“Are you okay?” he asked, wrapping her in his arms.
“It just took a lot of energy,” she said, laying her head on his chest, over his heart.
“Wow. Do you really feel that way about me?”
She nodded.
Malakai was overwhelmed by the strength of his own feelings for her. “Did you know you could do that? I mean, project images and feelings into someone else?”
“Yeah, I’ve done it once with Sandra. She wanted to know how it felt to be me. It was so hard. I actually passed out.”
“So why do it with me?”
“Because you’re worth it. Because I wanted you to know I feel the same way you do. Because I didn’t want you to feel bad for thinking the way you do about me.”
She remained there, quiet, in his arms, her warm little body snuggled against his muscular one, and Malakai loved every second of it. He thought she had fallen asleep, but she moved and looked up at him. He kissed her gently, then she laid her head on his chest again.
“I never talked to you about my family,” she said quietly.
“I know,” he said, a pinch to his heart. “And I never talked to you about mine.”
“Want to hear?”
“Yes, I do,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “But only if you want to tell me.”
“My mother…Beatrice and I, we don’t really see eye to eye. She’s rather hurtful and hateful.”
Lily told him about her mother, her father, her uncle. She told him about being a surrogate child and how much her father had wanted her while her mother hadn’t. She told him about learning clarinet on her father’s knees and hoping to go to Rice like her father before her.
Malakai listened, caressing her arms, feeling his love for this little woman grow as she spoke, feeling his desire to make her happy increase with each passing moment. He wanted to be there for her if she ever needed him, he wanted to protect and cherish her, he wanted her to never know what it was to really be alone like he had been.
She deserved to be happy. She deserved the world, and he wanted to give it to her if she would let him.
When she had finished talking, they stayed quiet for a little while, Malakai gently caressing her back.
“You want to hear about my family?” he asked.
“If you want to tell me.”
“I live with my dad. He’s military. He’s a good dad, but he’s never home. It’s lonely sometimes.”
He told her about the accident that killed his friend, how his mother disappeared a day later, and finding out recently that she was still alive. He told her about living at his Gran’s and how great a woman she was. He told her about moving to Texas, about his father’s promotion, about his father’s long absences.
It felt good to tell someone—it felt good to tell someone who filled the emptiness in his heart just with her presence.
When he was done, she remained quiet in his arms, caressing his chest with her hand, the only sign she wasn’t asleep.
“I want to be here for you, always,” he said to her, then kissed the top of her head again. “Lily, if you ever need me, I’ll be there for you.”
“But what if…”
“No buts,” Malakai said firmly but gently. “I will.”
Lily sighed against him. “I…I would like that,” she said. “Charlie wants me to move in with him.”
“Okay. And what do you want?”
“I don’t know, Malakai. The house I live in, it’s mine, my dad left it to me, even if Beatrice is contesting it,” she said with a humorless chuckle. “All I have left of him is still there. Sometimes, when I least expect it, I can still smell him. If I move out, I feel like I’m letting him down somehow.”
“Did your dad know what you can do?”
“Yeah. So does Charlie and the Joneses. But Beatrice…”
She hesitated a moment, and Malakai brushed his lips against her hair.
“She never loved me,” she finally said. “I remember when I was a small child, maybe four or five, I was alone with her, and she was so hateful. I got scared and hid in a closet. She was so mad. When my father got home, she yelled at him, telling him his ungrateful daughter wouldn’t listen and had disappeared on her.
“My father found me and asked me what I was doing hiding like that. He took me in his arms, and I remember feeling all his love for me. He had so much of it I wondered, in my child’s head, how he had any left for Beatrice. And I asked him. That’s when he knew for sure I wasn’t like the other children. That’s when he had his confirmation I was different, that I was an empath. He told me, years later, he always knew I was special, but that day, I confirmed to him what he had suspected all along.
“I miss him, Malakai,” she said, her voice breaking.
Malakai just held her, caressing her back gently.
“I’m sorry,” she said after a few moments of silence. “This is supposed to be a party, and I’m crying all over you,” she added, wiping her tears with her shirtsleeve.
“Hey!” Malakai said, putting a finger under her chin and raising her face so she would look at him. “Don’t ever apologize for crying, okay? Ever,” he said seriously, his eyes searching hers.
“I thought boys didn’t like when girls cry.”
“Most of the time, but you’re not just a girl, you’re my girl, and you can cry all you want.”
And he meant it. He would know in his heart what to do if she cried, and it didn’t scare him.
As she looked at him, he lowered his lips to hers. Softly, he kissed her, then her tongue licked his lower lips. Fireworks exploded in his head. He pulled her higher along his chest and deepened the kiss, crushing his mouth against hers, taking in this sweet girl that was his. His hand reached her butt, and he pulled her even higher so her face was even with his. She was so soft against him, so perfect, so Lily, his body responded in more ways than one.
When he broke the kiss, he was totally out of breath and not all from kissing. He stared at her, this beautiful girl who had chosen him of all the guys in school. Her eyes were shiny from their kissing, and her lips swollen. She was so, so perfect.
Malakai kissed her gently again and smiled.
“I think I love you, Lily Morgan.”
Lily’s breath caught in her throat, and she opened her eyes wide.
“I love you, and I would love for you to breathe right now so you don’t die on me,” he said with a chuckle.
Lily took a long, shaking breath.
“And I mean it,” he said, becoming serious.
“Wow!” she murmured.
“I think I know what you’re thinking,” he said, after a few seconds of silence. “You’re thinking I’m saying this after only a few weeks. How could I know? Well, I may have been dating you for only a few weeks, but I remember the first time I saw you. It was the first day of freshman year.”
“You…you noticed me that long ago?”
“Yeah. You were so pretty back then, just like you are now. And now you’re mine and I like that, very much.”
He kissed her again and again, as if kissing her were as essential as breathing. But eventually he pulled away.
“I think I love you too, Malakai Thomas,” she whispered, her little hand caressing his cheek.
Malakai’s heart stopped. He just stared at her.
“Breathe, Malakai,” Lily said with a chuckle. “I don’t want you to die either.”
Malakai took a deep breath, then smiled at her. With a chuckle, he pulled her toward him, and they didn’t talk for a long, long time.
Chapter Forty-Four
LILY
As Sandra and she pulled into their street the next Monday afternoon after band practice, Lily frowned; three cars she had never seen before were parked in her driveway. The places being all taken, she parked on the street and got out of the car, followed by Sandra.
“Who is that?” Sandra asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Want me to come with?”
&nb
sp; “No,” Lily answered, frowning. “I should be okay.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
Sandra left, and Lily made her way toward the house. The moment she closed the door, Beatrice appeared next to her.
“Some of your friends from school are in the sitting room. Entertain them while I’m meeting with their parents. And don’t make me look bad, I’m warning you,” she hissed, taking Lily by the arm and pulling her toward the sitting room.
“Here she is,” Beatrice exclaimed before Lily could walk away.
Lily looked up; Wes, Zoe, and Tommy, Zoe’s brother and the previous year’s quarterback, were sitting on the white couch. As they stood and looked at her with smiles on their faces, Lily perceived something bad coming from them, something she had never felt before, and it made her want to run to her room, lock the door, and put a chair under the knob.
Behind the three stood Andrea and Lucas, one of the defensive line players. The two were confused and uncomfortable as if they had no idea what was going on.
“Elizabeth, please make sure you offer your friends something to drink,” Beatrice said, smiling at her.
Without adding a word, Beatrice made her way toward her office and conference room on her side of the house.
“You guys want something to drink?” Lily asked, putting on her fake smile. “We’ve got Diet Coke, regular Coke, orange juice, water.”
Lily was becoming increasingly uneasy, and it took all of her willpower not to run out the front door to Sandra’s. The feelings had turned from bad to ugly, with an undercurrent of violence.
“Sure. I’d like a Diet Coke,” Zoe said with a smile that didn’t even look friendly.
“I’ll have one too,” Andrea added.
“Coke for me,” Wes said lazily.
Lily looked at Tommy and Lucas.
“Nah, I’m fine,” Tommy said with a wink.
Lucas shook his head.
Lily quickly made her way to the kitchen and, seeing her chance, grabbed her phone from her back pocket. She had only a moment as she felt them making their way to the kitchen. She willed her trembling fingers to type her established emergency code to Sandra and was pressing Send when she was pushed against the counter. The phone flew from her hand and landed in the sink.
Wes.
Wes was holding her with all his weight, trapping her, pressing her lower abdomen against the counter, hurting her, and making it hard for her to draw in air. What was even more terrifying was the way he felt: violent, lustful, wanting, desperate.
Alarmed, Lily glanced at her phone, hoping against hope the text had gone through, but the phone had landed face down and she couldn’t see.
“Soooo, we meet again,” he said. “I hear you like to play the field.”
“Of course she does,” Zoe said behind them. “She’s a slut.”
Zoe had no intention of intervening. In fact, she was taking an unordinary amount of pleasure in seeing Lily’s predicament.
Lily went from afraid to terrified, her breathing becoming increasingly laborious.
She had to get out of there, now.
And where were the others, Tommy, Andrea, and Lucas?
“Let me go,” she said loud enough for the adults in the conference room to hear.
Zoe laughed loudly, and Lily knew what she was doing. She was trying to make the adults think she was joking.
Lily couldn’t believe what was happening. She felt like she was in one of those bad reality TV shows where everything was exaggerated tenfold to increase viewership. But she wasn’t on TV, and things like this shouldn’t be happening to her, especially not in her own home where she was supposed to be safe.
“You also like stealing class partners, don’t you?” Wes continued, his hand grabbing her left breast.
“Wes, let me have her,” Tommy said, appearing in front of them and moving his hips suggestively.
“Nooo, bro, she’s mine,” he said, squeezing her.
“Let me go,” Lily screamed again.
Lily saw flashes of what was going on in Wes’s mind, and she felt her stomach rebel. He was fantasizing about throwing her on the counter, ripping off her clothes, and having his way with her while she was half-conscious. All the while, someone was whispering in his ear to do it, someone that sounded like Zoe one moment and someone else the next. The voices were disconcerting and confusing.
“Let go of me,” Lily tried to scream. The scream wasn’t as powerful this time. She couldn’t get enough air in her lungs anymore.
Why weren’t the adults coming to her rescue? Where were Lucas and Andrea? Why weren’t they saying anything?
“Or what?” Wes asked flippantly, punching his weight into her. “What will you do? You’re only a little band geek who likes to meddle in things that don’t concern her,” he said, pinching her breast, hard.
Lily tried to project fear toward the quarterback, but projecting had never been something she was good at, and Wes was too far gone in his madness for her to reach.
“Let me go,” she repeated, tears now flowing from her eyes.
Behind them, Tommy and Zoe laughed.
“I think she got the message, Wes,” Lucas said.
“Yeah, let her go,” Andrea agreed.
Lily would have been reassured of their intervention if Wes had shown any indication of stopping.
But he didn’t. He wanted to see this play out all the way to the end.
“Oh, but I just got started.”
“LET. HER. GO!”
When she heard David’s voice, Lily thought she would faint in relief.
Chapter Forty-Five
MALAKAI
“I don’t know how you understand all this, dude,” David said, shaking his head. “It looks like Chinese to me.”
After football practice, David had invited Malakai over for dinner. Once they were done, they had moved to the formal dining room and were now busy with their homework, David interrupting Malakai every so often when he didn’t understand something with his math assignment.
“Hi, guys,” Sandra said, walking in. “Study party?”
“Yep,” David answered with a grin.
“Care if I join you? I know we just got back, but I’m pretty sure if I call Lily, she’ll join us too.”
“Sure.”
For his only answer, Malakai grinned at her. Sandra rolled her eyes and walked out of the room while Malakai turned to David and his problem.
“Okay, so you do it this way. You take that value and you put it–”
“Guys!” Sandra interrupted, barging in. “Come quick! Lily’s in trouble. She just sent me our emergency code and put a lot of ones and no details.”
Malakai and David jumped to their feet and followed Sandra out of the door. Malakai’s heart thumped in panic and fear. “Does she use the emergency code often?” he asked.
“She’s only used it once before, and she was really in trouble then,” Sandra answered, running across the street.
They made their way to the side gate, and Sandra opened it. From one of the windows, Malakai saw a group of adults talking in an office. One of them strangely looked like Wes’s mother, and a chill ran down Malakai’s back. A few moments later, they emerged in the backyard and entered the house through the patio door, which faced the pool. As soon as the door was opened, Malakai heard Lucas, then Andrea telling someone to let her go. He knew then that he wouldn’t like what he was about to see.
“Oh! But I just got started,” Wes said.
“LET. HER. GO!” David bellowed as he walked in first.
Malakai followed and saw Wes. He was holding Lily against the counter, and tears were pouring from her eyes. She was fighting, but she was so small she was no match for Wes.
And he was touching her.
Everything but the hand on Lily disappeared in a red haze. Malakai only heard muffled conversations through the blood pounding in his ears.
Someone was touching his girl.
Someone was h
urting her.
Someone was going to pay.
The next thing he knew, Malakai was across the room and pushing Wes off Lily. He then turned to the quarterback and hit him in the face, once, twice…then he couldn’t hit him anymore. Something was preventing him from moving his arms. Someone was holding him from behind.
“Let me go!” he screamed, his voice distorted by anger.
“Malakai, stop!” David yelled. “Stop, dude. He’s down. He’s on the ground.”
Malakai kept on fighting the big center. Wes deserved so much worse than a couple of punches.
“Malakai, Lily needs you.”
All of the sudden, the fight left him.
Malakai looked up; Lily was crying in Sandra’s arms. She was holding her arms tightly around herself, and she looked terrified.
“Get her out of here,” David said, releasing him and pushing him toward Lily.
Malakai took a step toward her, but the way she looked at him stopped him. She had the eyes of a deer caught in the headlights, the eyes of a deer that knew terror just before being hit by a car.
“Lily,” he whispered. He felt a prickling sensation behind his eyes and closed them. “Lily,” he said again.
As he opened his eyes, Lily collided into him. He encircled her with his arms, taking calming comfort in knowing she was now safe.
“Come,” he said, pulling her toward the stairway.
He hadn’t been in her house before, but he knew her bedroom was on the second floor, facing Sandra’s. He wanted her there, away from those people.
Once they were up the stairs, Lily opened a door to the right. Malakai, still holding her against his side, walked in and found himself in a big green and cream room that smelled like a teahouse, a teahouse that only served green tea. In the middle of the room was one of the highest and biggest beds Malakai had ever seen. It was in fact so high he wondered how his petite girlfriend got on it without a step ladder. It was covered with fluffy pillows, lots of them.
On the wall above her bed was a small shelf with an old clarinet. Next to it stood a framed picture of a man who looked just like Charlie, playing the instrument.
Lily, shaking against his side, regained his attention and he looked down at her.
Crossing the Barrier Page 16