Chapter 11 - New World Bound
With the extra time I had before meeting Carter I decided to skip school and met with Selita and Clementine to hang out in town. Brittany went to school and we left the school to shop downtown.
“This!” Selita yelled across the store. “You need this!”
“Carter would freak if I wore that!” I yelled back.
She walked across the store and handed it to me, “in a good way. Now go.”
“Fine,” I smiled. “I’ll get it.”
“Then change into it,” Clementine said.
“What? Now?”
“Yes,” Selita agreed, “It’ll be a great way for him to see you. It’ll also be good because we get to see his reaction.”
“Do it for us,” Clementine replied, “we’re leaving tomorrow and we want to see you wearing this.”
“Okay,” I smiled. “I’ll wear it.”
“Awesome!” Selita screeched. “Let’s pay for it and get you changed.”
“It’s almost time to meet this gorgeous guy,” Clementine added.
The three of us walked to the cash register as I paid for the dress. It’s a short black with cut outs on both sides. It was actually perfect I thought as I changed. I put black boots to match with it. It’s one of the newest dresses here and I didn’t want to stand out too much up there. The last thing I need is someone suspecting something about me; especially his friends. Changing into the dress made us late so we quickly left the store and walked towards the palace. The palace that no one else could see… still. Carter was already there waiting for me. His eyes practically popped out of his head when he saw me. It got tough to hold in my laughter when I heard what he was thinking. At least they were all good thoughts. Selita and Clementine both bumped me with huge grins on their faces.
“I approve,” Selita whispered to me.
“Hey,” Carter smiled.
I smiled back, “Hey. These are my friends Selita and Clementine.”
“Nice to meet you,” he greeted them.
“You too,” they grinned.
“Let me take your bag.”
I gave Carter my bag and stood by him so I could face Selita and Clementine. They could sense something was off. They always did. I was hoping once they met him they would just leave and go back to their house, but they didn’t. They just stood there staring at us. They were either waiting for us to leave or waiting for me to explain. I chose the second option.
“Here’s the thing,” I started explaining, “I lied about him being from the other side of town.”
Selita nodded, “We figured that when you started walking the opposite way.”
“So what’s the truth?” Clementine asked.
“He’s not…”
“From this world,” Carter finished.
Selita laughed, “Yeah right.”
I sighed, “You can’t tell anyone what you see today. If anyone asks then you tell them that I met him in town and we walked across town. I’ll explain next time we see each other but I need you to keep my secret.”
“Does Brittany know?” Clementine asked.
I nodded, “Go to her in the library and ask. She’ll tell you what you need to know.”
“We have to go,” Carter said. “Before people get out of work and school and see us.”
“He’s right,” I told Selita and Clementine. “I’ll talk to you in a few days.”
“Whatever. As long as you’re happy,” Selita said.
“Thank you!” I hugged her. “Bye!”
Carter held onto my hand and we turned around to walk up the stairs to the balcony. I didn’t realize until now that going up there involved walking through part of the palace. I’ll finally know what it looks like after all this time of just staring at it.
“It’s incredible,” Carter whispered to me.
“I’m just nervous. It seems so ancient.”
“I know. It is 200 years old.”
I smiled, “That’s true.”
We ran up the stairs and through the door to the balcony. What I thought was going through a wall or passing a boundary was really just a house. A really old, stone house. It was made of stone and gold. We went up a flight of stairs to another room. This new room was covered in old paintings. They were covering the walls telling some kind of story. Carter pulled me through a doorway but stopped us abruptly.
“I have to warn you,” he said.
I tilted my head, “About what?”
“It’s against the rules to be in here. At least it is in my world. We have to run and when I say run I mean run faster than you have ever ran before. Don’t look around just run. We need to get off the property fast.”
“Okay.”
I saw him get in criminal mode when he opened the door. Not that I’ve ever known what that term meant before but he got lower to the ground and started creeping through a hallway. We went up a spiral staircase and took a run for it as soon as the stairs ended. My feet flew off the ground. I’ve never liked exercising before but I knew what Carter meant. I’ve never ran so fast but Carter was still faster. We were running so fast I couldn’t even see anything around us. Seconds later we stopped. Carter had to stand in front of me and I ran into him. He turned around and put his hands on my waist.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I tried to catch my breath as I said: “I think so. Where are we?”
“We’re in an alley,” he breathed.
“Carter, who do you have here?”
We looked to our sides and a few guys stepped out of the shadows. These were his dangerous friends. They were dressed in all black and had designs painted all over their bodies. Carter stood in front of me to protect me and his friends got closer.
“Is this the girl you’ve been sneaking to?” one of them snickered.
“None of your business,” Carter said. “Don’t go near her.”
“You can’t ditch us.”
“I can do it if I want,” Carter replied. “I’m done with you.”
“You can’t be done with us.”
“I don’t want trouble,” Carter said. “I just want to go home.”
“We’re your friends. We should get to meet your girlfriend.”
Carter looked at me, “This is Lily. Lily these are my friends Garrett, Ryan, and Austin.”
I smiled a little, “Hi.”
“Where did you come from?”
“No,” Carter interrupted. “Meeting her was the deal. Nothing else.”
“Okay man,” Garrett raised his hands, “We’ll see you around.”
Carter nodded, “Thank you.”
Carter pulled me out of the alley so his friends couldn’t say anything else. I decided it was best to talk to him through mind reading in case his friends were still close.
Carter? What was that?
Those were the friends I told you about.
I know but that was really weird.
You’re just not used to this world. It can be really dangerous. I didn’t mean to scare you.
It’s okay.
“What do you think? He spoke. “Pretty cool huh?”
I finally got the chance to look around and everything was enormous. The buildings were higher than I’ve ever seen. Five of my mom’s companies stacked up on top of each other still wouldn’t be as tall as these buildings. There were computer screens and TVs everywhere advertising things. Even the billboards were all computer screens. Everything seemed like it ran on electricity. People were riding around on weird scooters and all the cars were electric. Everything around me was bright and colorful and exciting. I can’t imagine living in a place like this. I would get distracted walking to the store to get shampoo.
“This place is insane!” I smiled.
Carter chuckled, “I knew you’d like it.”
“Why would you even want to leave this place? It’s so exciting and alive!”
“It’s not what it seems. There are bad things about it too.”
“Do you live far?” I asked.
He shook his head, “Just outside town.”
“I can’t wait,” I smiled. “I love this.”
He brought our hands up to his lips and kissed my knuckles, “I’m glad.”
“So… I have a question.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“You’ve probably told me before, but do your family… you know, know about you?”
“I don’t think it’s something I could really hide. My abilities came early. Before my parents died.”
“What’s your family life like? Are your aunt and uncle nice?”
“They’re great. I’ve been trying to get closer to them.”
“Was it after you met me?” I asked.
He chuckled a little, “Yeah. Meeting you made me realize a lot about my life.”
“Like what?”
“I’ve been living a dangerous life. My differences made me lash out and choose the wrong path. I started pushing myself away from my aunt and uncle. They’re really good people. I shouldn’t have done it, but everyone here always wants more. They want the latest technology and latest gadgets. When I met you I realize you didn’t have any of that but you were still really happy with your life.”
I looked up at him, “I really made you realize all that?”
“I think your whole world made me realize that. It’s so different there. I didn’t feel any pressure to fit in.”
“Because you already did.”
“I told my aunt and uncle about you. I think I made them really anxious to meet you.”
I laughed, “What’d you say?”
“Nothing bad. You’re the reason I’m talking to them again. They’re happy the ‘old me’ is back.”
“Old you?” I questioned.
“The person I was before I met my friends.”
“Oh… them.”
“Are they that bad?” he asked.
“I’ve never seen anyone like that before.”
“That’s right. You don’t have criminals there.”
I shook my head, “The biggest criminal we have is Mike.”
I felt Carter get tense at the mention of Mike’s name.
“Does he still like you?” Carter asked.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “He does.”
“I don’t like him.”
“It’s not his fault he’s human.”
“His humanity isn’t the problem,” Carter replied.
“Yes it is,” I said. “The other Tigmas will never feel like he does because they have their own soul mates. You’re jealous because someone else likes me.”
He let go of my hand and put his arm around my shoulders instead.
“You’re right.”
“Obviously,” I joked.
He chuckled, “You’re amazing Lily.”
“You’re amazing too.”