“No,” I whisper.
He swallows hard.
“I want to kiss you,” he says softly.
Fire licks at my lower stomach with each caressing whisper.
When I say nothing, he presses his warm lips against mine. My heart does a flip and my stomach tightens. I stand there for a minute—my eyes wide from the sudden rush of sensations that take over—the contrast of the frigid atmosphere around me and his heat that’s rushing through me.
His hot lips press a little harder and I start to relax. Like a natural reflex, I close my eyes. A soft noise escapes my throat and he responds with a heavy groan. Sliding his strong arms around me he pulls me closer to him.
I press my palms into his soft down jacket. The warmth from inside of his jacket captures my fingertips causing them to tingle. The kiss feels so natural, so perfect, as if we had kissed a million times. Yet it’s the newest, most wonderful thing ever. How can something feel so right, yet make your knees turn to jelly all at the same time?
This is my first kiss, and it couldn’t have been by a better person; a person who’s always captured my curiosity. He’s one of the few people in my world that I feel some form of a connection with; one that seems to be consuming my every thought these days.
I’ve always had a thing for Adam. I think about him every day and now here I am, a few days before Christmas, kissing him. My entire body feels relaxed and calm now—thanks to his amazing kiss. The warm feeling in my body spreads. It feels like we’re in an open field in the middle of summer being bathed by the sun. It’s everything I’d ever hoped it would be.
He lifts his hand to my face and strokes my cheek with his thumb. Everything about him is so warm. It’s the sweetest moment of my life. Adam Westcott is actually holding me close, caressing my face, and kissing my lips.
When the kiss ends I take a deep breath; my mouth tingles. The hot feeling has taken over and I’m afraid that if I open my eyes I’ll never recapture this feeling again. His forehead connects with mine as he rubs my upper arms up-and-down. He’s so close to me I feel like I could crawl into his jacket with him.
When I finally open my eyes the warmth is instantly replaced with shock and horror. The euphoric state that his kiss put me in is washed away in the blink of an eye. My body tenses up knowing that I’ve possibly ruined this entire moment with my weirdness. While everything as far as the eye can see is still covered in snow and ice, there’s an area around Adam and I where all the snow has melted. In that newly melted area there’s thick green grass and freshly grown purple and white daisies everywhere.
A summer butterfly floats up between us and lands on his shoulder. I quickly look up at Adam’s face. I’m afraid to see the disgusted expression I know he’ll have. He too is looking all around us at the magical things that have just happened. When he finally looks back at me there’s no revolted look on his face. Instead, he smiles at me.
Great timing, weirdness! Adam’s finally starting to treat me like a normal person. The last thing I want to do is remind him that I’m not at all a normal girl.
The silence between us seems to last forever. I feel his long, slender fingers under my chin as he turns my face up towards his. I almost pull away from him in embarrassment—I don’t.
His fingers now feel cool against my flushed face. There’s a slight tingle where he’s touching me. When I open my eyes I see how close we are to each other. I can feel his breath against my lips and his green eyes are burning into me.
“You’re so unbelievable,” he whispers against my lips.
His voice travels down my spine.
I’m on fire everywhere—not literally, although anything’s possible when it comes to me. I feel exactly as I did the day I stopped Adam from crashing into the ground. Except this time, the heat is spreading all over my body not just in my arm and this time, it doesn’t hurt—it’s pleasant.
What’s he doing to me? How is he doing this to me? He’s the unbelievable one, not me.
He’s the magical creature that’s making me feel so many astounding things all at once. For years, I had felt nothing but worthless; I had no reason for anything. Now, in a matter of minutes, this wonderfully beautiful boy has slowly given me purpose. He’s giving me reason to not only go to school every day, but to wake up in general. I want to wake to these feelings every day for the rest of my life.
How does he expect me to respond to his comment with him paralyzing me with his eyes? What do you say to a comment like that anyway?
The things he’s seen me do probably are unbelievable to him. They’re unbelievable to me and I’ve lived with these things my whole life. Things that seem to be getting stronger every day, which is kind of scary; especially since I have no one to talk to about it.
Unbelievable they definitely are and there’s no way around it this time. There’s no more denying these things with Adam anymore. He’s already seen too much. I decide to be truthful with him. What’s the point in denying it? Obviously, he’s not going to tell anyone. He’s held on to one of my secrets for eight years and he’s told no one about him getting pushed from the water tower that day. Why would he start telling now?
“Believe it…you see it with your own two eyes,” I swallow hard giving him a look that dares any questions. “My question is, now that you’ve seen all of this—what are you going to do?”
“I wasn’t talking about what you can do,” he sighs.
“Oh…then what are you talking about?”
He strokes my cheek again with his thumb. Physical contact with another person feels amazing. My strong resolve crumbles yet again. I’m realizing now exactly what I’ve been missing by pushing people away and sticking to myself.
Now my thoughts are becoming more defined. Instead of being the unrealistic perfect guy that I’ve admired from afar, he’s becoming real to me.
“I was talking about you, Mage. You’re unbelievable. You’re just so...,” he stops and nibbles at his bottom lip.
I start to panic. I’m just so what? Weird? Strange? Yeah, I already know that. I certainly don’t need to hear that from him.
I’m starting to question what it is I’m doing. I’m starting to wonder why I’m even bothering with this boy. It’s obvious that he looks at me the same as everyone else.
Then to top it off, I had to go and make it worse by throwing fire at him. So what if that fire saved his life? And if that wasn’t bad enough, I had to go and grow a damn flower garden in the middle of winter—in the snow, no less! Which, let’s face it, all that’s pretty cool, but not the point. The point is I should know better. After eight years of being a loner and evaluating people, I should most definitely know better.
It’s time I put a stop to all this chatting with people. It’s wrong, it’s always been wrong. I’m not like them and I have to remember that. I need to remember that I’m technically a threat to them. It’s for the best if I stay away from all of them and that includes Adam and Bernie.
“I’m just so what?” I ask rudely.
“Well—you’re just so…”
I see his body shaking and the logical side of me says it’s because he’s cold, but the crazy psychotic side of me says that he’s shaking out of fear.
He stares at me before finally dropping his hand from my face and looking away.
Yep! He’s definitely repulsed by me.
As if he hears my thoughts he shakes his head and smiles at me.
“Oh come on, Mage! Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You’re a smart girl—you have to know I think you’re beautiful,” he says in aggravation.
I don’t say anything—I couldn’t say anything if I wanted to. All this sweet talk and kissing has rendered me speechless. No one, and I do mean no one, has ever said anything along those lines to me.
He thinks I’m beautiful! What’s this world coming to? There’s absolutely nothing beautiful about me and I would know. I’m the one that has to look at myself in the mirror every day.
He begins to nervously ramble—I listen.
“This is crazy! I can’t even believe I’m out in the middle of the damn cold spouting sonnets like some freaking loser. I should just keep my thoughts to myself. It’s just that sometimes I catch you looking at me and I guess I just thought—never mind what I thought. I have to go,” he says as he turns to leave.
I grab his hand to stop him—tingling heat travels up my arm.
I hold on to his hand and try to figure out what to say next. What do you say to someone who turns your world upside down? I give his hand a little squeeze and then shoot him a flirty smile. At least I hope it’s flirty since I have no idea how to flirt.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
He intertwines his fingers with mine and smiles.
I’m slowly becoming one of those blushing little girls I dislike so much. Except now, I understand what it is that makes these girls blush and giggle. Adam’s definitely saying and doing the right things to turn my pale cheeks pink.
“Thank you,” he says. “For all the sweet stuff you’ve given me for Christmas.”
I chuckle, “It’s just cookies.”
“I’m not talking about the cookies.”
With those words he leans towards me and softly kisses me again—I melt.
It’s funny. When this school year started I had a feeling that things were going to change for me. I had no idea at the time how extreme that change would be and I had no clue that the change would be so welcomed.
Adam’s very much a welcomed change in my life. Technically, he’s been a part of my life since the second grade. I always thought he was special in his own way, but I can honestly say I had no idea how special. This year is turning out to be the best. Things are seriously getting good and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Chapter 10
The Sweetest Sixteen
The next day, Adam shows up at my front door. He takes up the entire doorway as he leans against the frame.
“Want to go for a ride with me?” he shoots me his lazy grin.
“Sure,” I beam.
Spending the day with him sounds like heaven.
We go to lunch at this really cute café in the center of town. You’d never know by the way we talk and laugh with each other that just a week ago we had a silent friendship. It’s like we’re old friends and I guess technically, we are.
He asks me about my family, and I feel comfortable enough to tell him everything—things I’ve never told anyone else.
“So how do you do it?” he finally asks.
“How do I do what?” I respond before taking a sip of my cappuccino.
“How do you—I don’t know—change the weather or stop people from smashing into the ground?” he laughs. “Anything that you do, how do you do it?”
Well, here goes nothing.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve always been able to do small things. The big stuff is new. Sometimes I’m scared I’ll hurt someone,” I sigh. “I just want to be normal.”
He looks shocked that I open up so easily about my weird situation; I’m shocked by it too, but there’s no reason to deny it with him anymore. He was there in the beginning when I did small things, and he was there the last time I did something big. What good does it do to pretend that I don’t know what he’s talking about?
“You could never hurt anyone and normal’s boring. If anyone disagrees with that send them to me,” he leans back in his chair and crosses his arms.
The rest of the day flows beautifully. After lunch, we go for a walk through Azalea Park, playing in the gazebos. The flowers aren’t in bloom, but the park is beautiful. It’s still cold outside, but the snow has started to melt.
On a small bench next to a man-made lake we sit and talk. He tells me about his family and his job at the tire shop. I confess my feelings about being alone at my house and my fear of growing old with cats. He laughs at the cat comment.
“You’re not going to be the old cat lady…you’re entirely too hot for that,” he pulls on the tips of my fingers, “literally.”
We both laugh knowing that he’s talking about the fire that came from my hands.
It’s dark out when we finally get back to my house. We sit in his truck a little longer and continue talking. It’s obvious that neither of us wants to leave each other. I give in finally and reach for the door handle. I’m about to get out of his truck when I feel his hand on my arm.
“So um—what are you doing tomorrow?” he asks with a grin.
“Nothing, really—I guess I’ll hang out around the house. I was thinking I might try and clean the gardens up a bit—get them ready for spring. Why?”
“Want some help?”
“Yeah, that’d be great—I’ll see you tomorrow then?”
“Tomorrow it is,” he runs his thumb across his bottom lip. “Goodnight, Mage.”
He leans in like he’s about to kiss me again. I close my eyes and prepare for the rush of adrenaline that comes with his lips on mine. Instead, I feel his soft lips on my forehead as he kisses me like I’m his sister.
“Goodnight,” I say confused.
I watch him drive away before going inside.
**********
The following day, we spend most of our time in the gardens around my house. Our hands are dirty from pulling weeds and cleaning up leaves. We play and throw leaves at each other while Sire runs down any form of movement from insects to small critters.
During lunch we go inside and I make us some sandwiches.
“Everyone thinks your house is haunted,” he says around a mouth full of turkey and cheese.
“They’re right…my house is haunted,” I tease him.
I wiggle my fingers and make ghost noises—we both laugh because it’s true.
“Is anyone watching us now?” he asks while looking around the empty kitchen.
“Nope,” I take another bite.
“Gosh, Mage, you’re such a weirdo,” he mocks the girls at school, as he pulls a strand of my hair.
“Screw you,” I smack his hand away.
“You want to—I can tell by how you look at me,” he nods and gives me a toothy grin.
I push at his hard chest. “You wish!”
A heated blush covers my cheeks.
“Yes I do, very much,” he grabs my hand and gives me his lopsided grin before planting a soft kiss in my palm.
The days that follow are the same. Some days, he comes over and we play in the gardens all day. Other days, we go for rides in his loud truck and talk about everything imaginable.
On Christmas Eve, Adam takes me to Waterfront Park. All bundled up we snuggle together on a big wooden swing and look out over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s nice to get away from it all and see new things. It’s easy to pretend that things are completely ordinary when I’m with him. That’s especially important to me now since things are becoming even more out of the ordinary.
Almost every day for the last week I’ve been able to do some new trick with my eyes or see something happen seconds before it actually does. There are days when I think these things are going to drive me crazy. Thinking of going crazy makes me think of my mother. Did she have this same “gift”? If she did, was it this gift that pushed her into a mental institution?
The thought of losing control of these new powers is terrifying.
I try not to think of these things as I relax with Adam and swing back and forth in silence. The ocean breeze blows through my hair. I close my eyes and listen to the sounds of the water moving.
The water reminds me of the horrible nightmare I had a few weeks before and I worry that the nightmare is vision of what’s to come?
I don’t want to panic and ruin our perfect day, so I push that thought out of my head. Only recently did I start seeing little bits of the future, and even then it’s only the near future—like five minutes away. I would see Sire chasing a squirrel and then two minutes later a squirrel would run by with Sire on his heels. Hopefully it’s a
ll coincidence, but I won’t get my hopes up.
Adam grabs my hand and plays with my fingers.
“You have cute hands,” he says as he gives each one of my fingers a little tug.
He slowly lifts my hand to his mouth and kisses my palm. While he does this, I’m secretly wishing he’d kiss my lips instead.
Adam makes me feel like I’m floating on gossamer wings; like a tiny butterfly fairy in an unseen world. The whole scene—the water and historical lighthouse in the distance; it’s all so magical and beautiful. But this is real, even though it feels like a fairy tale. This isn’t fantasy, no teenage illusion…it’s pure reality.
He has a way of making me feel like the moment we’re in is the only thing that matters. Whenever I’m with him I forget about everything else. This could be a good thing or a bad thing.
“So what do you want for your birthday?”
Shocked I pull my hand back and stare with wide eyes. “How do you know my birthday’s coming up?”
“I know all, baby,” he nods and rubs his bottom lip.
“I don’t want anything. I have everything I need.”
I look away from his mouth. In my head I think—another kiss for my birthday would be awesome.
“Too bad, I’m giving you something.”
“What is it?” I can’t help but ask.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he says.
I’m not sure how he does it, but he manages to make everything sound sexual.
Before I know it, it’s December thirtieth, the day before my sixteenth birthday. My days seem to fly by now that I have Adam to spend them with. It’s going to be weird to go back to school and not see him almost every minute of every day, but soon school will start back and reality will set back in. Back to being the strange girl that people look at funny. Well, everyone except my new friends.
It’s been days since I’ve heard from Bernie, so I call her and we make plans to get lunch at our usual Chinese restaurant. Her mom and brother Benjamin come along this time and we all sit around and talk.
Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) Page 9