In all the time I’d been here, I’d done very little exploring of the dorm room I stayed in. I’d explored the other buildings and the campus and woods but I hadn’t gotten the time to really see where things were on the first floor of our dorm building.
We went down a couple of hallways off the right and then Cass stopped us in front of a door. I expected it to be a common room or something of the like but it was just another dorm room.
Cass pulled out a key and opened the door, letting us go in first. I looked at him questioningly.
“It was like all the other dorm rooms, except it was filled with plants, bowls of water, candles and three fans, all blowing on high. The candles were placed precariously on shelves, out of the reach of the fans.
Cass entered and shut the door as my knees gave out underneath me. Surprisingly, Alix collapsed close beside me.
The fans seemed to blow harder, the fire burned brighter and all the plants started to climb the walls like vines. The bowls of water were perhaps the strangest; they overflowed, never seeming to run out of water as the floor flooded.
Was I doing that?
Cass cleared his throat behind me, breaking my focus from the fire, which was dangerously close to catching on fire. “Well, I’ll leave you to it.” I heard Cass mutter. He left soon after, the door closing firmly behind him.
The fire flickered more, touching the walls and nearly touching the ceiling but not catching. Maybe the walls were wet. But they’d catch soon enough.
Pain rippled through my stomach as pressure built behind it. I wanted to use my powers so badly.
Alix pulled my hands away from my stomach, both of us panting. “Let it out. You’ll feel better. Just use your powers.”
I shook my head. The whole floor was already flooded with water and the candle flames were impossibly high. It wouldn’t take long before the whole room was up in flames.
As if reading my thoughts, Alix shook his head. “Cass put enchantments on this room. No one else can come in here and no damage can be done to it. It won’t burn or anything. The fire and water and whatever else won’t leave the room, either. Don’t worry.”
I took a deep breath, trying desperately to hold it all in. I stood up and walked to the window. Alix came behind me and took my hands, leaving my palms out. He swished them through the air in a chopping movement and I let all my pent-up energy flow out.
The fire danced even higher, spreading across the walls and ceiling. The water started to dance around us in waves, crashing against the wall and extinguishing some of the fire momentarily. The plants were either on fire or continuing to climb and spread up the walls, some blooming into flowers and some growing leaves.
It felt so good to have all the energy flowing through me, from my midsection to my fingertips and then out, into the elements. As Alix moved my hand again, the fire started to glow blue and I actually moaned from how it felt to control it. My hands glowed bright blue.
Immediately, I ripped my hand from Alix’s to cover my mouth.
What was going on? Surely I wasn’t turned on, I was just using my powers. And it was Alix. He was hot but I did not desire him in any way.
“It’s supposed to feel good, it’s a part of you.” He was panting more now, just like I was. Why was he panting? He looked like he was using a lot of his strength or something.
Alix pulled me to face the door we had come through, his hand on my waist. It was extremely distracting, since his front was pressed firmly against my back.
I lifted the water, air, fire and dirt into the air. All of the elements swirled around us in a circle, like a tornado. The weirdest feeling built in my stomach, a sort of pleasure. Just as that increased, Alix’s hand moved to my stomach. It rubbed small comforting circles that were probably just supposed to keep my stomach from hurting too much. I moaned anyway, not so much from him but from the energy of my powers. Immediately, I blushed and stopped using my powers.
I turned to ask him what was going on, but he answered before I could ask. "You need to let out all that energy. Now that you've started using your powers, the energy will build like water against a damn. It feels good to let it out, that's because it's natural. It's supposed to happen. Normally, using your powers doesn't do this because you use them in small incriments."
I nodded and carefully built the flames up, focusing on one element at a time instead of minipulating everything in the room all at once. The room may have been damage-proofed but we weren’t and I didn’t want to get singed.
Alix took my hands again, moving them around us and influencing the elements in the way he wanted. To say it was a good feeling would be the understatement of the century.
Alix started rocking us together, his hands intertwined with mine. I could feel the bulge in his pants as he pushed against me, moaning at the same time I did.
I glanced around quickly. God, I hope this room is soundproof, too.
Alix let go of my hands and moved his to my waist, trapping me against him and guiding my hips as I moved against him. I turned slowly and suddenly my back was against a wall, Alix pressed very close to me.
Why was I doing this?
I tried to refocus on the elements that were still in a giant whirlwind around us but as I did, Alix’s hands moved down, from my hips to my thighs. The fire was burning all different colors now, most of it as red as my face was.
I never did things like this and I had a boyfriend! Why was I letting this happen?
As Alix’s face drew near mine, I thought he was going to kiss me. I could see it coming, in his eyes. He had every intention of kissing me.
Quicker than he could read in my face, I brought my knee up and slammed it into his groin. I thought my aim was off a little, but he doubled over in pain so it must have been effective enough.
“Don't touch me.” I spat at him, as he tried to straighten up. I slapped him then, for good measure, and let all the elements drop.
I forced the flames to dim and then go out and then I was running out of the room, feeling very ashamed of myself.
~ ~ ~
Sammy, Jess, Laurie and I were all hanging out together in Jess and Laurie’s room. Sammy and I were laying on Jess’ bed, him laying behind me and playing with my hair. Jess and Laurie were sitting together on Laurie’s bed.
We had all been eyeing Jess furtively all night.
Katie had come in earlier to let us know where she and Nate had been. They had decided not to take a side in Jess and Spencer’s affairs, but thought it was better if they gave him a little company for now, since we were all with Jess. Katie kindly gave Jess her regards and then left.
Jess sighed. “You guys can stop giving me those looks; I’m fine.”
“Jess—” Laurie started.
“I’m not broken!” She exclaimed loudly. We all stared at her. “I’m in college, I’m bound to shack up sometime. Yes, I’m angry. But I’m not devastated. I don’t need you guys worrying about how I am constantly. Just because something bad happened...I’m not just going to give up everything and curl into a ball.”
She shook her head, looking like she fighting tears. “Yes, it hurts. I’m in love with Spencer. And that sucks, it really does. But I need to just get over what happened. I don’t even remember it, what’s the use being upset about it? It’s not like I’m suicidal or at risk of doing harm to myself.”
“Jess, you barely eat.” I argued. She was right, she wasn’t broken. But she wasn’t even close to over it. Not yet.
“So maybe I lost my appetite!” She threw her hands up. “So what? Can’t we just go back to being normal? Where we actually leave the dorm and do stuff? I’m probably failing all my classes at this point. I just want things to go back to how they were before all this. Maybe Spencer and I can be friends again, if he'd stop being a jerk.”
When she opened her eyes again they were filled with tears. “Please?”
“Sure, Jess.” Laurie said. “Everything can be normal again.”
She sounded as though she was reassuring a child to get them to stop being upset, but it didn’t matter. Anything, as long as Jess was okay.
“So,” Jess started, clearly trying to change the subject. “Why are you here, Sammy?”
We all looked at him. I hadn’t gotten a chance to ask that, either.
He shrugged. “I missed Amelie.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So you drove all this way just for that?”
He scratched the back of his head. “Well, I wasn’t going to tell you yet, but I may be opening a tattoo shop up here.”
“What? Really?” I was practically bouncing up and down in excitement and I didn’t miss the way Laurie’s eyes lit up.
He nodded. “New York is wonderful and everything but I wouldn’t mind it up here. Plus, there are less tattoo shops so there’d be less competition.” He paused. “But, if I was going to open a shop here, I’d want it to be in Portland, not Bangor.”
Laurie looked at him curiously. “How come?”
“Bangor’s cool, sure, but I’m used to the big city. Portland is a lot bigger and I can see myself being happier there than here.”
I grinned. “You’d still be close, just a couple hours away.”
He nodded and grinned back at me. “I can drive up here all the time to see you and during the summer, if you don’t get your own apartment, you can just come stay with me.”
Laurie laughed. “Actually, dude, she’ll be staying with me.”
That was all it took for them to start arguing who I should stay with and why.
~ ~ ~
Sammy went out that night and got a hotel to stay in but he came back to campus the next morning, bringing me a latte from Starbucks.
Laurie and Jess had gone to breakfast in the mess hall ahead of me, so it was just me and Sammy on the way there.
“How’s Jess doing?” He asked.
I shrugged. “She seems to have had a change in attitude. She’s much happier but she keeps almost saying something about Spencer. Like earlier, Laurie asked if she wanted to go to breakfast and she barely stopped herself before she said that she’d go and see if Spencer wanted to come, too.”
He nodded. “She’ll get better at it, eventually.”
“I hope not.”
He gave me a questioning look and I elaborated. “I want them to make up. I think they’re good for each other and everyone makes mistakes. Spencer needs to man up and try to get her back but she also needs to accept that he knows he was wrong by doing that.”
Sammy laughed. “You’re a hopeless romantic.”
I shrugged, not denying it.
Before we reached the cafeteria, Noah came running towards us. He immediately took my hand, smiling down at me.
“Why are you in such a good mood?” I asked suspiciously.
“Oh, I dunno. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I got concert tickets yesterday.” His expression was smug.
I stopped walking and narrowed my eyes at him. “What concert tickets?”
“Four tickets to see Of Mice & Men in Boston, next Saturday.”
I squealed and threw myself at him, hugging him as tight as I could. “Who is going?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I was going to leave it up to you. I don’t have any idea who else likes them.”
I thought for a moment before something occurred to me. “You don’t like them.”
He shook his head. “Guilty. I’ve never even listened to them.”
“Then why did you get the tickets?” I asked, bewildered.
He laughed. “Well, I knew my girlfriend likes them and she’s been kind of upset lately so...”
I wanted to laugh with him, but a pang of guilt was making itself known. He was a wonderful boyfriend and I was a whore. I still hadn’t told him — or anyone else, for that matter — about my little incident with Alix.
I wanted to tell Noah but what could I possibly tell him? I wanted to tell him we’d kissed because then I’d be confessing some small part of it, but we hadn’t even really kissed, so I’d be lying. And I couldn’t very well tell him that I’d used my powers, which had made me all hot and bothered, which had then led to me and Alix doing things we shouldn’t have.
Noah noticed my lack of enthusiasm, as did Sammy. Sammy was standing behind Noah, so when he raised his eyebrows and mouthed “what?” it went unnoticed.
“If you don’t want to go, I’m sure I can find someone else to give them to.” Noah suggested, trying to act like it was no big thing.
I shook my head quickly, smiling brightly. “I wanna go. Thank you so much.” I gave him a quick kiss and turned towards Sammy.
“You like Of Mice & Men, don’t you?” I asked.
He hesitated before answering. “They’re my favourite band. Why?”
My smile brightened. “We could double date! Noah and I will go and you and Laurie can go. They’re her favourite, too.”
Understanding dawned in his eyes and he scowled. “Don’t try to play matchmaker, Amelie, it always turns out badly.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t have to be a romantic date. You guys can just go as friends. Get to know each other.” I wiggled my eyebrows and laughed at his expression.
Sammy sighed. “Fine. But only because I know you’ll never stop bugging me about it.”