisses her. She wraps her arms around his neck as his arms snake around her waist, pulling her even closer.
I look down at Liam, “Finally.” I can’t help but smile. I am happy for my friends. I know more about the situation than they do, but it is still exciting. They are meant to be together.
I step over Liam’s feet, and plop down on the couch next to him. He smiles at me. “He wouldn’t stop talking about her, so I told him that I heard her mention to you that she really liked him to try and get him to finally act.”
“Did you actually hear her say that?”
“Nope,” he smiles wider and leans back, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.
“If I tell you something, will you promise to not tell anyone?” Leaning closer to him, I whisper in his ear, “I had a vision about them. They’re going to get married one day.” I move back and look for his reaction.
“Was that why you kept smiling that one day?” I nod in affirmation. It feels good to share that with someone.
“Hey, lovebirds,” Logan says as he sits on the coffee table in front of me. He glances between Liam and me. Winking at me, he continues, “Will you let me heal those cuts now?”
I purse my lips, pondering his question, and slowly nod. He reaches over and touches my face. It is easy for him to heal shallow cuts, so it only takes a couple of seconds. He backs away and looks at me, eyes moving to various spots on my face, examining his work. He leans back the rest of way, and grabs my leg, placing it in his lap. “What are you doing?”
“Well I was going to give you a foot massage…but if you’d rather I not…”
“How did you know that my feet were sore?” Smiling, he ignores my question, and starts massaging my foot. His thumb is pressing to the arch of my foot, moving in a circular motion. It feels heavenly. I close my eyes and lean back. I can hear Emma giggling in the corner of the room.
After a couple of minutes, Logan lowers my right foot, and grabs the left one. I open my eyes and find Colton staring at me. I quickly divert my eyes. I don’t need to be reminded of the kiss. I glance to the other side of the room, and see Emma sitting in David’s lap, whispering to him. Both of them are smiling, lost in their little bubble. Logan releases my other foot. “Any better?”
“Yes, thank you.” I lean forward, and gave him a small kiss on his cheek. I push myself off the couch, and start walking toward the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge when I run straight into someone’s chest. I scream and then jump back.
“Larkin, you’ve got to stop doing that to me. My heart can’t take it.” I reach out and place a hand over my chest, where my heart is.
“So I make your heart race, huh?” His eyes travel down the length of my body, “My, your clothes are tight.” I hear a couple of growls behind me. I am apparently surrounded by a bunch of dogs based on the sound. I cross my arms over my chest, and then realize that that probably isn’t a good idea, so I place them at my side.
“What do you want, Larkin?”
“You have two days. He’ll find you at sundown on Wednesday.”
I nod. I knew this was coming. “What should we do?”
“Find as many people as you can. He’s bringing about fifty trained fighters with him. He’s determined to get you back. You’ll need way more people to help you.”
“Okay, anything else?”
“He has a lot of people with telekinesis. He’s not going to fight fair. So, tell your people to use whatever magic they have, to try and gain an advantage. Also, once the fighting starts, don’t go back inside the house. Take anything you absolutely have to keep, put it in a car, and park that car a ways down the road.” I nod and look behind me to see if everyone is paying attention. I turn back around when I hear Larkin start to speak again. He isn’t looking at me, but at everyone behind me. I step out of the way.
“Adam will be coming with him. You have to keep an eye on Ryanne at all times. He has an unhealthy obsession with her.” I hear a clap of thunder outside. I couldn’t control that one. I just get so angry whenever I hear Adam’s name. Everyone turns to look at me, so I walk to the refrigerator to grab that bottle of water. When I come back into the room, Larkin is gone.
“Okay, we have time to prepare. We have all of Tuesday, and the majority of Wednesday,” says Liam.
Logan stands up. “I’ll go talk to Tom, and see if he can start calling people.”
I try to open the water bottle, but my hand keeps slipping from the condensation on the outside. Liam grabs the bottle from me, and twists the cap. It opens right away for him. “Thanks.” I take a sip and then speak up. “We can avoid all of this.”
Colton starts shaking his head. “You are not going to hand yourself over to him.”
“Why? It’d be so much easier. They won’t kill me. They want to use me! We wouldn’t have to call anyone. No one would get hurt because of me. I could protect you all!” To me, it sounds like a very good idea—one person in exchange for the safety of the many.
“We don’t need your protection, Ryanne. We want to protect you. They are coming for you, not us. Do you know what it’d do to us if something happened to you? You’re our family now too,” he whispers while leaning toward me.
“Do you think I’d be able to live with myself if anything happened to any of you guys? Dravin won’t stop at hurting any of you to get to me. I’d be cutting out the middle, and going straight to the conclusion.” My voice is getting louder, and I’m on the verge of yelling now.
“Ryanne, promise me you won’t go on some self-sacrificing mission.” I remain silent, my eyes focused on the ground. “Ryanne. Please.” I can’t promise that. Even if I don’t go in with that mind-set, I know it will probably come to that.
Standing up, I say, “I’m going to go to bed. I’ll see you all in the morning.”