Jack's POV
My heart was still beating rapidly in my chest. I was absolutely terrified and excited all at the same time. I had only dreamt of finding someone else like me. A dream I had pretty much started to believe was impossible. I had kept this secret for so long, I was actually surprised when I gave it up so easily. Then again, that may be the exact reason why I told Alex without much coaxing; because I was sick of keeping this all to myself. The look on his face was priceless though.
"Wait, wait, wait, hold on. How many times do I have to tell you not to call me William?"
"Alex, is that really what you're worried about right now? Aren't there more important things, like I don't know, the fact that we both just basically admitted to having super powers?"
"Hey, you wanna keep your fucking voice down?" he asked looking around nervously.
"Why? What are you so worried about?"
"Just trust me. I know all to well what happens if we're overheard."
"What does that mean?"
"Another story for another time, Jack. But right now why don't we focus on talking at normal human levels, ok?"
"Fine, sorry. Speaking of normal humans, how did you know that I wasn't one?" The question had been racking my brain since he first threw me up against the lockers.
"Well I didn't really know for sure. I was just going off some stuff I've read, and like, the whole fainting incident, and the constant headache I seem to get around you."
"You get those too?" I asked incredulously. That would explain why he always seemed to mirror my pained expression and rubbing of the temples whenever I saw him.
"Yeah, but it seems to be reducing in strength the longer that I'm around you. Which I have a theory about as well actually."
"Care to share with the group?"
"Well, from what I've read, people with these strong energies, people that can do certain special things, like you and me, can feel when someone else like them is around. Like these energies are fighting against each other," he said making large hand gestures in an attempt to demonstrate the energies. "I'm thinking that's the reason why we both fainted my first day. Because it all happened at once, and our energies were too strong for each other. From what I've gathered, the more time we spend together the better they should adjust to one another. That's why I think we're still getting headaches, just ones that aren't as strong as they were yesterday. And hopefully, if we spend enough time together, the headaches will go away completely. But, like, this is just me reasoning, it really means nothing," he finished, looking down at his feet, feigning embarrassment at the obviously well thought out theory. He had clearly done his research on this shit. Meanwhile, I didn't even know there was research available to be done. I kind of figured I would just suffer in silence all my life, questioning but never knowing anything about what I can do or why. But apparently Alex was much more motivated than I was.
I looked at him and smiled. One thing in particular had stuck out to me from his whole speech. "So I guess that means we're going to be spending a lot more time together huh?"
Right after that, one of the administrators caught us basically ditching class and we were threatened with referrals, unless we "hurried along" to where ever it was we needed to be. We walked into room X204, greeted by the eager faces of our peers, hoping for any sort of distraction from the current mathematical hell they were being forced to sit through. But were of course disappointed by the lack of an announcement or drug bust, when they received two regular ol' burnout tardy students. Mr. Marcus made some joke about us being so late and that we shouldn't have bothered to show up to class at all, and then directed us towards our seats on opposite sides of the room.
Every other minute I would glance at Alex and watch him study the posters that covered the walls of the classroom, picking apart every project or math standard that was carefully pinned up. Once in a while he would catch me staring at him, and redirect his attention to whatever Mr. Marcus was rambling about. At which point, I would try to tune in to the lecture as well, lacking something better to do.
After a couple of minutes of trying to absorb the mind numbing formulas and numbers that made absolutely no sense to me, I felt my phone vibrate against my leg. I thanked the heavens for my placement toward the back of the classroom, and slipped the device out of my pocket to see a text from Alex:
so i guess we never really got to finish our talk earlier, were you gonna say something?
yeah, i don't really want to tell you like this though. you wanna come over to mine later?
yeah, but my mom doesn't want me going out because she still thinks im sick, so i'll be there later later, is that ok?
sounds good
I slid my phone back into my pocket, trying my best to focus on the rest of the lesson, but fuck. I couldn't really concentrate on cosines and tangents when Alex was coming over tonight to talk about our fucking superpowers. Even saying it in my head made me feel like a crazy person.
~
It was safe to say that I was a little nervous.
Ok. I was really nervous. I checked my wall clock again. It was 10:15. Five minutes later than it had been at 10:10 when I checked it last. I sat on the edge of my bed and listened as the ticking that emanated from the hands of the god awful time keeper bounced off the walls of my bedroom and amplified the silence in which I sat. I fucking hated that clock, but I was too damn lazy to actually get a ladder and take it down.
What time did Alex say he was going to be here again? Oh yeah. The bastard didn't. He just said "later". When was later supposed to be? I was going to need to talk to him about his lack of punctuality and clarity once he finally shows up.
I had gotten close to actually drifting off when a knock on my window sent me flying ten feet off of my bed and clutching my heart. Across the room Alex was dying of laughter from outside my window. I frowned walking over and unlocking it for him.
"A little jumpy are we?" he asked stepping inside.
"No, just got tired waiting for you to get here. You didn't really specify when you were gonna show up."
"Sorry, didn't know you went to bed at 9:30."
"For your information, it's actually 10:30."
"Oh boohoo. I mean, I can leave if you're that tired..." he said making a slow turn toward the window.
"No, no. We need to talk," I said grabbing his arm. I had a feeling he wasn't really planning on leaving, but I wasn't taking any chances.
"Oh yeah. Forgot. That's what I uh, came here for. I'm just warning you beforehand though, I'm not really good at the whole 'talking' thing, so try not to get frustrated with me," he cautioned. Wait a minute. What was that noise? "So uh, how do you wanna do this? I mean, I guess we could just-"
"Shhh!" I snapped, holding my finger up to Alex's lips in an attempt to get him to stop talking. He looked at me, waiting for some sort of answer to my sudden outburst and physical contact with his face.
"What's the problem?" he asked, removing my hand from his mouth.
"I thought I heard footsteps."
"So?"
"So? If my mom comes in and sees you here I'm dead, genius."
"Well, actually I don't think that would really be a prob-"
"Jack, what's going on? I thought you were going to bed," my mom questioned half asleep, walking into my room and cutting Alex off.
I froze, and my heart rate skyrocketed to the point where I was pretty sure that the organ might just fall out of my chest. I glanced over at Alex, giving him a stern "I told you so" look. He however, seemed completely relaxed, very unlike my current state of internal panic.
His cool exterior was broken slightly when I locked eyes with him, like he didn't expect me to know he was there. I continued to blink rapidly, glancing back and forth between Alex and my mother.
"What are you doing? Why do you keep turning over there? Like you're looking at someone?" she asked, not even alluding to the fact that there was an uninvited boy in my bedroom at 10:30 at night. She just raised her eyebrows and waited.
"Um, I guess I'm just a little on edge, you kinda scared me is all," I lied, still shocked that she had yet to mention Alex's presence. But I wasn't gonna argue, so I ran with it. "I uh, forgot about some homework I had to do and was just finishing up. Sorry, I'll try to be quieter."
"Alright, then. Goodnight sweetie, don't stay up too much later ok?"
"Yeah, sure ok mom goodnight," I said hustling her out the room, thoroughly confused myself. I let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the door, feeling the pace of my heart begin to slow down.
"Tada...?" Alex offered, shrugging his shoulders.
"Tada? What the fuck just happened?"
"You wanted to know my 'superpower' right? Well, you just kind of witnessed it. Or, I mean, you didn't witness it really, which I'm still trying to figure out, but I guess your mom just did."
"So what, you can distort reality or something?"
"Oh god no. Nothing like that. Um, it's kinda of like, invisibility I guess you would call it," he said trailing off.
"Invisibility? Oh man, that's so fucking cool."
"What about you?" he asked hesitantly, realizing that I still hadn't divulged my fascinatingly brilliant capability yet.
"Oh, minds," I stated, walking across the room and sitting on my bed again. He just stared at me, obviously bewildered by my nonexplanitory answer. "Um, I can read them. Like, hear people's thoughts," I clarified. His eyes grew wide and he blushed furiously. "Oh, not yours though actually. I think that also kind of explains how I could see you when you went all invisible girl a minute ago."
"Huh, that makes sense. And what is it with you and giving me bad nicknames?"
"What? You don't like invisible girl? I think it has a nice ring to it," I argued sarcastically.
"Uh huh, sure, just keep telling yourself that," he bit back. "So, uh minds? That's pretty cool."
"Yeah. You wouldn't imagine the kinds of things people keep hidden up there. It's crazy."
"I bet," he smirked, blushing again. Ok, I was seriously going to have to ask him about that later.
We sat there for a while, me shifting my weight back and forth on the bed, while Alex leaned on my desk and scrutinized my bedroom, very much like the last time he was here. I noticed that he had a habit of doing that to his surroundings. It was kind of cute, how he felt the need to know everything about where he was. I stared at him longingly and felt my heart skip. I tried my best to force the feelings down. The last thing I needed to do was screw up this friendship before it had even begun. Frighteningly enough, I had no way to know how Alex felt about me, and I was not ready to simply take a shot in the dark. If I wanted to know anything about him, I was going to need to do it the old fashioned way. Talk to him, spend time with him, and get him to trust me. All the stuff I've never really had to do before. It was sort of like a challenge. Like, I'd have to figure him out on my own, no help from my whacked out mega brain. And with the way Alex kept himself to himself, it looked as if he was going to be a pretty tough nut to crack. But I was ready.
So look out Alex, because you got one friend-less mind reader, with a whole lotta time, a massive crush, and most importantly, a mind he can't read.
xxxxxxxxxx
i was told invisibility is kind of a cheesy power, but it was what i wanted to give alex since the beginning, so i went with my gut whoops. lets hope it works out.... oh and i lied about the smut, it didn't work so i took it out, which is part of the reason why this chapter took so long. i was also so uninspired to write all week this week, buuuuuttttt my friend erika helped me talk through my writers block and (even though this chapter is kind of short) now i have a bunch of ideas for the next ones, and even remembered a bunch of stuff i had forgotten about that i wanted to do. so wooooooo yeah for the friends of writers who are pretty bitchin people :)
-emma
hahaha also ironic since my mom came into my room approximately 5 times to tell me to go to bed but i felt bad about taking so long to put a chapter out, so you're welcome, even though im going to hate myself tomorrow....
song credit: Careful - Paramore