Love is Dangerous

8

It’s been 3 days since I was home. I walk into the living room and grab my phone off the counter. I have a missed call and two missed texts. The first one is from my mom. "Kai, we'll be gone for another week. I hope you behave. Love you. -Mom" I roll my eyes. The question that goes through my head is, do you really love me? I open the other message. From, none other than, Riley. "Well, I hope all turns out well. If you excuse me, I will be in the bathroom crying. See you around" I sigh and throw my phone at the couch. I get up and run my fingers through my gingerish hair. I walk to the kitchen and grab a water bottle. I sit down in a chair, Corbin clambering onto my lap. He leans back and rests his head on my shoulder. Tyler comes over and pulls him off of me. "Corbin, Kai isn't your friend. He's here for me." I stand up. "Actually, I'm here because of my mom--." He holds his hand up to me and interrupts me. "Kai is only here for me. We will hang out." He pulls my wrist and drags me to his room. He pushes me in and yells, "Alone!" He slams the door and sits on his bed. "Sorry about him. He is really annoying sometimes." He pauses. "All the time." I shake my head. "He's not that bad to me. He's actually cooler..." I was thinking, better than you. But I wasn't gonna start fighting with him. He always makes sure he wins. "Than you think." He shakes his head. "Whatever dude. The girls just got back. I'm going over there." He walks out and I can't help thinking, what if...

We walk outside and down the street a bit. We turn into the driveway that leads to a two story house. We loop in between two cars, a green one and a white van. Tyler confidently walks to the door and knocks. It's funny because Marissa has broken his heart. Twice. And he still had the confidence to walk up to the door and knock. It shocks me. The door opens and Marissa is standing there. She scoffs. "Why are you here this time? Corbin isn't here right now." He smirks and says, "I wanted to see you. And I saw a girl that was with you." He leans to the side, reaching for the doorframe. He misses and stumbles to the side. I cover my mouth but Marissa just laughs. "Yeah. That's my cousin. What about her?" Tyler goes silent. He just stands there, speechless, as if something spooked him. I pipe in. "We, he, wanted to meet her. Your cousin." I don't know why I'm stumbling. There's just something about him being speechless that made me shiver. "Is she here?" I ask after an awkward silence. She shakes her head. "No. Something came up and she's out with her dad." The way she said 'dad' made me shiver even more. I wonder what she meant by that. "Now please leave so I can go do nothing again." She closed the door and Tyler bolts home.

I race after him. After running up the stairs, the front door is slammed in my face. I open it and run into his room. I slow and sit down, waiting for a response. When there wasn't one, I speak. "Yo, what just happened out there? You're never like that." Tyler looks up from where he was crouched in the corner. He looked like he was contemplating every thought he ever had. "Okay. I'll tell you. But you can never mention this to anyone, including me. Okay?" I nod, confused. What could be so horrible that I can't ever talk about it. He takes a deep breath. "I can rea...." His voice lowers and I clear my throat. He looks up, and for the first time, I can see fear in his eyes. This has to be bad. He takes another deep breath, slowly letting it out. "I can read minds," he whispers. I stare at him. Okay, I admit, I probably should've caught that before. But now I get why he was so scared to tell anyone. The government may be ran by the people, but there are some really strict rules. Differences aren't allowed. People with those abilities are considered 'dangerous'. You can also only have 2 children. There are other rules but they aren't very important. "Are you gonna tell on me?" He looks down at his hands, afraid of the answer. "Of course not," I pause and he sighs with relief and stands up. "And since we're being honest here, I have to admit something too." I breathe in, wondering if this is a good idea. Well, if he can admit that, I can admit my secret. "Okay, so you know how people have those ticking sounds in the back of their head. And how the government thinks its dangerous?" He nods. "Well, looks like I'm dangerous." He plops back down realizing what I just said. "I have a clock."