“Well, I’d really appreciate not having my brain melted, too, and maybe not having this guy show up every time I turn around.” I pointed at Beardy.
He flinched.
Huh. Beardy wasn’t the big fish in the room. If anything, his particular subset of freaks seemed to be at the bottom of whatever pecking order was in play. He stood at the back of the semicircle and kept his hands behind his back. Deferential, maybe, or just hiding nerves.
I glanced at Malik. Freckle-Face still had his hand on Malik’s shoulder, but Malik met my gaze. I was afraid. Malik, though?
He looked pissed.
Something about that gave me a bit more courage.
“That’s what I want,” I said. It came out stronger. It didn’t sound like a request.
The man regarded me. He had pale eyes and didn’t blink much. I managed not to blink or look away.
“Cole,” he started, then paused. “May I call you Cole?”
“Okay.”
“Cole,” he said again. “We have a problem.” His intense eyes finally left mine and glanced over at Malik. “Or, more to the point, we have two problems.”
I waited for him to look at me again.
“I’ve pretty much got a handle on the teleporting thing now,” I said. I hated how much it sounded like I wanted his approval, but the truth was I did. Hell, I needed it. I needed this creepy old man in a suit to decide I wasn’t a threat.
“It’s not that,” the man said, smiling. It wasn’t a good smile. He smiled the way Austin smiled: like he was looking at something beneath his notice, which amused him.
Lexa was right. These guys were assholes.
“Okay,” I said. It wasn’t okay.
“We have an order to things,” he said. “And you’re…early. We also keep the strictest of confidences, and…” He gestured to Malik without looking at him. His body language was pretty clear: You screwed up, Cole.
“So you want to take away my teleporting,” I said. “Like you did last time.”
For the first time, the old man looked surprised. And he wasn’t the only one. A ripple of motion seemed to travel through the room. A shifting of a stance. The twitch of a shoulder. Tiny things, but people spoke with their bodies all the time.
I was seeing discomfort. Surprise. Annoyance.
“Yes,” the old man said, drawing the word out a bit. He sounded like a snake. “You’re aware of that?”
“I figured it out,” I said. “It would have been way better if you’d dropped me off back home, by the way. Just saying.”
He waved that off. “We couldn’t have a child muse.”
There was that word again. Muse.
“I get that,” I said. “But I’m not a child.”
“We prefer our members wait beyond their teenage years,” he said. It almost sounded like an apology. Almost.
And here it was. I took a deep breath. I met Malik’s gaze for a second. He still looked pissed.
“Fine,” I said. “Go ahead.”
The whole room looked at me.
“Cole?” Lexa said. She touched my arm again.
I wanted to look at Malik again, but I didn’t dare. As it was, I wasn’t sure I’d manage to keep my voice from breaking. “You can take it. Or lock it. Bury it. Whatever. I won’t fight you if you want to take away my teleporting thing, but you don’t touch any memories. Not mine, and not his,” I said, looking at Malik.
“Cole,” the old man started, but I held up my hand.
“Not done. You’re not putting him back in the closet. Do you hear me? We walk out of here with our memories.”
“I’m not sure you understand the gravity of the situation.”
“I understand you want this kept a secret. Fine.” I raised my hands. “You let us keep our memories, and I won’t tell. I won’t resist.”
“Cole—”
“But if you try melting my brain, resisting won’t be the half of it. The whole damn world will learn about you guys, and I promise enough people will see me pop in and out of doors around the world that you could melt brains for the next nine months and you still wouldn’t get everyone. How many people do you think visit the Louvre every day? How many cameras? Someone walking the world, door to fucking door, for everyone to see? What do you think that’ll do to your creepy suit clique? You so much as try to mess with his head, we’ll all find out.”
“We’d never allow that to happen,” Beardy McBeardface said. Man, I hated him. “What makes you think you’d even make it to a door?”
“Dude. I’m a planner.” I smiled at him and held up my phone. “This isn’t a to-do list. It’s already done. I don’t have to make it out the door. If I don’t go home tonight and click some buttons? It’s everywhere.”
Beardy frowned.
“Tumblr. Twitter. You’ve heard of social media, right? It’s a pretty big thing these days.”
His eyes widened.
I waved my phone again. “I’m not the best cameraman, but I think people will care more about the locations than the story. Everywhere I went, there were cameras. If there were people, I talked to them. I told them my name. I even asked them to take my picture. Time zones are pretty cool, and some places have people all hours of the day. If I don’t go home with Malik? Well, it might not be as good as me streaking in Parliament on a live feed—I am totally prepared to do that, too, by the way—but I bet you’re just as screwed if my video gets out and I can’t tell anyone how I did it because you melted my brain. All those cameras? They have time stamps. All those other people? They’ll remember the goofy Canadian kid. And no one will be able to explain how I was in Paris and London and Rome and all those other places in a few hours.” I paused. “Also, the Mona Lisa is really small. Like, it’s tiny. Did you guys know that?”
Now they weren’t just looking at me, they were wide-eyed. Some had their mouths open.
“I’m running on coffee and anger, and I’ve got finals on Monday. I’m so done with you people.” I pointed at Beardy. “Don’t blame me. Blame him. And stop threatening me. If you block the doors, I’ll use a fucking window.”
“He can do it,” Lexa said. “This kid’s a prodigy. That’s how good he is.”
I blinked, looking at Lexa. I was a what-now? “What?”
She smiled. “Most of us can’t go somewhere we’ve never been unless we follow each other. Ride the echo.”
It clicked. “Like the diner?” I said. She’d found me at the diner. She’d said I was “loud.” She’d shown up right after I got there.
She nodded. “You’re talented, Cole. Way beyond these guys. You got to my place hours after the last time I used my door. They couldn’t do that. You did.”
“Alexis,” Beardy said.
“Don’t call me that,” Lexa said. “And frown all you want, Michael. It won’t make it any less true. That kid is better than you. Than all of you.” She smiled.
“The very fact he’s making those threats shows us he’s not responsible enough to be trusted,” the old man said, taking the conversation back from Beardy—Michael.
“Oh, bullshit,” Lexa said. “We all travel wherever we want. Don’t suggest he’s any different than the rest of us. This isn’t his fault, it’s yours. Your rules. Michael attacked him. Michael kidnapped his friend. That’s a felony, Richard.”
The old man—Richard—sighed, as though felonies were the least of his worries.
“He’s already doing things it took the rest of us months to figure out, and if Alexis is right, he’s done things most of us will never be able to do,” another man said. “Is it worth the risk?”
“Is it worth the risk to piss him off?” Lexa said. “I don’t think you could lock his gift, even if you wanted to. Not even you, Michael. He’s stronger than you. You’ve already handled everything wrong. Maybe someone should try treating him like a human being. You’d be surprised how much that helps.”
“She’s right,” I said. “I’m totally good with that.”
“We ca
n’t let him—” Michael started.
“Shut up, Michael,” Richard said.
Michael stuttered to a stop. Everyone stopped talking.
“You can retract your…plan?”
I checked my phone. “So long as I’m home in time, sure. I just have to unschedule the posts.”
“You’ll agree to a mentor?”
“Richard,” Michael said.
The old man just held up his hand. Didn’t even look at Beardy. Burn.
“As long as it’s Lexa, sure,” I said.
The old man looked at me for a few long breaths. I looked right back. Tick-tock, old man.
“We’re done here,” he said.
Michael looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t. He nodded at Freckle-Face, who let go of Malik. I met him halfway, before I even really realized I’d started walking.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” he said.
“Take them home,” Richard said.
“I’m good,” I said. “I’ve got this.” I glanced at Lexa, who nodded and gestured to the door we’d come in through.
I held out my hand, and Malik took it. Both of us were shaking, but neither of us let it show on our faces. I led him to the door.
“I’ll text you,” Lexa said. “About setting up some time to get together.”
“That’d be great. Maybe give me a couple of weeks for exams first?”
She nodded.
I led Malik through the door.
Poof.
* * *
Outside Malik’s house, standing on his front steps, I turned to face him.
“Are you okay?” I said. My voice wobbled, and my stomach was flipping. Anger and caffeine were completely tapping out.
He nodded slowly, looking around like he couldn’t believe we were back at his house. “I can’t believe you did that.”
I blinked. “Did what?”
“You were going to let them take it from you,” he said. “You were going to let them just…” He shook his head.
“They were going to make you forget everything,” I said. “Two whole weeks. I lost an afternoon to them when I was a kid, and it was awful enough. Trust me. Not recommended.”
He was staring again. His gaze locked me in place. “More,” he said.
I didn’t follow. More? More what? “Pardon?”
He reached out with both hands and put them on my shoulders. Then he gave me a little tug, and I took a half step forward. He leaned in, with a slow and easy smile that didn’t at all cover the nervousness in his eyes. I didn’t know what to do with my hands. I ended up putting them against his chest. He was warm through his T-shirt, and felt really, really real.
“Ah,” I said. “More.”
For a guy who’d never kissed another guy before, Malik sure didn’t mind being in charge. I had to kind of scoot up on my toes because he was so tall, but his aim was on target and he definitely had skills. Who knew a kiss could make my whole body go all wobbly and also very not wobbly all at the same time?
Louis had nothing on this guy.
My eyes were closed. I didn’t remember doing that, but when Malik finally pulled away a few seconds later, and after our first kiss had become a second, third, and maybe even a fourth kiss, I realized it and opened my eyes.
He was smiling again.
“What?” I said.
“Streaking in Parliament, eh? Bullet, you’re a wild man.”
“Listen,” I said. “I’m new to this whole making-threats-up-on-the-fly thing, and—”
He interrupted me with kiss number five, repeating until somewhere in the double digits, when I finally lost track and stopped counting.
And that was how his mom found us when she opened the front door.
Like I said, there is no good moment I cannot find a way to make awkward.
Epilogue
If anyone ever asks me for proof of how unfair the world is, I won’t be able to tell the truth. But if I could, I’d say: Unfair is being grounded for a week because you rescued the cutest guy in school from brain-melting freaks and can’t tell anyone that’s why you blew curfew.
No plan in existence covered why, from his parents’ point of view, Malik hadn’t gone home from work and was out all night without calling. Especially when he ended up on his front porch making out with some guy. Plus side? Malik’s parents didn’t flip out about the bi thing. Not at all. If anything, maybe it played to his advantage a little bit because they got it in their heads that he somehow felt he couldn’t talk to them, and it had gotten all teary and super super awkward.
Because I’d been there, too, waiting for my parents to drive over after Malik’s mom had called them. Given that I was supposed to have been at Alec’s house, not only did Malik end up grounded, but so did I.
Plus side? No one had checked in with Alec, so he hadn’t lied to cover me or he would have probably been grounded, too.
So, that whole scene had truly sucked.
I mean, not the kissing. The kissing had been pretty awesome, but all the stuff that came after, with the angry parents. Especially when my mom and Malik’s mom started talking, which was, well…It involved super-super-invasive questions from my mom about things I might have been doing, and my plan is to repress every word she spoke until my dying day.
And that was before my dad got involved with the questions. Ever been grilled by a professional body-language reader?
Seriously. Super invasive.
Anyway. Five days down, two to go. Also, as of ten minutes ago when I handed in my last exam, I was done with high school. I never had to care about calculus ever again.
Malik found me by the tree. It had become our spot over the last week. He walked up, giving me a little wave, and then sat down beside me.
“Done,” he said.
“Yep,” I said. “You know, two weeks ago exams seemed way more important.”
“No kidding.”
I looked around. We were alone on the field. I reached out and took his hand.
He squeezed back.
“So,” he said. “What now?”
“I have no idea.” I blew out a breath. I didn’t have my bullet journal with me. It was at home. That was a new plan for the summer. Or lack of one. Something like that. “I’m thinking of taking a gap year.”
He leaned away. “Really?”
“Yeah. Really. I hear it’s a good plan. Lets you explore things. But if I do go to school, I’m thinking I’m going to take an art class or two. See if I can minor in graphic design, maybe. I don’t know. Something with drawing.”
Malik smiled, then he got up and lifted me up onto my feet. “That’s cool. But that’s not what I meant. I meant right now. What are you doing after school right now?”
“Oh. Same answer. No idea.” I smiled. Look at me. I was getting the hang of being spontaneous. “And that’s okay.”
“Would you like to maybe do that together?” He said it all casual like, but he didn’t look at me. It was adorable. We started back for the school.
“In case you forgot, we’re grounded.”
“I didn’t forget. But we’ve got an hour before the buses come. We can hang out. And there’s always next week. When we’re not grounded.”
That was true.
“Sure,” I said. “Did you want to see who else is free?” I knew Rhonda had her last exam right now, too. I wasn’t sure about anyone else.
“No.” The firmness in his response made me look. He stopped and faced me. “I’d like it to be us.”
“Wait.” Something in my chest did a couple of little flips. “Is this a date? Are you asking me out on a date? A week ahead?”
Malik did his little look-away-and-smile thing. “Maybe. I know you like to have time to plan.”
“That’s cheating,” I said. But every little bit of me warmed up, from head to toe. I was grinning. I’m sure there’s a cool, calm, and collected way to react to the news the hottie is asking you out on a date, but I didn’t know it. I
may have done an air-punch. There might have been whoops. The only witnesses were me and the aforementioned hottie in question, and it didn’t need to go any farther.
We started walking again, crossing the field.
“That’s a yes?” Malik, on the other hand, knew how to do cool and calm and collected, though unless I was mistaken, he had a serious grin fighting to make it to the surface. “And can I book you for sometime next week, once we’re not grounded?”
“That is so a yes.” I paused. “Well, depending on where you want to go. No sportsball. But other than that? Yes. What do you want to do?”
Malik shook his head. “Nuh-uh. You pick. I just used up all the guts I had to ask you out, Bullet.”
Bullet. I was never going to be tired of that nickname. Ever. We were almost at the front doors, which was when it hit me.
New plan. Spontaneity and I weren’t exactly close, but I’d give it a shot and see if we could get along. I mean, Malik was right. We had an hour.
A whole hour.
I pulled out my phone and set an alarm for forty-five minutes. I might have been turning over a new leaf, but I wasn’t completely abandoning my organized ways.
“Pick a number,” I said.
“What?” Malik said, frowning at the screen.
“One to five,” I said. I tapped the phone, starting the timer.
He took a second. “Three.”
I held out my hand. He barely hesitated, taking it and smiling at me. Oh man, this boy. I was doomed.
I tried to remember our conversation. Vimy was first. And then London? What had been third? Oh! Right. Well, I’d seen photos. That was enough. Like Lexa said, I was a freaking prodigy of the teleporting freaks.
“I hear the beignets are awesome,” I said.
I saw it in his eyes the moment he got it. Now he did grin. A big, goofy, delighted grin that made his whole face light up. I wanted to be the guy who made him do that every time.
“Really?” he said.
I reached out and opened the door to the school.
“Really.”
Poof.
About the Author
Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks Page 20