“Uh, yeah, it was nothing.” I waved off their flattery.
“Mags, I can’t believe you.” Kyle came and grabbed me in a hug that lifted my feet from the ground and I could tell he was just doing it because of what he saw between his cousin and me. His cousin could, too, from the way he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “Come inside. Wait until I tell Aunt Rachel what you did.”
“No, please don’t take me in there. I’m not really in the mood for a crowd.”
“Ok,” he said reluctantly. “I was just about to text you anyway. Sorry, the party ran a little late. We were waiting on a certain someone,” he looked pointedly over his shoulder, “to come back so we could eat, but now I see he was preoccupied.”
“Well, late’s better than dead, right?” I spouted and then winced.
Kyle raised an eyebrow at me, but his cousin burst out laughing from behind him. “She’s got you there, cuz.” He slapped him on the back. “And I’m glad to see you’re so worried about me.”
“Whatever. Are you ready?” Kyle asked me and I wasn’t.
I so wasn’t ready to leave the stranger I’d saved, but saw no way to invite him to go with us when I could see there was clearly tension between them. I looked at him and he was looking at me. I could tell he didn’t want me to go either and it made the butterflies worse.
“Uh, yeah, sure,” I muttered.
“Ok. I’ve already got the keys. Let’s get going.”
“Hold on.” I walked up to his cousin a few feet away. I looked up into his face, at least half a foot higher than mine, probably more. “I’m really glad I was there.”
“Me, too. Thank you. If you ever need anything; a new pair of rollerblades, a popsicle, a kidney, it’s yours.”
I laughed and tucked my hair behind my ear as he chuckled, too, and shuffled his feet. “Ok. I’m Maggie by the way.”
I stuck my hand out toward him and smiled.
“Maggie,” he repeated and I bit my lip at the sound of my name on his lips. “Caleb.” He took my hand and I felt an instant jolt go through my body that made me gasp.
Not like a girly wow-he’s-touching-me jolt. I mean an actual jolt. Like it felt as if fire was racing through my veins and I was standing in water with a blow dryer. My breaths ceased to exist and my blood felt cold in my hot skin. My eyes fluttered automatically at the pleasure pain of it. I saw images, flashes of things. Me on a porch with tan arms going around me from behind and a brown haired head sitting atop mine then leaning down, kissing my neck. Then that image vanished and a new one appeared.
Me running, someone chasing me, but I wasn’t scared, I was laughing. I looked back and a brown haired boy was hot on my tail, grabbing me and throwing me over his shoulder as I squealed in delight. Behind them was a house with a for-sale sign, but ‘SOLD’ was stamped over it, a moving truck parked beside it.
Then, a man and woman took a walk through a lot of white sand. The man pricked a finger on a cactus as he swung his arms. I kissed his finger and then pulled him back to the house, through big bay doors into a bedroom. He pushed me to the bed and followed me, kissing me senseless as we rolled around in the white sheets.
Then I saw me, right then, holding the hand of a tan, dark-haired boy. The look of pleasure and confused delight on my face was also on his. His eyes opened and he smiled at me like he understood everything, like I was everything.
I was jolted back to the present when my eyes saw what was actually in front of me and not a strange vision of happy times. I was still looking at Caleb’s face. He was still looking at me, but just like in the vision, he was smiling, ecstatically.“It’s you,” he whispered in wonder. “You’re the one.”
“What’s going on?” I heard Kyle behind me, but I couldn’t look away from the blue eyes looking at me with such want.
Caleb came closer to me, releasing my hand and framing my face with his hands, and I felt a flood of calm and warmth.
“Breathe, Maggie.” I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath. I took a deep breath and felt the air rush in and out frantically as I blinked. My head cleared a little. He smiled. “Everything’s going to be ok. All right? Just don’t be upset. You don’t have to be scared.”
“What are you doing?” Kyle asked and pushed Caleb’s hands away. The second he did that, I felt cold and oddly desperate and heard myself gasp. “Dude, not cool. Look, I understand that she saved you and you feel - whatever - but I told you about this girl. You can’t just-”
“She’s the one, Kyle,” Caleb interrupted, never taking his eyes from mine. It felt like an eternity had passed since he’d first taken my hand and I was still tingling in my veins from whatever had taken place. “It’s her.”
“What?” Kyle said loudly, almost angrily. “She can’t be. I mean you just...met.” He sighed harshly and ran his hands through his hair. “You gotta be frigging kidding me.”
“What’s going on?” I asked softly and finally pulled my eyes from Caleb to look between the two. Kyle looked pissed and angry. Caleb looked in awe and blissed out. He stepped closer to me, but didn’t touch me this time.
“Maggie, we have a lot to talk about.”
“Not tonight, Caleb,” Kyle said, coming to stand between us. “She has no idea what you’re talking about. You’re going to scare her.”
“I’m not going to scare her. She knows me, inside. She knows me, just like I do her, Kyle. It’s exactly like they always described it. I can feel her heart beating.”
Kyle cursed and shook his head. “This is bull. I can’t believe you did this. You knew how I felt and you still did this.”
“You know that’s not how it works. We don’t get to choose. I’m sorry, Kyle, I am.”
“Well, fat lot of good that does me.”
“Ok,” I stopped them both. “Please tell me what’s going on.” I felt a little light headed and blinked to clear my vision.
Caleb came around Kyle to grab my upper arms gently.
“Maggie, everything’s fine. Just wait. It’s new, it’ll calm down some. Just breathe.”
I felt something strange. It felt like an invader, a welcomed invader. Like something was pushing its way into my thoughts or my body somehow. I felt him. I gasped and looked up at him. He smiled, realizing what I felt.
“I can feel…your heart beating. I can feel your…happiness,” I admitted and had no idea how I knew these things, I just did.
I brought one of my hands to my heart to feel it under my fingers. I could feel each beat of his heart as if it was my own. I felt his concern over me, he was worried that I was going to run when he told me everything, he felt an intense sense of longing and protection for me, but more than anything, I felt his utter joy at what was happening between us, whatever that was.
“See,” he continued to explain to his cousin, but his eyes stayed on me, as did his hands. “She can feel me already.” He laughed a breathy chuckle and his next words were barely whispered. “Wow, I can’t believe this.”
“You’re too young,” Kyle countered. “And she’s only seventeen. You’re both too young.”
“Tell that to my imprint.”
“You know what? No.” Kyle once again came and got in between us and as soon as Caleb’s hands released me, his heartbeat went with him. I was beginning to be irked with Kyle but wasn’t sure why. “We have a date. And we’re going on it.”
“You want to take my significant on a date?” Caleb asked and cocked a brow at his cousin.
I couldn’t speak. I just stood there and let them fight.
“Yes, exactly. If she is your significant, she still will be when we get back, won’t she?”
“We have to talk about this, Kyle. We have to tell the family.”
“I know. But I’ve been waiting for this all year and I think you can spare her one night, since you’ll apparently be spending the rest of your life with her,” he said snidely.
“Kyle, don’t be like this.”
I finally found my voice. “Ok, ok, ok. I have no idea what’s going on. I feel strange. I feel...really strange. Why are you both talking like I’m not standing right here?”
“Maggie, I’m sorry.” Kyle turned to look at me. “I never wanted you to get mixed up in all this. I never would have thought that this could happen.”
“What? What could happen?” I said a little hysterically. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s some stuff we need to discuss, but first, let’s just go, ok? We can get away from here and I’ll explain when you have a clear head.”
“But…what are you...I mean…I don’t understand.”
Kyle grabbed my arms to steady me as I swayed. “Caleb. Tell her. Tell her it’ll be all right.”
I looked up and there he was as Kyle handed me over to him. He was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. How had I not noticed this before? He looked the same to me; same cute, sweet guy, but so different now. It was like a new light had been shone on him to illuminate all the perfections I’d been blind to before. My blood was singing in my veins at having him touch me. I wanted to touch him, too, hug him, pull him to me to see what his scruffy chin felt like on my jaw, anything.