My eyes popped open in a frenzy as the dream ended. I gasped for air and coughed as I sat up and quickly turned on my lamp. I was relieved to see my curtains still hung, and my room in perfect order. I had to repeat to myself a few times that it was just a dream. "Cade? You alright?" Garrett asked groggily from beside the bed. When I didn't answer him he sat up to look at me. "What's the matter?" He asked concerned. He got up from the floor and sat at the foot of my bed looking at me strangely again. "Wait, why are you afraid of me right now?" He questioned with his eyes narrowed.
"I'm not." I told him.
"You are." He replied looking a little wounded. "Why?"
I sat up straighter, letting my back rest against my headboard and pulled my knees up to my chest. "I don't know what you're talking about Garrett."
"Cadence..." He said my name in a whisper.
I knew how crazy this was, but I had to do it. "What are you, Garrett?"
He looked thrown off by the question. "What are you talking about?"
"What are you, Garrett?" I repeated.
He stood up from the bed and ran his hands through his hair, turning his back to me. "I'm a human Cadence, what are you?" He answered defensively.
"Don't try to turn this around on me." I said firmly. "I want the truth."
"You sound insane." He said still looking away.
I had to agree with him. On any other circumstances I would say anyone talking the way I am needs to be committed, but not this time. "Garrett there are just too many things that don't make sense. I don't care, I just want to know."
He turned back to me and his face looked sad. "Cadence don't do this." He pleaded. "You're the only friend I have."
I stood from my bed and went to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. "It's because I am you're friend that I just want to know the truth about you." I tried to explain. "Please Garrett, what are you?"
"I don't know what you are talking about Cade." He told me as he moved out of my grasp.
I was getting angry that he wouldn't just tell me the truth. "Do you think I am stupid? I know something is up, I just want to know what it is."
"I think you're cute when you're mad." He joked half smiling.
"Don't try to distract me Garrett." I said biting my lip to keep from smiling. I had to refocus myself on my mission. "What are you?" I asked him again with more resolve.
"I'm human, Cadence." He told me again.
"You're lying."
"I've got to go." He said suddenly then went for my door.
I cut him off, blocking the door from him and he rolled his eyes at me then backed back to my bed and sat down. He put his elbows on his knees and held his face in his hands. I knelt in front of him and pulled his hands away from his face so that he would look at me. "Please?" I begged again.
His eyes bore into mine desperately. "That's the most annoying part of all of this Cadence." He whispered to me. "I. Am. Human." He said emphasizing every word. "I am just as much human as you, or anyone else is." He brought his hand up to the side of my face. "I was born, just like you. I grew and went to school, just like you. If I get hurt, I will bleed, just like you. I have feelings, and a heart, and everything else just the same as you."
I saw so much pain in his expression and I almost regretted forcing him into this. He already seems like he carries so much, I hate to be adding to his unhappiness, but this is something I have to know. "Then what is it?" I asked him.
"I'm human, but I am different." He finally replied.
"What do you mean?"
"People like me...We're called Potentes, which just means 'powerful ones', or 'the powerful.'" He told me.
"So you have powers then?" I couldn't get passed how ridiculous that question sounded.
He smiled at me and rolled his eyes. "I hate being called Potentes, it is so stupid. I don't like to say I have powers either, that sounds so lame, honestly." He laughed a little. "I prefer to say that some of us have abilities. Most of us actually, there are a few who don't."
"Okay, well what are your abilities then?" I asked him. "I know you're stupidly strong, but I feel like you can do more than that."
He stood up from my bed and started pacing the room. "This feels so strange discussing this with someone. We don't ever have to talk like this with each other, and we don't really make friends with people who aren't Potentes. It's both terrifying and exhilarating to be having this conversation."
"You just avoided my question." I pointed out.
"I'm sorry." He said glancing over to me. "You're right." He said after a minute. "Potentes don't have crazy magical powers like super heroes on TV or whatever. There are just certain things that some of us are cable of. Some are more talented than others, it really varies from one person to the next."
"Well what kinds of things then?" I inquired.
"Some have strength. Not like we can lift a car and throw it across a parking lot, just abnormal strength. Some are telepathic, although that one is rarer. Telekinesis, slight control over the elements, ability to speak and understand all languages, speed, there are all kinds of special abilities that we are capable of having." He explained.
"Can you read minds, Garrett?" I asked skeptically.
"No, Cadence." He laughed. "I already told you before that I couldn't do that."
"But you always seem to know what I am thinking." I argued.
"That's not because I am reading your mind." He smiled. "I'm reading your emotions."
I had to think hard on that, and well everything he had told me so far. "Explain." I said meekly.
"That's something that makes me particularly special." He said. "As far as we know, no one else has exhibited this specific ability. There are people who can read minds, and people who can control another person's thought process, but not what I can do." He took a deep breath. "I can sense what people are feeling. The better I know a person, the stronger it is, but I can do it with anyone. I'm just extremely perceptive to it. Like earlier tonight, I felt your terror and I knew you were in trouble."
I nodded my head to him but my head was really still swimming. I feel like maybe I am still dreaming and I will wake up any minute now and have a laugh at how silly this all was. "This can't be real." I muttered to myself.
"I know how it sounds to you but it's my life." He said. "I can do something else too." He said smiling. He looked around my room and then locked his eyes on a vase of silk flowers on my dresser.
I watched in amazement as one of the flowers from the vase began to wiggle loose from the rest and float across the room to me. It was completely amazing. I reached out my hand and it came right to it. I put the flower on my bed and looked up to Garrett with my eyes wide. "Garret, this is so...so...I don't even have words for it."
He crossed the room and sat right beside me. "You have no clue how happy I am that you aren't freaking out." He said. "I've never told another person about myself." His blue eyes were shining brightly with excitement.
"I'm glad you trusted me enough to tell me."
His smile was beaming at me. It was impossible, even with all I was trying to process, not to smile back at him. "I think we have experimented enough for one night though, you should get some sleep."
"Can I ask one more thing?" I asked sweetly.
"One, then bed. I don't have the power to stay awake forever." He joked with me.
"Why do you date Carrianne?" I said. "Is it just because she is like you?"
"I'm nothing like Carrianne." He objected quickly.
"That's not what I meant..."
His smile was gone but he was still trying to keep his expression light. "Carrianne and her family are Potentes too, but she is one of the worst." He said glaring at my window even though it was closed. "Carrianne is one of the most powerful we've ever known of. She can control things much more than just plain boring telekinesis. You saw that at the party the way she switched the power on and off just by willing it to happen. I can only move things that I am looking at when I concentrate hard, she can literally just think it and make it happen. She is also a fire starter. It makes sense that someone as vile and vindictive as her would be born with such a cruel ability. All she has to do is touch something to burn it, or set it ablaze."
"Wow." I said with a shiver running through me.
"You don't need to be afraid, I won't let her hurt you." He assured me. "The point is though, because she is so powerful, and she and I both have unique abilities, our families made a deal."
"A deal?" I repeated.
"We're promised to each other Cade." He said lowly. "I have to marry her because they think that by bringing us together we could create even stronger Potentes than have ever lived."
"They can't just tell you who you have to be with!" I said slightly outraged. "You should be able to be with whoever the heck you feel like."
"That isn't how it works, Cade." He said looking down. "Potentes always marry other Potentes."
"Oh."
He brought his hand up to my chin and tilted it up so that I would look at him. "You know," He whispered to me. "If I could chose anyone I wanted to be with..." He leaned in to me. "I would chose you."
I leaned my own face slightly closer to his.
Our lips were just about to touch when he sighed and stood from the bed. "We really should get some sleep." He said as he laid back down in the floor.
My head was all fuzzy and unclear, but I knew he was right to pull away. I can't get involved with him, not just because he is some sort of super human, but also because he has a psycho girlfriend just a rocks throw away from here.
I laid my head down on my pillow, but sleep didn't come for me for many more hours. I was too wired now to be expected to sleep. Everything Garrett had just told me, plus the almost kiss, were sure to give me some wild dreams, and I just wasn't ready for that yet.
I laid awake thinking and listening to the breathing of the boy lying on the floor beside me.