Starstruck

Chapter 16b: Conjunction (part 2)

CHAPTER 16

Conjunction (part 2)

"So when did you figure out it was me?" I asked.

"In science class, when I heard you speak for the first time. This . . . feeling, kind of a shiver, went through me, and I just knew. What? Why are you laughing?"

"Because I felt the exact same thing the first time I heard your voice, in homeroom. When you were talking to Trina. Of course, I didn't have any clue what it meant--I just figured I was crushing on the gorgeous new quarterback and kept telling myself how pathetic I was."

He touched the tip of my chin, tilting my face up to his. "Not pathetic at all," he murmured before he kissed me again.

That distracted me for several glorious seconds, but the moment he let me think again, I came back to my questions. "Okay, that's when you guessed I was the Martian you were looking for. But what about the . . . graell . . . the bonding thing?"

"I already told you that, didn't I?" He sounded surprised. "When I first touched you, out by the buses."

"And it freaked you out."

"Well, yeah, I was pretty freaked," he admitted. "Weren't you?"

"Sure, though not for the same reason, obviously. I mostly thought I'd thrown off some extra static charge and scared you away just when you were starting to talk to me." I smiled up at him. "I'm glad I didn't. Scare you away, that is."

He put an arm around my waist and pulled me closer against his side. "Never."

"You still haven't really explained why you were avoiding me yesterday," I reminded him. "Or why you don't want your family to know we've, um, bonded." It sounded so serious, like an engagement or something.

Rigel sighed, though he didn't release his hold on me. "Like I said, Allister and Grandfather were all about your destiny and stuff. My dad had talked about that, too, back when we first found you. I'm not sure you realize yet just how important you are. Not just to me, I mean, but to all the others, here and on Mars."

"So, um, you didn't want to tell your parents about our graell because people like Allister won't approve? Because I'm the Sovereign?" It still sounded bizarre to say it out loud. "Would it really matter to your parents?"

Rigel's eyes held a shadow of that sadness I'd seen on Friday. "It might. It might matter to a lot of people."

I wanted to argue, but instead I just waited. After a moment he explained, haltingly.

"When I got home after the first day of school and told my parents I'd found you, I also mentioned how much stronger your brath felt than any other Martian I'd met. They said it was probably because you were the first Martian girl my age I'd met. My mom explained that there are different degrees of brath between people, from almost nothing to a strong attraction--like between my parents--to the legendary graell, the bonding at first touch. My dad kind of laughed then, and made some comment about how much it would mess things up if that happened."

"Mess things up?" I repeated, not liking the sound of that.

He nodded. "That's why that first jolt freaked me so much. I told my parents about it--I kind of had to, when I refused to go to school the next day." He looked sheepish so I squeezed his hand. "I was worried it was the graell but they insisted it was impossible. That even if it used to happen hundreds of years ago, there hadn't been a documented case in generations. They said that even a gradual bond like theirs only happens to about one couple in a thousand, and never forms until they're in their twenties or even thirties. Sometimes older."