by R. Getsee
He just rolled his eyes. “I’m just trying not to have to punch every guy who looks at you, that’s all. At least I don’t have to worry about shit like this with Alex.”
I winced, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at him. “Gee, thanks, Jare”
He blinked. “You know that’s not what I meant…” he muttered, his ears turning pink.
“Well, I think Alexia has a problem with having a little too much modesty, if you know what I mean.” Torah held up her hand, creating a V with her pointer finger and thumb, causing my cheeks to heat. “Besides, you like my outfit, don’t you, Romy?” she simpered.
“Hmm?” He looked back at her. “Yes, you look… err… nice?”
Jared snorted and Roman shot him a pointed look. “And besides,” he continued, “you should take better care of Alex. It appears she’s getting far more looks than you realize, Jared.” He looked into my eyes, making my heart race.
Torah huffed, “Come on, we have to get inside.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she stormed inside the doors, leaving Roman to give me a confused look.
I shrugged. “Don’t look at me, she’s your girlfriend.” The words tasted like acid in my mouth. His confused expression only grew as Jared roared with laughter when I turned my back on him.
He still arrived at the table before me, pulling out a chair for me to sit on. “Peace offering?” he asked. It was my turn to look confused as he leaned down to whisper in my ear, so close his lips touched me lightly, almost like he was pressing a kiss there, and a shiver raced through me. “And just so you know, Torah’s not my girlfriend.”
As the evening progressed, Roman proved to be a great dining companion. As we talked, I learned he was an only child, was obsessed with both 70s rock and 90s grunge music—just like me—and that his favorite color was green. He also talked about how he and his mother had moved around quite a lot in the past few years, and he didn’t get to see his dad that often, but was still expected to carry out their family legacy, which he refused to tell me about.
I was having such a good time that I barely noticed how Torah managed to drape herself over him once again, interjecting random things into the conversation every time we seemed to be getting close to a proper conversation.
As we were getting up to leave, she finally made her move. Grabbing his arm, she pressed herself against him, her back arched so he had a clear view of the girls.
“Romy, I had such a great time getting to know you. I was hoping we could do it again sometime. You know… just us, no interruptions.” She licked her lip for emphasis.
“Um—”
“Great, so you’ll be my date to the homecoming dance in a couple of weeks, right?” My heart sank once again. Torah was quite literally offering herself up to him on a silver platter.
Homecoming was one of the few human traditions that St. Vlad’s organized, and I’d heard from Jared that the popular girls were notorious for putting out for their date.
I had to admit, there was a tiny part of me that was secretly hoping Roman would have asked me to go with him—just as friends, of course—but there was no way I could compete with my sister.
“Thanks for the offer, but I can’t.”
It took a moment for Torah to realize that she had been rejected. My heart beat erratically. No one ever rejected Torah Morgan.
“I’m sorry, but there’s someone else I’m planning to ask… whenever I pluck up the courage.” The balloon of hope that had swelled in my chest popped loudly, leaving a hollow ache I didn’t understand.
Roman said a quick goodbye to us, eagerly escaping the awkward tension that was quickly building as Torah’s dumbfounded expression dissipated, leaving a simmering rage that she soon directed at me. Should have stayed out of her line of sight.
“This is your fault.”
“How the hell do you figure that?” It probably wasn’t a good idea to antagonize the angry vampire, but I was getting sick of the crap she constantly threw my way.
“I said that he was mine. Why did you have to spoil this for me?” she hissed—yes, she actually hissed at me. “Why did you even come tonight? It’s not like anyone wanted a Void freak with us.”
I slowly raised my eyebrow at her. “You do realize that little insult of choice won’t work on me anymore, right? Not to showboat or anything, but don’t I have you beat by like three elements?”
She snorted, her face growing red in her rage. Damn, I should really have disengaged from the situation before it got out of hand, but I guess that years of her being a crappy sister had finally started to boil over, and I couldn’t resist the urge to bait her.
Her voice raised a couple of octaves as she struggled to contain her anger. “As if anyone really believes that shit was real. You probably used that loser you were hanging out with to cheat on the test.”
“I’m going to stop you before you really insult both of our intelligence,” I growled.
Cursing at me, she grabbed a crystal centerpiece off the nearest table and hurled the sphere at me, aiming for my face. Acting off instinct, I threw my hands up, an unexpected wind funnel forming and redirecting the ball at her before she had a chance to duck.
There was a loud crack and a muffled scream as I lowered my hands, staring at the damage. Torah’s mascara streamed down her face as her eyes watered in pain and blood dripped slowly out her nose, splattering the delicate white lace on her chest.
“What the hell is going on?” Dad’s voice was tight with anger as he forced himself to stay quiet. Luckily, we had only attracted a couple of onlookers, who muttered to themselves about uncontrollable teenagers disgracing themselves.
“Daddy, Alex threw a fucking centerpiece at my face! I think she broke my nose!”
“From what I saw, you were the one doing the throwing. Alexia’s powers reacted to defend her, and your nose has already stopped bleeding, so it’s healing fine.” Dad grabbed both of us by the wrists and dragged us out to the waiting car. “I am seriously disappointed in both of your actions tonight, girls. Now say it.”
“I am not saying shit to her,” Torah all but screamed.
Dad growled in exasperation. “Watch your mouth, young lady. Now, say it, or you will lose your phone privileges, credit cards, and be grounded for a month.”
Her lip trembled slightly before she turned to me. “Family comes before all,” she forced through gritted teeth.
“Family comes before all,” I uttered back in a monotone. Dad seemed to think our half-assed replies were the best he would get because he sighed before nodding and getting into one of the idling cars where the rest of the family waited.
I heaved a sigh and pinched the bridge of my nose against the headache that was forming there. “Look, I’m tired and I’m not getting into shit again because of you, so I’m going home. You can either stand here and sulk or get in the car. Your choice.”
I spun on my heel, feeling better than I had in years as the twins fumed. My parents tried to make conversation despite the tension, and Jared played Switzerland in the middle to stop them from trying to kill me all the way home.
I felt oddly liberated, finally sticking up for myself. I was sick of living in the shadows of my siblings, being the Void that hid away at gatherings so I didn’t have to explain my lack of power or embarrass the family.
Sure I was hurt—as always—and was fighting the urge to lock my catty sisters in a burning room and dance on their smoldering ashes like the well of repressed rage inside of me begged me to do. I was no longer obligated to put up with people’s crap because I was too weak to defend myself.
I grabbed a couple of things from the kitchen before I slipped up to my room and sat at my desk, my foot aching from that damn door as I arranged the objects so they lay in a line on the smooth wood.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to center myself and think back to how it felt last Monday in class—the power coursing through me, the feeling of it, knowing what I wanted on instinct.
I cursed, mopping up the puddle with a couple of paper towels before I resumed my task. Sticking out my index finger, I thought about the heat from my body, the hot water in the pipes, the last of the summer humidity, and suddenly, a flame flicked out of my fingers.
It was harder to control than the others—not because of my power level, but because the heat wanted to grow. It sensed my less than peaceful mindset and tried to draw on the heat of my emotions to stoke the flame. I quickly set my finger to the candle in the middle of the desk before I extinguished the flame in my hand.
I used the surrounding air to pick up the rose laying on my desk. Sending energy into it forced the tightly coiled petals to furl outward and show the beauty within. Gently as I was able, I slowly lowered the flower back onto the table and blew out a breath.
My heart was beating a little faster, like I’d just run a mild jog. Light perspiration coated my upper lip and forehead and the headache from earlier was back, but at least I didn’t feel like passing out, so that was a plus.
Flicking back my hair, which had come out of the messy bun and was trailing over my face, I got up and ventured over to my walk-in-closet, taking in the whole wall dedicated to unopened garment bags which were a gift from my mother. I made a decision and whipped out my phone to text Emi.
Nodding at the reply, I turned to get ready for bed, almost tripping over a book that was lying in the corner. Picking it up, I dusted the cover, reading the title—Introduction to Elemental Studies.
I’d totally forgotten to pick it up after my mom had interrupted my reading that first morning. Something nagged at the back of my mind, leading me to flip to the page I had started and began to read once more.
It is of great speculation if the fifth element does indeed exist as no one in living memory has ever seen proof of it. Little is known about the powers and talents it provides. Some of the traits that are said to manifest with this power are the ability to glimpse into the past and future and many other physical and mental powers.
Due to the lack of evidence that this so-called affinity provides, most believe that it is purely based on myths and legends, and should not be thought of as more than simply that.
I thought back to the weird episode I’d had that morning—the dizziness and headache were like what I had experienced after using so much of my powers, though there was no evidence of the elements showing up before it happened.
However, there were the weird images that I’d seen when I’d envisioned a version of Roman before I’d ever met him. There was something else, too. Closing my eyes, I searched my memory before I remembered the red liquid splashing against what looked like white lace.
What looked like blood, splashing on what looked eerily similar to the dress that Torah had been wearing tonight when I caused her nose to bleed.
Little was known about the powers and talents it provides. Some of the traits that were said to manifest with this power was the ability to glimpse into the past and future…
I had no idea what the hell was happening, but I was sure of one thing… There was a distinct possibility that if I wasn’t having a mental breakdown, I may have had a vision of the future.
8
Alex
Some of the traits that were said to manifest with this power was the ability to glimpse into the past and future.
The words echoed in a loop around my head as I got ready for school on Monday, making me doubt once again that I wasn’t really going crazy.
I forced myself to breathe as I ran my hands through my new hair. Emi had been extremely excited after I texted her about my need for a makeover. She arrived bright and early Sunday morning to survey what my closet held before our shopping trip.
I had only two conditions for letting her dress me like her own personal Barbie… The first being that, though she could decide whatever my new look should entail, I got to keep my comfy clothes for my downtime.
Surprisingly, as we went through the last two years of clothes in unopened garment bags that my mom had bought me in her attempt to ‘vamp me up’, I found that I actually loved most of it. Luckily, my mom hadn’t tried to force her personal style on me.
Instead, she chose stuff that I would have loved to wear in the past if I’d had the confidence. We barely had to get any new outfits and only a couple of pairs of un-regrettable kick-ass boots and a trip to the hair salon.
The second condition of my makeover was, despite the almost literal tears from Emi, I was going to cut my hair. I grinned as I looked at myself. I sported short hair that barely reached my chin, and after a spur-of-the-moment decision, thick streaks of emerald green almost the exact shade of my eyes, wove in and out of my loose beach waves.
I was shocked at how much I had transformed in just one day. The new style made me appear older and more mature, while the streaks of color made my eyes pop. I also had some more subtle makeup—natural-looking eyeshadow with just a hint of smokiness, black eyeliner that narrowed to a cat wing at the corners, and mascara, with a dark red lipstick.
I was wearing simple ripped black skinny jeans, a red razorback tank that dipped low with wide armholes that showed a hint of my lacy purple bra, and a pair of black leather combat boots with a chunky heel and platform soles that added an extra five inches to my five-foot-eight frame.
I smiled as I grabbed my leather jacket and black canvas backpack off the desk as I strutted to the door, ready to show the new me off to the world.
Emi caught up to me as soon as I checked in at the office to get my new class schedule off the stuffy secretary who looked like she would rather have any other job in the world. Couldn’t really blame her, though.
“You look amazing!” Emi gasped as she took in the full effect of my outfit.
“You literally saw me twelve hours ago,” I complained, batting her hands away as she fussed over my hair.
She grinned. “Well, I hadn’t seen you in your new clothes. You look hot as hell! If my heart didn’t already belong to someone else, you would have totally turned me gay.”
“Oh no, my brother would have been so disappointed,” I snorted.
“I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about,” she said innocently, sticking her tongue out at me before looping her arm in mine. “So, you have the same timetable as me—I already checked. Our first class is with Mr. C with the second-years, so you’ll have plenty of chances to show off all your hotness to Roman.”
“I have no idea what you could possibly mean,” I echoed back at her, earning a hip check. “Um, ow. And didn’t Professor Carlisle say that calling him by any nicknames would earn his wrath?”
“Only if he catches you.” Emi rolled her eyes like it was common knowledge.
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “You know that if we give him a nickname, we’ll end up slipping up and calling him it to his face. Unless it’s your evil plan to get me into trouble, and you’re just lulling me into a false sense of security with your friendship.”
“Sweetie, only as a true friend would let you cut off all your amazing hair,” she said. “Although you do look amazing with your new style… And from the number of guys who have been checking you out since you stepped into the building, it shows your vision had its merits.”
I flushed as I looked around and caught a beefy jock blatantly staring at my ass. Instead of getting embarrassed or pretending he wasn’t checking me out when he realized he’d been caught, he shot me a wink and licked his lips.
I shuddered. Yeah, so maybe a little male attention wasn’t the worst, but I definitely did not want guys like that noticing me.
“Freaking perv,” I muttered as Emi roared with laughter. “Let’s just get to class.”
&
nbsp; She was still laughing five minutes later as I dragged her through the doors of the classroom, quickly spotting Roman and Jared near the back.
“What’s so funny?” my brother asked as we got to their table. “And who’s your cute new friend? I’m sure she’d love to meet Roman.”
Emi doubled over in laughter as tears streamed down her face. “Even your brother almost checked you out… that is seriously gross and freaking hilarious!”
Jared’s face scrunched in confusion before his eyes finally landed on me. It was obvious that he hadn’t even glanced over at me. No, his focus was solely on the hysterical girl who was thumping her legs as she hunched over, trying to control the giggles pouring out of her mouth.
“So this is what you girls were sneaking away last night to do? On second thought, you’re not allowed to meet Roman.” He grabbed my jacket and tried to tug the open leather closed. “In fact, you need to go home and change, right now.”
“Yeah… that’s not happening, Jare,” I said. “If you try to make me, I’ll tell Mom that you’re not letting me finally put all those clothes she gave me to good use.”
He visibly paled at my threat and I grinned, sliding my jacket down my arms and hooking it over the back of the chair at the desk in front of them.
“You guys mind us sitting with you?” I asked.
“No, of course not,” Roman said quickly, shaking himself out of the daze that he’d been in since we arrived. “Wait, what do you mean even your brother almost checked you out?”
Did his voice sound a little high-pitched there?
“Oh, just some jocks were drooling on their football jersey’s over our girl here,” Emi chimed in, finally getting her laughter under control.
“Who?” I almost choked on the venom in Roman’s voice. “I mean… I’m sure Jared wants to know who he has to kill to protect his baby sister.”
Color flooded my cheeks. Of course, I was just his best friend’s little sister who needed protecting… It wasn’t the jealousy that made him react so forcefully. I just couldn’t understand why disappointment churned in my stomach.