I couldn’t hear anything, though. Not a sound. Not a peep. My hands shook as I peeked through a sliver of space between two of the shelves. They were gone. Great. Now I had no clue whether they’d discovered I’d been listening or not. Although I was pretty sure they had, which seemed like a very, very bad thing.
This sucked.
One good thing that came out of the situation, though, was that I learned a valuable lesson. If you’re going to eavesdrop, don’t get caught, especially when the people you were eavesdropping on just might be a little off of the rocker.
The stuff they were saying…it was so weird. Like straight out of a science fiction novel weird.
I shook my head and sighed. Something was going on and I needed to find out what. I didn’t know how, though. All I knew was that it was extremely important that I did.
I could feel it in my bones.
Chapter 5
Like always, when I went to bed that night, I got sucked into my reoccurring nightmare—the one where I was being chased by the glowing-eyed, cloaked creatures in the middle of the forest. But surprisingly, the ending took a turn in a different direction.
After the monsters had captured me, and the man with the scar stepped underneath the light of the moon, he transformed into someone else. That someone else was Alex. His green eyes glimmered hauntingly in the shadows of the night as he grabbed a hold of me. Instead of freezing to death like I usually did, I burst into flames. I woke up frantic and dripping in sweat. And for a split second, I was convinced I really was on fire. So convinced that I had to check my body for burn marks before I could calm down.
Everything was becoming too stressful, to the point where I actually considered breaking down and telling Marco and Sophia everything. About Alex and Aislin. About the electricity. Even about the prickle and my feelings. But when I’d gone downstairs to tell them, Sophia had pierced me with a glare before I could even get the words out, and I was quickly yanked back to reality; the reality that I had no one. No one to talk to. No one to tell. No one to help me.
Over the weekend, I tried not to worry about stuff, but it was a worthless effort. All I did was worry. So I decided to search the internet for…well, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but I hoped I’d know when I found it. Most of my research centered on Alex and Ailsin. But when I typed their names into the search engine, I got nothing. Nothing that could be directly linked to them, anyway. They didn’t even have a Facebook page. Then again, neither did I. But really, who was I going to add to my friend list?
After awhile, I gave up and moved on to the electricity. Again, my searches brought up nothing that I could match it up to. It was just like when I’d tried to find out about the prickle. There was a bunch of scientific stuff, but nothing remotely similar to what was happening between Alex and me.
So after hours of research, I had nothing. I had no clue what was going on with me. Or what was going on with Alex and Aislin. Or even who they were. It was almost like they’d appeared out of thin air.
These unsolved mysteries left me with a massive sense of dread. I wasn’t excited, by any means, to go to astronomy on Monday. I even went to the extent of trying to fake sick so I could skip out on going to school. But that plan went to crap because Sophia hadn’t bought my lame acting attempt at having the flu. She told me if I stayed home, she wasn’t excusing my absence. An unexcused absence meant after school detention, and more time hanging around at school, which you all know is not my favorite thing.
Thus, here I was, entering the astronomy classroom, my chest feeling like it was going to cave in on me at any moment. And, just my luck, Alex and Aislin were already at our table. They were engaged in what looked like a very heavy conversation. I could tell by the seriousness in their expressions, and the way they were leaning in like they were trying to create a barrier between themselves and everyone else around them. I could only guess what they were talking about.
I gave myself a quick mental pep talk. You can do this. You can do this. You aren’t the one who should be nervous. I straightened up my shoulders and started the climb up the stairs. I swear my shoes felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each. With every step, my breathing shortened.
For a moment, I thought I just might faint.
Luckily, I didn’t.
Alex and Aislin didn’t notice me until I sat down. Then they stopped talking. I avoided eye contact with them as I unzipped my bag and took out my book. But I could feel their eyes on me, watching me like hawks.
After I’d dragged out the process of taking my stuff out of my bag for as long as I could, I snuck a glance at Alex. He had on a black hooded jacket, and the color of his bright green eyes seemed to look a little darker today. Although it could have been from the death stare he was giving me
I amazed myself when I actually glowered back at him. I think I might have shocked him, too, because his death stare slipped into a look of puzzlement. I’m not going to lie, confusing him made me feel good.
Aislin acted the absolute opposite of Alex. Her smile shined almost as much as the diamond necklace she had on. “Hi, Gemma.”
By her overly cheerful tone, I could tell she was feigning being nice to me. I decided to play her little game and politely smiled back at her. However, I think it came off more twitchy and nervous than I wanted. Evidently, I sucked at being fake cheerful.
Aislin, however, was a pro, her smile never faltering. “How was your weekend?”
“Great,” I lied, sounding grumpy.
“Alright, everyone,” Mr. Sterling said, clapping his hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Let’s get started.”
And that’s the last thing I heard. I tuned everything out as the electricity ignited and preoccupied almost every inch of my concentration. To make things even more distracting, Alex started staring at me, and continued to do so until the end of class. It sucked big time and made me squirm around uncomfortably in my seat.
At last, the bell finally did ring and class was dismissed. I quickly collected my things and hastily shoved them into my messenger bag, feeling thankful that Mr. Sterling had been in one of his discussion modes and had left no time for group time.
I stood up, ready to bolt for the door right as Mr. Sterling decided to make an announcement.
“One more thing before you go,” he said. He waited for everyone to settle down before continuing. “As a group, I want you to complete a project. It can be any topic of your choice, just as long as it relates to astronomy. It’s worth thirty percent of your grade, and you’ll have to spend some time out of class working on it.” He ignored the moans and groans that filled the room. “I will need you to tell me a basic idea of what your topic is going to be by tomorrow. There are more specific instructions in this.” He held up a packet of papers. “Make sure you pick one up as you leave class so you can start brainstorming ideas of what you’re going to do. That’s it. Class dismissed.”
Group project. Great. I swung the handle of my bag over my shoulder and made a dash for the door, not slowing down until I’d made it safely to my corner of the library.
I couldn’t find the book I’d been reading—the one about the girl that had a super power. After searching for several minutes, I finally spotted it lying sideways in front of the Encyclopedia’s, which were on the top shelf. Now I was tall, but not tall enough to reach it. Even on my tiptoes, with my arm stretched out as far as it would go, I still came up inches short. I was just getting ready to make a jump for it, when an eruption of electricity riled up my back.
My skin tingled as I jolted backward.
“Need some help?” Alex asked, watching me with patronizing eyes.
I had to collect myself before I spoke so that my voice would come out even. “No. I’m good.”
He stepped closer and nodded at the shelf. “Which one are you trying to reach?”
“I—that one,” I stammered, pointing at the book. Then I rolled my eyes at myself. Get it together Gemma.
He reached over my head, the scent of his cologne fluttering the air. In height, he had me by about four or five inches and grabbed the book effortlessly. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” I took the book from him, being extra careful not to let my fingers touch his skin. If just being near him made my body buzz, I could only imagine what touching him would be like.
Without saying bye, I weaved my way through the maze of bookshelves until I was back at my normal spot. I was very aware that Alex had followed me, but was trying hard to ignore him.
I sat down on the floor next to my bag and got comfortable.
He stared down at me, clearly irritated. “I didn’t just come here to get your book for you.”
I opened my book up. “Then why did you?”
It got quiet, the only sound coming from me flipping through the pages as I searched for the page I’d left off on yesterday. But my brain had blanked out, and I couldn’t seem to find the right one.
“Aislin had me track you down,” he said suddenly. “And since you seem to like hiding back here so much, I figured I’d find you here.”
And there it was. The thing I’d been waiting for—for them to say they knew I’d been eavesdropping on their conversation. That they knew I’d heard all the bizarre things they’d been talking about. Much of which included me.
Totally dumfounded on what to do or say, I kept searching through the book, the pages fanning my face with a cool breeze that felt nice against my heated skin.
Alex stole the book out of my hands.
“Hey.” I grimaced.
He snapped the book shut. “Aislin wants to know if you’ll meet us here after school so we can come up with an idea for our project.” He spoke every syllable slowly, as if he thought I was slow.
That was it. That was all he wanted. No accusations. No explanations. No nothing.
“Well, can you?” he asked impatiently.
I wanted to tell him no because I really, really didn’t want be around either one of them. Well, okay, that was kind of stretching the truth since, right at this moment, every nerve in my body was magnetizing toward him. But that was because of the electricity, not me. The stupid, obnoxious, make-your-mind-go-all-fuzzy electricity.
“If you guys want, you can just pick a topic without me,” I offered, hoping, upon hoping, he’d say yes.
He shook his head. “Nope. Were supposed to work together as group.”
I raised my eyebrows accusingly. “I’m guessing you probably really don’t give a crap whether we work on it as a group or not.”
“Oh, I don’t,” he assured me. “But Aislin does.”
I narrowed my eyes at him as I got to my feet. “Fine. I guess I’ll be there then.” I stuck out my hand. “Now please give me back my book.”
He pressed his lips together, took an unnecessary step toward me—totally invading my personal space—and placed the book in my hand. As he moved his hand away, one of his fingers brushed against mine. Accidental or not, who knew? But the smug smile on his face was making me think he’d probably done it intentionally, perhaps to try and torture me to death. And torture it was. Not the chain-you-up-in-the-basement-without-any-food-or-water kind of torture, but more like the want-it-so-badly-lose-your-mind-because-you-know-you-can-never-have-it kind.