Legacy of Secrets 01-Cursed Secrets (9 page)

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were so good with your hands,” I whispered. He laughed again and looked at me so intensely my breath caught. His eyes were like the depths of the ocean; dark and dazzling. I held his gaze until my vision became fuzzy and I swayed on the stool.

“The formaldehyde must be pretty strong in here, you look as if you’re about to faint,” he leaned towards me.

“Must be,” I exhaled a ragged breath. He smiled and turned his attention back to the frog.

I watched his hands intently. He was methodical in how he moved. Each touch had a particular purpose. The cuts were precise and left nothing out of place. My mind began to wander to what else his hands could do and my knees grew week.

“So where does that leave us?” his words broke my concentration.

“Pardon?” I squeaked.

“I’m not angry about last night, Lia. I was just shocked that you kissed me,” he stared at me.

“It was a stupid thing to do. I shouldn’t have done it and before I realized it, I couldn’t take it back,” I shook my head.

“I wasn’t offended. I enjoyed it; maybe a little more than I should have. I just didn’t know how to react. It’s not like I have that kind of thing happen to me every day,” he said with a smirk.

“I doubt that,” I said louder than intended.

“Is that so? Is that your opinion of me? Some type of womanizer?” his words were harsh, but his eyes were playful.

“Not exactly. But aren’t most men? I think I read somewhere that men think about sex on average every seven seconds. Is that not true?” I challenged. My more reckless side snaked out. I couldn’t help it.

“Maybe not
every
seven seconds,” he laughed and went back to work.

I relaxed slightly. Steering the conversation toward anything sexual was a bad idea. I was afraid that at any second I would slide everything off the table and ravage him.

“You liked the kiss?” I whispered again.

“I did. Again, maybe too much. But I don’t want to take advantage of our friendship. I’m not that type of guy. I just assumed that you were keeping your distance from me because you didn’t feel that way,” he avoided eye contact.

I bit my lip, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have. Ugh, I feel like an idiot.”

“Why? You don’t have to be ashamed. I’m not like other people, Lia. I don’t think your weird or a freak, I think you’re beautiful and fascinating and kind. Sure you may be a little impulsive, but it’s who you are.”

“Thanks, but I still feel bad. You said you wanted to be my friend, not make out with me and I should have respected that. I guess it’s hard for me to separate the two because I haven’t had a whole lot of experience. I’m letting my past play out on you and it’s not fair,” I looked at him sadly.

“Stop beating yourself up, if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t have kissed you back,” he smiled kindly.

“Why did you kiss me back? Not that I didn’t want you to, I’m just curious,” I rested my chin on my hand. He fumbled with the instruments for a moment and I smiled.
He’s nervous
.

“You are a very beautiful girl, Lia. I would have been out of my mind if I didn’t kiss you back. Not that anything I do for you is just about you being beautiful,” he exhaled roughly and I smiled wider, “Okay, let’s just say that I have a hard time thinking about anyone else and I don’t want to be like other guys who’ve crossed your path. You deserve better than that.”

“Oh,” was all I could say. The thought crossed my mind that he might really feel something for me, but I didn’t want to push my luck. He was being too kind and I didn’t want to jeopardize my friendship with him again.

“So, are we finished?”

“Um, I think so. I’ve never dissected a frog so fast. You really are good with your hands. I promise, I mean that as a compliment,” I smiled.

“Thank you. Now let me go turn this in and we can get out of here.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah, lunch is right after this and I’ve not eaten since this morning. Unless you have somewhere to be?”

“Oh, that’d be nice. Thank you.”

I watched as he almost floated over the ground when he walked. It was oddly graceful for such a big guy. Yet another quirk of this mysterious hot guy I was trying desperately not to fall in love with.

Mr. Applegate nodded and Christian smiled widely. I moved to grab my stuff from the desk and noticed he was already carrying my bag.

“Um, thanks. I can carry that myself though. You don’t have to.”

“It’s no problem. You’re looking so faint, what kind of gentlemen would I be if I made you carry your books?” he smiled and he slid his hand to the small of my back. The jolt of electricity at my spine was as unexpected as it was pleasurable and I gasped.

“Sorry, the formaldehyde must be getting to me after all,” he looked at me skeptically.

We walked across the quad to the picnic tables, where a cute little picnic type lunch was arranged. He hummed lightly and smiled, sitting on the opposite side of me.

“Are you not hungry?”

“No I am. I just didn’t expect you to be so prepared. Were you actually planning on lunch with me or did you just decide to make me feel better after last night?” I grabbed a sandwich.

“A little of both actually. Is it working?” he smirked.

“Yes, I think so.”

We ate in silence, simply enjoying each other’s company. It was nice to not have any expectations, but a part of me wished he would say something else about the kiss. I felt like a teenager. I giggled.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“I was just thinking I feel sort of like a little girl around you. You’re going out of your way to make me feel normal and aside from that you’ve been a complete gentleman. It’s just kind of like something I might read about, you know?”

“I assure you that I am one hundred percent real. Much better than anything you’d ever read about” he winked and smiled wide. I laughed out loud.

The afternoon was nice. Of course, any time I spent with him was usually great; it just passed much too quickly. Before I knew it, lunch was over and I looked around the quad as he cleaned up. Couples were lounging underneath the trees or walking hand in hand whispering things for only their ears. I envied them. I risked hurting Christian anytime he and I got too close. What made it worse was he actually wanted to spend time with me. I sighed as he offered his arm to walk us back inside.

“Thank you for lunch. It was nice.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it. I will probably be going out of town again soon so I wanted to be sure that you and I could spend a little time together before I left. Of course, I’ll only be a button away if you need me, but I’m afraid I might be a recluse for the next few days. Planning these trips takes a lot of coordination and unfortunately much of my time. I didn’t want to leave and you think that I was angry with you. You do know I’m not, right?”

“I do. I’m just too impulsive, as you said. I will have to work on better self control while you’re away,” I smiled.

“I can’t say that I don’t enjoy your impulses. Let’s just see where time takes us, hmm?” he nudged my arm. I nodded and blushed causing him to laugh out loud.

He led me to my class and kissed my forehead before disappearing. The weight of the day had lifted and I felt much better. We definitely had a weird relationship, but I liked it. There was something different about him I just couldn’t put my finger on.

I settled into my chair and pretended to listen to the professor. The energy in the room was palpable and I didn’t care who knew. I didn’t intentionally try to reach out to others, but most of the time they were affected anyway. I would rather people feel happy than crying because of me. I smiled and the energy fizzled.
Time for changes
.

The remainder of the day passed in the same fashion. When classes ended, I was almost floating with happiness. I didn’t know when I’d see him next, but I knew we’d talk soon. Hearing his voice would be enough to keep the happy feeling going.

“You bitch!” I heard from across the lot. I spun around to see Leslie running in my direction.

“What the…” she slapped me across the face, effectively cutting me off.

“You know what happened to him! I know you do! You whore!”

“I have no idea what the hell you are talking about!”

“Oh right! So you didn’t know that Dallas is in jail? You live right down the street from him you lying bitch!”

“You’re
blaming
me? I hadn’t been around Dallas in months and then he tried to rape me. I avoided him because crazy girlfriend drama isn’t exactly my bag,” my temper rose and the air started to ripple. My palms were on fire. If she raised her hand to me again I would hurt her, badly.

“Ladies, I think we should calm down and take a step back,” Christian’s voice pierced through me.

“Tell that to psycho bitch!” I spat, waiting for her to lunge.

“Psycho what? Did she just call me…oh no…” she took a few paces toward me. I smiled deviously, knowing there was no way she’d win.

“No!” Christian stepped in front of me and grabbed my hands hard. He stared straight into my eyes like he knew what I was thinking. I stared at him incredulously, “You could probably kill her, Lia. Stop this, now,” he whispered frantically.

I turned my attention back to Leslie, “If you want to hit me, than hit me. But even if he wasn’t in jail, I would have told the cops anyway. Why don’t you ask me a question I can answer? How about ‘
why don’t you and Dallas hang out anymore?
’ Because I wouldn’t let him screw things up with you. Or how about ‘
were you sleeping with my boyfriend?
’ The answer to that one is no. I haven’t slept with Dallas since well before you two had gotten together. I am not one of those people. I know my boundaries. So next time, before you assume, maybe you should look beyond what people say and actually ask the questions you need. Anything else?”

She stared back dumbfounded. “N...no, I’m sorry. I just…I just want to know what happened, and I just thought…”

“No, you didn’t. He was my friend Leslie. I didn’t want this for him either, but I can’t excuse what he did. You just need to know how to leave the past in the past,” I pushed Christian aside and took a step toward her. “I will tell you this once and please don’t take this too harshly, but if you ever lay a hand on me again, I
will
hurt you. Do
not
underestimate me,” I walked away.

“Well done,” Christian caught up.

“How do you keep popping up when crazy people threaten me?” I asked furiously.

“I have to say I’ve just been in the right places at the right times. Possibly saving you from a murder charge today, don’t you think? You’re too pretty for prison,” he winked.

“Bullshit. I want to know how you could possibly think I’d kill her. Don’t lie to me. It doesn’t work well for your karma,” I spat. He was much bigger, but I stood my ground.

“Lia, you know I can feel what you feel. You may not intend to kill her but we both know your power could get out of control in an instant. I’m sorry,” his words did nothing to pacify the rage. The fire was boiling so hot I was seeing red.

He turned toward me with wide eyes, “we need to get you out of here.”

“Why should I? She deserves to be taught a lesson and I’m tired of hiding from everyone; these ungrateful bastards.”

“Lia, your eyes are as bright as flames and your skin is beginning to turn red. Look at yourself for crying out loud!” he half whispered.

I looked at my hands and gasped, “Oh my god, I don’t understand.”

“Come on, I’ll drive you home. I promise I will help you, okay?” He took my trembling hands slowly as I looked up at him. He led me to the car and we sped off, leaving the shocked faces of our peers behind.

With the window rolled down as far as it would go, I closed my eyes to concentrate. The smells and sounds of the world zipping by eventually worked to fade the fury that came dangerously close to spilling over. I sighed, opening my eyes to his tight smile.

“Well the good news is you aren’t red anymore. The bad news is you look a bit green. Are you feeling alright?”

“No, I’m freaked out. Why does this stuff keep happening to me? I just want to be normal. Without having all of these crazy things happening or almost killing or maiming people. Is that terrible to ask for?”

“Normal is a relative term. What’s normal to one is abnormal to another. You, however, are asking to be plain. Plain is overrated. You just need to learn how to control your powers.”

“Wait, my what?”

“Your powers. What else would you call what happened back there or what happened at my house yesterday? Do you think most people can manifest fire from nowhere?”

“Well, no. I don’t know.”

“Don’t think for one second that because you’re different you should be ashamed. Everyone has something that makes them unique and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I still can’t understand why you aren’t running away from me?”

“You don’t scare me. There are plenty of other things to be afraid of. I also understand your pain. As I told you yesterday, I’m not going anywhere. I would appreciate it if you would give me the benefit of the doubt here. You really are quite stubborn aren’t you?”