Lightning Kissed

by Lila Felix

  ***

  Hours later, I travelled back to Portugal.

  I had to face him one way or the other. Plus, if he made the choice I didn’t want him to make, then I needed to spend all the time with him that I could.

  Every garden was void of him. I looked everywhere, until I finally found him in the kitchen of all places. He was sitting on the floor, surrounded by every Slush Puppie flavor invented and a bucket of fried chicken. He wore nothing but boxers and socks. His hair was a mess, strewn every which way.

  It was the funniest damned thing I’d ever seen.

  “What the hell? Are we binge eating?”

  He was encircled in some cultish circle of Slush Puppie worship, yet none had been drunk from and the chicken hadn’t been touched. The Slush Puppies were for me, I knew that much.

  “Theo?”

  “I went nuts. I flashed to every slimy gas station I could think of and got them all. It was the lamest attempt at apologizing ever.”

  “No, it’s actually really sweet. But the fried chicken?”

  He shrugged and kicked it away from him. “I couldn’t even tell you.”

  In his eyes, I could already see the struggle.

  “The voices?”

  “Yeah, they’re quiet now that I’m not in that garden, but they’re still buzzing.” He tapped the side of his head.

  “How about we just go to bed and before anything is decided, we just rest. I—I feel like you haven’t held me in weeks.”

  He got up and gave me the look. Even through everything, the decisions looming over his head, the weight of our people on his shoulders, and the voices in his head—that look meant that I was in real trouble.

  “Eu vou segurar você todas da minha vida, Querida.”

  “In here.” He took my hand, placed it over his chest, and translated what I already knew were sweet words. “I have held you all my life.”

  He exhaled and his shoulders slumped. He could sweet talk me still, but everything about his posture told me that he was way beyond exhausted. I often forgot how tiresome flashing could be for some of us.

  “Come on,” I said, grabbing his hand and leading him to the bedroom at the very top of the stairs. He was already undressed for the most part and climbed into the enormous king-sized bed. Xoana’s house was open to all. It always had been. It was a retreat of sorts, a timeshare, shared by all Lucents. We used to have to make reservations, but in the past decade or so, people just stopped coming. I couldn’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to visit Xoana’s home.

  Well, it wasn’t her original home. Her father was, as we knew, a farmer, and not a rich one at that. But Xoana was smart. So smart that she realized her gift allowed her to begin the first Lucent delivery service. Of course, hers wasn’t software or vaccines—more like rare spices and fabrics. In fact, there are said to be several non-native species of plants and other creatures present in Portugal that no one knows the origin of. Science blames evolution, but the Lucents know better.

  All this trading of exotic goods made Xoana a very rich woman.

  Climbing in the bed, I could hear Theo’s deep, elongated breaths, signaling he was already asleep. I chuckled a bit to myself. Nothing ever seemed to bother him like it did me. I would stay awake all night until the early hours of the morning demanded I get at least a few hours of sleep when something was bothering me. And whatever it was plagues me with my first blinks of awakening.

  But not Theo.

  That boy could sleep through a damned earthquake.

  Only seconds after I’d gotten comfortable, I heard noises downstairs. It was probably Ari drinking all my Slush Puppies or Collin eating all the fried chicken—the beast. Looking over at Theo, his eyelids were fluttering. I decided not to worry about whoever was downstairs until I heard a dish break.

  I padded down the stairs to find Ari and Pema, eyeball deep in some kind of argument. Whatever Pema had done, she had no idea what she was getting into with Ari.

  Ari wouldn’t hesitate to kick another girl in the uterus for me—or anyone she loved. As I got closer, the conversation became clear.

  “So, you just dump the choice of a lifetime in his lap and now—oh, I think I’m gonna go away for a while. Bullshit—you’re gonna keep your shaven-haired, skinny ass right here until this is all sorted out. You are straight up shady-fied. I mean it.”

  Pema looked like she was working harder at figuring out Ari’s street slang than she was actually being offended.

  “I am trying to help them, no matter how shady-whatever you find me, child. I am their friend just as much as you are.”

  Ari reached out and flicked Pema in the forehead. “That’s where you’re wrong. Those are my best friends in the whole world and there’s no two people on Earth who deserve happiness more than them. I’m only gonna say this once. If you screw with either one of them—I will hunt you down and strangle you with my own bare hands. So, you go, do whatever you think you need to do. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Whoa,” Theo whispered in my ear, nearly making me jump through the ceiling. “Since when am I Ari’s best friend?”

  I snorted. “That’s what you got out of it? Who knew Ari was so thug?”

  “Not me, that’s for sure. Where’s Pema going?”

  “I don’t know.” I was turned to face him now. He almost looked in worse shape than just minutes ago. I questioned him with a confused face.

  “Voices. They started again. There’s no predicting when they’re going to start talking. I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

  He grabbed my hand in the middle of explaining. As soon as we touched, he slumped against the wall next to him. It was borderline comical how they quieted when I touched him. They probably all knew what a loud mouth I was and decided it wasn’t even worth the battle.

  We turned our attentions back on Ari who was picking up Theo’s mess—grumbling the whole time about love-struck idiots and stupid Icees. She always called them Icees.

  I moved to help her, but Theo stopped me. “Let her. She needs to learn some humility.”