CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I almost forgot that my parents are coming this morning. With all the commotion, my mind has been preoccupied. I almost gobble through breakfast, so that I can head to the main entrance and wait for them to arrive. I miss them terribly.
I'm overwhelmed with this intense feeling of sexiness. Not desire, but I feel sexy. I recognize almost right away, that it's Todd's doing. I yell his name loud enough that he can hear me from around Tara. Immediately it stops.
Todd apologizes, “Sorry, I was just thinking and it got away from me. I’ll try not to do that again.”
Several minutes later... passion, sex, ultimate pleasure blasts into me. Without realizing that I'm even doing it, I let out a couple of moans from within me. Tara looks over at me, and sees what's happening to me. She hauls off and punches Todd in the arm, so hard that he yelps. Instantly the feeling is gone.
I hop up out of my chair, and lean over Todd, and whisper in his ear. "If you ever do anything like that to me again, I will tell all the girls that go to this school, that you are done in ten seconds, and that your parts don't come in an adult size. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"
Todd nods his head. "Oops! I'm sorry, I slipped. It really won't happen again. I... promise." When I don’t move right away, he turns his face toward me, and whispers, “I promise that I won’t do it again, unless you ask for it, or we’re in a heated embrace, and the moment calls for it. I won’t promise that it won’t happen again, because it might. You might want it to.”
“I won’t... I really won’t.” I back up from Todd and walk back to my chair to get my stuff.
I pick up my sweater and say goodbye to everyone. I rush off to wait for my parents. A little time alone to relax before they get here sounds like a great idea. Everything that happened within the last twelve hours is whipping through my thoughts; Mabel, her chart, Laden, Laden and me, Todd… I just want my mom.
I sit on the bench just inside the glass doors, and wait patiently. It's really quiet here. The plants are gorgeous. A tree that's two stories tall stands next to the window. The leaves are all on the tree. It's unusual to see a tree with leaves at this time of year.
Ginger Adams is opening the door to the front office when she sees me sitting there. "Well hello there, Laura. How are you getting along here at Salvation? Are there any problems? Anything I should know about?"
Isn't that a hell of a question? What do I tell her? Oh Ginger, everything’s great, my nurse and I are getting it on, and I’ve also played with Todd. I’m turning into a total sleaze. Thanks so much for bringing me here. But of course I can’t tell her any of that. "Everything's good, no problems. I like it here. My new friends are great. I've learned so much already."
She says, "Your eyes look pretty painful. Are they ok?"
I answer, "Yeah, they are sore. I had a vision, and they get red sometimes when I do. I'm trying to figure out how to stop this from happening. However, if this keeps up, I'll be blind in a matter of a week." I giggle and shake my head. I’m joking of course, trying to lighten her worry.
Ginger doesn't laugh. She just smiles worriedly, and says, "Well, I hope you figure something out soon. If you ever need anything, I'm here. Have fun with your folks. That's them there isn't it?"
I spin my head around to look. Sure enough, it's them walking up the sidewalk. My mom sees me first, and starts running to the doors. I fling it open and she runs in, followed by my dad.
My mom’s face goes blank when she sees my red, swollen eyes. She yells, "OhmyGod! What happened to your eyes? Why are they so much worse than before?”
My dad says, "Good Lord! Are you ok? Can you see?"
I reassure them. "I'm fine. I can see perfectly well. I've been having some visions and dreams and, well, when I become conscious again, this is how I look. It's getting better." I'm not lying. It is fading away as the hours pass by. They seem to be healing at a quicker rate than a normal person would be.
I hug my mom and she hugs back squishing me. Forcibly I have to pull her off me so that I can hug my dad. He squishes me too.
"I missed you guys so much." I say.
"Oh, babygirl, we missed you too." My mom has her arm around me again, as we start walking into the office.
My dad says, “I thought this hospital is supposed to be helping you adjust to your visions. It doesn’t appear that it’s getting any easier.”
“Dad, it is getting better, I promise. I’m still learning how to manipulate my visions, and because of that, I make mistakes and my eyes get all... icky. I’m ok.” I try to make my parents understand, and hope that they just drop it.
My mom gives me a questionable look, to see if I’m telling the truth. When I don’t flinch, she says, “Ok, we’ll let it go, for now. If we ever see them worse than this, we’re going to have words with Dr. Turner. Not happy words either.”
I roll my eyes, and slide the sign-in book over to her. "You have to sign in. It's a stupid rule." I tell my parents.
My parents sign in, and say the 'hello, how are you' greeting to Ginger. They start jammering on. My mom is quite the talker once she gets started. My dad puts his arm around me, and gives me the look of 'here we go again, she won't stop talking'.
We make it back to my room, where they hand me a gift bag. Inside is a cute little white babydolls pajama set, the ones that have the frilly shirt and the cute puffy panties. There's also some soft pink socks. In the bottom of the bag is a wide variety of junk food, including chips, chocolate bars, gummy bears, licorice and random other stuff. I thank them so much.
I take my parents for a tour of the facility, in the areas I've been told that I can take them; the residence where the kid's rooms are, including mine obviously, the mess hall and the classrooms. Otherwise, we're not supposed to bring them anywhere else, like the teacher’s offices or the basement where the specially equipped rooms are where the kids can go to practice some of their more physical abilities; like setting fires, etc.
We end our tour in the mess hall, where we sit and eat a small sundae. Well, Mom and I do, Dad has a coffee.
My dad says, "This is a really nice place. I didn't think it would be so much like an apartment building, only nicer."
Mom cuts him off. "Oh, and it's so well decorated and pleasant. I'm very comfortable here."
My dad cuts my mom off to finish his thought. "The people all seem nice. Do you like it here Laura? Honestly, because if you don't, we will pack up your room and take you home right now."
I smile and shake my head. "No, Dad, I love it here. I've never been happier. Everyone is so supportive. Anytime, day or night, there's always someone available to help me out with any problem or concern. The teachers are more like older brothers and sisters than teachers. My friends are amazing. This place is so great. They actually take the time to listen to me, and understand me, so I return the kindness. It's fantastic here. No offence, but I don't want to go home, not yet. I'm learning so much about my abilities and about who I am." I pause for a few seconds and smile. "I'm happy."
My parents and I go back to my room. It's almost time for them to go. Mom is sitting on my bed with me, and my dad is sitting on my computer chair. I'm telling them about my friends and their abilities; not the full extent of their abilities of course.
There's a tap, tap on my door, then it opens slightly, and I hear, "Laura, it's me, Jessy. Are you decent?"
I yell out, "Yeah, come on in."
He pushes the door open and bounces in. "Hello sweetie." He stops when he sees my parents sitting here. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you had company. This must be your mom. You look just like her. Now I know where your beauty comes from. And this must be Dad." Jessy sticks out his hand towards my dad for a shake.
My dad says, "So who might you be?"
Jessy says, "Oh, my name is Jessy. I'm a friend of Laura's. I'm a Holder." He pauses for a few seconds. "Oh goodness, I'm sorry. You probably don't know what that is. I can hold time s
till, and freeze everyone. It's really neat. I play tricks on Todd all the time. The other day, he was tossing a peanut into his mouth, so I froze time, and switched it for something he really hates, a gummy bear. He was pretty upset but it sure was funny. I'm really talking a lot, sorry."
Mom smiles and says, "Well Jessy, it's very nice to meet you, and no, you’re not talking too much. Your ability sounds pretty fun. Sometimes I wish I could do that."
I ask Jessy, "Did you want something?"
Jessy answers, "No, no, it's not important. Lunch doesn't start for another twenty minutes, so I was just seeing if you were here and wanted to burn up some time chatting. Not a big deal." He looks at my parents. "Will you be joining us for lunch?"
My dad stands up. "We've been here annoying poor Laura for way too long now, and I think we should head out."
Mom stands up too, and picks up her purse. "You don't have to walk us down. Stay here with Jessy. We know the way out." She leans over and gives me a hug.
Jessy cuts in, "Actually, she does have to walk you to the doors. Outsiders, no offence, aren't allowed to walk the establishment unaccompanied. And you have to sign out before you leave." Jessy isn’t trying to be rude, but it is the rule. I remember reading that somewhere.
"Ok, well let's go then." Mom ushers everyone out the door.
Jessy and I get my mom and dad signed out, and they leave to go home. I'm sad, and I missed them before they even left. It's worse now. Tears fill my eyes.
Jessy wraps his arm around my shoulder. "It was nice that you got to see them. You will see them again soon, I'm sure. Now let's go get ourselves something to eat. We can chat along the way."
I wipe the few tears that fall from my red eyes. My tears are not clear. They have a red tinge to them. It must be because all the blood in my eyes is leaking out. I wipe them away with a tissue that was stuffed in my purse. "I know… it's just hard to see them leave."
Jessy, still trying to console me says, "I know Honey. Are you ok now?" I nod my head. "That's good. Can we talk a little bit?"
"Yeah, what about?" Oh, oh, here it comes. He's going to question me about Todd and Laden. I just know it.
After taking a deep breath, Jessy starts, “Don’t think that I’m judging you, because I never will. Ok, so if I have this right... you had a fling with Todd, then you had a fling with Laden, but you didn't have sex with Laden. Is that right? Do I have it down?"
I'm so embarrassed, but if I don’t explain it, he’ll assume the worst. "Well, sort of. I had a make-out thing with Laden first, but we didn't do anything major. Then something happened, I lost my mind, or I don't know... I ended up making out with Todd. It was really hot and heavy, but again, nothing serious happened. I absolutely did not want to do anything like that with Todd, but that's how it turned out." I pause to take a deep breath. Maybe, way deep down, I really did want to. No, I can’t think that way. "But then, Laden and I, well, it got more serious. We haven't, you know, done it or anything. I like Laden, a lot. Can I tell you something?"
Jessy says, "I think I'm getting all of this straight now. I was a little confused. Thank you for laying it out for me. And you know that you can tell me anything, sweetie. Of course, it'll stay between us, that's a given."
I say, "Well, I feel like I'm being pulled at Laden somehow. I can't explain it but from the moment I met him, something really drew me in, like a magnet almost. I feel like I’ve known him a lot longer than I actually have. And Todd... well, I have a hard time being around him without wanting to be 'with' him, if you know what I mean. Why do I want both of these guys? I'm really not one of those kind of girls. I sort of dated only one guy for a few years. I wasn’t with anyone else, I never two-timed him. He and I certainly didn't do anything other than kissing either. I’m a... well, I’ve never… you know. So, why am I being so hot and steamy with both of them?"
Jessy doesn't say anything for a moment. "Perhaps it has something to do with your ability. Maybe each of them has something to offer you that you don't know about yet. Or maybe you're just horny, and need to get some." He smiles down at me and chuckles. "No, but seriously, who do you want a relationship with, Laden or Todd?"
Without a moment’s hesitation I say, "Laden."
"That was fast. Then I suggest that you stay away from Todd when there is nobody else around, that way you won't be seduced by his charming ways." Jessy pauses. "As for Laden, go for it Honey. He's a physically beautiful man, and his character is unmatched. I think the two of you are a good fit."
He opens the door to the mess hall, and we go get some lunch, and sit at the table.
Lunch is typical, and normal, except that Todd keeps giving me the sad puppy dog eyes, so I try to avoid looking at him. The rest of us act as though nothing's unusual... like we aren't trying to save our friend, and possibly every kid here at this hospital. We act like typical teenagers; laughing and tossing French fries across the table at one another.
Classes seem to drag on and on. All I can think about is how am I going to get information out of Laden, when all I want to do when I'm with him is make-out. Thinking about last night and how he made me feel... I want him to do that again, and again, and again…
Concentration Class is lonely to say the least. Todd still stays in his typical spot beside me, but he pulls his mat away from mine today. Through the whole class he uses his abilities to push despair, sadness and loneliness on me. I deserve it, so I don't bother to tell him to stop. I think he appreciates it, because his eyes meet mine after class is over, and he gives me a friendly wink, and a quick smile.
Colours In Blackness - A New Life Page 16