She played the harp, and they got along. They got along so well Quinn asked the group if they would like to meet her. Just like that.
It was Saturday, in the park. They sat in a circle, on a soft grassy space a lazy river of barking-dog owners passed by with a coffee in hand and a leash in the other hand. Sunlight punished everyone with sharpened features and slight blindness. The group's school bags were strewn about like they'd fallen from invisible branches. The five of them had their books out and their pencils in hand, as if they meant to study, though they never did-not when they met.
No one was talking. Even their thoughts had turned silent, and then pivoted to stare at Quinn, who'd just spoken strange words.
"You want to tell her." Alexis made the words heavy.
Jin, Brayden, and Jamie were silent while Quinn absorbed the blow. Feeling too hot, Quinn looked down at her crisscrossed legs, where sweat pooled unseen.
Finally, she raised her head and aimed it at Jin, who she thought most likely to soften to the idea. Jin had broken up with her boyfriend not long after they'd discovered their powers, partly in order to avoid lying. It had been a stressful time all around; it was a miracle they hadn't made mistakes.
All in vain: Jin's face was sun-pored stone. She looked like someone had punched her into existence. She gazed just above Quinn's shoulder, at the windswept trees, seemingly intent on not being swayed. Alexis scraped her eyes over Jin, knowing full well Quinn's intent, and was satisfied to see it would amount to nought. Brayden wrung his hands, breathing without moving his chest (the bag with the epipen inside it was his). Jamie was bored, already half-sleeping on his pillow made of heat.
Alexis spoke in her highlighter-tongue, like all her words were branded by a hissing black thing into the empty space outside her lips.
"What'?" She was asking Quinn.
Ever quiet Brayden's eyes widened (the white part seemed to salivate around his iris). Jin's eyes crinkled the slightest bit. Jamie's head bobbed.
"This isn't something we can share. This isn't something we should share. This is a secret we've sworn to take to our graves, and for good reason. We lie if we have to. We evade if we can. It's not fair, not to any of us"-Alexis's eyes fell on stony Jin-"to expect exceptions to be granted. I mean, really, Quinn, what are you thinking? Are you thinking that you love her? Because even that fades over time. Even that comes second to our secret."
A heavy, park-filled silence.
"Not forever," Quinn said. "It can't be our secret forever. You know that, anyway. Someday we'll be found out. We'll grow tired of keeping this to ourselves, and our subconscious will let something slip into our conscious, and we'll be found out."
"I don't believe that at all," Alexis said. "It is possible to take a secret to the grave. It's been done."
"But it's hard, so damn hard, and I doubt those secrets were as big as ours."
"What? What are you saying, Quinn?" Nobody missed the mocking undertone. Alexis was poised to shoot anything Quinn suggested down. She would enjoy doing so, in fact. Of the five in the group, she was the only one who didn't feel chafed by their secret, and this was only possible because she hated what excited the others. She was never tempted to use her powers, and found it easy to mock away any suspicion, and had such a strong dislike for the supernatural. She hated her power so much it lay dormant inside her and wasn't even a power at all, it was a false power, which was why she'd elected herself chief.
