“Why did it come and go so fast?” I asked.
“Our bodies fight anything foreign.” Our bodies? “Germs, cancer, disease, the whole lot. Drugs and alcohol burn through quickly. Hardly worth the effort. I tried smoking. Spent days coughing up black tar.”
“That’s attractive,” I said.
“Precisely. Can’t afford to be unattractive.” He laughed without any amusement.
“So...” I was desperate not to scare him off. “Are you like me?”
“Yes, and no, it seems.”
I noticed something then. I would’ve seen it sooner if I hadn’t been out of my mind on X.
“Why don’t you have one of those cloud thingies around you?” I asked him.
He turned and looked at me in disbelief.
“‘Cloud thingies’? You can’t be serious.”
“Do you know what I’m talking about? You do, don’t you!”
He began to stand and I jumped to my feet as well. He looked up at the house, furrowing his brow.
“Are your senses back now?” he asked.
I knew he meant my special senses, and I marveled at how normal he made it sound.
“I think so,” I said.
“There’s a fight in the house. I think you’d better listen.”
I stood up and stretched out my hearing. It was slower than normal and took more effort, but it finally broke through to the inside of the house. Yelling. Chaos. Punching and scuffling. Glass breaking, girls screaming, people shouting their names to try to break it up.
“Oh, my gosh, Scott and Jay!” I took off as fast as my legs would go down the swaying dock. I couldn’t even concentrate enough to turn on my night vision, but I somehow didn’t trip or fall. I threw open the back door and roughly elbowed my way through.
Three huge football players were dragging Jay out onto the front porch. He was flailing and yelling obscenities I’d never heard from him. I stopped in the doorway and looked around. The window in the front room was shattered. Girls were crying. Scott stood there in the front room, where the music and dancing had stopped and everyone was now watching. He held his nose, which was bleeding, as was his arm. His shirt was torn from the collar to the waist and was splattered with blood. He must have sobered up some, because I saw with my sixth sense how he felt now. Brittle, dark fear.
Gene stumbled his way into the open space. His shirt was off, and by the looks of his girlfriend’s tangled hair they’d been occupied in makeout central.
“Aw, man, my parents are gonna kill me!”
“Party foul,” someone whispered in the crowd.
“Gene,” said Scott, sounding whiny and nasal, “Jay went crazy! He came out of nowhere and sucker punched me. He threw me into the window! I think he broke my nose.”
“Damn.” Gene rested his hands on top of his head and shook it back and forth.
Jay began a fresh round of thrashing outside, kicking and screaming. The three big guys tightened their grips and hollered for him to calm down and stay still. I ran through the door and down the porch steps to him.
“Jay?” He looked up at me with the eyes of a wild man I didn’t know. His cheeks were flaming red. He bared his teeth and panted through them. Two guys held his arms, and one guy stood behind him, grasping him around the chest. Jay stared at me until his breathing calmed and his fierce look softened into a pitiful sob.
“He drudge you. Anna. Druvved you.”
I knew what he meant. I nodded to the football players. “It’s okay, guys, thank you. I’m going to take him home now.” When they let go of him, he stumbled three steps backward and fell into a bush. That was going to hurt in the morning. I rushed to him.
“Here, I’ll help you to the car,” said the biggest guy. I think his name was Frederick, a new graduate. The other two walked back into the house. Frederick got under one of Jay’s arms and lifted him, while I got under his other arm. Frederick had been a big defensive linebacker, so I didn’t feel any of Jay’s weight. We made our way into the darkness as music resumed inside the party.
I glanced back at the house and turned on my extra sight, looking for any sign of Kaidan Rowe. Nothing. There was so much more I wanted to ask him. Most important, why were we like this? What were we? We. Oh, my gosh. Just the thought of someone else being like me sent a crazed bolt of energy through my body. I had to see him again. As soon as possible.
When we got to the car, I fished Jay’s keys and cell phone from his pocket, leaned the passenger seat all the way back, and stepped aside while Frederick put him in. I thanked Frederick and he went back to the party. Jay was completely passed out. It crossed my mind that I could go back in and find Kaidan again, but what if Jay woke up? Plus, I didn’t want to deal with all the drama flying around.
Instead, I pushed my hearing out to the dock and listened. It was silent. I focused my hearing around the house, scrunching up my face with the loud onslaught, and I said into the air, “I’m not finished with you, Kaidan Rowe.”
From somewhere in the kitchen a solitary accented voice replied, “Likewise.”
Despite the night’s warmth, I got a chill.
After climbing in the car and adjusting the driver’s seat, I called Jana from Jay’s phone. She answered from a party of her own. She’d graduated the year before, but still lived with her family, commuting to college. When she learned of her little brother’s current inability to walk himself into their home, she cursed and said she would meet us there. Maybe we could get him in without waking their parents.