The girl looked at me for an answer but I didn’t know what to tell her. I motioned with my eyes to the door and hoped she realized I wanted her to come with me. I let Kyle help me up and it didn’t escape my notice how his hands seemed to lock themselves to my waist from behind as his mind warred with the want to wrap me up and run with me and the fact that he knew I didn’t belong to him. I took the girl’s hands and stood her up beside me. I kept her hand in mine and looked back at the door to see if Caleb was there yet. I knew it wouldn’t take long until he realized something was wrong.
“Beck, I need some air. I’m going to go outside for a minute, ok?”
“I’m coming with.”
Dang it.
“Will you just go and make sure Dad isn’t looking for me? He’ll worry if I take too long.”
“You don’t want me to come with you?” she said but instead of being hurt she sounded extremely peeved about it. “Really, after everything that just happened?”
“Beck, I’m sorry, just-“
“Fine.”
She made her way out, pushing through bodies, and didn’t look back.
She’ll be ok. You did the right thing.
I looked at Kyle and smiled sadly.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t make me feel better.”
There was a growing crowd outside the door and I saw in some of their minds that they had heard a scream and had come to see what had happened. I took the girls hand and pulled her behind me. Kyle stopped me and went first. He pushed and excused us as went went on and when we got to the hall, I saw Caleb coming.
We were separated by a sea of dark and skimpily dressed girls.
I can’t get through. What happened?
I had a vision in front of everyone.
His mouth opened slightly and his mind ran with scenarios that were all bad.
It wasn’t that bad, but I have to get this girl out. She’s gonna die tonight if I can’t get her to go somewhere other than home.
OK. Um…Just wait. I’ll…
Kyle must have understood better than I thought because he put a hand on my shoulder to get my attention.
“I’ll take you out this exit and Caleb can go around, out the front door, and meet us in the alley.”
Caleb heard Kyle’s plan through me and nodded. His gaze held mine for a moment longer and I saw in his mind that he knew. He knew that I had kissed Kyle and he’d seen it all and felt it in me. He knew why I did it and how I had felt about it but it didn’t make it any easier. I felt my lips part as if to say something but he just smiled sadly and turned to beat his way through the throngs of people.
I heaved an aggravated sigh. I was aggravated at the whole situation and still had to try to explain all this crazy mess to the scared girl gripping my fingers like a vise. I pulled her along behind me as Kyle pulled my hand to follow him.
“Hey!” we heard behind us. We turned to see a stocky and very overweight security guard. “You three, did you see what happened in there? All the girls are going nuts about something.”
“Nope, sorry,” Kyle answered and tugged me with him.
As soon as we busted through the back door, I was hit with water droplets. It was raining and the alley had standing water already, covering the ends of my shoes. The girl gasped and whimpered, lifting her short dress hem and muttering about it being silk.
I turned to her immediately. She was shorter than me and her blonde hair had long chunks of purple streaks on the ends. Her eyeliner was thick and her purple silk dress was short and completely contrasted to the big black boots she was wearing.
“Listen. You saw what I saw. You can’t go home,” I told her firmly.
“What are you?” she whispered but I still heard her. And I heard her thoughts. She was terrified of me and needed my comfort all at the same time. She gripped my hand tightly but also wanted to run the other direction. I smiled a little to hopefully ease her. It didn’t. “Are you psychic?”
“No.”
“Are you a vampire or something?”
“No,” I answered her and any other time would have laughed but the girl was freaked. “But I have gifts. I’m not going to hurt you.”
She looked up at Kyle questioningly.
“Does he have gifts too?” she said and her huffing breath made smoke in the rain.
“Not yet.”
“Yet?”
“I can’t explain it to you. Do you have somewhere else to go other than home. A friend’s?”
“No. None of my friends are trustworthy enough to stay with. I don’t exactly hang out with the Honor Society.”
“No one, no relatives,” Kyle butted in and asked her as he stood close to us.
“No. There’s just me and my pops.”
“Ok, um…” I tried to think of a solution but Caleb ran around the side of the building.
His father and everyone else were right behind him. I dropped the girl’s hand and ran to him. My legs moved and I had no thought to the notion but that I had to get to him. Once I reached him and felt his arms around me I was grateful for it. I pulled back to look at him.
“I’m so sorry. I had to. I didn’t know what else to do.” His hands came up to frame my face as the rain pounded us. “And I was losing it and…I’m sorry.”
He stopped anything else I might have said with a thumb over my lips. Drops of rain ran down his cheeks and he licked one that ran down his lip.“I know. I saw. I knew what happened the second he touched you. I understand,” he sighed. “We just have to be more careful in the future. And work on controlling it better, that’s all,” he said a little harshly.
“It meant nothing,” I assured him, needing to explain my betrayal further.
“I know,” he said but his jaw was tight.
“It didn’t feel like nothing to me,” Kyle muttered behind us.
We both turned to look at him stunned.
“What did you say?” Caleb asked in a low voice.
“I said it didn’t feel like nothing to me. Maybe Mags was just using that as an excuse to kiss me,” he said quietly.
“Shut up, Kyle,” Caleb said, effectively dismissing him and turning back to me.
I looked at Kyle closely. What was he doing?
“Caleb, we need to go,” Peter said from behind us. “They may not realize what they saw but those people saw something. We need to get out of here.”
He was right. We had other things to think about right then. I looked back to see the girl watching the whole display with pursed lips and trembling hands. Kyle stood close to her and watched her with an odd expression but I tuned him out. I turned back at look at us, my whole family and friends, piled in the alley under the streetlight. We looked like a force to be reckoned with, dangerous. I shuffled my way over to her and tried to smile again.
“You’ll come with us tonight if that’s alright. Then tomorrow, you can go somewhere and stay for a while.”
“I can’t go anywhere. I don’t have any money,” she whispered.
“We’ll help you,” Caleb chimed from right behind. I should have known he’d shadow me. “Don’t worry about that. Come on.” He put an arm around my shoulders. “Let’s go to the car. You’re soaked to the bone.”
I grabbed the girl’s hand and she came willingly, at a loss of what else to do. As soon as I turned I realized what a mistake I’d made and I had no way to fix it. Beck was gripping Ralph’s hand tightly and looking at me like she didn’t even know who I was anymore. She shook her head and her fogged breath came out in long spurts into the rain as I sloshed through the water.
Her mind questioned me. As a friend, as a girl in love, as someone she used to know. She thought I’d let my good looks go to my head. She thought I was becoming superficial and arrogant and involved in something she didn’t even want to know about. Why else would I be dragging a girl I didn’t even know to my house after collapsing on the floor with her in a club bathroom?
I couldn’t say anything, couldn’t refute her thoughts. I just looked away and closed my eyes as Caleb led me to the Jeep and spoke softly in my mind.
She’ll understand. Once all this blows over, she’ll forget all about this.
I don’t think so. Not this time. I’m sorry. I was stupid and naïve to think I could keep her as a friend with everything going on. I was just selfish and wanted my friend.
You’re not to blame. I’m the one who brought her here. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue but, with everything going on with the Watsons and your new abilities…I’m sorry.
I’m going to send her home. It’s the best way, I think.
Well, Dad said we’re all going home. He booked flights for everyone for first thing in the morning.
But, why?
I told him about Amber.
Really, but he’s been so mellow all afternoon.
He didn’t want to worry your father, and especially Bish.
Aha.
He opened the door for us and pulled the seat for her to climb in the back. I went ahead and climbed in with her. Jen rode with us as Caleb took off towards the beach house. I saw Beck climbing in with Peter and Rachel and tried not to worry about her at the moment. She needed to hate me and be mad at me. That way she would go home and not contact me for a while and hopefully, all this would blow over and I’d be able to get her to forgive me later.
“It’ll be ok, Maggie,” Jen soothed from the front seat.
“Yeah, I can’t wait for that part to come true.”