A/N: ok guys, this is the longest chapter I've ever written, it's 6k+ words long. I hope you'll like it, there's a lot of info in this one... Enjoy! x
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A smile slowly appeared on my half-sleeping face as kisses were delicately laid all over my face. Soon enough, my smile turned into a grin as Michael didn't stop his love treatment and continued with my neck once he was done kissing every inch of my face. Without opening my eyes, I wrapped my arms around his neck, and let out a soft and barely audible moan out of my mouth. This was probably the best feeling in the world. I never felt so loved and appreciated than at that very moment, with this man in my arms.
"Michael," I softly called in a sleepy voice, as he was attacking the side of my neck with more of his addictive kisses.
"Good morning," he whispered in my ear, which sent chills all over my body. My eyes flew open at the feeling, and finally I met Michael's face which was hovering me.
"Morning," I mumbled with a grin, gently rubbing his arm. "What did I do to deserve such a lovely awakening?"
"I just woke up happy and I realized that it was thanks to you so I wanted to thank you my own way," he shrugged slightly, and I giggled at his adorable self. "What?" he asked, chuckling. "What you're laughing at?"
"You're the cutest," I just said, and pecked his lips gently.
"No, you are," he argued, and I shook my head, getting lost in his eyes. "How did you sleep?"
"Perfectly," I truthfully answered, as he kissed the tip of my nose. "But the best part of it has to be this moment right here. Now I expect you to do that every morning, though."
"With great pleasure," he chuckled, and leaned down to give my lips a kiss.
At first, it looked like a normal, gentle Michael Jackson-style kiss, but it slowly turned into a different kind of kiss. A hungrier one, a needy one. All of my tensed muscles relaxed under his touch, and I was barely able to think straight about what was going on. My heart was beating so wildly that I could only take little sips of breath here and there. I didn't want this to stop, so I kissed him back with the same newly found hunger. I put my hands on the back of his neck and deepened the kiss. The only sound we could hear was the sound of our heavy breathing. At that point, Michael's body was covering mine, and I could feel his body heat all over me. My hands traveled from the back of his neck to his chest where I slid them under his silky pajama shirt, and unbuttoned the last three buttons of it. It's like the dopamine was driving me, I wasn't in charge anymore.
Once Michael unsealed his lips from mine, I reversed our position, and ended up straddling him in a matter of a couple of seconds. I could see by the look on his face that he was not expecting that move at all, but still, he went with it. He put his hands on my waist, as I leaned down to kiss his jawline and neck, which allowed a small moan to escape Michael's mouth.
"Looks like I found your weak spot," I whispered in his ear, giggling slightly, before kissing the right side of his neck and the spot behind his ear.
"That's what you do to me," he said back, cupping my face in between his large hands before crashing his lips on mine once again. Slowly and with a lot of adroitness, Michael started unbuttoning his shirt that I was wearing with a pair of silky black shorts.
However, the ringing of the phone on the nightstand interrupted us in the middle of out make out session. I groaned in frustration, and Michael sighed heavily as he reached for the phone, but I didn't move an inch and stayed there, straddling him. He cleared his throat a little before he put the phone over his ear, and put his free hand on my hip, his eyes never leaving mine.
"Yes? Sure, put her on," he said through the receiver, eyeing me with insistence. To tease him, I leaned down and continued to lay small kisses on his neck and bare chest. I could hear his breathing getting heavier at each kiss I left on his body. "Oh uh, h—hey! Y—yeah she's right here. Do you want me to pass her the phone?" I frowned, and straightened up when I realized Michael was talking about me. "Alice wants to talk to you, babe," Michael let me know, and the sound of him calling me that made me want him even more.
I took the phone from him, and withdrew from Michael's body unenthusiastically. I sat on the edge of the bed, and put the phone over my ear: "You better have a good reason to call... right fucking now," I told my best friend, cursing under my breath so that Michael wouldn't hear it.
"Look who's all moody. Did I interrupt something?" she smartly asked, and I wanted to choke her at that precise moment. I could easily picture the smirk she had on her devilish face.
"Yes, you did actually."
"Oooo were you jumping Michael Jackson's bones, Brit?" she almost yelled through the phone.
"No," I shortly answered as I felt the mattress move underneath me. Soon enough, I felt Michael's hot breath on the side of my neck, and he started kissing my collar bone a second after that. "Now tell me the reason why you're calling or I'm hanging up on you. I have... better things to do."
"Is Michael Jackson on that to-do-list?" she asked, loud enough for Michael to hear her, apparently. He laughed a little, and hid himself in the crook of my neck, embarrassed by my best friend's filthy mouth.
"Alice Margaret Garner," I warned, rubbing my forehead, trying my best not to laugh at her little show. "Spit it. Why are you calling for?"
"I just wanted to make sure you were relaxed before I tell you this, chill," she said, and suddenly I started to worry. "Hayden's here."
"W—What? H—Here, like at the loft?"
"Yeah. He just got here, and asked if you and him could talk, because he's been thinking about your conversation for the last couple of weeks," she let me know, and I stayed silent, looking into space. "I told him you were away and that I needed to call you to see if you were coming back."
"Hey, what's wrong?" Michael asked immediately when he noticed my sudden change of demeanor.
"Hayden wants to see me, he's at the loft," I announced, and he immediately hugged me from behind.
"Are you ready to see him again?" he asked in a soft voice, his breath tickling the side of my neck.
"He came all the way from Montecito to talk to me, I—... I can't ignore that."
"You're not answering my question here," Michael gently said, and I turned around to be face to face with him. "Are you ready to talk to him about your past, about your father?"
"I'll never be ready," I honestly said, looking at my lap for a second. "What would you do if you were in my shoes?"
"Guys, I'm still here, you know?" Alice called on the other end of the phone. "And if I was the one in your shoes, I'd give him a chance to let him say what he has to say."
"And I'd do the same thing," Michael added, and I looked in his direction again. "I talked to Joh'Vonnie at some point, and I never regretted it. I learned a lot about her, and I learned not to take her responsible for Joseph's infidelity."
I nodded, and sighed heavily before rubbing my forehead again. "I'll be there in a couple of hours, this is the fastest I can do."
"Okay, I'll keep him busy until you get here and I'll try to behave," Alice said, and I frowned. "I didn't remember how hot your brother actually was, Brit."
My brother. It would always sound weird hearing that, since I always thought I was an only child for my whole life.
"See you later, Al," I said, rolling my eyes slightly at her remark. I hung up the phone and sighed yet another time. Michael stood up from the bed, and extended his hand towards me. I took it, and he pulled me into a much needed hug. This was exactly what I needed to give me the courage to face the day I had ahead of me. "I'm sorry it ruined our moment."
"Don't apologize, we'll have plenty of other moments," Michael chuckled slightly, and kissed the top of my head as he hugged me tightly. "It's probably better that way. I don't want to rush things, I want everything to be perfect. Let's take it slow, okay?" he gently asked, rubbing my back.
I simply nodded, and hugged him tighter, burying my face deeper in his chest. Michael was everything a woman could look for in a man. He was a true gentleman who cared for me and who treated me like I was some sort of princess. He was thoughtful, caring, and genuine. It amazed me how I could read him like an open book. His body language, his smile, the way he looks at me... I knew he was sincere. This is the kind of thing that don't lie.
At that particular moment, I felt a wave of courage invading me. I felt ready, ready to tell him the truth about myself. He deserved to know, and hiding behind all of those lies was becoming harder and harder for me. If Alice and Carl were able to somehow cope with it, I knew Michael would. He was understanding, open-minded and far from being judgmental, but above all, I trusted him.
"There's uh... There's something I'd like to talk about with you," I announced as I pulled away, gulping hard. Here was this feeling of fear, and these knots forming in my stomach.
"Is there something wrong?" he asked, worried.
"No, n—no! Relax," I reassured, rubbing both of his arms. "There's just something I'd like to confess. About me."
"Sure. Tell me, what is it?"
"I uh—you know, there are things that cannot be explained, a—and this... This is something I have to deal with every single day. Especially when I'm here, it gets... stronger, somehow," I announced and my whole body tensed up. "I—"
As on cue, someone knocked on the door, and I exhaled heavily. Michael told me to hold on, and went to open the door, buttoning his shirt back on his way there. One of his maid was standing there, and told him that a man named John Branca had arrived on the property, and that it was quite urgent.
When he came back, Michael had a preoccupied look on his face. He visibly didn't like the sound of what his maid just announced, I could tell. That's when I knew I needed to back out. I couldn't tell him knowing that he had some business problems to think of.
"I'm sorry, I—I have to go," he apologized sincerely, walking back to me. "But please, tell me. What is it you have to deal with everyday?"
"I um... You know what? It's not that important, I—"
"Hayley," Michael said in a warning voice, pointing a finger in my direction. "Tell me, please. I want to know everything about you. I'll never judge you."
"It's just...," I sighed, and hated myself for hiding the truth from him yet again. "I'm afraid of snakes. Like, really. They're my phobia," I let him know, hiding my face behind my hands. That wasn't a lie, though.
Michael chuckled, and shook his head at me, "Really? This is what you were so scared to tell me?" I nodded, and he pulled me into yet another hug. "You should have told me that before I introduced you to Muscles. I would have kept him away from you."
"It's okay, I should have told you earlier. Now you know my little secret, go. I'll get prepared and get my stuff from my room."
"I'll call Bill to let him know he needs to take you home. Come by my office before you leave, okay?" he gently asked, and put me at arm's length. "And if being around Hayden hurts you too much, just tell him to leave and run back here. I'll be there with Liz all day long, I'm not going anywhere."
"Okay," I nodded, and gave him a sweet peck, cupping his flawless face in my hands. Right after that, I disappeared upstairs to my room to get prepared to go back home and face my brother.
***
Bill pulled up in the driveway, next to Alice's car. I waited for some long seconds before getting out, and Michael's employee found that unusual.
"Looks like someone didn't want to leave," he said looking at me in the rear view mirror, trying to lighten the mood. In reality I was too stressed and focused on Hayden to even smile. "Hey there, you okay?"
"I'm just... Yeah, I'm fine," I simply said, forcing a smile to appear on my lips as my nervous behavior got the best of me. "I guess I already miss Michael, that's all."
"Spending time away from the other is a good way to strengthen a relationship, trust me. I've been around," he chuckled slightly, but stopped when he noticed I didn't chuckle along with him.
"Yeah," I nodded my head slightly, and opened the car's door. "Thanks for the ride, Bill."
"Anytime," he smiled faintly, but I could see he had that worry in his eyes. "Hey Hayley?" he called, and I looked back at him. "Take care of yourself, okay?"
"I will. You take care too," I said back, finally giving him a faint and sincere smile, and grabbed my bag before leaving the car.
Hesitantly, I came in the building, and climbed the stairs slowly. When I got in front of the big metallic door of the loft, I stopped there and took a few seconds to breathe in and breathe out. I was a nervous wreck, and I really needed to keep my composure to face Hayden and whatever he had to tell me.
When I felt ready, I came in. I put my denim jacket on the hanger by the door, and walked further in the loft, only to see Hayden and Alice seated on the couches in the living room. I put my bag down on the floor, and walked closer to the both of them.
"Hey um, I—I'm sorry—"
"Oh no, n—no! I'm sorry I came here uninvited, I uh, I should have called before coming here," Hayden cut me off, and apologized before I even had the chance to.
"How did you find me?" I asked, quite confused.
"Alice gave me your address and your phone number before you both left the last time I saw you," he explained, and I took a look in her direction.
"I um, I should probably ave you guys some privacy. I'll be in Carl's room if you need anything," Alice excused herself, and rubbed my forearm slightly for support as she passed me.
We heard the door closing from down the hall, and silence fell upon the both of us. It was a bit awkward, at first. So many mixed feelings were fighting each other inside of me. I had so many questions to ask, but at the same time, I didn't know where to start, how to talk to him, how to behave in his presence... Him and I shared the same blood and the same DNA, but still, we sere strangers to each other.
"Um, maybe you'd like something to drink?" I asked, rubbing my neck nervously.
"No, thanks. Alice offered me a glass of water already," he refused politely. "She told me she practically lived here with you since your accident."
"Yeah, she's been taking care of me ever since it happened," I verified, as I sat on one of the couch. I motioned him to do the same, which he did.
"She told me what happened to you. I um... I'm glad you survived this."
Another heavy silence took over the room. The many questions I had in mind wouldn't allow me to answer something to this. I appreciated him for saying this, but I couldn't seem to respond anything back, so I just nodded silently, forcing a smile.
"I know this is weird," he told me softly, as if he heard my thoughts. "This is weird for me too, but I really want to get to know you, Hayley. If you have questions, then ask them away, please."
"I—I'm sorry if I'm making this even more weird than it already is," I apologized sincerely, rubbing the space between my eyes. "It's just that... I still don't get it. How is that even possible? How did I just learn that I have a brother when my parents have been gone for seven years?"
"Well... I was Rupert's dirty secret. Martha was the only one to know about me in your family, and she made sure to keep it," he explained, and a wave of anger invaded me when I thought about my grandmother lying to me for my whole life.
"G—Grams? I can't believe her. She's the only person I trust in this world," I regretfully said, shaking my head from side to side. "How could she do that to me?"
"She certainly thought that ignorance really is bliss."
"She thought wrong," I angrily muttered. "Were you there, you know... the day of the funeral?"
"I was," he nodded slowly, looking down at his hands. "And I wanted to meet you at that time. You needed some comfort, and I wanted to be there for you. He was my father, but I never had a real father/son relationship with him, but I knew you did. You... Damn, you were burying both of your parents on the same day, you needed all the support you could find."
"Why didn't you come? And how? I mean... I had the father you never had the chance to have. How did you still manage to want to meet me and comfort me?"
"You never chose to be in the middle of this, you didn't choose this situation," he just shrugged and looked in my direction again. "And if I didn't come, it's because Martha forbade me to."
"Why would she do that?"
"Because she said that there was no room for family drama on such a day," he told me, and I was dumbfounded. "I tried to reachto you in the months that followed this tragedy, I did, but... Martha wouldn't allow me to come near you, so at some point, I just gave up and thought that she had her reasons to keep me away. I started to believe this was the right thing to do. And I thought I could continue to ignore you even after you came at my door the other day, that's why I acted all cold towards you at first. I just... I didn't know how to act, what to do. This was all so sudden, I did expect this day to come, but... Why now? How did you find me?"
Of course, I couldn't tell him about the visions just yet, not like that. I wanted him to leave some clues for me, clues that would demonstrate that he was like me. I wanted him to be the one to talk about it, I didn't want to take the risk to make him run away.
"I found a picture of you in my parents' all stuff," I told him. "When Grams came over here and saw the picture, she became tensed and acted weird. She told me you belonged to the past, and that I shouldn't come near you."
"Well, that's a bit extreme. She sounds like I'm some sort of dangerous psychopath," Hayden angrily yet sadly said, shaking his head.
"I'm sorry she said that," I apologized on behalf of our grandmother. "But see? I didn't listen to her, and still I looked for you. A friend of mine helped me find you, and he somehow did."
"You hired someone to find me? Talking about psychopath...," he joked with a little smirk on, and I smiled back at him, shaking my head at his silliness. "On a more serious note, I'm glad your friend found me. I still don't know if my being here is a good idea but... I've been thinking about our conversation, over and over again, and I... I don't know. I feel the need to be around you, to tell you everything you need to know,... I feel protective over you while I barely know you, and I can't even explain that."
Unable to put words on something he feels. Is that my first clue?
"Like some sort of connection?" I asked, playing dumb. This was the same feeling I got the first time we met. Like he was another missing piece added to my puzzle.
"Y-yeah, do you know this feeling, too?"
"I do, with specific people," I let him know, and he just nodded, confusion written all over his face. Apparently he didn't want carry on with this conversation, so I switched topic. "Do you have any other siblings?"
"No, just you," he let me know. "I don't know how it feels to have a sister, I'm new to this, just like you. That's why I'm so confused. I—I don't know if feeling like that is just a siblings' thing, or if it's because of—"
"Because of what?" I asked, eager to know what he wanted to say. "Please, continue."
Maybe he wasn't done with the topic, after all.
"Nothing. I—I can't, no," he shook his head from side to side. "Maybe it wasn't a good idea for me to come, after all. I'm sorry," he apologized, and stoop up quickly.
"Wait!"
Hayden grabbed his jacket from the chair, and headed for the front door. I jogged after him, and grabbed his forearm in the process. He stopped walking, and totally froze for a handful of long seconds. He didn't move an inch, and just stayed there, a few feet away from the door. At the contact of his skin, that same feeling came back. It reminded me of the feeling I had whenever my dad was in the same room as me. I felt safe, loved, and protected. This was family. This was what family felt like, and I forgot the feeling after spending so much time without my parents. Hayden was there to bring it back to me, and I wasn't ready to let it go, for I had been living without it for too many years.
"Please, don't leave," I almost begged him "I—I need you. Damn... You have no idea how much I need you, Hayden," I sincerely said, on the verge of tears at that point. But still, no physical response from his side. "I think – I think you might have answers I've been looking for my entire life. N—Not about dad... about me."
The last part of my sentence caught my brother's attention, and slowly he turned around to be face to face with me. He seemed totally lost, as if he saw a ghost. His stare was empty, and his once icy blue eyes turned into a darker shade of their original color.
"I..." I sighed heavily, and let go of his arm. "I am different. I was born different, actually," I confessed, looking down for a split second. My nervousness reached its top at that point, and my heart was about to jump out of my chest. "And something is telling me that you might be different too. I uh, I can see... things. Things I shouldn't be able to see, things that didn't happen yet," I voiced almost shamefully. My eyes were glued to the floor. "A—And I need to know if you're like me or not."
Hayden stayed silent, and just looked at me with that same look he had on his face. When he opened his mouth to speak the first time, nothing came out of it. Anguish started to invade my being as I didn't know what he was about to tell me. Whether he was like me, or he was not and he would call me crazy and leave.
"I am," he said in a barely audible voice after another heavy silence.
When those little words slipped out of his mouth, I felt like a weight was taken off of my shoulders, like a new world was about to unfold just before my eyes. My world just got bigger, even brighter. Tears filled my eyes at the simple thought that I wasn't alone anymore. When I looked up to Hayden again, a tear was escaping his left eye as well, probably because he was relieved to share this with me after all these years apart.
"Please, don't go," I begged, taking his leather jacket from his hands. I put it back on the chair, and Hayden let me, letting me know that he accepted to stay. "I have so many questions. I want to know more about you."
My brother just nodded slowly, and followed me back to the living room where we sat back down on the couch.
"I always thought about this moment, but I had no idea this would be so emotionally intense," he confessed, and I had to agree. He was slowly leaving this kind of trance he was in. "I talked about it with my mother, and she told me it would be different from what I imagined, and she was right."
"Is she the only one who knows about your ability?"
"Yeah. Rupert didn't know, and Martha and the rest of my family don't know as well. Andy is eight, but I can't tell him that his daddy can see the future, he'd like to brag about it at school and I can't take that risk."
"I understand. D—Did you ever meet... someone like us?"
"Once, yes. In Tibet, back in 1987," he let me know. "After my wife died, I needed answers. I needed to understand what I did wrong, what I should have done. I needed to understand how this worked, I—I needed to hear that I wasn't responsible of her death."
"I—I'm sorry," I sincerely said, feeling pain in my chest as he narrated his story. "Did you find the answers to all your questions?"
"Not all, but the majority of them," he nodded his head slightly. "This trip... It was one of the worst thing I experienced, but it taught me a lot about that gift of ours. It helped me know myself in some way."
"This gift, yeah," I snorted sarcastically. "I'm not too sure if that's actually a gift or a curse."
"I thought that too for the longest time. When I lost Emma, my wife, I hated it, I hated myself. Everything about me disgusted me, I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror, I—," he stopped and sighed heavily. "I wanted the pain and the guilt to go away, and if it wasn't for Andy, I wouldn't be standing in front of you today."
"I'm glad you are," I sincerely said, feeling a lump forming in my throat. A heavy silence fell on us as I hesitated to voice my next question. "Would you... Would you mind telling about what happened, and what your trip to Tibet taught you?"
Hayden looked down at his feet for a couple of seconds before he looked back at me. "I don't mind. If my experience can help you live your life better, I'd tell you anything you need to know, even the darkest parts of my existence."
"I'm ready to hear it," I assured him, as I sat the most comfortably possible. Hayden, on the contrary, seemed tensed, almost nervous to tell me his story. "Hey, if it's too much for you, I understand. It can wait, you know?"
"I'll be fine. You need to know everything about that ability we have," he assured me, and cleared his throat before he spoke again. "The first person I've ever had a vision about was my step father, Stefan. I had flashes of him slitting his wrists, I was fifteen at the time. Stefan and I got along so well, he was the father figure I needed in my life. He'd take me to football games and come support me during my baseball games at school... things Rupert should have done with me," he narrated, and I felt bad when he told me that. I would always feel guilty for having the dad he never truly had. "Anyway, I told me mother about it because I was scared that it might all happen because it felt so real. Of course, she never believed me. She told me it was just a bad dream I had. You already know how it went when it did happen... She became scared of me," he explained, and I understood perfectly how bad he felt when his own mother didn't believe him. "She sent me to different doctors and shrinks to help me with whatever this was. Of course, nothing worked, but you already know that," I nodded compassionately.
"I'm sorry about Stefan."
"Thanks," he softly said, and he sighed heavily before he went on with his story. "The visions stopped for five years, until I was twenty, well, until I met Emma. And, wow... I'll always remember that day," Hayden said, and a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "She was on the same campus as me, but we never met before, until that day where we ended up in the same class. I weirdly couldn't take my eyes off of her, like I was drawn to her like a magnet, you know?" he asked, and I nodded as his story reminded me of mine and Michael's. "At the end of that same course, I walked up to her with this headache that grew stronger with each step I was taking, and once in front of her to shake her hand—"
"You fainted and ended up in a coma," I cut him off. I was dumbfounded, so much that I covered my mouth with my hand when Hayden nodded his head.
"Exactly. I woke up five days after I met her, with images and voices in my head that I couldn't forget."
"I—I've lived the exact same thing," I confessed, completely shocked and relieved at the same time. I wasn't alone anymore, and I couldn't start to believe it. "Tell me, w—what does this mean? Why does this happen to us?"
"According to Sangye, the Tibetan monk I told you about, this is all about chemistry," he let me know, and he noticed the frown on my face. "Since we are able to see future events, our brain knew way before us who we would meet and what impact we would have on their life. If we end up in a coma, it is because we are overwhelmed by images from the future our brain kept in store for years . It is our first encounter with them that triggered the release of those visions, and it's too much information at once for our brain to take."
"But how can this... link be explained? I saw things that would happen to my grandfather, I—I saw what happened to dad and to my mom, and I had all of these awful visions about Michael's future that let me know that he's going to go through hell and back. How do you explain these connections?"
"W—Wait, wait. You saw what would happen to Rupert and your mother?" he asked painfully. He was clueless.
"I did," I said after a short silence. "I'll tell you everything, but please tell me more about that link and the reason why it happens."
"Uh yeah, uh... T—there's a part of chemistry, as I said. Um, since our brain knew about this person before we did, then it'll remember them, so it explains the headaches, the visions, and the coma. But..." he stopped, his demeanor changing into a stressed one.
"But?" I pressed, getting worried.
"There's another reason," he announced. I didn't like his behavior. He seemed scared to tell me. "According to Sangye, we have a purpose. You mentioned a minute ago that you saw um... Michael's future. Michael right?" he asked for clarification, and I simply nodded. "You have the power to make things right for him. You're allowed to have an insight on his future, your goal is to use that to make sure that..."
"To make sure that what?"
Silence.
Heavier silence.
"Hayden?"
"To make sure that he gets out of this alive."
"A—Alive? What the hell do you mean, Hayden? I—Is Michael going to die?!"
"Listen, you can avoid that," he quickly said, and took my hand in his in a swift motion. "Hayley, listen to me."
"N—No, answer my damn question," I sternly said, a lump forming in my throat and tears gathering in my eyes. "Is Michael going to die too?"
Heavy silence filled the room again for some long seconds, and tears started to fall down my cheeks as my whole body started shaking.
"I... I'm so sorry. It is highly possible, yes. But as I said, you can avoid that, that's what I meant when I said you had the power to make things right by him," Hayden said, and tried to catch my hands again but I dodged him.
"I'm going to be sick," I said through my sobs, before heading to the kitchen.
I poured myself a glass of water, and tried to process everything Hayden had told me. It was hard for me to imagine a world without Michael. I couldn't conceive my future without him, and I would do anything to make sure he had the life he deserved.
"I'm sorry, I know this is a lot to take," Hayden apologized from behind me, but I didn't turn around. "If you want me to go, I can leave. I'd understand if you don't want to hear another thing coming out of my mouth."
"How can I avoid this to happen? I—I tried to help my parents' as soon as I had the visions of those rubbers coming into the house, I told them all about it, I told them to—"
"W—Wait, WAIT!" Hayden exclaimed in a loud voice, cutting me off. He walked closer to me, and put his hands on both of my shoulders. "You can never tell what you saw to the person you had visions about. Never, do you hear me?"
"W—What? Why?"
"Because if you do, then no matter what you do or how much you want to change them, the visions will keep happening. But if you keep your mouth shut, you still have the chance to change them," he explained, and I sat down on the bar stool, completely overwhelmed by the tone of information I had been learning in the past minutes. "Just like you I... I warned Emma that she shouldn't take the wheel that night because I saw her accident before she went to work that day. I told her I'd pick her up instead, but um we... still we got into an accident. She didn't make it, but I did."
"I—I'm so sorry," I told him in a whisper, as more tears streamed down my face. "I wish you never had to suffer such a loss."
"I never knew greater pain than this," he said, as his eyes got watery. "I don't want you to go through it, not again, not with Michael."
"B—But I can't lie to him, h—how—"
"Hayley, you need to trust me. You can't tell him, not now, not ever."
I stayed silent for a moment, and another tear escaped my eye as I leaned on the counter behind me.
"I—I almost told him this morning," I whispered. "What if I did?"
"Be glad you didn't. You saved his life by not telling him. His future would be sealed by now if you did, and everything you saw would have happened, no matter what."
The sexual abuse charges, the addiction and the weak health, the marriages, the divorces... I still had a chance to make this all disappear from his future, and maybe the kiss Michael and I shared was the beginning of it all.
The creaking of the front door was heard in the distance. Hayden and I exchanged a look before we both left the kitchen to go see who had just entered the loft. I looked at the clock on the brick wall, and a frown slowly appeared on my face. Carl was still at work, Alice was already somewhere in the loft... It could be only one person.
"Grams," I said in a barely audible voice as my grandmother walked closer to me.
"Martha," Hayden greeted, coming from behind me. Grams stopped abruptly in her tracks, and looked from Hayden to me with a confused and scared look on her face.
She knew what was coming.