by Tamara White
“Ky! Answer me for god’s sake! If you don’t want to spend time with me just say so,” He stops and faces me and looks slightly embarrassed.
“Look Evie, I know Dane sent you out here with me today,” he says.
What? “No he didn’t. After you went inside, I asked if they had any plans or if I could come with you.” I’m appalled he would think I’d only come out because the others asked it of me and not because I want to.
“Oh. Sorry, Evie. Dane and I talked earlier and I guess I’m still thinking about what we discussed. I figured you were just trying to be polite and include me.”
Ugh boys! Why do they make everything harder? You always hear how men aren’t mind readers, well neither are women.
“I was being polite, but I actually do want to spend time with you, well a little less now, but I want to get to know all of you,” I smirk before taking control of the cart and pushing it along while I wait for him to follow me.
I can’t believe he would think I didn’t want to spend time with him. I mean I know we haven’t spent the most time together, but I feel connected to him as much as the others.
“Ok, Evie, it’s a date. Well not a date but you know what I mean,” he looks so cute when he’s flustered.
Hmm I wonder if I should set up a mini date with Ky? Maybe cook him dinner and watch a movie? Yes, that’s sounds like a great idea.
Chapter 20
Dane
Last night was great. Evie and I played around while making dinner then once we all ate, we just sat back and relaxed, watching television before bed.
I really don’t want to go to school, I just want to spend all day at home with Evie, but she’s really determined to finish out the last year of school.
Evie pulled Teddy, Mike, and I aside last night and told us she had planned a surprise ‘date’ for Ky. I think it’s sweet, but I won’t lie that I was a tad jealous. Concentrating on the fact that she’s getting closer to us and is willing to get to know us, makes it worth it. This way it will help her to make the right decision with the bonds.
I lean in and give Evie a kiss on the cheek “Bye, sweetie, I’ll see you in algebra,” I make my way to my Home Economics class dreading it a little. I know the guys said not to, but I decided to take matters into my own hands with Catherine. I won’t let her hurt Evie.
Evie
Ky, Teddy, and I are all in the library trying to study for our creative art project, but not much studying is getting done. The guys keep trying to hit each other with paper planes while I just watch them. I’m sitting in Ky’s lap because he insisted he needed someone to shield him from paper cuts the paper planes are likely to inflict “So, basically it’s ok if I get the paper cuts but not you?” I tease him.
He looks a bit flustered by my reasoning and Teddy chimes in too “Yeah, man, seriously you’re supposed to protect her from paper cuts. If I threw a hundred of these Evie would probably bleed out here in the library.” How Teddy is keeping a straight face I have no idea.
It is taking all my self-control not to laugh, but I can’t help it when I see Ky’s face, he looks so confused.
Teddy and I both burst into laughter while Ky is all indignant “Dude, so not funny. I was actually thinking about if it was possible or not for her to get that many paper cuts.”
I laugh harder and feel Ky’s arms go around me as he leans into me “So, my concern for you is funny, is it? Maybe I should see if you want to be protected,” I stop laughing just as he starts tickling my sides. I squeal at him to stop, but he laughs and I try roll away only to find myself pinned between him and Teddy.
I try to talk through my laughs “No fair. I can’t get away from both of you,” I’m trying to get my laughter under control when the librarian comes marching over.
“What do you think you are doing?! The library is to be used for studying, not fooling around! Out!” she points her finger to the door and we pack up our stuff and walk out the door back towards class. We’re just outside the doors when we all burst into giggles. I think I might love these guys.
Kylan
We make it back to English as the bell rings, so we leave Evie to rush off and get to her algebra class while we head off to our basic math class. I think Dane was right about spending time with Evie. In the library with her and Teddy, if felt so natural that we were all laughing and playing around. I wasn’t thinking about if she liked me or not, because I could feel it from her. I can see why the other guys like spending time with her too. Maybe I should bring up a possible schedule? Something that will allow us to spend time with Evie and possibly even get a chance to take her on dates. There are only two days of weekend, so I doubt we’ll all get dinner dates. I should ask Mike and Teddy what they think.
Mike
As we sit down in our math class, Ky turns to ask us about Evie “Hey guys, I was thinking. What if we come up with some type of routine or schedule for our dates with Evie? I really want to take her for dinner, but I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or ruin plans already in place.”
I was already thinking about that when I noticed how much time Evie was getting with everyone else. “I’ve been thinking that too. It’s a bit too hard for her to get to know all of us when she spends more time with one or the other. I think we should also plan more group things too, like the swim yesterday. It gives her a chance to get to know us individually and as a group.”
I’ve been looking forward to our training session today, so I can learn a bit more about Evie but it will be cut short since she planned the surprise date for Ky. I’ll just have to try to get my time in with her soon.
We’re halfway through class when Dane speaks into our minds. Guys, I may have screwed up. Evie is angry at me, and I can feel her powers rising.
Fuck! What did he do?!
Dane
As Evie and I walk into class, I get a feeling something bad is going to happen. I don’t mean like a vision an air elemental gets, but it’s that feeling you get deep in your bones that something bad will happen.
As the teacher comes in, I notice the girl from my home economics class heading towards the seat beside me. Oh no, this is bad.
Her name’s Nina, and she’s one of Catherine’s loyal followers. She approached me in my home economics class claiming she wanted to get to know me and offer me friendship because I was new. However, I heard her thoughts that she was doing what Catherine told her, and she was just trying to find out why Evie was friends with us.
Catherine was pissing me off, so I said some things to make it seem like Evie wasn’t important, hoping it would deter Catherine and Nina from picking on her but it looks like that’s about to bite me in the ass.
We’re halfway through class when I feel Evie’s powers trying to surface. I look over at her and my heart shatters. The notes that I was passing back and forth with Nina and Catherine are on her desk and she has tears running down her face.
Guys, I may have screwed up. Evie is angry at me, and I can feel her powers rising. I look back to see Nina smirking and hear her thoughts that Catherine will be happy.
What the fuck did you do, Dane? I had a vision of Evie leaving town so you better fix this now!!! Fuck! Mike is so pissed at me, and I don’t blame him if she’s thinking of leaving.
Evie, honey, those notes aren’t what you think. I heard her thoughts in class and wanted to play with her and Catherine for planning such horrible things. Please believe me I would never mean those things. I care about you, we all do. I need you to calm down, please, before your powers get out of control.
Shit! I don’t know what happened but I can feel Evie’s anger peak. You’re seriously telling me I need to calm down, Dane! You wrote a note to another girl saying you had a bet with Liam about who could get me into bed first! You said that you couldn’t care less about a girl as pathetic and abused as me. Why would you write these things about me?! I thought I could trust you telling you my secrets and you pretty much outed it to the whole school by telling Nina and
Catherine! There’s no way my powers will get under control because all I want to do is hurt you! You need to get Mike, Teddy, or Ky because if you come near me right now, I will let go of the little control I have!
I really fucked up. I didn’t think when I wrote those notes, only that I was angry on behalf of Evie and I wanted to trick them into leaving Evie alone. Never did I think they would set me up.
I feel the anger from the other guys before Kylan speaks in my head, I don’t care what you were planning to do, but we warned you not to try anything. You have broken her. You may only be able to feel her anger right now, but you broke her heart. She was falling in love with you and you’ve most likely ruined it because of your stupidity. I’m coming to get her now, but I think she should skip next class because being around you might set her off again. You need to think about how to fix this without your stupid games and you need to prepare for the possibility that she may never bond with you. I never believed she’d see those notes. I thought I would use them to break those girls, but I broke Evie. Is Ky right? Was she falling in love with me?
Evie
I’m so heartbroken. I know Dane would never say those things to hurt me, but he basically told Nina I had been abused. And once Nina knows something, so does Catherine. My life in high school is officially over.
Hearing a knock on the classroom door, I look up and see Ky talking with the teacher. He’s whispering something in his ear before the teacher turns to me and says I can leave. I make my way to the door without looking back at Dane. I’m so hurt by his behaviour. What’s worse, was I think I was falling for him. We’d spent a lot of time together the past few days, and he’d been making a spot in my heart, but right now I feel like ripping my own heart out.
Kylan and I walk to the car and sit in the back. He doesn’t say anything, just lets me lean against him while I breathe deeply and try to get my powers under control. It takes me a while, but I finally get myself under control.
“Ok, I can go back in now my powers are under control,” I try to pull away from Ky, but he pulls me back into him.
“No, princess, we’re staying here to talk at least until the class is over. The other guys don’t want you around Dane just in case it triggers your powers again.” I understand the guys are trying to protect me and Dane, but I don’t want to miss biology.
“Ky, we can stay here until the class is over, but I’m going to biology. I know Dane thought he was helping, but I just need to process everything. Do you know what he wrote about me to Nina?” I’m trying not to cry but I can feel the tears trying to fall “He told her how he couldn’t be interested in someone as pathetic and abused as me,” I sniffle with tears running down my cheeks.
“Oh, sweetheart, he never meant it. He absolutely adores you. He hates girls like that, especially when they pick on weaker girls. He has set them up before. I want to tell you about a girl at our last school that Dane did something similar with.” I don’t know if I want to hear this, but maybe it will help me understand why Dane would say such hurtful things about me.
“Ok, I’m listening,” I lean back into his arms and wait.
“So, at our last school we were quiet and kept to ourselves like we normally do at a new school, but girls are drawn to us both by our looks and our elemental nature. There was a girl named Caroline that Dane had a crush on. She was a quiet, shy girl that focused on her studies and had no friends. Dane was in majority of her classes so he tried to become friends with her. It worked and they became quick friends. They would get together a lot, to study, talk and they even went to the fair, and that was where Sheila saw them.
Sheila was exactly like Catherine, so full of herself, and believed because she was the hottest girl in school she could get away with anything. Sheila taunted Caroline, prank calling her, they even ambushed her in the lockers one day after school and hit her.
After that day, she told Dane she wanted nothing to do with him and it was all his fault. Dane was crushed, I mean he was never going to try for a relationship knowing his bonded was out there, but still Caroline represented what he wanted in his bonded. Even after he stopped hanging out with her, she still got bullied at school until one day about a week later she never showed up. That afternoon Dane and I went by her house just to make sure everything was ok.
When Dane knocked on the door, her parents were crying and started shouting at him saying it was all his fault and they wished he’d never met Caroline.
Caroline had killed herself, Evie. She had been bullied so much that she felt the only way for it to stop was to end her life. After that, Dane went back to school and pretended it didn’t bother him. He made friends with Sheila and her group. At first, we thought he’d lost his mind, but we’d been told we were moving in a month, so we thought it would be ok to let Dane do what he wanted to move on.
It was the last day at school when we realized Dane had a plan all along. On everyone’s desk all over the school were big envelopes filled with pictures notes and tape recorders. The pictures were of messages that Sheila had been sending to Caroline, the notes were of Sheila telling Caroline she was better off dead, and the tape recorder was a recording between Dane and Sheila, with Sheila admitting she told Caroline to kill herself. She said on the recording she didn’t think Caroline would have the balls to do it, but was glad she offed herself because then she got Dane to herself. Sheila was arrested and the whole town pretty much knew what Sheila had done to Caroline. We left but never really talked about it.”
Poor Dane.
“I think he was just trying to set Catherine up before anything happened to you, but the girls must have thought about setting him up too. It’s harder for us to read humans sometimes unless they’re thinking strongly.”
I can’t believe someone could be that horrible to another person.
“Kylan, can you ask Dane to come here? I need to talk to him before our next class,” I need to tell him how I feel about everything and I understand he was trying to protect me even if he went the wrong way about it.
“Ok Evie but take it easy on him.”
Chapter 21
Dane
Never in my life have I been this nervous. Ky said Evie wants to talk to me. I’m heading to the carpark now, but I’m worried with how she’ll treat me after everything.
Ky said he told her what happened with Sheila and Caroline. She’ll probably be angry about that too. I sigh. May as well get it over with. Just before I reach the car, Ky hops out and walks towards me. He’s smiling, so hopefully that’s a good sign but he could also be smiling at the verbal lashing I’m sure to get. He goes over to the front door of the school and just sits on the steps. At least he’s not staying too far away in case she loses control.
Evie looks so sad, and I can tell she’s been crying. How I will ever make things right? Sitting down on the seat, I close the door and wait for Evie to say something. She just sits there staring out the window so I apologize to her “Evie, I’m so sorry that I wrote those things. I just wanted to trick those mean girls and hopefully get them to stop bothering you.”
She sighs “Dane, I know you didn’t mean those things, but you wrote details about my personal life. Those girls now know more about me then they did before you opened your mouth. Saying I was abused and pathetic makes them think that about me, and I would rather them try to break me than think that. Ky told me about Caroline and you need to realize something Dane, I’m not Caroline. Even if those girls decided to bully me I wouldn’t back down, I wouldn’t get rid of you, and I certainly wouldn’t hurt myself. I would ask for help from you, Ky, Mike, and Teddy.”
Evie turns around and looks me straight in the eye with tears running down her face, “I think I’m falling in love with you, Dane, but you hurt me so much. How am I supposed to trust you with my heart if you can’t protect my secrets?”
She’s softly crying, trying to wipe her tears away, but they are falling too fast for her to stop “I’m not Caroline, I’m not alone and I’m not hu
man. I’m an elemental and I have you guys, but if you do something like that to me again, Dane, I will never forgive you. Do you understand?” She’s stopped crying, but tears still fall down her cheeks.
I truly regret writing those things, but I just wanted to stop her from being hurt the same way as Caroline.
“I understand and I am so very, truly sorry and I will do anything to make it right.”
Evie
Dane reaches for my hand and holds on. I think he might be worried I’ll snatch it away. I’m glad he understands now that I’m not a weak, human girl that will fall to bullying. He knows what I went through with my parents, and if he thinks some snooty high school girls can do worse than that, then he’s wrong. I know he was basing it on his experience at his old school with Caroline, but it isn’t fair for him to put us both in the same weak category when we’re not.
It’s almost time for the bell, and I don’t want to leave until I feel better about Dane so I take my hand back before climbing onto his lap. As I stare into his eyes, I can see and feel the regret he has about making me feel shitty, but I don’t want us to dwell on it. What’s done is done and I want to move on.
“I really want to kiss you so say no if you want to stop,” Dane pulls my head down for a soft kiss, but I don’t want a soft kiss.
I put a bit of pressure into the kiss and rub my body against him. He moans when my breasts rub up against his chest. His hands caress my sides before coming up under my shirt and towards my bra. He keeps stopping just short of touching me which gets frustrating.
After the fourth time he grazes past them, I reach under my shirt and pull my right breast out of my bra, guiding his hand to it until he’s touching my very sensitive nipple. I can feel his erection getting harder against me and instinctively rub against him and let out a soft moan. God, it feels so good, and I don’t care that we’re in the carpark at school. All I care about is Dane touching me.