Watch Me: Teen Paranormal Romance (A Touched Trilogy Book 3)

by Angela Fristoe

  My eyes flew open. Left is loss. That had been his decision to leave and drive drunk. So what had been to the right of him? The party.

  There was a niggling feeling within me that said I knew the answer. Focusing on the popcorn ceiling above me, I tried to clear my mind of everything other than Ricky and every image I’d had of his future.

  Nadine. One of the images from her future had been her playing tug of war over something with him. Keys.

  That’s when I remembered the words I said to Nadine after I’d realized her party was actually going to happen. Dance alone and all will lose. In a tug of war, right is right, and left is lost. I gave her some lame explanation about shopping for a dress, not wanting to tell her about my gift.

  She was dancing with the whole group of us, but Ricky asked her to dance with him. If she hadn’t said no, if she hadn’t danced alone, he wouldn’t have left. He would have stayed and later in the evening, she would have taken his keys away.

  Holy crap.

  They meant something, something big, and I’d brushed them off, ignoring them. Nanna always said to listen to our gifts, that we needed to figure out what we were supposed to do with them, and I’d brushed aside one of the biggest changes to my gift.

  I scrambled out of bed and ran down the hall to Phoebe’s room. She glanced up from where she sat in the middle of her bed struggling to send a text message.

  “I knew,” I said breathlessly.

  “What?!” The cell phone dropped to her lap.

  “I didn’t know, but I knew.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Pacing back and forth while stepping over random articles of clothing, I tried to piece things together.

  “After Javier’s party, I had a vision of Nadine’s future. I said ‘Dance alone and all will lose. In a tug of war, right is right, and left is lost’.”

  “What did that mean?”

  “I had no clue. Last night, though, I kept having weird visions. It was like seeing all the possibilities for everyone within the span of that night. One of the images I had was her playing tug of war with Ricky over a set of keys.” My fingers dug their way through my hair. “When I bumped into him, I couldn’t remember what I saw, but I said something similar. Take the path. Right is right, the left is loss.”

  “Okay, maybe it’s late but I still don’t see how you knew.”

  “He tried to get Nadine to dance with him, but she said no. Dance alone and all will lose. When she said no, he left the party. He walked to the left, out the front door. She never had a chance to take his keys. If she had danced with him, he wouldn’t have left. She would have taken his keys.”

  “This is intense, Chloe.” Her eyebrows drew down and her forehead wrinkled in concern. “And really complicated. Is it possible you’re trying to make connections out of nothing?”

  “I’m not making this up, Phoebs.”

  “I didn’t say you were, but seriously, what you’re saying is super complicated. How is you spouting random weird prophecies that make absolutely no sense going to help anyone?”

  I threw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know, but thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  She yawned in response. “It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s…”

  “What? Say it.”

  “Do you think this whole thing might be some manifestation of guilt?”

  “Are you implying I have something to feel guilty for? I had no idea what the words meant.”

  “Not for that. I don’t think anyone could have figured that stuff out until after the fact.”

  “Then what am I supposed to be feeling guilty about?”

  “You told me Nathan and I were going to be at Tonya’s for New Years.”

  “So? You know I changed the future and...” My words trailed off as what she was saying gradually sank in. Trembling, I sat on the edge of her bed, my body completely numb. How had I missed all of these signs?

  Changing the future had been so hard. Nearly impossible to do, yet now I had, everything was changing for everyone. What had made me think that abusing my knowledge of the future for my own personal gain would have led to anything good?

  “Chloe? Are you okay?”

  “You’re right,” I whispered. “Oh, my God. You’re right. How did I not see this coming? If I hadn’t messed with my future, Nadine’s party never would have happened. Ricky never would have been there last night. He wouldn’t have been driving home drunk. I did this. This is my fault.”

  Phoebe snorted and nudged me with her foot. “Oh, yes because you, oh Chloe, are the all powerful, all knowing, soothe seer. Get over yourself.”

  Anger burned my chest and swatted at her foot, glaring at her.

  “You can be a real bitch sometimes, you know that?”

  “Come on, if you were looking for a sympathetic voice, you should have gone to Lily’s room.”

  “She’s not home yet.”

  “Whatever. The point is you know I’m right.” Phoebe said with a sigh of frustration. “Even if you hadn’t done anything and Nadine’s party had been canceled, there’s no guarantee Ricky wouldn’t have done the same thing leaving whichever party he was at. The dude drove drunk. Idiots who do things like that don’t just save it for special occasions.”

  “Maybe, but at the same time, what he had before was a definite future for him, one I didn’t influence. Where all of the choices he made were set.”

  “Have you considered that your gift isn’t supposed to be about you changing anything?”

  “Obviously. Nothing good is coming out of it.” Only darkness and shadows.

  “Nothing?”

  I thought of my new future. Nothing for anyone other than me.

  “As you said, I shouldn’t be trying to change things.”

  “Exactly.” She smiled smugly. “Maybe what you’re supposed to do is give people choices.”

  “Choices?”

  “Yeah. Think about it. You did all that stuff to stop Andrew and Nadine from cheating, yet what was the one thing you didn’t do?”

  “I did everything I could think of. There wasn’t anything else I could have done.”

  “Did you tell Andrew? Did you give him the chance to make a different choice? What about Nadine?”

  “She doesn’t even know about my ability.”

  “But he does,” she said.

  “He doesn’t know for sure. He only suspects.”

  “Exactly. You never told him about your ability. If you had, he would have known you were telling him the truth, and he might have made the choice to not do it. But you never let him make that decision. He didn’t change his own future. You changed it for him.”

  Guilt turned me defensive. “You helped me. You were the one who said I had to be the one to do it.”

  “And you listened to me? This isn’t my fault.”

  “So it’s mine?”

  “Again, that’s not what I’m saying. Maybe it’s no one’s fault other than Ricky’s.

  Chapter 19

  “Five weeks,” I said to Lily as she watched me with sad eyes.

  That’s how long it was since I had a clear vision, and those I had were all from Sebastian. Not very comforting when I think of the layers of death and blood consuming his future.

  “By changing my future, I’ve completely screwed up everyone else’s.” I paced the length of the living room then spun and walked back. “Things were almost normal before I started changing things.”

  “Chloe, don’t you think that’s a bit of a stretch?” she asked, pulling her curls into a messy bun on top of her head.

  “No. I saw things fine before Javier’s party.” I avoided her doubtful stare. “Okay, so maybe my gift wasn’t working perfectly, but close enough. Ever since then, I’ve been having issues. It’s like double vision, only it’s multiple visions all at once like the future doesn’t know yet what’s going to happen. Then after the New Year’s party at Nadine’s, every vision I see is almost completely black. For e
veryone.”

  “Except Bastian.”

  “Pretty much,” I said, giving up on the pacing to sit beside her. “And now I’m obsessed with looking into his future, trying to figure things out. What’s worse is he knows what I’m doing and he doesn’t do anything to stop me.”

  “Does that make a difference?”

  “Yes. No. I mean, it doesn’t stop me, but I feel like I’m using him just so I can fulfill some compulsive need to know everything that’s coming.”

  Tipping my head to the side, I rested it on Lily’s shoulder. It didn’t take long before my frustrations melted away.

  “You’re not supposed to do that,” I said accusingly, but she only smiled in return.

  Her ability to heal the emotional pains of people was like being in the eye of a storm. One minute you’re being smothered by pain, or frustration, or anger and the next you’re empty, but once the eye has passed over you the storm will be upon you again.

  “Some people are worth a little pain,” she said.

  “Yeah, but a little frustration isn’t going to kill me.”

  “Maybe not, but that wasn’t just a bit of frustration, Chloe. You’re scared. Scared of the future you don’t see.”

  As much as I didn’t want to admit it, she was right. I’d never felt fear of the unknown before and it was terrifying.

  “Is this how you feel every day?” I asked.

  “Afraid of not knowing what will happen? No.”

  “I hate this,” I said grateful for the lack of feeling Lily had left me with, however temporary. “What is the point of having this gift if I can’t even rely on it to be true? Or even just clear enough to see?”

  “What are you seeing?”

  “It depends. A few people have nothing, just an empty void of where their future once was. With some people, like you, I see a whole mess of images that overlap the darkness. So many I can’t keep them straight. Not that it matters, because everything about them is blurry.”

  “So what is different about Bastian’s?”

  “Everything is clearer. I can make out distinct details, but even then there are multiple versions.”

  Lily’s hand smoothed my hair. Of the three of us, she was the most motherly. Dad always said our mother had a gentle soul, and that Lily was most like her.

  “Something bad is going to happen, Lils. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

  “Maybe you don’t need to do anything. Maybe it just needs to happen.”

  I pulled away, choking back a hysterical laugh. “If you’d seen what I have, you would say that. If you knew…you would do everything in your power to stop it. ”

  “So, tell me what it is. Maybe I can help you put it together.”

  The brief images I had of the vast nothingness ahead for Phoebe and Micah along with so many of our friends covered with blood flashed through my mind.

  “No. This is something I have to figure out on my own.” Determination filled me and I stood up, putting some much needed distance between us. I pasted on a fake smile. “What are your plans for today?”

  It was one of my more obvious attempts at avoiding a conversation, but served its purpose. Lily headed off to the library to meet Owen and finish work on a calculus assignment and I got ready to go shopping with Nadine and Bianca.

  Even though Nadine was cool with him being interested in Bianca, and even though they weren’t officially dating yet, things were still off kilter when the three of us were together like a constant undercurrent rippling the waters of our friendship. To be honest, some of those waves came from the still present resentment I felt toward Nadine.

  Town Center was quiet for a Sunday afternoon with people probably still recovering from Christmas. We wandered from store to store, browsing the aisles and trying to make an effort to find anything of interest.

  “Are you really going to the Triple Feature with Andrew?” Nadine asked.

  The Valentine’s Triple Feature was a partnership between the local drive-in theater and Beachgrove High school. Each year the theater hosted a three movie feature to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the cheer squad manning the concession as a fundraiser. This year I was more than happy to be on the other side of the counter.

  “Yep,” I said and held up a teal hoodie with thumbholes. I rummaged through the shelf looking for a medium, but only found smalls. Width-wise they would fit. Length was another matter.

  “It’s gonna be weird not having you help serve,” Nadine said, taking the hoodie from me and holding it up to herself. Damn her for being four inches shorter.

  “Can we focus, please?” Bianca said, snatching the hoodie and hanging it back up. “I need to find a rockin’ outfit and all of this stuff is super preppy lame. No offense, but I’m not really interested in dressing like the two of you.”

  The hunt continued as we moved to a new store and our conversation centered on the Triple Feature. It should have been fun - shopping with my friends, talking about the most romantic night of the year, a night that I would get to spend with Andrew. Yet the more we talked, the more my stomach twisted into a giant knot. I tried to push the feeling of impending dread down.

  Was it possible that whatever was going wrong with my visions, and hid within Sebastian’s future, would happen during the Triple Feature?

  “What about this one?” Bianca held up a black top with horizontal tears across the front and a silver lining underneath. Not my style, but she could pull it off.

  “Yes,” I said at the same time Nadine said, “No way.”

  Bianca looked at her. “Why not? I think it’s cool.”

  Nadine gave her a scolding look. “Girl, it screams nightclub, not date night.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t have a date this year. Again.”

  “What about Owen?” Nadine asked.

  “Why would I be on a date with Owen?”

  Nadine and I glanced at each other and broke out in a laugh.

  “What?” Bianca said. “We’re just friends.”

  Her denial set off another round of giggles. I don’t think I ever realized how crappy a liar she was.

  “It’s okay,” Nadine said, throwing and arm over Bianca’s shoulder. “It doesn’t bother me. I kinda figured he had a secret thing for you.”

  “Nothing’s going on between us!” Her pink cheeks though gave her away.

  “Sure,” I said. “Keep telling yourself that.”

  Bianca responded by stomping away to try on the shirt. After shopping, we headed to the café in the center of the square. We found a seat inside and treated ourselves to hot chocolate and cheesecake bites. We’d only been there about thirty minutes when Bastian appeared, sitting down beside me.

  “Was the lack of invite an intentional oversight or did you temporarily forget to extend an invitation to this charming tea?” he asked.

  “Oh, it was intentional,” I said giving him an evil grin, which he immediately returned.

  “Excellent.” He rubbed his hands together gleefully. “My day is not complete without invading a girls’ tea party.”

  “Sorry, we’re not having tea. It’s hot chocolate,” Nadine said, oblivious to the fact that Bastian wasn’t being literal. Not that it was surprising. They rarely spoke, so she had little experience with his bizarre personality.

  “Well, never fear. I have brought my own.” He held up his cup as evidence.

  “What are you doing here?” Bianca asked him.

  “Can a guy not go out for tea without question? Perhaps, I simply enjoy relaxing in a café and imagining that I am in jolly old England. Someone once told me if you imagine hard enough anything is possible.”

  “A girl can wish,” I said.

  Ever since New Year’s, Bastian and I had settled into a weird frienemy relationship. I claimed to tolerate his presence for the sake of our mutual friends, but I was actually coming to enjoy our odd conversations. They made a nice change from the monotonous discussions I typically had with people.

  Despit
e none of us extending an invitation for him to join us, Bastian stayed seated and launched into a fairly normal conversation with Nadine and Bianca. While they were busy talking, I seized the opportunity to look into Sebastian’s future again and slid my foot over until it entered the gray haze around him.

  The images came through clearly, although it was easy to see that some of them were overlapping futures. There were the graduation ones. In one he limped, while in another he walked normally. Today another was added where he used a crutch. I tried to pull back to the surface and see his future closer to the present. That is when the images distorted.

  The blood, the gun, the bodies. God, the bodies. Darkness settles, obscuring pieces not ready to be revealed. The gun. Whose hand holds it? Whose finger pulls the trigger?

  As the darkness sucked the vision away, I found myself trembling as the three of them watched me with varying degrees of concern.

  I gave a weak smile. “I’m fine. The hot chocolate must not be sitting well with me.”

  Bianca reached over and grabbed my cup. “Here, I’ll finish it for you. This girl can never have too much chocolate.”

  Snatching it back, I glared at her. “Thanks, but I’ll choke it down.”

  Nadine brought up Ricky and the accident. He was heading to trial, but no one could see how he had any way of being found innocent. My dad was surprised Ricky’s attorney hadn’t gone for a plea deal.

  Conversation continued and my mind wandered back to the visions of Bastian’s future. He wasn’t holding the gun. The hand was that of an older man. Blunt nails and withered skin. Whoever he was, he was left handed, a plain gold wedding band circling his finger.

  I tried to fill in the pieces, to gather details about where it would take place, who the man was, anything. Yet they never materialized. The only thing I could figure out was that there was some crazy man out there who intended to kill a number of my friends and classmates. And somehow, Bastian was tied to the event.

  All I could do was try to put everything together before it happened, and pray that I’d have enough time to change the future set to destroy everyone around me.