Chapter Five
The rest of my day continued on its abnormal path. After mythology, I navigated my way to the second floor in order to reach my math class. I’d never realized how crowded my school was. I was doing everything possible to avoid coming into contact with my fellow students and found that it was nearly impossible to accomplish such a seemingly simple task.
I was inches from the door to calculus when three people managed to bump into me at the same time. I felt my senses expand outward and froze as I connected with all three students at the same time. A hot, searing pain shot from the back of my skull to the front effectively dropping me to my knees. I grabbed my head in an attempt to keep it from falling off my neck.
Logically, I knew losing my head wasn’t even a remote possibility, but the intense, throbbing pain was insisting otherwise. As far as I could tell, none of the students I had just connected with had been experiencing such a severe migraine.
Is this headache mine?
I put one hand on the floor and gingerly pushed myself up into a standing position. The movement caused the agony I was feeling to morph into nauseating dizziness. I could feel myself sinking to the ground again and braced for impact.
It never came.
Instead of hitting the hard linoleum floor, I felt two hands grab me under my arms and lift me to my feet. It wasn’t done roughly, but my nausea couldn’t tell the difference.
“You all right? Are you sick?”
I nodded as the dizziness I was experiencing ebbed away. Two more deep breaths and the nausea seemed to vanish as well. I opened my eyes and saw a fuzzy image of colors and patterns across the shirt of a very well formed young man. I focused in on the shirt in front of me, thinking if I followed the patterns of blue and gray swirls on the guy’s chest I’d be able to look up without getting dizzy again.
“I’m not sick. I never get sick,” I protested.
“Well, that‘s a relief. This is a new shirt, and I’d hate for you to throw up on it.”
His voice was playful and soothing. It helped me gain control of myself. Slowly, the patterns on his shirt came into focus. I felt my own life force correct whatever it was that had happened to my body and nearly cried in relief. I could feel the warmth of his hands resting on either side of my waist and wasn’t sure when he had put them there. I also wasn’t sure why contact with him hadn’t immediately allowed me access to his life force, but I was so grateful to have my gift behaving normally for a change I didn’t care.
I looked up hesitantly, feeling embarrassed for drawing so much attention to myself. The eyes that met mine were startlingly familiar. They reminded me of Tie’s, but where his were cold and intimidating, these eyes were warm and inviting. I explored the rest of his face which was open and unassuming. He had jet black hair that hung just below his ears. It was so black that parts of it looked as if it had been streaked with purple. His six foot frame was intimidating. He looked like some kind of gladiator who’d decided to borrow some clothes from a high school preppy. His friendly eyes were almond shaped, and his facial features hinted of Asian ancestry.
“I’ve never seen you around here before. Are you new?”
I wanted to smack myself on the forehead. Out of all the things I could have said to try and fix this messy first impression I was giving him, stating the obvious wasn’t the most brilliant way to go about doing it. His smile spread slowly across his face and lighted his beautiful brown eyes. His grip around my waist seemed to tighten. I could feel the strength in his hands as they continued their firm, almost possessive hold on me, and I liked it.
“I’m new,” he agreed softly.
“Oh.”
Wow. I am so stinking articulate.
I was definitely doing some mental cringing on my own behalf. I watched in fascination as the warm smile that had been there moments before straightened out into this strange look of longing or was it hunger or maybe it was even euphoria. I couldn’t tell for sure, but sensed that I was definitely the focus of these intense emotions that flashed in quick succession across his face.
“Is it really you?” he asked almost desperately.
It’s me if you’re interested.
I was so happy I hadn’t said that out loud. Not only were my thoughts a shock to me, but they were bordering on that fine line between embarrassing and humiliating.
“Were you looking for someone in particular?” I asked, hoping to cover my social awkwardness.
I wondered why he wouldn’t be able to recognize someone he was so intent on finding. Any response he might have made was interrupted when another student bumped into me.
“You guys know you’re blocking the doorway, right?” the student threw over his shoulder as he continued on into the classroom. I sucked in my breath quickly, grateful that the contact I had just made had been brief and painless. I wouldn’t have been able to handle any more pain at that particular moment. I glanced up at the mysterious newcomer again only to find that he was still watching me. It was like he was afraid I might disappear.
“Well, I should probably get to class,” I said feeling a bit reluctant to leave him standing there. “Thank you for helping me. I’m not usually so fragile.” I turned to enter the classroom, but stopped when I felt his hand touch my shoulder.
“I’m in this class too. Do you mind if I sit by you? I don’t usually make friends that easily.”
I highly doubt that.
The guy looked like a well-muscled Abercrombie model, and for some strange reason he was still talking to me.
“Of course you can sit by me.” I caught myself grinning up at him like an idiot. I turned around abruptly and led the way into the classroom, heading for the back where it would be easier to find two empty desks next to each other. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Victor,” he said simply. He sat down in the desk next to mine and continued his unflinching stare.
I was certain there was nothing that interesting about me.
“I’m Hope.” I reached my hand out to shake his.
His warm hand closed firmly over mine, but instead of releasing it like any normal person would he simply held onto it.
“I know who you are, Hope.”
His statement resonated within me. Somehow he really did know who I was. I got the feeling he knew more about me than I did. Just one more thing to add to my list of strange and crazy. I tried covering my surprise with some flirtatious teasing. Something I had absolutely no experience in.
“You know, you’re the second new guy who’s said that to me today? Did you two get together and come up with the same pick-up lines?” Victor’s hand tightened on mine, and his face became very serious.
“Someone else just moved here recently?” I could tell the euphoria he’d been feeling was being replaced by an emotion not nearly so pleasant.
“His name is Tie,” I said trying to appear as if I hadn’t noticed the change in his demeanor. “Apparently, he lives across the street from my best friend’s house.” I could see the anger on his face building and felt confused as to why it was there in the first place. “He seemed to know who I was as well.” With every word I spoke the look in his eyes became stormier. The tension he exuded at the mention of Tie’s name was palpable. Victor still had my hand in his, but it was obvious that his thoughts were somewhere else entirely. “Victor? You okay? Do you have some kind of bad history with this guy?”
My questions seemed to jar him from his angry thoughts, but the smile that he tried to plaster on his face didn’t reach his eyes.
“You could say that.” His reply was cryptic. “Tie is my cousin. I knew he intended to move here. I just didn’t know he would manage to do it before I did.”
I had no idea how to respond to such a strange statement. If I had a cousin and knew I would be moving to the same place that he was moving to, I was pretty sure I would have been thrilled. I was also pretty sure I would know whether or not my cousin had actually made the move in the first place. And what was with th
e competition? Was Victor really upset about not moving here first?
It was weird. This whole day had been weird.
I wanted to ask him more questions about himself and his cousin, but Mr. Mathers decided that right about then was a good time to start class. I pulled my hand out of Victor’s, and reached into my backpack for my calculus book.
“What did he say to you?” Although the question he asked came out soft and low the urgency in it was unmistakable.
“Who? Tie?” I sat up straight. Victor’s gaze felt like a laser beam gluing me to my seat. It was obvious that my answer to his question was very important to him.
“To be honest we kind of argued.”
The surprise on Victor’s face was comical. Like arguing with Tie was unheard of.
“What?”
“Well, we were in mythology talking about deities of love and beauty. These particular deities had the power to make mortals fall in love with whomever they wanted. I said that I thought those deities were irresponsible pigs, and love is an individual choice. It’s not some crazy twist of fate or haphazard stab of Cupid’s arrow. Tie did not agree.”
“I can’t imagine that he would,” Victor said chuckling to himself.
His comment made me feel like he knew something I didn’t. That particular feeling was becoming a more common occurrence for me as of late. It was beginning to get very annoying.
“So you argued with him? You didn’t want to go out with him? He didn’t ask you out?” He fired off his questions in rapid succession, but it was clear he wanted and needed to know every single answer. He was literally on the edge of his seat. I swear, if he’d been Angie he would have been biting his nails by now.
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 have 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. 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 disgusting 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 guess I should just be getting used to it.”
“What strange stuff?”
Now he looked worried. 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 was sending our way.
“To be continued then?” Victor raised his eyebrows as if he were unsure of himself.
Did he really think I would say no?
“Absolutely.”
He relaxed visibly and turned his attention towards Mr. Mathers.
I wasn’t sure if Victor was actually listening to anything the teacher was saying. I certainly wasn’t. Instead, my mind was filling up with 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 who I was. How did they know who I was? Why would they want to know who I was?
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.
What if they knew who I was because 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 magically discovered that 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 fears 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 wasn’t so sure. 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? Was this the way Tie operated?
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 have benefited from a cherry blossom, or at the very least, an ugly guy who loved her and made her feel beautiful.
I could have 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 been thoroughly enjoyable. I so wanted to kiss Tie right now.
I was a freak!
I hadn’t realized that I was beginning to hyperventilate from the panic I was feeling until I felt Victor’s hand close over mine, effectively reminding me that I should try to breathe normally.
“Are you okay, Hope?”
His quiet voice and gentle manner seemed to break 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 knew 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 were prickling. How could he know that?
“You are Hope Fairmont, right?” Victor’s confusion mirrored my own as I stood up abruptly getting ready to bolt fo
r the doorway. It was the second time in less than two hours I’d been asked that question.
“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 towards 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 the way I was sure it most definitely would.
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 that Victor had shown in me. I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of someone being interested in me. I was already leading a double life in my friendship with Angie, and a boyfriend would complicate matters even further. My imagination was clearly attempting to put up mental roadblocks.
But how would 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 was to go visit 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 make sure he was doing okay 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 would 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 would 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 seem worse. 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 breathed in deeply and felt 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.”