Chapter Twelve
So Kyle stayed, yet for the first half hour, he was very uncomfortable. Whenever he worked up the courage to try to walk into a conversation, someone in the group would notice and the whole group would stare at the vessels. For the first half hour he was there all he did was basically walk around the yard and the house.
Also, he did his best to avoid Emma. Whenever they would catch a glimpse of each other from across the room or yard, their eyes would lock for a split second. In that split second, Kyle would try to look apologetic at her, but Emma would only avert her eyes and quickly disappear into a crowd of people. This happened several times, yet in none of them did Kyle try to seek her out afterward.
Finally, he managed to find some of his journalist friends. Kyle had known these people for the whole school year, and surely they would have missed him. When he walked up to their circle, they greeted him in kind. If they noticed his vessels, which would have been impossible to not have, they kept any comments or looks to themselves. Kyle, very much appreciative, soon relaxed enough to freely talk. After a few minutes, the other kids seemed to relax around him, too; Kyle was still the same person; he just had blue alien markings all over his arms.
Soon, he was laughing and listening to stories like everyone else. Evan talked about a vacation to Hawaii, where he had an interesting time learning to surf, and deciding that maybe surfing wasn’t his thing. Ashley spent part of her summer in New York, where she did a lot of shopping, sightseeing, and even watching a few Broadway shows.
Kyle was starting to feel good about being there. People were starting to warm up to him again, yet no one asked him what the markings on his arms were out of some unspoken respect. However, Kyle insisted on several occasions that it was safe to be around him.
The vessels weren’t bothering him at all. After the experience when he first arrived, they went dormant again. However, throughout the night, a part of his mind was always thinking about them.
Kyle was at the snack table when Jules came up to him, saying, “What did you do?”
Kyle froze for a second, wondering whether they were thinking about the same incident. Jules didn’t give him time to answer her, though.
“What did you say to her?” she asked.
“Emma?” he asked cautiously. She didn’t even blink as he thought about what to tell her. Finally, he sighed, saying, “How I felt about her, basically.”
Jules smacked him on the arm. “What did you say exactly?” she said angrily.
“I don’t know,” Kyle said, turning to look at her. “I just asked her out and she said no and it got very awkward and she left. That’s all that happened.”
She stared at him for a minute as if she didn’t believe that was what he actually said. Finally, she said, “You just asked her out?”
“I promise,” he said. “I don’t know what happened after that. My vessels acted up; maybe that freaked her out or something, but I don’t know.”
Jules was silent for another minute before saying, “Have you talked to her since?”
“No,” Kyle answered. “I think she’s avoiding me. Whenever I see her, she disappears before I can take a step toward her.”
“You need to talk to her,” Jules told him.
Kyle sighed. “Why do I need to talk to her?”
“Because you need to apologize,” she told him.
“Why? What did I do?” He asked defensively.
“You obviously upset her, Kyle,” she said.
Instead of listening to her explain why he might have upset her, he said, “Fine. I’ll try to talk to her again. But what should I say?”
“Keep it simple,” she advised. “Just say that you didn’t mean to make her feel they way you did and that you still want to be friends.”
Kyle nodded, and Jules finally left him.
Kyle turned around and saw Emma. She was standing next to the sound table, messing with a microphone. Kyle took two steps toward her before she began speaking.
“Hello, everyone! Hope you’re having a great time. First of all, thank you all for showing up. If you brought a CD for the music table, just leave it by the CD player and hopefully it will be heard before the night ends. If anything on the snack table runs out, please let me know so I can fill it back up, but please limit your intake, especially on the drinks. This is not a grocery store. The bathroom is the first door on the left side of the hallway. In just a minute, we’ll be starting the limbo line, and if you need anything else, come talk to me.”
She turned the microphone off, and ducked into the house before Kyle had time to take two more steps toward her. He followed her into the house, but she somehow disappeared. Kyle checked the main room, the kitchen, the hallway, and the back yard, in case she had somehow slipped outside behind him.
When he stepped back outside, the limbo bar was set up and the music started. The giant line started moving toward it, the people at the front bending slightly backward to walk under it. Kyle noticed that Emma was one of the first five people to go under the bar, currently about five feet above the ground. The line picked up speed before Kyle had the forethought to jump in behind her. He hastily jumped in after a large group of girls.
It was obvious that Kyle wouldn’t be able to talk to Emma until they were both eliminated from the game. So Kyle played along, bending over backwards when his turn was up. After he straightened up, the line quickly twisted back to where he was again walking toward the bar again. As usual, no one was eliminated from the first round. The game kept going; no one was eliminated until three rounds later, when the bar dropped almost a full foot. After two more rounds, only half of the people at the party were still in the game, including Kyle and Emma.
At this point, each round was knocking out people. Kyle came up to the bar after nine rounds, which was about three feet off of the ground, about half of his actual height. He paused for a second before he started to inch under the bar, bending as far back as he could. Lower and lower he went, and one step at a time, managed to make it under and past the bar. Whooping, he jumped to the back of the line.
Soon after he went, the bar dropped another few inches. Emma’s turn came up, and she used about the same strategy that Kyle used. She was about half a foot shorter than Kyle, yet, as she went under, she lost her balance and fell over.
“Awwwwwww,” said the crowd as Emma got up and joined the rest of the audience, cheering on the last of the participants.
Two more people were eliminated, leaving five players playing, before Kyle was up again. He decided to stick to his previous strategy, and began to inch his way under the bar. He bent as low as he possibly could without falling over, yet he knew that this was probably it. His legs started to shake underneath him, and each tiny step only made them shake more. His stomach had just past underneath when he knew he was going to fall. He managed to make two more steps before he was just too far back, and his back hit the ground.
“Awwwwwww,” the crowd said as he crawled out from under the bar. Kyle looked up to see Emma just push her way through everyone and head inside. Kyle quickly got up to his feet and followed her.
“Emma,” he called out when he was inside. Luckily, everyone was outside, so they could talk alone. Emma didn’t answer, but Kyle quickly found her in the kitchen organizing and filling some bowls of chips. Kyle stood in the doorway of the kitchen, blocking Emma’s only way out of the room, unless she decided to jump out the window.
When she still didn’t acknowledge Kyle, he began to speak. “Emma, I’m sorry for putting you on the spot like that; I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, but it just came out.” She still wasn’t responding; Kyle was hesitant to approach her. He continued, “I’m sorry for whatever it is I did. And I would really like for us to stay friends, but if you don’t, that’s…”
“No,” she finally said, looking up at Kyle with eyes that looked to have been crying several times this night already. “I love you as a friend, Kyle. But I can’t be your boyfriend.”
Kyle hesitantly asked, “Okay, but may I know why?”
“Ummmm,” she said. She shifted her weight a lot while staring at the ceiling. Kyle couldn’t help but laugh in his mind at what she was doing, but he managed to keep his face from showing. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll tell you. But,” she looked past him quickly, “please try to keep an open mind.”
“Okay,” Kyle said sincerely.
Emma stepped around the kitchen island and walked toward Kyle, again peered over his shoulders, and pulled him further into the kitchen. When they were both standing next to the island, Emma once again checked over Kyle’s shoulder. Kyle looked himself to see if anyone was there; it sounded like everyone was still outside.
Emma sighed, saying, “Okay, and you can’t tell anyone this, please?”
“I promise,” Kyle said.
“Okay,” she said again. She looked down at the floor for a second, then took a deep breath, and said, “I think I’m gay.”
Kyle’s initial reaction was nothing, since he didn’t know how to react to something like that. He looked at her, confused, and said, “What do you mean?”
She started to walk laps around the island and said, “I’ve just been so confused the last few months. It wasn’t like I just woke up one morning and discovered this; it feels like a part of me has always known, but another part of me tells me that it’s wrong.”
Kyle stayed where he was standing and just watched her. Suddenly, a thought came to mind, “Have you been… experimenting?”
Emma smacked his arm as she walked past him, much like Jules does, and said, “No, I have not!”
“Okay,” Kyle said, throwing his arms up. “Does anyone else know?” he asked.
“My parents,” she said. “They say they try to keep an open mind, but you should have seen the way they looked at me when I told them.” She made a sound like a mix of a chuckle and a scoff, saying, “I don’t think anyone in this house slept that night. It took weeks to work up the courage to tell them.”
Kyle was still unsure what to do. Emma kept doing laps around the island until she just broke into tears and sort of fell into Kyle’s arms. She sobbed and sucked in air and Kyle felt his shirt get wet very quickly. He awkwardly put his arms around her, patting her on the shoulder comfortingly. He didn’t know anything else to do.
Then his vessels glowed again. Emma’s crying seemed to subside at this point, and something came to Kyle’s mind. A thought, an epiphany, and he felt that, in some deep way, what he was about to say would apply to both of their predicaments.
“You know, there’s a point where other people don’t matter. What they say, what they think, and what they feel don’t matter. Life isn’t about pleasing others, it’s about finding out who we are. It isn’t important what people think, because ultimately they can’t decide who you are. The best person we can be in this life is who we really are, not what other people see as perfect.”
Emma’s crying came to a complete halt, and now she was just standing there with her face buried in Kyle’s undershirt. After a few seconds, she slipped out of Kyle’s arms and leaned against the island, wiping stray tears off her face. They were silent for a few minutes before she said, “Sorry about your shirt.”
“Don’t be,” Kyle reassured her. “At least don’t apologize to me; apologize to Jules. Else she’ll blame me for spilling something on it or something.”
Emma laughed, and it was good to hear her laugh. “Your markings glowed again,” she pointed out.
“Yeah,” Kyle said. He looked at them as he would his sister if she had said something annoying, and said “They’re getting pretty annoying about that.”
She hugged him again, without crying this time. “Thank you,” she said.
“No problem,” he answered. “I promise not to tell anyone.”
“Thank you,” she repeated.
The sound of the patio door opening forced them to end their conversation. People started to file back into the house, and Emma walked toward the living room, wiping her eyes of any sign that she had been crying. She had barely crossed the threshold when Tony suddenly appeared.
“Emma,” he said excitedly, his face lighting up with a huge grin. He took two steps toward her and said, “Hey, can we talk?”
Emma sighed, saying, “Can we talk later, Tony?”
She began to step around him, but he blocked her, saying, “This will just take a second, I promise.” He took a single deep breath and said, “Emma, would you be my girlfriend. I know we haven’t known each other very long, but…”
“No, Tony,” Emma said.
Tony froze for a minute while Emma said, “I can’t right now; it’s just a bad time.”
“Bad time?” he repeated. At that moment he noticed Kyle, and he went back to Emma, saying, “What’s going on?”
“Tony,” Emma continued, “you’re a very nice guy, but I just…”
“Did he ask you out?” he asked. “Did you say yes to him? What makes him better than me?”
“Hey,” Kyle intervened, stepping in between the two of them. “She gave you her answer, now go.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” he said, getting in Kyle’s face.
“Guys, stop this,” Emma pleaded. “Fighting isn’t going to help.”
Neither Kyle nor Tony backed down, though. “She gave you her answer,” Kyle repeated, “now go.”
“I believe I have a right to know why,” Tony said. The statement was directed at Emma, yet he didn’t take his eyes off of Kyle.
“She doesn’t have to tell you anything,” Kyle said before Emma could speak. His temper started to rise.
“Stop it guys,” Emma pleaded.
“Why don’t you leave us alone you freak,” Tony said.
Emma finally had enough. She pushed her way in between Kyle and Tony, and, facing Tony, said, “Tony, leave now.” It wasn’t a request.
“Why are you protecting him?” Tony said, finally taking his eyes off of Kyle and moving to Emma.
“Go, Tony,” Emma said. She stared at him with unblinking and unwavering eyes.
Tony looked from Emma to Kyle and said, “Fine. Why would I want to be around some kind of fre….”
Kyle had heard enough. Before Tony finished his sentence, Kyle raised his arm and shot a small bolt of energy at Tony. It smacked him in his chest, doing nothing more than shoving him out the door and knocking the wind out of him.
Kyle was just as surprised as everyone else who just saw that. He had never done anything like that.
Emma spun on him, saying, “What did you do?”
Kyle didn’t answer. Something was wrong; he only used a small amount of power, but his vessels weren’t turning off. On the contrary, they were getting brighter. Emma took a step back, Tony watched in disbelief, and other people who had probably heard the commotion were starting to gather.
Kyle stumbled over to the window over the sink. He didn’t need to enhance his vision to see a red star grow brighter. But Kyle knew it wasn’t a star; it was much more dangerous.
Kyle turned toward the crowd, saying, “Its coming.”
Power Trilogy Book One: An Ancient Power Page 12